Any Easier Way?

[GeForce]

I have converted all my *.0AF / *.1AF etc etc. to Bitmaps.

But is there any easier way of repainting than jumping into Photoshop and painting?

It just seems very tedious .

Thanks.

[Smoke2much]

If you mean with aircraft textures I don't think that there is.

Will

[Hagar]

Which texture converter are you using? This job should be easy enough with BMP2000. You will still have to do the actual editing in Photoshop.

[GeForce]

TEXBMP2.exe

It works. BUT ... Now I have another problem. I think I may have missed something. I took a Hawker Sea Fury. I converted all of the *.0AF and *.1AF etc. files using TEXBMP2.exe. it did the job. Then I spent half an hour giving it a good repaint. Then  converted all the Bitmaps back to *.0AF and *.1AF etc. files using the same program. Then I copied the Sea Fury folder and renamed it to Sea Fury Repaint in the .air file. I then put in my new textures. Then I started CFS and my new Sea Fury is there, but back in its original colours. Do I have to do anything else? Have I missed something?

[Hagar]

Which sim is this for? I assumed you were converting the textures to BMP format. If you're going to revert to the original AF format I suggest ConvR8 might be a better option. http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Read the instructions carefully & set it up to work with Photoshop. ConvR8 will automatically convert back to the correct format when saving out as BMP or AF. (R8 & AF are basically the same format.)

If you simply duplicated the aircraft you most likely have a texture conflict with the original. Depending on the sim you might need to rename the textures & hex edit the MDL to recognise them. Be more specific & maybe I can help or point you to the appropriate tutes.

[GeForce]

CFS1 - I know you haven't used CFS1 for a while now but I would be really grateful for any help.

Thanks.

[Hagar]

OK, I might be a tad rusty but I've done a lot of work for CFS1 in the past. First, I suggest you use ConvR8. You can either leave the textures in the original AF format or convert them to BMP. This is a little more complex as you will need to flip the textures before saving to make them display properly.

Try the conventional method first & tell me how you get on. Repaint a few test pieces, no need to paint the complete aircraft. I think you should learn how to hex edit the MDL to recognise differently named textures & avoid texture conflicts. We can cover this later.

[GeForce]

This is getting weirder by the second. Now the textures display fine. But they are in completely the wrong places! For example, the wing paintwork is over the cockpit.
Sorry I am new to this so please be patient  :D.

Thanks.

[GeForce]

And even weirder. Now [glb]ALL[/glb] my Sea Furies have got the wonky paintwork.

HhHhhhHEElllPPP!

[Hagar]

Right. let's start from the beginning. First, take a copy of the original texture folder to back it up. The quickest method is to use the right-click options. Right-click on the Texture folder & select Copy. Now right-click in a clear space & select Paste. You will now have a new folder named Copy of Texture.

Open a texture from the Texture folder in ConvR8. Send it to your graphics editor by double-clicking the large image. Convert the color depth to 16 million colors. Resize it if necessary. Repaint as desired & exit the graphics editor. Click Yes when prompted to save changes. Click on the image in ConvR8 to load the repainted texture. Click File/Save as R8 & save the file under its original name. Make sure you use the correct file extension when saving. Now go & check it out in the sim. If this worked try the next texture & so on. Take this in easy stages. Don't try to do it all at once.

PS. If all your Sea Furies are the same model you have a texture conflict. Concentrate on repainting this one for now. We can fix that later.

[GeForce]

OK, I did exactly as you said. Followed everything. I just got rid of the old copy, and made a new copy of a Sea Fury. Then I opened a texture file (SEAFURY1.0AF) and painted the windscreen blue. Then I started up CFS and all of my Sea Furies are back to normal - none of them with a blue windscreen!

This is very strange - I think I will delete all of my Sea Furies, and have just one to repaint.

Be back tomorrow - I am very grateful

Thanks.

[Hagar]

OK. Good idea. No need to delete the others. Drag them into a Hangar subfolder so they don't show up. You can move them back later.

[GeForce]

I have got rid of all of the Sea Furies into a HANGAR subfolder. Now I tried repainting a winscreen and put it into the Aircraft folder. It worked. Now I have tried to use my textures from yesterday to repaint the plane.

However I am back with the same problem that the texture is still all over the plane in the wrong areas. There are no other Sea Furies active, so I reckon it must be something to do with the textures I made.

[GeForce]

OK - I have finally done it. I told you I have missed something. I had rotated the textures for editing and never rotated them back. Silly me!

Now I would like to know how I can stop the textures conflicting. What I would like to do is have four or five models of the same Sea Fury painted in different paint schemes.

I would also like to know how to get the 3D "shine" on planes when I repaint them.

Thanks.

[Hagar]

Great stuff. The next part is a tad complicated. Iain Murray's tute from the SimV Help section is for FS98 but explains the basic principle. http://www.simviation.com/fsdtutrpaint.htm

Ignore the first part & start reading from "Stage 2 - Creating a Duplicate Aircraft with a New Identity". This is the same tute I used to get started. The tools & utilities mentioned in the tute are old & outdated.