setclass

**Ivan** · January 29th, 2016, 17:36

GIMP also works on palettes and it is free.
This is what I have been using for most of my edits.

The one thing that I have not been able to find yet is something that will draw a circle using Center & Radius instead of dragging a frame as GIMP and MS Paint do.

- Ivan.

**hubbabubba** · January 30th, 2016, 00:51

Originally Posted by Ivan

GIMP also works on palettes and it is free.
This is what I have been using for most of my edits.

The one thing that I have not been able to find yet is something that will draw a circle using Center & Radius instead of dragging a frame as GIMP and MS Paint do.

- Ivan.

I have GIMP, Ivan, and after reading your post I went there with one texture and search for a palette. Well... I'm still searching.

My biggest problem with GIMP is its ton of options, tools, filters, windows... and the list goes on and on. Comes a point when much frills and whistles is too much.

I'm not saying that it is not a good prog, simply that I found something "more to the point".

**Ivan** · January 30th, 2016, 06:30

Hi Hubbabubba,

I believe we have had this discussion before. It was a couple years ago.

Note that I am using Version 2.6.12 which is an older version because I don't like some of the defaults in the newer versions.
I installed the latest version when I got this laptop almost a year ago and decided to go back to the earlier version.
(Mostly it is in the File Save options and extensions. I change formats a lot and choosing extensions is more cumbersome.)

GIMP Palettes:
Windows - Dockable Dialogs - Color Map

GIMP RGB versus Palette:
Image - Mode - Indexed
Image - Mode - RGB

It is also possible to pull the Palette from an existing image which I did to make going back to the AF99 / AF5Paint Palette easier.

I don't disagree with you that there are so many options and choices as to be very confusing.
I don't like some of the defaults, especially in the Selection and Fill Thresholds which I always reset to Zero.
I also don't like the Brush and Pen default sizes which seem to be connected even though they should not be.
I am sure I still don't understand more than about 1/4 of what the package actually does but I seem to be able to accomplish what I want anyway.

....but so far the most silly thing is that I still can't draw a good circle without going back to AF5Paint.....

- Ivan.

**hubbabubba** · January 30th, 2016, 23:53

Yesterday, in the wee morning, I made the post above and shut-down my new-old (reconditioned) PC. This afternoon, I got back to it and discovered that my new-old computer was defunct. I write this post from my wife Vista laptop. I will certainly bring back my dead PC to where I bought it less than a year ago, but I'm not holding my breath. When it rains...

**smilo** · January 31st, 2016, 05:33

sorry to hear that, hubba.
in my own way, i know how you feel.
several months ago, maybe a year,
one of my xp machines decided to give up.
the difference, i built it.
fortunately, it wasn't the hard drive,
but, the machine is still dead.
i also lost an online laptop
to something nasty i picked up
while traveling a year ago.
now i use a newer, W7 laptop
which i'm not thrilled with.

good luck with your repair work.
hope to see you soon.

**hertzie** · February 1st, 2016, 04:14

Hi guys, I managed to convert a couple of "old" cfs2 planes ( old means mdl.610) to cfs1 with great results (ok, that's what I think). Do hope that hubba will come up with his tutorial about the textures, for then I will upload them asap, so you guys can fly them too. If there is a special plane you would like to have, I can have a look in my old cfs2 archives if I have it and if I can convert it. Cheers hertzie.

**No Dice** · February 1st, 2016, 09:33

Hubba offer quite a bit of info on textures here:
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Hubbas.htm

Dave

**hubbabubba** · February 1st, 2016, 12:49

Well. I'll be damn!

My PC came back from the deads, really. Turns-out the "dead amber blinking light" syndrome is a current occurrence on Dell Dimension 515XXX family. It is caused by the drainage of the CMOS battery that causes a "CMOS failure", compounded by the LED pilot light of the battery stopping the darn thing to recharge.

In tech terms, they call it a "design booboo"... when they're polite. I've read threads about people changing their power supply in the hope of correcting the issue! Even motherboards!!!

So, hertzie, be reassured; the tutorial is on its way and should be ready soon. I will make a HTML version for No Dice site so all could download it in a more compact format.

P.S.- I also learned how to get a disk out of the DVD player in a dead computer, if anyone wants to know.

**hertzie** · February 2nd, 2016, 04:17

Thanks Dave, I never scrolled that far ;-). Thanks Guy, good to hear your PC came back from "the other side". Any of you interested in a CFS1 flying Chinook heli with great panel?

Cheers, hertzie.

**smilo** · February 2nd, 2016, 12:40

great news, hubba...glad to hear it.

do you mean the old,
poke a straightened paper clip
into the little hole in the DVD/CD faceplate, trick?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

to be honest, hertzie,
i rarely fly any of the sims anymore.
BUT, what the hell,
i'd be interested in that chinook.

**hubbabubba** · February 2nd, 2016, 13:23

Originally Posted by smilo

great news, hubba...glad to hear it.

do you mean the old,
poke a straightened paper clip
into the little hole in the DVD/CD faceplate, trick?

(...).

Yep, that's the one. It saved the last three episodes of the Flash TV series... and a PC.

**hertzie** · February 3rd, 2016, 03:55

Hi Smilo, I'll be glad to do so, but at this moment it has only half the textures. I'm waiting for Hubba's tutorial so maybe I'll be able to get it fully textured. But I read all Hubba's tutorials about having more fun with CFS1 and it scared me to death....;-). Two bridges too far for me... But if you don't want to wait, send me a PM with your email-adress and I'll send it asap.

Ciao, hertzie.

