Ended up buying the Xtreme Lear 20 Series. The textures were a bit wonky, just to me, not bad (their repaint kit had the fuselage DDS upside down; couldn't get it to map correctly until I figured out I had to invert it). It's actually quite frame rate friendly, and the panel textures are a little fuzzy, but legible. I'm gonna actually get the manual out and learn to start a jet. Never did the serious stuff outside of piston and turbocharged piston planes.
I also can't stand non N tail numbers, so I'm in the process of learning to repaint. Got DXTBmp, and Paint.net... I created my FIRST EVER repaint last night. Not too much to write home about, but I was quite proud of the small work. I've never gone beyond simple panel and aircraft cfg modifications; I tried learning repainting years and years ago and couldn't figure Gimp out. All I did was lighten their dark dark lines and rivets and make one stripe yellow, and add my tail number. xD
I wish Xtreme's repaint kit was a bit more blank, and had the option for the super dark or regular panel lines with rivets, but it's nothing a hue modification to the base layer can't fix. They also included the body stripes as a base layer paint. Not sure why...
I'm not sure how far I'll get into repainting, as it would be super fun, but HOLY learning curve to it. I can barely add a layer or two and move them around, let alone mess with bump mapping layers or whatever. I've googled the tutorials to death, but now I'm gonna focus on Paint.net and learning its interface. I'm just happy I can add a custom tail number... Don't know how to remove the old one, yet, but I'll get there.
Bookmarks