G'day. If I obtained and installed a programme such as Abacus Design Studio V3 with the idea of painting/repainting aircraft .What else would I need so that I could do this . Thanks, BP
If you are only repainting existing aircraft, I believe you would be best to get a hold of FSRepaint, whatever the latest version is....also by Abacus. It apparently allows the most convenient way to repaint your favourite planes, etc, and allows you to view your work without firing up the simulator each time to see your changes .
Flight Simulator Design Studio by Abacus, is traditionally used in the modeling, animating, and texturing of aircraft (that you have created from scratch within FSDS). The only use it would be to a non-modeler would be in case you were importing already built aircraft models to play with within the modeling program. That's a whole different ballgame, wherein you could map or re-map your aircraft to take textures...but it gets pretty involved....if you mostly want to repaint, your time would probably best be spent getting used to a few good image editors (Pixia, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, etc.) and once again, FSRepaint might be just the tool for you, in my opinion, depending on your ultimate goal.
EDIT: Note that there is a demo for you to try....it won't save the textures but you can get an idea of what the program will do for you. Have fun, hope this helps.
i do not know if DXTbmp is included in the Abacus FSRepainter, but you might need this program to be able to import the textures FROM flight sim.... then after you paint them, export them BACK to your simulator. Hark, or RD will know better than I if you really need this program, but it wouldnt hurt to at least look around for it just in case you do need it. Then you will know where to go to get it.
....And to be clear, you do not need any special payware program to begin repainting aircraft in general. DXTBMP is a freeware utility that is very straightforward. It takes a regular .bmp file (bitmap) and converts it into a certain type of format that FS can use. When you try and open up some (most?) textures in your aircraft texture folder they are most often just a black image. They have been converted for FS, often into DXT3 format. When you open up these files with DXTBMP, all of a sudden you can see the paint job of the bitmap, and go about altering it, depending how good you are with your image editor (Pixia, PhotoShop, Paintshop Pro, Paint, etc.) Your altered image is then reconverted into a DXT3 again and saved back in your texture folder...then off you go into flightsim land to see what your work looks like. If you stay with DXTBMP, and use a Freeware image editor such as Pixia, or many other similar freeware editors...you haven't spent a penny to get into painting aircraft.
I'm sure FS Repaint V2 is a great tool, especially for newer players, but it certainly isn't necessary.
EDIT: DXTBMP also handles the alpha channels for your maps. Say you used a chrome texture for instance, and wanted it a bit shinier than what you already had on the original paint. You are able to change the alpha channel for the bitmap.....it's just a gray scale that merges with your map when you convert - the darker gray you use for alpha, the more reflective the image is in FS if you have 'Aircraft Reflections' ticked in your FS settings. Pure white is not reflective at all and pure black is like liquid chrome! And of course you can have DXTBMP generate an alpha for you, to be further edited in your image editor before going back into DXTBMP for reconverting. Sometimes you have many different spots in your alpha with different shades of gray for reflectivity....just shiny letters on a logo for example, or just the bare aluminum with the dark gray-to-black for shine. Should work for most repaints....the only time it gets goofy is if the author of the plane never checked the 'Has reflectmap' box in 'MakeMDL' as he compiled the .mdl file.
Hi Guys .What I would like to do is get an aircraft ,such as a 737 ,in it's component parts ,paint them ,then assemble them to make a complete aircraft .Would this be too difficult to do. Alternatively get a complete aircraft and paint it from scratch .Would Microsoft Paint be able to do this .BP
Here's what I know about aircraft development, and the repainting aspect of it.
If you have gmax, the freeware, most often used 3D modeling program for creating aircraft and scenery, you don't necessarily have to build from scratch. At the FreeFlight Design Shop site there is a download page featuring a bunch of aircraft models as gmax files. You can grab these, and assuming you have gmax going you can open up the provided files and play. If you want to disassemble the thing, or learn to map and unwrap the parts to take textures (*shudder*), then you may have some fun.
Abacus' FSDS is the next most popular aircraft modeling program. It is Payware, as you know, and is supposed to be a little easier than gmax, though my impression after a few years on the developers forums is that gmax is more versatile and powerful. Probably FSDS files to open in FSDS available at the FreeFlight Design Shop as well as gmax files.
There is no need to disassemble the aircraft in order to paint it, in fact that would just create a lot of unnecessary work. You would need to get comfortable in your 3D program of choice, then figure out how UVW mapping and unwrapping works in these utilities...it's my nemesis, along with proper, professional modeling techniques.
As I said, between DXTBMP for the conversion of your maps to something FS can use, and a decent image editor for the actual paint work, you can start repainting aircraft without diving into the fairly complicated learning curve of playing decently in a 3D program with models and all the trappings. And by a decent image editor...well..Paint just doesn't do the whole job well. At least download and try 'Pixia'....it works in layers while 'Paint' does not. 'Paint's lines are aliased-looking and harsh, and only useful when you need a solid line, or solid colour work. Once you get into the nuances of repainting, 'Paint' will let you down, Pixia will get you going, and Photoshop, even an older version (like '6') will allow the most versatility and possibilities. Bit of a learning curve even on just repaints BP...you need to have some fun getting used to a decent image editor, and get comfortable with the conversion process (easy) with DXTBMP.
