Question For the Repainters

[strikehawk]

I'm trying to use a paint kit that has PSD files and would like to know what DDS format to save them in with DXTBMP. I tried to save them in DDS1 with alpha but when I opened the airplane in FS Paint to finish it off and add text all the textures were in the wrong places, like the engine texture were on the tail and wings on the fuselage. Any help would be great, I'm trying to make my own paints instead of bugging folks to do paints for my Mickey Mouse VA.:costum:

[falcon409]

use DXT5 for "dds".:salute: Also remember to select "Flip Image and Alpha" in DXTbmp (Image dropdown) if it wasn't flipped as a psd file. That's why the textures are displaced.

[Tako_Kichi]

Yup what Falcon said. Flip vertically and save as DXT5 with alpha.

If you are using Photoshop for painting there is a plug-in available from nVidia that does away with the need for DXTBMP as you can save as a DDS file directly.

[strikehawk]

Thanks guys, don't have PS Pro so I use GIMP and Paint.Net via FS Repaint. I thought I was forgetting a step and not flipping things was it. Hope to have a semi-decent Tilt Rotor skin in a few days.

[Dave Torkington]

There's also an nVidia plugin for Paint Shop Pro that saves files directly to DDS format. I picked up a copy of PSP 9 from ebay - cheap, cheerful and does the job most of the time!

Dave.

[vora]

Actually there is a Gimp plugin for dds files: http://registry.gimp.org/node/70

[falcon409]

There's also an nVidia plugin for Paint Shop Pro that saves files directly to DDS format. I picked up a copy of PSP 9 from ebay - cheap, cheerful and does the job most of the time!
Dave.
Dave, what OS are you running, cause I've tried that plugin before (I have PSP 8) and it does not work with Win7-64bit.:salute:

[TeiscoDelRay]

When working with FSX textures always save your work as DDS 888-8 32 bit. This way there will very little degradation as you save and your textures will be the same if you open them to work on them again. If you keep opening and saving a DDS DXT 5 texture it will eventually ruin it.

After all your work on that livery is done and your happy with it keep a copy of all textures in 32 bit for future work if needed but for the final output to the general public change all textures to DDS DXT 5. For simple planes I sometimes keep and use the 32 bit textures for my liveries if there is not a great drop in frame rates.

[SkippyBing]

When working with FSX textures always save your work as DDS 888-8 32 bit. This way there will very little degradation as you save and your textures will be the same if you open them to work on them again. If you keep opening and saving a DDS DXT 5 texture it will eventually ruin it.

Or maybe just save it in your paint program's native format and suffer no degradation...

[TeiscoDelRay]

Yes of course but I am talking about working textures. When you are going in and out of FSX and saving and re-saving to get it just right you need to save in a high FSX friendly format. FSX will not accept your programs save file so you need to convert it to something it will use, such as DDS 32 bit. For long term storage I still prefer DDS 32 bit over my program because it is ready to use in FSX if needed.

[SkippyBing]

Personally I keep it in the native layered format and use the 'save as' function to make it FSX compliant, makes it a lot more flexible for virtually no extra effort. Or are you not using layers?

[DagR]

I open the layered psd in IMAGETOOL, select PTC, set rgb quality to 100 %, then select DXT-5 (this ensures that the RGB is not overly compressed). Next save as dds with writing the file extension should there be no file in your folder that you can replace. Alpha is in the original psd an no need for flipping. Dxtbmp had not been on my pc since FSX turned up :-)

[falcon409]

Personally I keep it in the native layered format and use the 'save as' function to make it FSX compliant, makes it a lot more flexible for virtually no extra effort. Or are you not using layers?
Same here, except that the DDS plugin doesn't work in Win7-64bit (using PSP8), so I have a batch file that converts it for me. . .a few more steps, but it hasn't been burdensome.

[Dave Torkington]

Dave, what OS are you running, cause I've tried that plugin before (I have PSP 8) and it does not work with Win7-64bit.:salute:

Hi Falcon,

I'm running W7 64bit and the plugin works just fine here. The nVidia plugin file I have is 'dds.8bi'.

Regards, Dave.

[falcon409]

Hi Falcon,
I'm running W7 64bit and the plugin works just fine here. The nVidia plugin file I have is 'dds.8bi'.
Regards, Dave.
Hmmmm, ok. . .I'll give it another shot tomorrow. :salute: