How to get free donationware skins to work

[FRED BRANYAN]

Hello fellow donationware users--

I recently bought the fine CFS2 F4F plane. I also have a bunch of skins intended for it that have been posted as freeware. Can someone please explain the procedure to get the free skins to work with the donationware plane? This is the first one I have bought and the usual procedures for making a skin work on an existing plane are just not flying with this one. Thanks for your help.

Fred Branyan
FREDB1048@AOL.COM
Fred.Branyan@Selective.com

[Sandydog]

I don't think you're on 'Ignore,' it's that maybe a little more information would help: Like, are these textures specifically for CFS2 and not FS9? Are they named properly to match the originals? In what format are they saved?

There are generally two reasons why a texture won't work; One is that it's improperly titled and the MDL file won't recognize it, the other is that its in the wrong format.
After renaming all your originals to FDGF4f_t.org or somesuch, make sure that the replacement _t texture (this is the main one) has the EXACT same name down to the last squiggle.
If this is not the problem, rightclick on the individual _t and/or _d texture to see its properties; They should generally match the originals in size, dpi, and colour resolution. If they are 'way off, there's a different format problem. If you have done this before, then use DXTBmp by Martin Wright Graphics to convert them from FS9's DXT3 with Alpha to CFS2's DXT1 with NO Alpha. This can be dicey, so if this is new to you, I recommend the immortal Jaxon's site for his dag blag good instruction on DXTBmp's use:

http://www.michael-reimer.com/CFS2/CFS2.html,

Another thought--what's your TEXTURE folder named? If you're trying to use a multi-part aircraft .cfg file with [flightsim.0] and [flightsim.1] as different aircraft, each TEXTURE folder must have a different name: Texture.1, Texture.2, and so forth.

So howcum you don' like Gramps' and Lobo's original textures, You Heathen!?:costumes: