How to get semi-transparent canopy in png file so that cockpit object show.

Question

With some V10 and earlier aircraft, I see canopy or cockpit "glass" that is totally transparent and, in external views looking down, the ground can be seen through the cockpit.  No aircraft interior structure or cockpit object is visible.

If I use my graphic editor to put a new, fresh transparency onto the canopy section of the png file, then in X-Plane, the cockpit object inside can be seen, but the canopy "glass" is totally invisible, making it look like an open cockpit.

If I use my graphic editor to put even the slightest tint onto the canopy transparency section of the png file, then in X-Plane, the canopy "glass" is totally opaque and nothing can be seen inside the aircraft.

What is it about XP11 that creates this problem for some earlier aircraft?  And how can I get the aircraft interior to show and still have some tint on the glass?  Thank you so much.

Comments

I heard back from Laminar about this issue, here is the response...

I opened the Anequim in 11.40, 11.26, and 11.05 and saw the exact same glass behavior. 

After speaking with Ben, it sounds like this is caused by a change to the draw order of ACF fuselage to interior cockpit obj. This may have changed between X-Plane 10 & 11, and may have been unintentional, but the behavior has been consistent throughout the X-Plane 11 run and we will not be changing it now.

The entire aircraft except for the interior of the cockpit (controls, pilot) are the physicsmesh. When the canopy is 100% transparent we don’t see it, but when it’s 80% transparent (the “copy” version of the ACF paint) then like ALL glass, it hides stuff drawn afterit that’s behind it. So if the pilot is drawn AFTER the physics mesh…it gets hidden.

If you want to fix this aircraft, you will have to model the glass canopy as an OBJ instead of part of the default fuselage. You can do a plane-maker OBJ export to get the OBJ that matches the fuselage. Those can be ordered for transparency in the misc obj screen.

Answer 1

Hi Whehrlipub,

I am not from Laminar Research; just a flight simmer from down under.

My reading of your question is you are trying to, or having problems with, loading your XP10 planes into XP11.

X-Plane 11 is a "totally different" package to X-Plane 10 and any earlier versions of X-Plane.  The aircraft supplied with XP11 should be the same as XP10 plus a few others and should not pose a problem with XP11..  

If you are trying to run 3rd party aircraft used in XP10 they need to be "certified" by the developer as being suitable for XP11.  If not then they will not work.

You might try loading these 3rd party aircraft into Plane Maker (supplied with X-Plane 11) and then save as a version 11 aircraft.

Glenn

Comments

Hi Glenn , thanks for your response.  I don't have any problem loading these planes into XP11.  I have brought more than 100 aircraft forward, from as early as XP8, through successive generations of X-Plane using Planemaker and all are now V11 and work well in the sim otherwise I would've discarded them.  There's just this one cosmetic issue and it seems that Laminar changed some aspect or functionality of transparencies in V11.  The canopy "glass" was visible, as was the interior surface of the aircraft, or cockpit object, when updated in each prior version of PM and loaded into XP.  So that's why I posted the query here.  I'm hoping someone knows what to do with either the png file or with Planemaker 11 to resolve this issue.  Please, anyone have the answer?