Repaint Problem

[jmig]

I am working on a personal repaint of the Iris PC-9. After using the repaint kit psd files to paint the bird, I noticed the canopy is now reflective. It looks like the newer F-22 canopies with the metallic shine from the outside. (It looks fine from inside.) Not bad, but not real, either.

What did I do? I never touched the glass texture. In looking at the files versus the original files, I noticed my files are about 1.3 mb and the originals 3.0 mb. I saved my files as 24 bit dds 3. I have tried dds 1 and dds 5 saves, with and without the alpha channel activated and nothing helps.

Strange, I have never encountered this before. I wish I could get the spinner to look like the canopy. :) Not the other way around.
:isadizzy:

Edit: I am using Photoshop CS4 with the DDS nVidia tools filters.

[huub vink]

John, the difference in file size is caused by the quality you have chosen.

The highest quality is dds 888-8 32 bits, the lowest dds dtx1 (without alphas).

As I don't know which (pixel) size of the I don't really know in which quality they are saved. But I asume they are originally saved in dds dtx5 format.

The problem you describe looks like the alpha layer is not included. You can save your texture "including" alphas, but when you have not inported an alpha channel it will take the default layer which is most likely plain white.

As I don't know the programs you're using I can't tell you how to export or import alphas. I use Martin Wright's dtxbmp, which is free and very simple to use. Normally you can export the alpha channel from an existing texture and re-use it as alpha channel for your own repaint.

I hope this makes any sense to you,
Huub

[jmig]

Thanks huub. I am using the alpha. In PS you can turn it on and off. I have tried both using the alpha channel on and off. It doesn't seem to make a difference.

The original texture files are 24bit. I don't know if they are dds, 1,3 or5. I can't find that on the file information. I checked them in both IrfanView and PS.

As I mentioned before, I have done limited repainting in the past and have never run across this problem before.

[CBris]

Alpha are 8 bit greyscales. I usually add mine separately using DXTbmp - but that's simply because Corel Draw does things differently and it is far easier for me to do it the "hard way"

DDS 5 for FSX paint textures

the 1.3 MB file size happens when you save with mipmaps. Switch mips off and you will get a standard 1 MB file size.

The original glass (vc_glass_***) textures in the PC9 are DDS DXT5 with no alpha

The original glass transparency texture (glass_t.dds) is a 512 pix square plain "tile" with a light grey colour and a mid grey alpha. Adjusting these will throw your transparency awry.

I think IRIS have set the material properties a different way to other models, so you can't compare to see how other planes work.

Oh yes... my first sim was a Link too (Hawker Hunter) and I have a mail to answer...

[jmig]

Thanks for the info Chris. That is what is puzzling? I have not touched the glass textures. I checked them and they are the same as before.

Here is a picture of the canopy taken from FSX. Maybe this will help?

[CBris]

euwwww...

I'll have to go think on that...