The American flag weird painted

[Leen3131cs 107]

Hi guys,Today I downloaded a repaint wich was advertised to be a high definition paint for FSX.As I am always interested in high quality paints I am always curious to see.Ok ,the rivets painted on a 2048x2048 texture were just one pixel each and the over-all quality of the paint was fairly nice.Only the flag was hilaric.The painter* really has no idea how the American flag shows??(alltough he`s American, I think)Having the available space on a texture to do it right , making a flag with 598 stars???!!!Not being able to make a decent USA flag on normal res. paints( thats almost always impossible and nothing to be ashamed of) the painter did not even realise it is quiet possible on high res paints and presented us this mega checkerboard.I took the liberty to make an example of how this should have looked ( the left one , you might have concluded that already).Higher definitions are very nice to work with.Using them takes far more effort than normal definition textures.Using large textures without painting serious on them is just a waiste of filespace.As is loosing alphalayers (better said the detailed textures on the alphalayer) while enlarging or saving bumpfiles , wich leaves us with a model partial without any bumpmapping whatsoever.Here goes the golden rule, If you cannot handle it,don`t touch it,your paint will show better with the original bump and spec. files.Enlarging existing bumpfiles is totally useless ( in fact destroying them) unless you really rebuild them with NEW detailed bumpmaps including new alpha-layers.Sorry I could not hold my breath.Leen de Jager* I think it`s better not to give his name here , as this is ment to be an example for painters only and not a repaint-review.

[EagleSkinner 36]

I must admit to a suppressed grin when I read that Leen... I could get just as "itchy" when I see the British "Union Flag" done wrong. I also totally agree about the "space wastage" of HD paints - even in my own I tend to forget to remind the user to set their FSX.cfg to 2048 or 4096 (or use TML Editor) becuase without setting the config, absolutely no one gets the benefit of a hi-res texture.In fact, if we painters offer HD paints at 2048 and 4096 pixel squares and don't tell about the config settings, our "users" will not get any benefit from our work because the FSX rendering engine resizes to 1024 anyway. More to the point is that FSX's "shrink" algorithms aren't even as good as Photoshop/Corel/GIMP and so our HD stuff can look worse than a normal 1024 paint.A good timely reminder Leen and thanks.

[Leen3131cs 107]

Sorry,I am afraid I was not clear enough, or you are missing my point.The only thing I ment to say its a waiste of filespace , using huge files and not taking advantage of them.The use of HD paints is certainly no "space wastage".Using the high resolution textures without using the available pixels is a waiste.I certainly do not have anything against the use of high resolution ( big textures up to 4096x4096 )FSX can handle those files perfectly.In fact I would like to encourage real experienced painters to use these big files.I emphasize on experienced.I really love them those big textures.You might see my post as a reminder to stimulate the use of the high res textures.Not as a warning against them.And maybe as a warning not to misuse them by painting high definition nonsense.RegardsLeen

[EagleSkinner 36]

No, I didn't misunderstand... I just didn't answer clearly - my bad. Let me see if I can give an example... Ah yes. The bumpmaps of this Eagle are SHD at 4096. I did the texture in 4096 too - but I wasted space because there was no need for the high level of detail on the paint - the bumps, however, well - in 4096, you can get a lot of fine detail in!On the other hand - this one with a US Flag style really does need the 4096 diffuse textures:But in summary, we agree - Detail is great, wasting space isn't ;) Hmmm... the strange thing is that I haven't made HD speculars yet, although I do create metallics, flip-flops and hue shifter paints using spec and Fresnel. But I just don't need the detail in the spec - in fact the 1024 is just fine.

[Leen3131cs 107]

You are right there.For the speculars we can use 1024.Diffuse and bump can be very interesting with higher definition.RegardsLeen

[Leemazz 0]

Hey Leen hows things . Let me explain what has happened here . First off i was limited on time and the flag you see is a base which i was using to setup the stars correctly thing is i never finished it with rushing the paint . Yes it is bad i hold my hands up on this one . Also i used larger bumps to line up the rivets so a resize would have made the rivets massive . You dont see rivets on planes until your next to it . I could have spent all year on those bump files i have close-up pictures which were taken for me . Ive released two sets of spec files also . Im happy with the overall result to say its my first HD paints and the first freeware ones to be released , i did this on my own with limited time . Im glad you took the time to have a look at them Leen you know your paints and if i trust anybodies opinion its yours . P.S how about the windows .Yes the kit needs more work i know that im just short on time and its not perfect no paints are perfect though .Leen im English not AmericanIm happy to put my name to this i have had roughly 50 requests with these textures . The flag is shocking though i will check closely next time .Lee Marrow

[Leen3131cs 107]

I understand Lee.There is only one thing puzzling me.Why did`nt you really use the alpha layers in the bump-files.The original bump-alpha-layers are texturised , yours however are plain 128.128.128 , wich means you are quiet missing the maximal effect of bumpfiles.The use of texturised alphalayers in dds bumpfiles gives great opportunities.RegardsLeen

[Leemazz 0]

I will look into it Leen i thought it would effect the way the bumps would appear in colour , i will experiment with them and see what happens . Its my first attempt at HD so really im still adding to the paints , ive updated the wings and the specs so now i will checkout them bump alphas . Thanks for the heads up LeenLee Marrow

[Leen3131cs 107]

OK Lee,MIND!This is where "trickyness" starts.From here its for you to find out.RegardsLeen

[Leemazz 0]

Yeah i find this kind of thing interesting so it should be fun ... HopefullyLee Marrow

[EagleSkinner 36]

Remember though, the alpha channel on the bump map is NOT the same as alpha on a colour texture.The bumpmap base image is an RGB greyscale image of the various panel lines, screws, holes and other bits and bobs the modeller did not create with polygons on the 3D model. Note the RGB here. If you draw the base image greyscales only, then you must convert to RGB.Why?Because when you then flatten the image and apply a height map to it (depends on your painter program how you do it - in Photoshop folk use the nvidia plugin - in Corel it's "emboss") the RED channel is exported as the alpha channel. Then the red channel is flood-filled with black (RGB 0,0,0), the blue channel is flood-filled white (RGB 255,255,255) and the green channel is inverted and then the "all channels" is exported as the normal. This is why bumpmaps look blue with a grey alpha.So... alpha on bumps are a whole different animal. You can't just go out and make them. They are created only after you add the height map.

[Leen3131cs 107]

Hi Chris ,As you said , you just can`t go out and make them.This year I started repainting for X-Plane and some days ago I started making normal maps for an X-Plane aircraft wich originally does not have them.I was very surprised to discover those files are way different from the files for FSX.They are PNG files with an alpha.In X-Plane the normal map has an alpha too,but this alfa is called the specular and handles the specularity of the plane.This alpha layer has nothing to do with the 3d effect.Its great fun having the opportunity to add these things to an existing model.RegardsLeenhttp://www.dutchfs.com/crew/leen/X-Plane/realbump.pnghttp://www.dutchfs.com/crew/leen/X-Plane/tail2.png

[TerrenceK 0]

Ha! Leen busted my balls on that US Flag in the past at least a dozen times....;)

[Leemazz 0]

Ha i bet he did Terrence . i didnt even know that i had left the flag in that state its amazing how much you miss when you think you have finished a paint .Looking forward to the MD11 packages ive had my eye on the progress and they look fantastic . Cant wait for the cargo paints Lee Marrow