FLIGHTSIM MATERIALS

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 materials can be one of several material types. These include things like geometry decals and ice. They each have varying support for different blend modes and component textures. If parameters are not supported for the current type, they will be grayed out in the material plugin.

NOTE: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 uses PBR materials, and you can debug these using the Channel Display window in the simulation.

 

All materials have the same General Parameters but may also require additional parameters, which are listed separately here:

 

 

Before continuing it is important to note that in 3DsMax you will not be able to see the FlightSim Materials if you have not selected the Scanline Renderer or the Quicksilver Hardare Renderer in the Render Setup window:

3Ds Max Render Options

 

The available FlightSim Material types are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • GeoDecalFrosted

    The GeoDecalFrosted material type is for geometry decals used to add the frost effect, which are shapes rendered on top of another mesh. If several decals are to be rendered on top of each other, they have to be in the same sub-mesh, or it will cause rendering artifacts. The order of the sub-materials will determine the order in which they are rendered (first sub-material is rendered first). Meshes with this type will be rendered in a special pass between the deferred and the transparent pass.

 

  • ClearCoat

    This material type will be used to simulate the clearcoat paint that is used as a type of varnish, creating a lacquered effect over coloured paint and decals that have been applied to an aircraft. This material is normally used for the aircraft fuselage, and the main textures are those which you would use in a material to define the look of the fuselage, with a few additional textures/parameters to define how the clearcoat finish will be applied over the supplied base textures/colours.

 

 

  • Anisotropic

    This material aims to model the light behavior seen in striped micro-surfaces. Such cases may be brushed metal or many types of fabrics. The specular on the material is offset by the two roughness maps following a custom direction in tangent space.

 

  • Hair

    This material type will be used to simulate characters hair.
    • Additional Parameters: N/A
    • Textures: Hair

 

  • SSS

    This material type will be used to simulate skin.
    • Additional Parameters: SSS
    • Textures: SSS

 

  • Invisible

    This material will be used for non visible objects.

 

 

 

  • EnvironmentOccluder

    This material will be used to hide environmental meshes that eventually penetrate with a mesh with this material assigned.
    • Additional Parameters: N/A
    • Textures: N/A

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Tree

    This material is not currently used in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

 

 

The rest of this document explains the different parameters and textures that the various materials can use, starting with the general parameters that are available to almost all the FlightSim materials:
General FlightSim Material Parameters

 

 

Avoid Duplicate Materials When Using Inheritance

This option is for when you are using Containers in your scene, and these containers are using FlightSim materials. Selecting this option will ensure that there is no conflict between the GUIDs used by the containers and the scene.

 

When checked, the option will make sure the name of the material remains unique when importing materials from a container, by adding a suffix in the form of [MaterialName]_[ContainerID], where [MaterialName] and [ContainerID] are replaced by the material name and the container ID respectively.

NOTE: This is currently not supported when using The Blender Plugin.

 

 

Albedo

The Albedo Colour Swatch ParameterThe base color and alpha of the material. These values are linear. If a Base Color (Albedo) texture is specified, this value is multiplied with the texel values.

 

 

Emission

The Emission Swatch Colour And MultiplierThe RGB components of the emission colour of the material along with it's multiplier. If an emissive texture is specified, this value is multiplied with the texel values, and the multiplier is used to adjust the luminosity of the emission colour. To help you get the correct multiplier, you can click on the Calc button to open the Emissive Calculator:

The Emissive Calculator Window

This window permits you to calculate the following:

  • When Lock Luminance is checked - how much total light (the luminous intensity calculated in cd) a surface area of X m² and a luminance of N cd/m².
  • When Lock Intensity is checked - how many cd/m² a surface area of X m² needs to have to provide N cd of total luminous intensity.

For further information on the emissive multiplier, please see the section on Light Materials And Textures.

 

 

Alpha Mode

Alpha Mode Parameter Options

  • OPAQUE
    The material is fully opaque and any alpha values are ignored.

 

  • MASK
    The material is either fully opaque or fully transparent depending on the alpha value and the specified alpha cutoff value. This mode can be used to simulate geometry such as tree leaves or wire fences. Pixels with an alpha above the alpha cutoff parameter value are discarded, the others are opaque.

 

  • BLEND
    The output is blended with the background using a traditional blend operation (i.e. the Porter and Duff over operator). This mode can be used to simulate geometry such as gauze cloth or animal fur.

 

  • DITHER
    The output is blended with the background using a dithering pattern.