**Ivan** · February 3rd, 2016, 04:21

What kinds of aeroplanes are they?
If it is flyable in CFS2, then it probably already has textures but the resolution is different.
I am not sure how the mapping would work though because if the mapping needs to be changed, it may require a re-SCASM which is a very tedious process.

- Ivan with his $0.02 as usual.

**smilo** · February 4th, 2016, 05:29

thanks hertzie, for now, i think i'll wait.
i, too, am anxious to see hubba's tutorial.

**hubbabubba** · February 4th, 2016, 23:16

Short report...

Would you believe it; it takes much more time to explain (and demonstrate with annotated screen captures) how to do it than to actually do it.

But I'm getting there...

Keep chewing your hats (lol!)

**smilo** · February 5th, 2016, 05:57

it seems like that's always the way,
doesn't it, hubba?
i'm pleased that you're continuing on.

by the way, i'm less than ecstatic
about chewing on my sweaty old stocking cap.
how about if i hold it in my hand
and just wait patiently?

**Ivan** · February 5th, 2016, 06:44

I know that feeling very well....
What is even worse is taking and posting all the screenshots to have them all disappear in a week or so.

What will this texturing tutorial cover?

- Ivan.

**hertzie** · February 5th, 2016, 07:20

Hi Hubba, Smilo & Ivan, while waiting for the tutorial patiently (lol) and not being the type of just doing nothing I've been working on the panel of a great Me-262A with Czech textures I found in my archives. Would like to hear your opinions and also some help would be appreciated. Please Smilo & Ivan, send me a PM with your email adress if you would like to see what I did, Hubba's I do have already.

Cheers, hertzie.

**Ivan** · February 5th, 2016, 07:56

Hello Hertzie,

My email address isn't a secret. I put it in everything I release.

Ivan1GFP@yahoo.com

Thanks for the thought.
- Ivan.

**hubbabubba** · February 5th, 2016, 19:23

Originally Posted by Ivan

I know that feeling very well....
What is even worse is taking and posting all the screenshots to have them all disappear in a week or so.

What will this texturing tutorial cover?

- Ivan.

-What to look for in the textures;
-Which attributes do they have and what need to be changed;
-Which are tough to place and how to spot them;
-How to re-size and lower their color palette;
-What mapping does to texture;
-How to replace them.

And if my posts are butchered after a few weeks, an HTML version should be available at the Free Flight site.

For you, Ivan, I may even include a little appendix on how to make a circle dead center, if you still want me to, of course.

**Ivan** · February 6th, 2016, 11:16

Thanks Hubbabubba,

If you have an easily workable method, that would be good too.
Actually I was looking for a tool to easy draw concentric circles as I typically do for insignia.
Funny thing is that I am finding I keep going back to AF5Paint to do the circles because with the Shift-Drag method, sometimes the drawn circles do not have a center pixel and making them concentric is a pain.

Thanks for the files Hertzie. I still have not installed them yet, but the screenshots look interesting.
The Me 262 looks very clean. Do you know whose model this was?

- Ivan.

**hertzie** · February 7th, 2016, 02:22

Hi Ivan, see the readme, in there are all the credits and info about the original.

I do have another question: I made a minipanel in the 2D, got the background color from black to light gray, but am not able to get rid of that gray. Don't know if it's possible or that I can't find the necessary background-color numbers for it.

Suggestions most welcome.

Cheers to all, hertzie.

**Ivan** · February 7th, 2016, 08:45

Hello Hertzie,

I just finished building a Trim Test Gauge and put it on an auxiliary 2D panel and found out a few things in the process.
Perhaps what I found might work for you as well.

(Pardon the long-winded description.)
My Trim Test Gauge is very large, so I didn't want to leave it in the main panel because it would obstruct too much of the window, so it had to go in an auxiliary panel (Shift 3).
I had first intended to stretch out the SP.Trim gauge that comes with CFS and just put a background with fine hash marks so I detect small movements. That did not work, but I left the background in place as I was working on what I was calling the SDK.NewTrim gauge.
When I was done and the gauge was working as I wanted, I tried to get rid of the hash marks in the background.
First, I just removed the BMP specification from the Panel.CFG file -- The panel in the simulator went all gray and opaque.
Next, I put the BMP specification back in but changed the BMP to be all colour 0 - Black. Panel remained all gray. (!)
Next, I put a little image under where the gauge was going to be so that in use, the image was completely covered by the gauge. At this point, everything started working again.

Screenshots show what I was seeing.
Note that when you press <Esc> to exit the simulator, the Trim Test Gauge disappears but its background does not. (Little Box in upper left corner.)

Perhaps you need to modify your background to have multiple colours and be colour Zero where it should be transparent?

- Ivan.

**hertzie** · February 8th, 2016, 04:35

Thanks Ivan!! I've copied your instructions and give it a try. Let you know what comes out.

All the best, hertzie.

**hubbabubba** · February 8th, 2016, 15:24

... my PC went down again and my BALOD (yeah, they have an acronym for that, meaning Blinking Amber Light Of Death) has came back with a vengeance

One of my brother gave me his old W7 Laptop, which is "state of the art" for me. But the battery is dead and it has no "fax modem". I know; beggar can't be chooser...

I had time to download many BALOD movies, some with useful tips, but they all imply disconnecting the tower and removing the side panel, which is on the left side.

And now, guess which side of this PC is against another PC (the curb reject), way out of easy access...

keep your hats handy (and buy a new one).

BTW, smilo, I've seen your beret (kinda) and I had exactly that image in mind when I wrote my remark.