Repainting in dcs: How To?

[Mach3DS]

OK Everyone...a LONG time ago I took the plunge into the DCS world...with the purchase of the A-10C module...I flew it 3 times. Didn't do anything else with it for many years. Enter 5 months ago. I purchased the NTTR map with the F-5E during one of their sale bundles. SO glad I did! I haven't had this much fun in ages! Most recently took advantage of DCS 50% autumn world sale and bought the Mirage 2000C and the F-86F. Having so much fun in the Sabre I've not even flown the Mirage yet! Which brings me to my question for the you resident DCS Painters. I'd like to do some paints for the Sabre. But I don't understand the DCS painting method. Because it uses PBR, I don't understand how to make reflections happen. I see that the following exist:

1. Diffuse Textures
2. Specular Textures

Diffuse Textures - They don't have Alpha Channels? How is reflection intensity achieved? So I realize that it's using a physical based rendering engine, but lets' say that I want to have a polished chrome silver paint that gives my sabre a warbird reflection? I can create specular with the specular file, but reflection, I don't understand at all...how do you tell the sim that the surface you have painted you want to be more reflective than other areas? There doesn't seem to be any documentation on how this stuff works. Could someone point me in the right direction? With a technical explanation ala SDK language if possible, so that I might be enlightened? (No, I can't yet post in DCS forums, and I don't find them as friendly as here)...

[rvn817j]

Rick - I hate to see your post go unanswered. My path to DCS World is similar to yours...bought it, didn't use it much and now getting back into it. Keeping an eye out here for posts, but few and far between. Back to lurking mode.

[Phantom88]

Sorry Friends I'm not a Painter.....I looked through The DCS Forums but can't find any specific info on the subject. You might want to try lockonfiles.com .They have lots of skins there for download,maybe someone there can help?

[Mach3DS]

Thanks guys! The repainter at lockon files is Tom Weiss. I think and he's a a frequenter here as well. Since my posting I'm now in direct contact with Belsimtek. The maker of the F5E and F86F. They are looking into the subject for me. Since the DCS SDK is closed they can't share it with me so they've contacted the artist to find out.

[ThomasDWeiss]

Since you are new to DCS, the best thing to do is to create skins only using the normal maps and ignoring the rest . To give you an idea how complicated it can get : there are settings for HDR, DS or none , then there are metallic effects . The good news is that you don't need to bother at first since the skins by default use the specular files used that the developer . Me: I use specular files mostly to achieve compatibility nowadays with the many DCS updates, but since different add on makers use different colors, it can become rather confusing and time consuming at first . To sum it up : the important thing IMO is to concentrate your efforts on the normal map itself and leave the rest for much latter on .

[Mach3DS]

I've got it sorted now.... Kind of....

These are tests.... Not WIPs. I've no idea who did these paints originally... I'm still learning the finesses of it..it's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from FSX/P3D painting. Much more involved. But, it's also incredible what can be done!

There's no SDK. ED won't release it... Go figure that??? So I used the war thunder SDK. Which was shot on.

[Mach3DS]

[DonJosh]

wow great work!