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FSX Repaint Tutorial

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americanflyer82 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 10 Oct 2011 at 4:59pm
As was requested, I made a tutorial on making repaint. It covers repainting the default FSX aircraft with Photoshop. The default aircraft use .dds files which I show how to work with. Some other aircraft use extended bitmaps, which I don't cover but you can use my Photoshop tips and search for DXTBmp and tutorials to find out how to use that program for converting those files.

The tutorial is in a Flash file so it is stored on my website server. FSX Repaint Tutorial

I use the DC-3 as an example.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fs4 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2012 at 6:50am
AmericanFlyer82, it's a very well put together tutorial and I've stepped through it numerous times. But somehow when I do what you do it doesn't seem to come out right. I get a repainted aircraft but none of the bits are where they should be. I'm starting on the default Baron 58. The "Beech_Barron_58_T.dds" is like your DC3 example, with all the bits crammed in to one image. I use DXTBmp to send it to PaintShopPro where I add some words on the side. I then get it back into DXTBmp, save it as the new dds file and put it into my new directory. Everything works in FSX, the plane is listed, but when I load it the paint job has *all* the bits of the original large image splattered all over the body. That is all the textures for tyres, windows, etc are everywhere, on the fuselage, wings, etc etc. The words are there too, but not where I put them (often wrapped around the engine cowlings rather than along the side). Can anyone see something simple that I am not doing?

Thanks for any help that I can get. I'm quite excited about being able to create my own AH fleet, but I am certainly not having much success so far!

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americanflyer82 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote americanflyer82 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2012 at 3:56pm
That's most likely because you are using DXTBmp to convert instead of DDS Converter 2. There is a link just below the tutorial to the download page.

A lot of freeware aircraft use files that you would use DXTBmp to convert, but for the default AC you use DDS Converter 2.
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papeg View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote papeg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2012 at 4:49pm
Are you flipping the image?
Greg
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americanflyer82 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote americanflyer82 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2012 at 5:05pm
Also pay attention to the settings when you convert the DDS to PSD. When you open DDS Converter, get the file selected without clicking it yet. That will give you the preview on the right, above that is the file info. For the DC-3 the compression was DXT5 and mipmap is 8. Open the options window and set the compression and mipmaps to match. That will make it match the original file later when you take the edited PSD and convert it back to DDS. I think if those values don't match the original it could cause the texture placement to be off.
Career Mode - Carenado Fleet - C185F Bush, C206G x2, C208B, C340ii, Bonanza A36
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fs4 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2012 at 11:35pm
Fantastic! Thanks to both of you for your help. After a quick download, and a few false starts, I am now up and running. Special thanks to AmericanFlyer82 for still monitoring the thread and responding so quickly, even after all the work that went into the tutorial itself. It's much appreciated.


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SBPilot33 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SBPilot33 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Apr 2013 at 6:22pm
Do you have to have the most expensive photoshop package to do it or can you use one of the lesser?
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americanflyer82 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote americanflyer82 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Apr 2013 at 7:36pm
Originally posted by SBPilot33 SBPilot33 wrote:

Do you have to have the most expensive photoshop package to do it or can you use one of the lesser?


Lesser will work. All you need is layers, masking and layer blending modes which should be available in any version in the last decade.
Career Mode - Carenado Fleet - C185F Bush, C206G x2, C208B, C340ii, Bonanza A36
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