Can you paint the FSX ms supplied planes?

[bensmini 0]

I asked this question in the paint forum and got basically no answer. I note that the FSX ms supplied 737-800 and 747-400 are hangered in plain white among the va liveries offered. This has caused me to wonder if you could add liveries (in my case Delta Airlines) to these unmarked planes. If possible how would you do it. I thought one of the painter forum folks would see my question and provide an answer but so far no help.

 

Yes?, No? Maybe?

bensmini

[Jim Robinson 122]

Have you checked the file libraries? I suspect there are repaints available already, but if you want to do it yourself you need to copy the "white" texture folder and rename it something like texture.delta and make provisions for the additional variation in the aircraft.cfg. Then you need to get the .dds textures into a format (32bit .bmp) that you can open and edit in your paint program, i.e. PhotoShop. The conversion can be done with Imagetool which is included with the SDK on your FSX disks. Once in PhotoShop, you'll need to paint whatever it is you want on the textures, save, and then convert them back to .dds with Imagetool again. Load up the new variation that you created in the aircraft.cfg and you should see your new paint.

 

Highly oversimplified, but that's the basic approach. I would start by downloading repaints from the libraries and installing them first if you don't understand the process of creating the additional variation in the aircraft.cfg, the instructions included with the repaint will explain it. As far as the actual painting goes, that's a skill you'll have to learn on your own but you'll find all sorts of tips in the repaint forum.

 

EDIT: Here's a Delta repaint for the default 737:

 

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=737800de.zip&Author=&CatID=root

 

Jim

[ti_dabbelju 6]

Search for "dxtbmp" on Google. That is a converter for the livery graphics. After you converted them to 24bit bmp you can edit them with any paint software. Convert them back to original format when you`re done.

[Jim Robinson 122]

Of course with DXTBmp and 24 bit you'll loose your alpha channel and you'll have to flip your texture vertically or paint upside down. Hence my suggestion of Imagetool and 32 bit but whatever...