PBR Texture problems, workaround and update needed by LVFR

[nemesis19]

Hi to all, first post here on this forum.

The problems started with a desire to do a repaint of F-HDRA in Amelias colours.
I'm not new to repainting and have had a few on Avsim back in FSX days so I know my way around textures,
PBR etc.

I managed to get around most of the idiosyncrasies of LVFRs UV mapping and produced a reasonable repaint,
but something was wrong, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get that metallic look to the green paint.
I tried all sorts of combinations in the metallic texture, but the green paint remained flat and would not metallize
and yes I do know that the Blue channel affects the metallic look, even at the maximum 255, no metal.



I eventually decided to have a look at the model in MCX (thank you Arno) and notably the Material Editor, there I found that nearly every exterior texture, fuselage, tail, engines, etc. had MetallicFactor = 0.0 under PBR properties.
What happens when you multiply anything by a factor of 0 ... That's right, you get 0.
So no matter what value I gave the Blue channel, it was being multiplied by 0 and having absolutely no effect.

WORKAROUND

I initially tried to change the properties in MCX and re-export the model, catastrophy, half the model went missing and it wouldn't show in MSFS anyway.

Next I opened the GLTF file in Notepad ++, I found the textures but not the properties. Next I searched for the Materials, Eureka ! The PBR properties were listed just after the material name. I changed the MetallicFactor=0.0 to
MetallicFactor=1.0 for each material, saved the file, opened up MSFS and Twas a thing of beauty.....



Here's a list of the materials I changed

09 - Default
11 - Default
11 - Defaultdsfas
11 - Defaultfdsaf
11 - Defaultx
CFM_LEAP_1A
Material #2366292
Material #2366337
Material #2366424
Material #23664244343
Material #2366513
Material #2366538
Material #2366539
Tail
tail_wing
wing
WINGSlets2

If you do this MOD, don't forget to do both LODs, and please, make a backup before doing it, you never know !!!



So come on LVFR, how about an update, someone messed up when they put in those 0.0 factors, it makes the comp textures all but useless. Those factors should only be used when there's no metallic texture in use and you require a PBR effect, otherwise the factors should be left at 1.0, this applies to both metallic and roughness.

sorry for the long post!!

Nemesis19

[RicardoLVFR]

Hi, we going to be adding new wings to all A32x family aircraft, and doing some other model fixes. When we get to all of them we going to revise that 0.0 figure on all planes.

As for making COMP useless, its not entirely accurate. We are removing the metalness on the texture, the roughness is active and present.

The fuselage is made from composite and carbon fiber materials, which in the end don't make the plane skin look metallic. That's why it has 0. We will increase it with our revisions.