How to Repaint FS2002 Default Boeing 747-400

by Mark Kiszkiel.

Edited by Jim Oates

This tutorial will take you through the process step by step. You will need a good graphics editor (I use Paint Shop Pro) and Imagetool that comes with FS2002 Professional Edition and is located in gmax directory. The Imagetool is basically a format converter.

Create a new folder and name it e.g. FS Works.

This will be your work directory. In FS2002\Aircraft\b747_400\Texture you will find two files:

1. b747_400_T.bmp 2. decal_b747_400.bmp.

Copy them to your FS Works folder.

Start Imagetool.

 

Open  b747_400_T.bmp (see Image 1.) Click Image =>Format  => 32-bit (see Image 2.). Click File  => Save as Plane.tga. Save it in FS Works folder. It is very important to save it in tga format in order to preserve the mask. Close Imagetool.

Start Paint Shop Pro. Open file Plane.tga. First you have to retrieve the mask. In order to do that click Mask => Load From Alpha Channel see image 3.

Image 3

 

  

 

 

 

Click  OK  (see Image 4.).

 Image 4.

 

 

Click  Mask => Save To Disk   (see Image 5.). Save mask to FS Works folder as plane.msk. Close Plane.tga saving no changes (this will prevent you from making irreversible error).   Open Plane.tga again. Click Mask  => Load From Alpha Channel.   Click Delete.

 

 

 

Image 5.

 

 

 

 

 

This is where your real work begins.

Open Plane.tga.  Do your repaint.  Save it

 

Image 6

The highlighted area is where most of your work will be done. Pay special attention to reworking Gear Cover since part of it is displayed on fuselage and the other part on the bottom of the wing. If the fuselage is a different color than the wing it must be painted.

Always Remember To Save Your Work

 

 

 

 

 

Image 7. Close up of Image 6 highlighted area above

The highlighted area is displayed on the fuselage.  Warning. The same paint scheme is displayed on both sides of the fuselage. Left side correctly,right side backwards. That’s why I didn’t make KLM. (see Image 8).

 

 

Image 8.

       

 

 

 

 

 

Now you have to work with mask.

In Paint Shop Pro open file plane.msk. Manipulate it and save it. Important: Darker it is more transparent it is. So white represents no transparency as black is full transparency. Below you can see an example. This should give you an idea how it works.

Image 9.

This is a part of fuselage As it appears in Plane.tga. This is a part of fuselage as it appears in plane.msk  

 

 

Image 10.

 

This is the effect as it appears in FS2002. Got the idea?

 

 

 

 

Image 11.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 12

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now is the time to put it together.

Image 13.

In Paint Shop Pro open both Plane.tga and plane.msk. Make Plane.tga active.

Click on Layers  => New Raster Layer .

 

 

In Layer Properties click OK. See Image 14 below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 15. Click Mask  => From Image.

 

 

 

 

 

Image 16.

In Add Mask From Image highlight plane.msk and click OK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 17.

Click Mask  =>  Save To Alpha Channel. Save file Plane.tga. The file Plane.tga is a 32-bit file with 8 bit mask and 24 bit color image.

 

 

Now is the time to convert what you’ve done to FS2002 format.

In FS2002\Aircraft\b747_400\Texture rename file b747_400_T.bmp  to  b747_400_T.old.

Start Imagetool. Open file Plane.tga.

 

Image 18.

Click  Image => Create MipMaps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Image 19.

 

Click  Image => Format => DXT 3.

 

You are almost done. Click File   => Save As.. , and save it as b747_400_T.bmp in FS2002\Aircraft\b747_400\Texture folder. Close Imagetool. Now start Flight Simulator, choose Boeing 747-400, Landmark Airlines. See? Landmark still shows on the side of the aircraft. We’ll take care of it. That’s the second file you have to work with, decal_b747_400.bmp. Repeat steps 1 to 6, but in step 6 convert it to DXT 1 format. Note, although size of the image is 256 pixels by 64 pixels, only top 40 pixels are displayed. There is one more file you might want to work on. It’s b747_400_L.bmp. It is night illumination. Well. Off to work and  happy painting. P.S. Fully functional Paint Shop Pro can be downloaded from www.jasc.com for evaluation

 

Mark Kiszkiel, New York 12-04-2001   In case you’d like to express your thoughts  mailto:mkiszkiel@nyc.rr.com