TEXTURES FROM CFS2 to CFS1: A SNEAK-PEEK

[hubbabubba]

As I'm still having troubles with my "old-old" desktop and no connection to the internet with my "new-old" laptop, I will post here a bare-bones resume of it.
If you have questions, just post here...

TOOLS

1- You will have to download/install BMP 2000 program, available HERE;
2- To have BMP 2000 work properly, you will probably need the latest DLL package, found HERE;
3- Finally, I highly suggest that you download/install Saint-Paint, found at CNET;

All these downloads are free. CNET is an "installer" and may propose piggy-back bundle programs that you can opt-out. Please, do so. As usual, make sure no D/L is infected, even if they were not last time I checked.

WORKING LAYOUT

1- Install your modified for CFS1 CFS2 aircraft and make sure that it is working and showing properly;
2- Close the game and enter into the "aircraft container" (the aircraft folder) of that a/c;
3- Copy/paste the "texture" folder where you want to work (desktop for me);
4- Return to the aircraft container and rename the original "texture" folder to "textureOLD" for safe-keeping;
5- Create a new (and empty) "texture" folder, so that the aircraft will still show in the list of a/c available.

IMAGE PROPERTIES

1-In your working "texture" folder (mine is on the desktop), verify which textures comply with the maximum pixels size (256x256) and depth of colors (8 bits, or 256 colors) tolerated by CFS1. This is done simply by right-clicking on the file and following the tabs this way - Properties>Details;
NOTE- All CFS2 textures are, to my knowledge, squares and BMP. CFS1 too btw...
2-Using BMP 2000, open all the textures that exceed the previous criteria with the "Load Extended" button. You may have to fiddle around before getting the hang of it, but this should give you additional information that we will need, namely; 2a-Is the texture sinle or multi-resolution? And; 2b-Is the texture using transparencies?;

RESIZING AND REDUCING COLOR DEPTH

1-Opening Saint Paint, load each textures that is oversized and resize it to 256x256 following these tabs - Image>Resize/Crop;
NOTE- The "Resize/Crop" window has a few settings that need to be preset before proceeding - New Size at "Maintain aspect ratio" on - "Rezise image" on - "Use Standard Filter 9recommended)" on.
2-Again using Saint Paint, reduce to 256 colors palette all texture that exceed that limit using these tabs - Image>Change Number Of Colours;
NOTE- Again, some preset - "Desired Colour Depth" set at 256 Colour (8-bit) - "Conversion Method" at 2 Value Dither.

TRANSPARENCIES AND EXTENDED

If one of your textures went through Saint Paint, you will need to return transparencies and multi-resolution to it using BMP 2000. Read the instructions of the help file. You may also want to make some single into multi-resolution, but this is entirely optional.

VERIFICATION

Copy/Paste the whole working folder (not the folder itself!) into the "texture" folder of your installed aircraft and go watch your creation (or mischief) in situ.

If all went well, good.
If not, try to find what went wrong yourself and, if you can't, post your questions here. If my Desktop PC is not dead or my Laptop finally get connected, I will answer to the best of my knowledge.

[hertzie]

THANKS GUY !!! You made me happy !!

Let you know what comes out, will give the tutorial a try this evening.

Cheers, hertzie.

[hertzie]

OK, I tried :-(. And tried :-(. And tried again..... :-(

First thing I couldn't find (and still can't): "but this should give you additional information that we will need, namely; 2a-Is the texture sinle or multi-resolution? And; 2b-Is the texture using transparencies?" please tell me where I can find that info;

2nd thing: changing transparencies and layers. Read the pdf.-manual carefully (though English isn't my mother tongue not THAT easy :-)), but couldn't get the "clue", for whatever I did, no results.

So far no good :-(. Do hope for further explanations.

Cheers, hertzie.

[hubbabubba]

OK, I tried :-(. And tried :-(. And tried again..... :-(

First thing I couldn't find (and still can't): "but this should give you additional information that we will need, namely; 2a-Is the texture sinle or multi-resolution? And; 2b-Is the texture using transparencies?" please tell me where I can find that info;
(...)

When you open BMP 2000, you have 9 windows showing decreasing sizes from 256x256 to 1x1, these windows will only show sub-images if you clicked on "Load Extended" button and, of course, if they are sub-images to show! If the texture is bigger than 256x256, it will appear in a separate, resizeable, window, that may just appear as a small window header in the screen and need to be adjusted "by hand".

If you have only one picture, even after checking the 10 windows with "Load Extended", you have a single (previous post had a typo) resolution texture.

Transparency is checked with "Transparency" button. This will open a new window with a 16x16 square palette. Each of these can be totally transparent (0) or semi-transparent to various degree (1 to 254) or totally opaque (255). The features are pretty much self explanatory. If, the button is grayed-out, your texture has no transparency palette.

(...)
2nd thing: changing transparencies and layers. Read the pdf.-manual carefully (though English isn't my mother tongue not THAT easy :-)), but couldn't get the "clue", for whatever I did, no results.

So far no good :-(. Do hope for further explanations.

Cheers, hertzie.

Before fiddling with changing transparencies and multi-resolution images, try loading with 256x256x256 "CFS1 kosher" BMPs (256x256 pixels and 256 palette). I'll be darned if you don't see a thing.

[hertzie]

Well, sorry to say, but you will... LOL

No, I don't see a thing. I'm now up to my 53rd try and still no further than my 1st one.

I did one try (maybe my 17th? or 21st? :-) :-)) and changed something with palette and then the textures became half-seethrough. But can't remember WHAT I did, and half see-through is no fun either.

Would love to have a step-by-step from: load extended -> create image set -> transparency. After that I get lost.

But one of my motto's is: "NEVER GIVE UP!". (well, maybe after 500x LOL).

Cheers, hertzie.

[Ivan]

Hello Hertzie,

Perhaps there is something strange with your CFS setup?
You could not see the Me 262 panel which worked fine on my machine.
What kind of aeroplane are you trying to convert?

Hi Hubbabubba,

I didn't realise that Saint Paint was now free. I will have to go check it out.
Perhaps it can draw circles better than MS Paint and GIMP.

- Ivan.

[hubbabubba]

hertzie,
Email me the original texture you can't do. I will (if it can be done, of course).

Ivan,
Saint Paint Studio is now an "abandonware". You sure can easily make a well-centered circle on a 256x256... with a caveat; being an even number, your center position is one pixel to the left or to the right (too high or too low as well). But I have "tricks" up my sleeve on that very subject. More on that when I have a chance.

[hertzie]

Hi Guy, hi Ivan, the plane I'm trying to get textured is a Ju-52. Guy, I'll send it to you. If you manage I hope you'll tell us how you did it. And Ivan, I have no idea if something's wrong with my CFS1 and have no idea how I can check that.

Cheers, Erik.

[hubbabubba]

Is it what you're getting, hertzie?
If not, your doing something wrong. It took me about 10 minutes to do that, installation time included!

You only had three textures that were all the same; multi-resolution 512x512 pixels, 16 bits color depth, no transparencies.

If you got the same result but don't like the "transparency", blame CFS2 z-buffering. These are called "bleeds" in CFS1 and designers will try to avoid them like the plague!

[hertzie]

Hi Hubba, yes, this is what I got. And as a newbee I don't know nothhing about Z-buffering or whatsoever, so that's why I thought I did it wrong.

But I did so many tries, that I can't remember how I managed to do this, so I still hope you'll come up with a more detailed tutorial for the transparencies etc..

Thanks again, hertzie.

[hubbabubba]

Well......

The good news; you installed Saint Paint properly, and probably BMP 2000 as well.

The bad news; z-buffering is a b!7¢h.

From FS2000 on, the 3D rendering program can take into account the virtual position of a visual part, store that position in a buffer and, depending on your POV (point of view) order the showing of these part according to their relative distance from the observer. In CFS1 - a pre-FS2000 flightsim - the designer has to order these parts using different techniques and tricks. Ivan is probably the king of AF99, smilo uses AD2000 with some success, and I'm personally not so bad with SCASM.

With CFS2 - a post-FS2000 combat flightsim - designers couldn't care less about the order of their parts and gluing techniques and grouping and all that nonsense that was restraining the flow of their creative juices.

This explain why this otherwise good-looking "Tante Ju" look like a Picasso on LSD.

Engine 1 (port side) bleeds through the nose cowling and engine 2 (nose) probably because it was designed last and, therefore, shows last between the two engines. The only way to correct that is a process so long and complicated to explain that I won't even try as my typing finger would be sore long before the end of the explanation, to say nothing of the process itself...

[smilo]

well said, hubba.
"...looks like a Picasso on LSD."
explains z buffering,
or the lack there of,
about as well as anything.
many a designer created
very good models for cfs,
but, lacked the patience
to learn parts sequencing.
z buffering solved the problem
and they moved on to new sims,
or, as in my case, stopped building altogether.


fortunately, there are still a few,
two, to be precise, cfs visual artists,
aleatorylamp and Ivan,
who still produce excellent models.

[hertzie]

Hi Hubba, thanks for your explanation. Quite clear. And I won't be the man responsible for 1 or more sore fingers of you (LOL).

So the next question is (yeah I keep questioning :-)): is it possible to discover if you do have "bleeding" textures BEFORE you start the whole process of updating?

All the best,

hertzie.

[smilo]

open the ju 57 folder,
rename the texture folder,
to say, textureXX.
create a new folder and name it texture.
leave it empty and fire up cfs.
when you select the ju57,
you should see the model with no textures
and, as hubba says, "...a Picasso on LSD".
try this with any aircraft you want to import.

the problem is not "bleeding" textures,
it's bleeding model parts.

i hope this helps

[Ivan]

Hello Hertzie,

You would have seen the problem better before converting the textures.
The model would have probably been all light gray with pieces showing where they should not be.
I have a couple of those models which I think are otherwise superb.

At least with the CFS / AF99 models that have bleeds, it IS possible to rescue them using SCASM to re order them, but the amount of work involved is probably more than doing a new model yourself and the payoff is much less because the end result doesn't belong to you.

