Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question, but I'm an absolute newbie at repaints.I've used DXTBmp to look at some paintkits for default FS9 aircraft, and the bitmaps from the aircraft texture folders, and they are often white aircraft wing or fuselage sections against a white background.How do I work out where the edge of the section is, so I can tell where to paint and where not to paint?The tutorials I've looked at show the aircraft sections clearly distinguishable from the bitmap background, but this doesn't seem to apply to the texture bitmaps I've seen.

In tutorials its likely they are using a layered psd paint kit. A .psd (photoshop document) has the ability to store layers.. like sheets of paper. Its very helpful for repaints because you can add a new layer over fuselage without losing the details underneath. When a bmp is made from the psd all of the layers are flattened into one.You can either have a look at the details of the area to try and work out where everything goes then its basically trial and error, or find a nice paint kit :)If you want to have a good chance of completing a repaint you'll need a program that can support layers (Photoshop and Paintshop Pro are the main ones) If you've got one of those programs check out my paint kit for the AirHead Decathlon to have a look at layers.

Thanks for the quick reply.I use Photoshop 6 and a graphics tablet for any arty stuff I do, so I'm familiar with layered PSD files.I haven't been able to find a layered paintkit for the repaint I want to do first (the default Cessna 208 Amphibian) so it looks like it might have to be 'trial and error'. I was hoping it would be easier than that to determine which parts of the bitmap relate to particular parts of the aircraft. I'd rather spend time painting than decoding the bitmap.I thought of maybe overlaying a texture bitmap with a numbered grid and applying that to the aircraft, to see how the aircraft structure aligns with the bitmap.>In tutorials its likely they are using a layered psd paint>kit. A .psd (photoshop document) has the ability to store>layers.. like sheets of paper. Its very helpful for repaints>because you can add a new layer over fuselage without losing>the details underneath. When a bmp is made from the psd all of>the layers are flattened into one.>>You can either have a look at the details of the area to try>and work out where everything goes then its basically trial>and error, or find a nice paint kit :)>>If you want to have a good chance of completing a repaint>you'll need a program that can support layers (Photoshop and>Paintshop Pro are the main ones) If you've got one of those>programs check out my paint kit for the AirHead Decathlon to>have a look at layers.

Your idea is a good one.The only bmp used for painting is C208_T. If you take the default paint scheme then that pretty much shows you where everything is. The fuselage is at the bottom of the texture, wings are top middle, nose is top right. The tail is just above the fuselage bottom right. Theres another front section under the wings in the middle and to the left of that are the tail planes. The floats are right at the top. You'll notice that the FS2004 default aircraft use a lot of mirrored mapping to help on performance.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I thought of maybe overlaying a texture bitmap with a numbered grid and applying that to the aircraft, to see how the aircraft structure aligns with the bitmap.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<http://www.abacuspub.com/repaint/RegardsLeen de Jager

Thanks for the tip. FS Repaint makes it much easier to find the edges of the various aircraft sections on the texture bitmap. I had the FS Repaint drawing window open, and I found I could drag a small coloured selection around on the bitmap and it would be simultaneously displayed on the 3d model. This enabled me to see exactly how the texture bitmap is applied to the structure.I also noticed the mirroring that mcdainow was referring to. I was surprised at how much overlap there is where two mirrored sections join, such as the top of the fuselage in the Cessna 208 - a substantial part of some aircraft section textures seems to be redundant.

Hi Phil,Just a little additional hint.Alltough the painting made in FS Repaint cannot be saved ( in the free demo version) this demo can be used as a painting-help.In the Pay-version your own painting program can be used and you get the utmost out of the program and the paintwork CAN be saved.( visit the website mentioned earlier on this topic for more information about FS Repaint.) http://www.abacuspub.com/repaintThe painting program in the demo is a very simple one , the proffessional programs you and I use are better for the real job.The main advantage of the program lies in the fact that it enables us to dertermine the exact positions of the texture.As we are painting on textures with a reasonable limited amount of pixels " just one pixel " means a lot.So this is what I do.Open the model in FS Repaint and open the texture file.Mark , with a single red dot (pixel), the points wich are vital for the positioning of the new texture.Now comes the trick.Set the view of the texture in FS Repaint to actual size( no zoom in or out ) and make a screenshot of it.With the help of a screenshot-collector you can do more screenshots taken from the various textures in one session.And now, I think you already see whats coming now, paste these screenshots on layers over the unpaited original.No doubt you can take it from here.Kind regardsLeen de Jagerhttp://home.planet.nl/~dejag021/shots/workaround.jpg

That's a great tip, Leen. Thanks for that. I spent hours yesterday going from FS Repaint to Photoshop to DXTBmp and back again trying to determine the exact edges of the aircraft sections in the texture bitmap. Your suggestion lets me do that in a much more precise way, and will save lots of time.(I still find it hard to believe that the default FS2004 texture bitmaps have so much overlap and redundancy, and that the edges of the aircraft sections are so poorly defined, but that's another issue...)Thanks again.Phil Wright

Hallo Phil,It`s good to hear you`re happy with my tip.Overlap and redundancy, and the edges of the aircraft sections not being defined precisely, is very common and not only a phenomena exclusively with the default airplanes.Due to the fact the textures are , lets say it simple , wrapped around the 3d model and in many cases there are only texturesheets for the left and right side, the edges are always vague.It is almost impossible to determ how and at wich exact position the left and right-side-textures will meet on top of and at the bottom of the fuselage.So ,the solution is obvious , always make sure to have a little more texture than really needed, instead of having the risk to see the joining of the textures.On many textures of other (non default) planes we see sharp edges and they give us the impression to be the real edges of the various parts of the plane.They are not , these sharp lines make the drawing more clear to understand and look better but still the amount of pixels used to cover the model is smaller than wich is actually available on the texturesheets.RegardsLeen de Jager

>Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question, but I'm an>absolute newbie at repaints.>>I've used DXTBmp to look at some paintkits for default FS9>aircraft, and the bitmaps from the aircraft texture folders,>and they are often white aircraft wing or fuselage sections>against a white background.>>How do I work out where the edge of the section is, so I can>tell where to paint and where not to paint?>>The tutorials I've looked at show the aircraft sections>clearly distinguishable from the bitmap background, but this>doesn't seem to apply to the texture bitmaps I've seen.Is this what you are looking for?http://www.fsdossier.info/repainting/c208_t.jpgI created this template for a repainting handbook (sorry, German only at the time) and I could send you a layered PSD of it.Ciao, Sergio------------www.fsdossier.info