 

 

Render Parameters

Render Parameters

  • Draw Order
    This value modifies the sorting order, and the value can range from from -999 to 999. In the simulation, objects are sorted from back to front using the mesh center. By "mesh center" we mean the actual mesh bounding box center, not the pivot position itself (pivot position does not affect the draw order sort algorithm). As such, the Draw Order parameter can be used to offset the distance used to sort the rendering order, for cases where the meshes center doesn't provide the correct order. This can be used to avoid rendering artifacts such as flickering when multiple transparent or decal material types are on top of each other in the rendered output. This parameter is effective for Decal, Glass and Windshield materials. In the case of decals, the value strictly specifies the order in which decals are rendered, where a higher value will be drawn above and a lower value will be drawn below. In the case of Glass and Windshield materials, the value is added as an offset to the distance used to sort the objects for rendering.

 

  • Don't Cast Shadows
    When checked, objects with this material will not cast shadows.

 

  • Double Sided
    When checked, back-face culling is disabled and double-sided lighting is enabled. Be aware that the normal of the back-side face is not flipped by default, so you would normally also check the Flip Backface Normal option. If correct lighting is required without flipping the backface normals the you should use double-sided geometry instead.

 

  • Day Night Cycle
    When checked, the emissive will be linked to the day/night cycle

 

  • Disable Motion Blur
    This option is made available for those rare cases when the motion blur applied by the simulation is considered undesirable, for example when the material is already being animated to blur it, for example when the material is for tires or propellers.

 

  • Flip Backface Normal
    This option will only be available when you have checked the Double Sided option and - when enabled - it will flip the normals of the backface.

 

 

Gameplay Parameters

Gameplay Parameters

  • Collision Material
    When checked, meshes with this material will have collidable faces. This can be used to create precise colliders, for example for mouse interaction. Use this with low-resolution meshes. You can find more information here: Collision Handling

 

  • Road Material
    When checked, meshes with this material are considered to be a road. This can be used to define which part of an asset can be used by cars, for example. Use this with low-resolution meshes.

 

 

UV Options

UV Options

  • Offset U/V
    Set the UV offset values. Note this option can be animated, for more information see:

 

  • Tiling U/V
    Set how the UVs will be tiled. Note this option can be animated, for more information see:

 

  • Rotation
    Set an angle to rotate the UVs by. Note this option can be animated, for more information see:

 

  • Clamp U/V
    Clamps UVs on the U and/or V axis.

 

 

General Parameters

General Parameters

  • Metallic
    The metalness of the material. A value of 1.0 means the material is a metal. A value of 0.0 means the material is a dielectric. Values in between are for blending between metals and dielectrics such as dirty metallic surfaces. This value is linear. If an "Occlusion (R) Roughness(G) Metallic(B)" texture is specified, this value is multiplied with the metallic texel values. Note this option can be animated, for more information see:

 

  • Roughness
    The roughness of the material. A value of 1.0 means the material is completely rough. A value of 0.0 means the material is completely smooth. This value is linear. If an "Occlusion (R) Roughness(G) Metallic(B)" texture is specified, this value is multiplied with the roughness texel values. Note this option can be animated, for more information see:

 

  • AO Strength
    This option gives you the ability to tweak the occlusion map without breaking the AO map. With this option, you can modify the occlusion strength applied to each pixel of the texture. A value of 0.0 means no occlusion. A value of 1.0 means full texture occlusion, a value of 2.0 means complete dark occlusion, if no texture is specified the default AO texture will be white.

 

  • Normal Scale
    The scalar multiplier applied to each normal vector of the texture. This value is ignored if the "Normal" texture is not specified.

 

  • Alpha Cutoff
    When Alpha Mode is set to MASK, the Alpha Cutoff property specifies the cutoff threshold. If the alpha value is greater than or equal to the Alpha Cutoff value then it is rendered as fully opaque, otherwise, it is rendered as fully transparent. The Alpha Cutoff value is ignored for other modes.

 

  • Detail UV Tiling
    UV tiling factor for the detail map.

 

  • Detail Normal Strength
    The strength factor for the detail normal map.

 

  • Detail Threshold
    Defines the sharpness of the detail blending. The lower the value, the sharper the blending.

 

  • Wear Overlay UV Scale
    Not currently used in the simulation.

 

  • Wear Blend Sharpness
    Not currently used in the simulation.

 

  • Wear Amount
    Not currently used in the simulation.

 

Related Topics

  1. Models And Textures
  2. Textures_And_Materials
  3. Airframe_Materials
  4. Cockpit_Materials
  5. Channel Display