Hi,

 

I have a question about alpha channels of aircraft textures. I am a newbie in modeling so I need some help.

I have filled my airports with WOAI traffic but I would like to give some of the aircraft at my favourite airport a shiny look. First I changed the "model=no_refl" line in the aircraft.cfg file of the AIA models in "reflective". Next I installed BMPDXT.exe. From the help file I learned that you need at least DXT3 textures and add a grey alpha channel for reflective textures.  But I can't find in the help file how to do this. 

I assume that most textures used in the WOAI packages have base textures with a white alpha channel or none. I first tried a few things myself but was not sure I did it right. So in BMPDXT I opened a texture from one of the aircraft as extended bitmap and I saved it as a DXT3 file. Next I selected create alpha template and apply alpha to image and saved the file. Then I loaded FS9 to see if the aircraft had changed but I saw no difference.  Does anyone know what I did wrong or how to do this or where I can find a tutorial about this subject?

 

Thanks

Rob

Hi,

 

If you see the aircraft texture in the big window and a gray square in the little window, and you use File/Save/Extended Bitmap (DXT3 in the drop down box), then you should be OK.  You can always open it again in DXTBmp and it will display the format and the alpha channel for you to double check.  BTW, most people will end up with a more complicated design to the alpha channel - gray where the bare metal is in the main texture, and white on the painted surfaces.

Thanks Tom, its finally working now. Every time I made a change in BMPDxt I checked the results in the viewer of FS9 (where you choose your aircraft). I forgot that you must close FS9 first to make the changes have effect. I am looking for the best gray now. I think 128x128x128 is a bit to shiny. I will try to edit the alpha channel with more complicated design later. For now I thank you for your help.

 

Rob

I find the faster way to reload textures is to go to Options/Display/Hardware and move the Global Texture Size slider (?  at the bottom) one notch.  Then click OK.  Make sure to leave it at Massive when finished with your texture editing.