hook
FS Addict
Posts: 138
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Post by hook on Jan 19, 2008 22:50:27 GMT -5
looking good lifejogger! Like to have a hop in that...when the paints dry. - hook
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Post by windrunner on Jan 20, 2008 6:04:27 GMT -5
It seems there's still hope! that's very promising if there's some light at the end of the tunnel, isn'it? but why on earth dds are again in a sim? anyway, if that works...but MS-aces have obscure "designs"...  ;D |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2008 7:15:28 GMT -5
Wow - you seem to be making it very complicated. It doesn't have to be. Let's say you're painting on a plain white dds texture. This is how I've been doing it. Bear in mind my PaintShop Pro is an early version which won't take the DDS Plug In, so I have to save the final texture in Photoshop - a newer PaintShop Pro would probably let you do the whole thing in one go.
1. Open the texture in DXTBmp - export the alpha channel as TexA.bmp, save the texture as a 24 bit bmp as TexN.bmp. I flip it before saving as then text etc is all the right way up.
2. Open TexN.bmp in PaintShop Pro for editing. Create as many layers as you need while you work. Save your work in progress as you go as Tex_wip.psp to preserve the layers in case you get a program or system crash (it will happen if, as like me, you keep programs open and run FSX at the same tme to view progress).
3. When you want to see your work in FSX, save your work as a bmp - Tex_wip.bmp (you may not need to do that but I do because then I have 2 backups in different formats and usually the bmp contains the last thing I did after the last time I saved the psp if I'm trying to accurately position a marking, for example).
4. Open Tex_wip.bmp AND TexA.bmp in Photoshop. If you originally flipped the image before starting work on TexN.bmp, remember to now flip Tex_wip.bmp back again. Then with Tex_wip.bmp selected, click on the 'create new channel' tab. The image will appear to go black but that's only the new alpha channel. The colour image will be preserved in the RGB channels. Select TexA.bmp and click on 'select all'. Then drag TexA into the new Tex_wip channel - it's easier than it sounds - and make sure it clicks into place. Then save the new composite image directly as the desired dds file in DXT5 dds format. I work in a separate folder so all I then do is copy that dds file into the aircraft's texture folder.
That's it - no messing around with DXTBmp or Imagetool. You'll find that if you keep your editing software open you can make a texture edit and see it in FSX literally a minute or so later.
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Post by lifejogger on Jan 20, 2008 15:16:14 GMT -5
Well roller you do have a good step by step procedure that seems very simple, but I do not have Photo Shop installed on my computer so that is why I use the image tool. Someday when I get around to loading Photo Shop and get familiar with it I will try your procedure
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Post by Chris B on Jan 20, 2008 15:37:10 GMT -5
You must be joking  Imagetool like all MS tools is clunky and inconvenient to use. .... Stick to Photoshop - a quality piece of software - and you can't go too far wrong. Check out my latest package of BA 'World Tails' for the default 747 now up on Avsim, Flightsim and Simviation. They're not too bad...  Not kidding in the slightest! It is perfectly adequate in taking a DXT5 and saving it as DDS and THAT is all I wrote to use it for. Photoshop is darned expensive. Sometimes I seriously wonder how many repainters actually legally own PS. Get yourselves GIMP - it's free and as good as PS. I use Corel - but then I have used Corel professionally for the last 12 years or so. I did this exactly as I described - the only thing that took any real time was figuring out which door was which.  PS I like the DR1 paint in progress! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2008 18:55:35 GMT -5
Like I said before, we each have our own approach and it's the results that count, not how we get to them. That 747 is........ ahem........ an interesting  paint job..... Yep, you're right about the doors. They've substituted even ones that don't open and what makes it worse is that the substitutes aren't the same sizes as the originals. It makes placing lettering very tricky.
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Post by Chris B on Jan 20, 2008 23:22:20 GMT -5
I'll go along with the "interesting" for sure ;D I just did the base colour change in around an hour by way of excercise to see how long it really does take me to use DXTbmp AND imagetool to do my 'saving as'. Once drawn and saved as a normal windows bitmap, it actually takes me around a minute to save as DXT5, open in imagetool and save as DDS and then drop the lot into the new aircraft folder in simobjects.
I just don't see Imagetool as that clunky at all. Also I wish I knew why my DXTbmp doesn't save dds the way FSX likes it. What have I got wrong on my PC?
Only when I used 2048 x 2048 textures did it take longer - and that was the computer's fault, not mine.
As for the doors. Yes, madness! But what really gets me is Microsoft's mad logic of having three or four of the pax doors reversed on the texture sheets.
Oh, yes. The cargo and the wheel bay doors are stretched as well.
Don't you just "hate" it, when you go to do a paint and find all sorts of unlogical things like totally different scales between texture sheets? Or all parts of the plane will be "right side up" and then one panel has to be mirrored.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2008 9:01:38 GMT -5
You are absolutely right. I usually don't bother painting default aircraft but AFAIK the default 747 is the only one around with a VC. Biggest problem as with all defaults is there's only one set of upper and lower wing textures so you can't apply registrations properly. A false and very stupid economy by the developers IMO that considerably devalues their aircraft. But at least the FSX defaults appear to have separate fuselage sides and tail fins unlike the FS9 versions which is something to be thankful for. Mind you, I haven't really looked at the other planes apart from the 747.
Been a while since I did much painting and I'd amost forgotten how satisfying it is. Plan to do another 4 or so of the BA World Tails and call that it.
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Post by windrunner on Jan 27, 2008 11:32:06 GMT -5
Well guys, I think this discussion is very interesting and helpful for other painters. I am not into FSX, but if there's a general consensus, I may open a thread with all your collaboration; if someone is interested, pm me with a synthese of your techniques and tricks, and I'll resume them in a dedicated thread. Thanks.
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Post by Chris B on Mar 15, 2008 3:17:46 GMT -5
If enough people say yes, I'll even write a book - it'd save me long replies all the time hahaha. There's not that much difference between FS9 and FSX... well, disregarding the bumps and specs, and they "ain't rocket science" either.
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Post by windrunner on Mar 15, 2008 6:52:41 GMT -5
If enough people say yes, I'll even write a book - it'd save me long replies all the time hahaha. There's not that much difference between FS9 and FSX... well, disregarding the bumps and specs, and they "ain't rocket science" either. That sounds very interesting! |
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Post by lifejogger on Mar 15, 2008 11:11:52 GMT -5
I would buy the book. ;D ;D ;D
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Post by Chris B on Mar 15, 2008 12:04:46 GMT -5
I would buy the book. ;D ;D ;D But only if I made the price right  ;D |
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Post by lifejogger on Mar 15, 2008 14:03:48 GMT -5
I would buy the book. ;D ;D ;D But only if I made the price right ;D Well since you would probably sell it in Euros the price would have to be right since I would be buying it in Dollars.  |
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Post by Chris B on Mar 15, 2008 14:18:23 GMT -5
If I ever get that far, I'll be following Francois Dumas' lead. See FSAddon.
I shouldn't joke about things like this - I may accidentally force myself into some extra heavy work by saying things like "I should write a book"
Could be dangerous.
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;D
paint job..... Yep, you're right about the doors. They've substituted even ones that don't open and what makes it worse is that the substitutes aren't the same sizes as the originals. It makes placing lettering very tricky.
;D