If you dive into gmax, or FSDS, in a quest to start repainting planes, I suspect you may become mired in everything but the 'painting' part.
Here's my experience with the 3D stuff...I model, animate and map & unwrap...then I kick out a compiled model and start painting, and repainting my stuff without (hopefully) having to go near the modeling program again...they're often very separate entities - modelling and painting.
Hope this makes sense...by all means, check into the 3D stuff, but it's not, or doesn't have to be, part of the painting process at all.
EDIT: ...And don't discount FS Repaint from Abacus....did you know that the program apparently has it's own image editor built in? I haven't played with it, but if you read up on it...by the sounds of things it might be great for you. 30 bucks U.S. I think. D'load the demo man!
Last edited by harkonnen on Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
Location: COMFORTABLY NUMB, in U.S.A. *** KOFF ***
Age: 51
Gender: Male
To paint a/c, you HAVE TO HAVE these two things, and both are freeware.
1. DXTBmp. It allows you to change and edit the a/c bitmap (texture) for FS9.
2. FSRepaint. Only the Demo version. This great utility will let you see how your paint work turns out, as it would be seen in FS9.
As for how to paint it, it depends on what you have available. If you have any sort of program that lets you "edit" pics, then you are good to go. Otherwise MS Paint will let you do some painting, but is very crude. In otherwords, you can't do alot of the layers that you can do with any "pic editor". The two best programs is Adobe Photoshop, and Paint Shop. Pro. Both are payware. Don't pay for the Abacus paint. Also available is Gimp , I haven't used it, but I know others that have. I also don't know if it will do layers. And layers is VERY important, to get a kick ass paint job.
It also comes down to what you are trying to do. If your trying to make a real a/c type paint, then you need a payware editor. If your looking to do a one off, custom paint, without the use of outside pics or info, then I would suggest getting " Gimp ", to do it.
Hi Guy's, Thanks for the info. Here's where I am to date . I downloaded the Demo version of Abacus FS Repaint, with which I got a partial install then a notice appeared informing me that the Dll files wasn't in the right place so I contacted the Abacus contact person who advised me to go to the Abacus website and select Product Support >FS Repaint , which told me how to get a Microsoft patch for my problem [see attachment ] this was
Microsoft Patch for HHCTRL.OCX problem .I downloaded this patch ,installed it and then FS Repaint opened OK .
I also downloaded and installed the DXTbmp programme.
FS Repaint . I have followed the example of obtaining aircraft variations ect ,and opened the thumbnails for the selected aircraft which is then ready for painting .This is where I have come to a shuddering stop . How do I paint the parts? .FS Repaint show the colour change in their example but they don't show how the did it .Need expertise ,aye.Thanks ,BP
The demo version of FSRepaint does not allow you to save your changes. Basically what we are describing is using FSRepaint demo as a model viewer to avoid the lengthy FS startups everytime you wanted to check your edits. The process is actually quite simple. You open DXTbmp, then select "open" from the "file" drop down menu. Use the navigation window to find and select the texture within FS that you wish to edit. If you are not sure of the texture's filename, you can look in FSRepaint on the left side window you will see a tab labeled "texture", that shows all the texture maps for the selected aircraft/variant. Once you have your desired texture loaded into DXTbmp you are ready to convert it to an editable bitmap. Also at this point you will see an image of the "Alpha" bitmap in the upper right window of DXTbmp. We will get to alpha editing later, right now lets get the basics out of the way. Before you export your image for editing, make sure your image editor is linked to DXTbmp. There is a large button at the right side of the main window below the mipmap window. Press this button and make sure your image editor's exe is selected. If not, use the navigation window to find/select the exe for your image editor. Now, you select "send to editor" in the "aircraft" drop down menu. Your editor should open and the image should appear in your editor as norm.bmp . Perform any edits you desire, then save. Now, go back to DXTbmp and select "reload after edit" from the "aircraft" drop down menu. You should notice your changes in the main DXTbmp window. To finish, select "save" in the "file" drop down menu in DXTbmp. A navigation window will popup and it should already be pointing the files original location. Click on "save" in the nav window and you should be prompted to overwrite, once you select "yes" then DXTbmp will reconvert the image to the proper extended image format for FS. Next, you can view your changes using FSRepaint or open FS and select the aircraft from the aircraft selection menu and look at it in the selection window. If you still had FSRepaint open simply right click on the aircraft and select "reload aircraft" or hit F4.
Thanks Guys for all your replies I have gained a little from all of them .
My problem now is selecting the colour I want ,at present all I have managed to do is change a Cessna to bright pink .There does not appear to be a control for the colour selection. Thanks again. BP
Hi RD, I am using the painting programme in FS Repainter .It doesn't give much info in the progamme help files ,it's pretty vague. As for being pink is what I used to be but being in the hot sun has turned me a darker shade of pale . Thanks .BP
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
