I am not terribly versed in Paintshop pro, but I cannot seem to take a simple bmp image from fs2002 and convert it to a FLY2 8 bit image without losing the real clear, dense look of the panels.tony

G'day Tony,> simple bmp image from fs2002 and convert it to a>FLY2 8 bit image without losing the real clear, dense look of>the panels. "Oh Mr Hart, what a mess! "Tony that front panel in the attachment is already in Fly! II as the panel for the DC-9-30 The panel is by Roberto Vigetti and I did a grey repaint for it for the Hughes Air West dc9 when I added the B717 cockpit views. What aircraft are you trying to put the panel into.?Could you please state the origin of the panel in the attachment.Cheers,Roger @YSSY

I was not clear in my first message,Roger. The main panel is Vigetti's. The aircraft is Rowt dc9 and the upper two center posts come from a newmd88.zip bmp file. I am trying to learn how to modify panels, and ,naturally, using existing bmp files, makes the job easier for learning. I simply can't bring the bmp quality up to the standards of fly2. What's the catch? The quality seems to deteriorate as soon as a file is converted to an 8bit 256 color format. Yet the ones that come with fly2 are of the same format. Originally, I had wanted to extend the two little posts in the rowt plane, but couldn't do it without ruining the beautiful quality.tony

G'day Tony,Fly! II uses a (TRI proprietory - believe ) *PBM format (indexed colour) for all interior views.When I want to modify an interior view I use "Flygraphics" program by Elrond ( in Avsim library under Fly! NOT Fly! II )to convert from *pbm to *bmp. Then using Photoshop I change the mode from index colour to RGB and then do all the mods to the panel and then change to indexed colour mode and convert back to PBM format. The O/H panel started life as a digital photo and was converted to index colour mode and PBM format.I'm not a graphics wizz but you don't mention indexed colour files.Unpod the Hughes Air West and you will see all the interior views are *.PBM. Every PBM file has an associated * .ACT file. This file is automatically created by Elronds great conversion programI'm not sure if I've been of any help to you Tony but as you have made no mention of *.PBM files I offer the above hoping it may help.Cheers,Roger @YSSY

Ok. the pbm format results as the last step in a design. I had not done the "indexed color mode"; I had simply taken a bmp file, changed it to 8 bit 256 colors and then formatted it to a pbm file. The quality of the TRI panel that I attached was from a pbm to bmp and to jpg. The fs panels simply do not have that shine, luster, solid quality to them. So when one tries to modify panels using a mix of fs and FLY--all in converted bmp format--the contrast in quality is obvious. thanks for the tip. It's a slow learning curve....tony