Hello there!I just started to repaint aircrafts (still on FS9, I hope to go to FSX soon). I already master some techniques, like painting eyebrowns, configuring and recolouring lightmaps, etc.But i think my windows are not that good yet, they just don't look like windows, they actually look like... painted BMPs. I try to add some effects over their colors (which i usually paint in blue) in Photoshop, but the result is still far behind the best.Can you help me on this, telling me how to make the windows look like real glass circles? But i don't want to use photoreal work, unless i don't have another option.Thanks.

The answer is`nt that simple,in fact it`s very hard to give one.The greatest problem in making good windows is the small amount of pixels available on the texture to make them.On most pant(-kits) the windows have to few pixels to make the window like a real one.You cannot make something wich looks like a real rabbet ( window-framing) with a line of only one pixel wide.On the other hand a rabbet of just one pixel wide is in many cases more heavvy and wide than the original on the real plane...It`s a sad conclusion but windows are problematic.There are textures with about 30 or 40 pixels per meter/yard (fuselage lenght )A window on such a texture is approx 14 x 16 pixels.When you have a texture with 80 pixels per meter you are able to draw windows having the size of 28 x 32 pixels and you can imagine the far better result of that kind of windowtexturing.Glossy-glass effects can be achieved by adding an alpha layer.Unfortunately the gloss made by an alpha-layer in FS only shows correct on the shaded side of the plane.On most planes the alpha-gloss is completely overruled by the dynamic shine of the mdl file, at the sun-side.Conclusion:A large/long aircraft-fuse on just one 1024x1024 texture-sheet gives us problems in painting realistic.On the other hand, the same texture spread over three 1024x1024 textures is much better repaintable.The choose of the plane is the base for the paint-quality.Leen

Leen, many thanks for your answer.It's really a hard job to paint those small windows. I start to think that i can't make them better without going photoreal... But i will keep trying! Thanks for the attention.Oh, and i love the Fokker F-100 from Project Fokker. Really great aircraft.