Simviation Forums

Hi,
I tried to repaint the default B744 to my own livery. All worked well except for one thing: the decal_b747_400.bmp file. I presumed the base colour (the colour that will become transparent when applied onto the aircraft) is pure black. I extracted the file using DXTBmp, edited it and convert it back to DXT using the same programme. However, now the black shows up. Somebody have an explanation.

hey, i had this trouble too, simple solution. when your make the decal, either use pure black, or pure green, as the BG, i prefer green as black crops up naturally in images / text. then in dxtbmp, in the alpha menu, select "create alpha channel (green)" or (black). and that makes the background (actually anthing pure green (or black) transparent, but only when saved as DXT1. NOT dxt3. Any probs, post back or PM me.

Hey Thanks, it worked. Never knew that there was such a trick, always have tot that Alpha channels are for reflections.

good stuff, just to confuse things, alpha is used in defferent ways depending on image format, and what the model is set up to do! in some, even using DXT3 and alpha, the plane becomes transparent, with the same gradient of 'see-through-ness' as you'd get with reflectivity. lol anyways, you dont need to bother about that, but remember it in case your aicraft suddenly goes invisable even using dxt3 or 32bit textures  8)

Also when doing night textures if you save a white alpha it makes the window lights come on with the Landing Lights, this tends to be the default and is a pain in my opinion because I want to see the lights on without those awful landing lights.
If you save your night textures with a black alpha then the window lights will come on with panel lights which I think is much better.