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martin.j asked Phil BoBo edited

Transparant texture on 3DS objects

I have been attempting to make 3D object for Flexsim that can have new textures added within Flexsim just like the general box and cylinder objects.

I have read this answers post about preparing 3D objects but I am unable to make it work. I am making simple shapes in 3DSMax and exporting them in 3DS format with the "fstx.png" texture correctly added, but I stil cant seem to make the textures function in Flexsim.

In fact if I import one of the general Flexsim shapes into 3dsmax and export it again to 3ds format, it looses its abilities to hold textures and change color in Flexsim.

I have attached an example of a basic cube and transparency texture that I have worked with:opacity.png

simplecube.3ds

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texture3dshape3ds max3d files3ds
opacity.png (270 B)
simplecube.3ds (1.4 KiB)
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Phil BoBo answered Phil BoBo edited

The texture in your simplecube.3ds shape is "FSTX.PNG". The FlexSim importer that looks for this special keyword looks for "fstx.png" (case-sensitive).

I have updated the importer's comparison to be case-insensitive for the next release. For now, rename your texture to be "fstx.png", verify that the path to the texture is lower-case in 3ds Max, and then re-export the shape.

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martin.j avatar image martin.j commented ·

Hi Phil,

I may be doing it wrong, but it appears that this issue is caused by a problem with the 3ds exporter in 3DStudio Max. I can add my material to my object with the correct fstx.png texture and it will show the whole path. If I then export my object in 3ds to the same location as the texture and then try to reimport it, the bitmap path will show as FSTX.PNG, and it will fail to import the texture. If I click on the path it will say texture not found and open a file browser.

I cant seem to export to 3ds format and preserve the materials... Do you have 3ds Max? and can you confirm this behavior?

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Phil BoBo avatar image Phil BoBo ♦♦ martin.j commented ·

If you are exporting from 3ds Max directly, try using the fbx format instead of the ancient 3ds format.

Also, make sure it just shows the relative path for the texture within 3ds Max and that what it shows is "fstx.png", not the whole path or FSTX.PNG.

I don't have 3ds Max right now. I'm going off of memory.

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