Anybody ever get this thing working with GIMP? I just spent all dang day getting this repaint all done, assuming the white cloudy look over my paint job would go away once I converted the files....NOPE...something to do with the Shadow layers that we're not supposed to touch. Is this just a GIMP issue? Did I do something wrong? If it is a GIMP issue, is there a fix? PLEASE HELP!!

Anybody ever get this thing working with GIMP?

 

I haven't, unfortunately.

I haven't, unfortunately.

I'm pretty sure I just figured it out. I went down the list of layers, and pulled them all out of their grouped folders so that they are just all single layers (obviously I kept them in the same order they were in). I don't know what your experience was, but on top of the shadow issue, GIMP was running excessively slow and consistently freezing for long persiods of time (or ceasing altogether). Now it's running nice and smooth, the file opens right up and every click I make doesn't take 15 seconds to actually occur. it's lookin' good!

Just thought I'd follow up...I do have GIMP working just fine now with this paint kit. It took a long while, but I just went down the list of layers, and pulled them all out of the group folders. It's still a little glitchy here and there, but nothing more than usual for GIMP. I don't know how or why, but as soon as those layers got ungrouped, the shadow layers turned dark like they're supposed to be, and everything looks great.

 

Good luck!

hi guys

 

got a small problem, my friend wants a repaint of the 737-800NGX for his virtual airline. the problem is i dont have the NGX. i have got the paint kit. 

 

my question is, are the image names in the paint kit the same as the .dds names in the actual texture.xxx file, thus allowing me to open, edit and save the images as .dds files with out having to rename them.

 

or, is there a basic texture.xxx file that i can download and replace with my own textures

 

thanks

Hi folks,

 

I think I have some good news for all Paintshop Pro..ers B)

 

It looks like Corel is about to launch Paintshop Pro X6 and I downloaded a 64-bit trial version.

http://photorumors.com/2013/08/24/corel-paintshop-pro-x6-released-64-bit/

 

I use Photo X4 for a number of things, but one thing I did try was load in that humongous 138Mb NGX master .psd file and hey presto, albeit slow, it loaded fine with all layers intact. No cascade of over a hundred different windows!!! I saved the file in .pspimage format and again fine.

 

So, next, I copied the .DDS Nvidia plugin over from X4  but no luck in being able to save /convert this file.

OK, then the light bulb went off.   I installed the 64bit version of the Nvidia plug-in in the Plug-ins folder... and hey presto .DDS conversion now possible.

 

It looks like the rewrite of X6 into 64bit code which is now able to use more than the std 3.5Gb of RAM did the trick. I'm running a Win 7 64bit Ultimate machine with 4Gb RAM and it looks like NGX paints are now a reality at long last!

 

Let's hope the folks at PMDG have not ramped up the file size too much for the paintkit for the T7 for us Paintshop users!

 

EDIT: One thing I did not try yet to be extremely sure, is to reload a .DDS texture From X6 into FSX and ensure it shows OK on the aircraft. A small task for tommorrow I think before I part with some hard-earned cash.

 

BTW -special Corel offer going on to save 15% right now if you buy/upgrade y X6 before end of this month!

 

 

Regards,

Hi Folks,

 

A quick update...

 

Photo X6 looks like it solves the problem! I was able to create a .DDS file and load this in as an FSX texture and everything works fine including the 64-bit Nvidia plug-in.

 

Also, here's a screenshot of the NGX paint kit file loaded up in Photo X6 as proof this problem is now addressed. As you can see , layers are shown as expected on the right hand layers palette.

 

Of course, the solution is to pay money to upgrade lol.

 

Maybe we'll get lucky with the 777 paint kit in X4.

Yep, Kyle. More money required (!) but given that I use PSP for aviation photography anyway and it has some other new features to offer, for me it was worth upgrading.

 

BTW- the T7 paint kit loads up fine in Photo X6 although it's a whopping 518Mb file for the Freighter fuselage map . This is way more than the NGX file so I can't imagine Photo X4 would be able to handle it but if anyone does have success, pls post here.

One warning did pop up of unsupported features, but it appears all the layers appear correctly. So far so good!

 

Regards,

Yep, Kyle. More money required (!) but given that I use PSP for aviation photography anyway and it has some other new features to offer, for me it was worth upgrading.

 

BTW- the T7 paint kit loads up fine in Photo X6 although it's a whopping 518Mb file for the Freighter fuselage map . This is way more than the NGX file so I can't imagine Photo X4 would be able to handle it but if anyone does have success, pls post here.

One warning did pop up of unsupported features, but it appears all the layers appear correctly. So far so good!

 

Regards,

 

How are you able to port over alpha channels with X6?  Indeed seems like X6 can open the paint kit (albeit, very, very slow even with two systems at 8 GB and 12 GB RAM).  Eventually got a simple paint made, but in FS it appears to just be a transparent fuselage suggesting an alpha problem.

 

Thanks.

Hi Kyle,

 

I do all my alpha channel manipulation with DXTBMP. That's the only thing about PSP, I personally don't like their alpha handling. Usually I'll create the actual alpha channel in PSP but when it comes to adding the alpha back into the main image I use the aforementioned program.I find it's much easier to do it this way.

 

Are you still experimenting with the NGX or the T7? T7 works OK for me. I am not an expert on the BGX paintkit though.

 

Regards,

Hi Kyle,

 

I do all my alpha channel manipulation with DXTBMP. That's the only thing about PSP, I personally don't like their alpha handling. Usually I'll create the actual alpha channel in PSP but when it comes to adding the alpha back into the main image I use the aforementioned program.I find it's much easier to do it this way.

 

Are you still experimenting with the NGX or the T7? T7 works OK for me. I am not an expert on the BGX paintkit though.

 

Regards,

 

Mark;

 

I used to use DXTBMP for compiling my final textures, but have since found the completely free and legal Photoshop CS2 version and never looked back. With the NVIDIA plugin installed, you can save your work directly as dxt5 .dds with the correct alpha in place. 

 

For anybody out there wrestling with the NGX kit, the link I used to download CS2 is below (includes valid serial keys):

 

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html

 

Just make sure you don't click the multitude of bogus download buttons on that page, what you want to click is this (starts a 340MB download): 

 

http://www.techspot.com/downloads.php?action=download_now&id=3689&evp=87891a21479434ff268a84747f5f653c&file=1

 

The NVIDIA plugin can be found here:

 

https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

 

I never use GIMP now, and barely ever need DXTBMP.

Thx Matt for the good find. I'll try that out. :wink:

 

I have found the NVidia plug-in for Photo X6 (64 bit version) also works well so the final .dds creation is also not a problem. I just haven't mastered the embedding of alphas into the main image - seems not to be straightforward within Photo Xn. :Sigh:

 

Cheers,

Thx Matt for the good find. I'll try that out. :wink:

 

I have found the NVidia plug-in for Photo X6 (64 bit version) also works well so the final .dds creation is also not a problem. I just haven't mastered the embedding of alphas into the main image - seems not to be straightforward within Photo Xn. :Sigh:

 

Cheers,

 

Roger - I don't have Photo X, but with photoshop it's as simple as copying & pasting the alpha info into that channel.

 

Good luck!