making a see-through cockpit using scarecrow's pilot model

parazaine · Post by **parazaine** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:27 pm

can anyone help me? I have used scarecrows pilot and seat models in my ship model and have modified the paint.net image so there ia a see-through area where the windscreen is but i cant find the correct settings to do a see-through windscreen layer, i either dont see the windsreen at all or it is totally opaque and i cant see the pilot - what layer properties should i have to make it transparent? I have tried numerous transparency settings but im not sure im using the correct layer property?

Rustybolts · Post by **Rustybolts** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:53 pm

From my understanding i dont think you can do transparancies on oolite models

parazaine · Post by **parazaine** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:57 pm

That would explain my difficulty then - I could just leave an open area near the pilot but that wouldnt look as good?

Rustybolts · Post by **Rustybolts** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:33 pm

parazaine wrote:
That would explain my difficulty then - I could just leave an open area near the pilot but that wouldnt look as good?

Or have a cage like suround to the cockpit area.

parazaine · Post by **parazaine** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:07 pm

Yes, thats a v good idea, i might try that

Davidtq · Post by **Davidtq** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:58 am

Its not a great fix but you can create the model pilot \ seat \ cockpit canopy you want then take a still image from the angle where it would have the most impact, then in an image editor put a transparant section over it to represent cockpit screen glare, then incorporate that into the ships texture, at some angles it may look odd but at most of the worst angles the texture will be laying nearly flat and so be invisible anyway.

Ive used this as a cheap and cheerfull way to add a figure to a cockpit before.

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:09 am

i'm not sure which 3D modelling package you're using but most of them allow you to 'flip normals'. That effectively turns the chosen polygon inside out. So if you were facing the polygon you'd see right through it (to the character inside). If you were facing side on then you'd see through the first polygon of the cockpit to the character and then the inside of the cockpit from the polygon behind because that would also be flipped.

I'm not even making any sense to myself.

There is a thread somewhere with screenshots I'm going to find it and then edit this post.

EDIT: found it:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=75

(that link should take you to page 6 - have a look at the posts at the top of the page and then scroll down to the screenshot at the bottom for an example. Scarecrow actually calls it 'reversing the polygons' but I do think that in most 3D packages the button you want to look for is something like 'Edit Normals' and then flip your selected polygons).

parazaine · Post by **parazaine** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:45 am

Thank You all for the info, I will have a look at 'flipping normals' in wings 3d and let you know if it works

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making a see-through cockpit using scarecrow's pilot model

making a see-through cockpit using scarecrow's pilot model

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