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majormajor42
February 3rd, 2010, 16:07
I'm repainting an aircraft. I'm taking a civilian plane and repainting it military gray. Pretty happy with what I've done except for one thing. It is too shinny, too reflective. How do I make it less reflective?

the only thing I've discovered so far is the alpha channel. The default color of the alpha channel is gray. When I try to change the color, the whole page of alpha texture turns white. Then the aircraft become totally unreflective. problem is that without be reflective at all, the aircraft looses it's contrast, looks like a big gray blog instead of something that had facets and control surfaces.

so if changing the alpha texture is the way to change the reflective look of my airplane, how do I change it to something other than the default gray and the white, so it is a little reflective but not as much as it is now.

thanks,
newbie painter.

HighGround22
February 3rd, 2010, 18:15
.
Well, from another n00b, it's all a matter of degree.

Use your palette to alter the shade of gray.

So white is no shine, medium gray is too much shine, so pick or create a lighter shade of gray until you find the degree of shine you want.

Start with just a very light shade, and you'll probably be happy. If not, then go for a slightly darker hue.

majormajor42
February 3rd, 2010, 18:21
that's what I thought but when I select the little paint bucket (fill with color) to fill in the area, it turns white, even if I have a lighter shade of gray selected in my palatte. so it seems I have no matters of degree. that shade or Gray or White, no in between.

Have you been able to successfully do this in FSRepaint yourself, Jon? If so, maybe I'm missing something...hmmm

Matt Wynn
February 5th, 2010, 14:36
ok in RS repaint go to edit and make sure ALPHA Channel is selected in the texture window, then go along the toolbar dropdowns again till you see view alpha channel, should be of some help... let me know how it goes :salute:

majormajor42
February 5th, 2010, 14:56
thanks Jon and Smoothie. Hopefully I'll get a few moments in front of the computer this weekend and try some things out. will let you know.

AckAck
February 5th, 2010, 18:53
What format are you saving in? Different formats have different levels that can be used - DXT1 has 1 level of gray shading (1/0 - black or white) DXT3 has 16 levels, 888-8 has 256 levels, etc. It's possible that you are trying to use a shade that it doesn't allow, and is "rounding up" to white.

I don't use FSRepaint for alpha channels (or painting), so I can't say that this is the cause, but it might be...

Brian