Hey All,Despite seeing that LOTR repaint of a "heavy" (beautiful job BTW) in the screenshots forum I am thinking of moving ahead with learning to repaint. I have down loaded Pixia and it appears to be a completely capable program for repaints and it's free!The challenge is how do I get from textures to Pixia? Pixia does not import targa with alpha (even though Pixia does support alpha channels). So what to do? Use dxtbmp and export textures and alpha to what? I guess I can export the alpha channel to a file and the texture bmp to another but then recombining them in Pixia - I'm not sure if I can do that? I suspect I have the same problem going from Pixia to an aircraft texture.Are any of you out there using Pixia and if so how are you getting around this problem (Going either way)?Thanks for any replies! Take Care! -Ed-

You do not need to "combine" anything in your paint program.Paint your texture in the normal way, save it as a normal bitmap, then make an alpha channel, save it as a normal bitmap.Use DXTBMP to "combine" them.Dan.

I have never heard of Pixia, I suggest trying the free trial of Paintshop Pro and see how you like it. Most repainters use PSPro or Photoshop. I went ahead and invested in PSPro and have never looked back.Hornit

Hey All,Thanks Dano! I intend to start with some kind of simple repaint. I think I follow what you said.With regard to DXTBMP I thought it's purpose was to "change" "normal" BMP files (output by paint programs) to BMP files that FS can use - and vice versa. The reason I thought this is because if I try to open BMP files from with aircraft folders - some are intelligble (look normal) some are not (just vertical lines)! So I assumed that some files ending in BMP are not typical image BMP files and that you must go through DXTBMP to make repaints work. Apparently this isn't so??? I don't know. I was still assuming that you could "work on" BMP files from aircraft folders that look intelligble (back them up first of course). Is my understanding of this correct or not? Maybe you only repaint on certain BMP files within the aircraft folder? I don't know and I can find no documentation of what is going on. Also it's kind of frustrating that something as fundamental as file conversion(s) are such a challenge (see next paragraph).Now a secondary problem has appeared. I also intend to repaint my Porter using FSDs repaint kit. FSD makes the textures available as PSD files with multiple layers. Pixia doen't read PSD (or TGA) files. It appears that it only imports and exports single layer formats (jpeg, tif, etc) although it will save multilayer files in it's native format. Now this is not good when it comes to using repaint kits with multiple layers. I assume that I could convert these PSD files to BMP files with something like ACDSEE as I could find no PSD to or from Pixia converters. I assume that part of the ACDSEE conversion is the flattening of the layers into a single layer. I'm not sure how much I give up in flexibility when I do that though.I realize that you or others may say go do this or that tutorial however I've looked through most of those tutorials and they tend to say do this then this then this using this program (if you've got something else your out of luck). As a result you do learn some valuable techniques often specific to programs - however the tutorials rarely explain the whys and the possible alternatives - which are what I want to know - so that I can find a system that works for me.I saw the other response that said Buy PSPro or the like but I'm not sure how far I would take painting - maybe only do it every once in a while. So I'm not likely to spend those kind of dollars for that - yet. I had a hard enough time paying $25 for 2 (not 1) FSD planes - however I must confess they are good planes.Maybe I should try GIMP before getting very invested in Pixia. I read that it tends to crash but that was version 1.3 and it's now version 2.1 or 2.2 so I suspect a lot more of the bugs are ironed out although I don't know.Thanks In Advance for any further responses! Take Care! -Ed-

Hi Ed,Ok, the "unintelligble" BMP's you find are ones that are "extended", normally in DXT3 format, these cannot be read into a "normal" paint program, and have to be ran through DXTBMP to make them "normal".The intelligable BMP's you can see are 32-bit images, although you can open these in a "normal" paint program, when you save them there will not be 32-bit images anymore, hence they may not show in FS, and will require running through DXTBMP.Basically I work on a "normal" bitmap untill the paint is finished, and as a final op run through DXTBMP and add the alpha channel.As for the layer issue, I am pretty sure, and please someone correct me if I am wrong, that there is no free program that will maintain the layer structure of PSD files, unfortunatly the only way to do it is to purchase one of the "big boys", e.g. PSP or PS.When it comes to painting I would say layers are essential, not only for the paintkits, but also for doing lines, text, fades, multiplies etc etc.There are people who use MSPaint and other non-layer products but they are limited in what they can do.Dan.

Hey All,Thanks Dano! Your explanation about image types clears up a lot of confusion that I've had. To summarize - Do I have this right? If your going to work with texture files from aircraft texture folders within your aircraft directory you need to use DXTBMP and convert to "normal" BMPs. When your done repainting use DXTBMP to convert repainted files back to the forms needed by FS. If this is right then a lot of my confusion is no more! :) Of course I realize that there still may be issues about what form to save repaints in when going through DXTBMP but that is solvable.The issue then becomes knowing how to use whatever paint program your using - which is a relatively straightforward software issue. Not necessarily an easy issue but at least it's contained within one piece of software.I downloaded and installed the GIMP and it is version 2.2 and it does appear to read PSD files maintaining full layer integrity. I imported one of the Porter PSDs and GIMP indicated 3 layers and I could see the individual layer names and manipulate them (although right now I have no idea what I was doing) :) So now I need to learn how to use the GIMP - so it's off to find advice and tutorials!Any GIMP Users around here with some advice?Thanks again! Take Care! -Ed-

Hi Ed,Yes, thats it in a nutshell matey.I might take a look at "GIMP" myself, I know people who use linux swear by it.Dan.

I played with Gimp for a while and was impressed. Seemed to have every tool of photoshop. Only advise is to use the right click on the mouse, that opens all the options up.bob

>I could find no PSD to or from Pixia converters.Hey Ed,Have you tried looking on the Pixia Forum?http://graphicfree.proboards9.com/Have a look in the "Questions and Answers" and "Wishes and Requests" forums. You may not find a PSD to Pixia Converter, but there's a ton of info on how to work with Pixia :-cool Regards,Stratobat