Persistent Decal Box on Right Front Gear Door

[WytchCrypt]

Hi all,

 

 

I've noticed something odd with the Hornet that I haven't been able to remove. On the outside of the right front gear door (where the F18C_BORT_NUMBER_STV_aus_R_* displays it's numerals - right on the plane, left on the screenshots) there is a box always there that becomes more noticeable during certain reflection situations. Originally I thought it was something in the F18C_1_DIFF_RoughMet.dds but I examined that and there's nothing there to cause the box. Even stranger, the box only appears on the outer right front gear door but not the left door! I checked out all the DCS default F18C skins in Model Viewer and they ALL have this box.

 

I've attached 3 pix, the 1st 2 taken in Model Viewer and the reflection file taken in Gimp to illustrate. The first 2 show the box is on the right but not left with different Model Viewer sun positions. The last is the position in the reflection file that displays these 2 doors and you can see there's nothing there to cause this.

 

I'm sure this has to be a specular related issue in a reflection file somewhere, but I'm going nuts trying to figure out where this reflection is coming from. I've just examined all the files in ../DCS World/Mods/aircraft/FA-18C/FA18-C.zip and there's nothing in there to be causing this I could find. Does anyone have any idea why this decal box is always present and what file this lives in? I've been working on it for over 2 days and am stuck :-)

 

 

Thanks!

Dennis

******

 

This one shows the box on the right front gear door outside:

 

 

 

 

This one shows the left outside gear door in a similar reflection and that there's no box...

 

 

 

 

This one shows the doors on the reflection file and that there's nothing there that would cause this...

 

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by WytchCrypt

[Tholozor]

Now I've gotta go back and look at my other liveries and check if that's there, nice find.

[jocko417]

What are you using for that BORT location? An empty decal file? If so, is your description.lua correct in telling the game to use the empty file?

[_mu110_]

I also suspect it has something to do with the BORT numbers that I think the Australian liveries use, since roughmet weirdness seems to have been ruled out.

[WytchCrypt]

Yes, I've tested both:

{"F18C_BORT_NUMBER_STV_aus_L_01", DECAL ,"empty",true};

&

{"F18C_BORT_NUMBER_STV_aus_L_01", DECAL ,"empty",false}; with empty.dds in the directory...makes no difference, the box is always there.

 

What's most important to note is this isn't just a problem in my own hornet skins, the box appears on EVERY default and other custom skins that aren't even mine. Here's some shots I took of default DCS skins in model viewer and they all (along with every other default skin and custom ones I've loaded) display the problem...

 

1 - Australian 75th Squadron : has BORT numbers

2 - Blue Angels Jet Team : no BORT numbers

3 - VMFA-122 high visibility: no BORT numbers and text over area

 

 

This is very odd and I guess it could be something to do with the decal...or is there a reflection file for this BORT decal area? The weird thing is the other decal positions don't display this box so the empty.dds is working properly but it's like this box is somehow hardcoded but I can't find a thing...very strange...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jocko417]

Maybe it's a shortcoming in the model/mapping.