I think Hubbabubba and I can each do the fixes via SCASM (He is certainly better at it than I am) but there would be a lot of work to be done.

- Ivan.

[hubbabubba]

Hello Hertzie,

You would have seen the problem better before converting the textures.
The model would have probably been all light gray with pieces showing where they should not be.
I have a couple of those models which I think are otherwise superb.

At least with the CFS / AF99 models that have bleeds, it IS possible to rescue them using SCASM to re order them, but the amount of work involved is probably more than doing a new model yourself and the payoff is much less because the end result doesn't belong to you.

I think Hubbabubba and I can each do the fixes via SCASM (He is certainly better at it than I am) but there would be a lot of work to be done.

- Ivan.

DITTO

(...) but the amount of work involved is probably more than doing a new model yourself and the payoff is much less because the end result doesn't belong to you.

This is a gross understatement, to say the least.

The empty texture folder is the trick I'm giving in my tutorial-to-be, try it hertzie.

Got your message, smilo; eventually, they will be three.

[smilo]

that's great news, hubba.
i didn't mean to insult or prod.
it's just that i haven't seen anything
from you for quite some time.

i, too, think a lot
about picking up
the torch again.
BUT, thinking about it
is as far as i get.
i have too many irons
in far too many fires.
choosing which to pick up
at this late date
is the question, isn't it?

[Ivan]

Yes, I was also thinking that there should be AT LEAST 4 developers with both Hubbabubba and Smilo involved.

We certainly are an arrogant bunch, aren't we?
We know of each other and presume that is all that there are left in the rather large population on this planet.

Smilo,
I agree with you about deciding where to start.
As I mentioned in the Warhawk thread, I have a few projects going concurrently and each is headed in a different direction.
There are so many worthy (in my opinion) projects in my Workshop that are stuck for very small but technically challenging (to me) reasons.

Hertzie,
Please check out the "Gray Panels" thread.

- Ivan.

[smilo]

thanks Ivan, you made me laugh.
".. arrogant bunch.." i'll say.
i guess i should have qualified my statement
by saying, cfs developers at the soh.
no doubt there are others in the world,
but, not many.

regarding irons in multiple fires
and where to start, i meant to say,
fires other than cfs design.
as for cfs projects, there is still the a-20,
which sits unfinished and the do-17,
which hardly got started.
it's been so long since i've used ad2k,
i know i will have to relearn the program.
throw into the mix, my big screen monitor
is on the fritz and intermittently craps out
at the most inopportune times...
i know i'd be tearing my hair out.

and those are just the major excuses.
trust me, i have a bunch of them.

[hubbabubba]

Bad news...

My "new-old" desktop has definitely won a trip to the repair shop. Since the first two "revival", I was keeping it under power... until a power outage caused by a gaz leak nearby.

For three days, I kept trying, from time to time. to restart, in vain. Last time was the charm; a loud pop, a flash in the back, followed by a small puff of smoke.

My silver lining is that I know for sure what's wrong; my PSU.

[Ivan]

Hopefully it is only the power supply.

Computer power supplies are not terribly expensive and not hard to find unless you happen to need one with an external side switch AT version like I have. Sometimes mine does not come on when I hit the switch.
When that happens, I give it a couple good raps on the side of the case and most of the time it turns on after that.

Good Luck!
- Ivan.

[hubbabubba]

Hopefully it is only the power supply.

Computer power supplies are not terribly expensive and not hard to find unless you happen to need one with an external side switch AT version like I have. Sometimes mine does not come on when I hit the switch.
When that happens, I give it a couple good raps on the side of the case and most of the time it turns on after that.

Good Luck!
- Ivan.

South of the border, they may not be terribly expensive, but here...

- PC cost me $100
- Cheapest replacement on Amazon.ca= $87, taxes and shipping not included...

[smilo]

aaarrrgh...that's ridiculous.
are you sure the power supply is the problem?
will a standard unit fit the bill?
how many watts are you looking for?

do not buy that unit!!
let me see what i can find first.

[Ivan]

That price quote seems awfully high.
AT or ATX or ??? and how many watts?
i would go poking around on eBay first...

- Ivan.

[hubbabubba]

"OH! Thy man of little faith..."
Thomas (a.k.a. Ivan), hope you can see THIS.

To obtain that URL, I had to disconnect my wife Vista, re-connect my "destined to the curb" aging XP to get the Amazon.ca page (so I would not loose my wife log-in). Add to that the necessity of updating the virus definitions and having to restart twice my outdated Firefox (the only that would work, barely though, on that antiquity). So don't expect me to repeat that self-inflicted torture too often.

BTW, my original was a 305W, so anything under that would only be good for a toaster.

smilo, have a look too if you want. so it will give you an idea of the specs. But don't start sending me PSU, at least right now. I will go to my dealer first and try to get it repaired or, worst case scenario, to have another machine on which I could transfer the HD. I was already going to buy another one on which I was to install a legit XP Pro OS that I bought.

I know that our "funny money" is not funny anymore (for us), but some nitwits (have you seen the $400+ offer!) are having serious delusions.

As for going EBay- remember my "dish-washing machine full of cutlery"? Bought it where, you think?