Leen3131cs

You`ll have to search for the texturefile wich is responsible for the numbers and change it there.

Personally I am not giving up, I am still painting models for X-Plane though many of them are made in the new way and painting is sometimes a bit difficult. Some models are not paintable the oldfashioned way. ( they are to much a puzzle to me) On the other hand many new models are ,though painted the modern way, mapped in a way repainters can lay their hands on. When a developer wants to see his model painted by the public he can , IF HE IS WILLING AND HELPFULL, make a mapping wich is paintable and still use the modern paint-methods. So we can have progress and keep 2D painting the same time. This brings us to another thing. Repaints are making our flightsim hobby more interesting for a great group of users. The vast majority of users in flying for leisure and are not real arm-chair pilots flying realistic on instruments and whats more. They fly just for fun and are keen having many liveries , especially those liveries they a familiar with ( they see on the airport/field nearby whrre they live) If such a livery is not available jet they can request one ans a hobby-painter can fullfill their wish. Things like this make our hobby so pleasant and fora so lively A lack of available liveries, wich will no doubt be caused by using the new 3D painting-technology, will have a negative influence on the interest in flightsim. Developers who have the painters-community ( and the importance of having many liveries) in mind, still can provide us with models texturised in 3D and paintable for the NOT 3D-painters as well. Lets hope they read this.!!!!! Leen de Jager P.S. A year ago I commented on a new (payware) plane for X-Plane. I predicted this model not to be a success, due to the fact it was/is not paintable. NO repaints were published , nobody is talking about the (very nice) model these days anymore. I have no doubt ,the developer/vendor of the model regrets his lack providing a paintable model, having a look at the sales-figures. A second model he published was well paintable ( making the same mistake twice was no option) and got many liveries , boosting the sales of the model.

I have been shocked like Ron was, being confronted with texturesheets looking like battle-fields without logic. Many contemporary models have been painted in a 3D program like Blender or a very sophisticated 3D paintingprogram like Substance-Painter. The textures and all other things like normals and speculars are being made in one workflow. Special effects are no longer created manually in programs like SubstancePainter. All effects are available in the program , just select a gear leg and choose for "rusty" , the texture will turn into rusty and normals and specualars are created the same time. Repainting is for me , making these effects by myself , thats real fun, You might say real oldfashioned paintwork. Painting with these magical programs is if you know how the program works quiet simple. (paintwise spoken) Back to my rusty example , making realistic rust painting the old way is not so simple it really need painting skills. When a painter makes a paint with a program like Substance Painter he needs less compliments for his painting skills and more compliments for his knowledge about the program As said before ,in the end its always a 2D texture spread over 3D model so painting the old way is still possible. The major problem we have is the fact that many times textureparts wich are representing one part of the plane are spread over various texturesheets. The moment painting is becoming an endless puzzle , wich ends in making textures hardly recognisable as part of the complete airplane , we are no longer repainting with the fun of painting. Its like painting a jig-sawed plate of cardboard, mix all different parts and then cover/paint the puzzle. Each part individually not having them in the correct position. Its possible with these new textures , I have been there too.( with X-Plane , its the same there) Must say I prefer to be a painter the old way and not a modern "texture-effect-operator" in a 3D painting program, opening menus full of effects and pressing buttons. Leen de Jager

Paint looks terriffic !!

Is simply making a back-up before installing a new version no option? Could save a lot frustration I assume. If thats not possible. I would say. Use the PC for just one simulator and make a complete system-image before installing a new version. If the new version does not make you happy (or worse) , re-install the image. It might take a bit of disk-space, nobody said flightsim is cheap. Being an X-Plane user, I might see things to simple. Leen

Hi Ken In MSFS >> we have three main-types of texturefiles Diffuse files representing the colors/livery of the aircraft , these file have an alpha for adjustment gloss/reflection. Specular files for setting specularity on the aircraft , these files have an alpha too. Bump files for creating kinda faked 3d effects on fuselage and wings. E.g. rivets, platelines etc. I am not sure about these bump-files having an alpha or not, as far as I can recall its not the case, maybe they have an alpha these days, they CAN have an alpha anyways. As I have been painting for MSFS in the past and am not active in painting for MSFS>> for the last decade I cannot be absolutely sure about the centemporay bump-files in P3D Last ten years I have been texturising models for X-Plane wich has quiet another type of file-structure. Regards Leen

In most planes the alpha-channel in the diffuse files are for setting the amount of gloss/refelection of the model and NOT for making some parts of the plane transparent. Windows in contemporary models are modeled in the 3D structure and have nothing to do with black spots in an alpha layer. Years ago sometimes black spots on an alpha were used for transparency and creating windows , thats hardly the case nowadays.

I have no idea whats gone wrong here. It brings me to another question: Whats your re-painting experience? How many days did you spend about reading all you could find about painting for a sim.? Years ago a starting pianoplayer asked me ( weird , I do not play any instrument) ,why is all my efford just leading to noise and irrtitation? I asked , did you take lessons? I do not say I (nor my friends/painters here at AVSIM ) are not willing to help. I hope ...................you`ll see what I mean. Leen

I am not in a lethargic depression. And I appreciate your reaction. I am not the snail cowering in my shell. I have a cycle-shop , clients going in and out by dozens a day. All day long being pro-active-prudent. Washing hands all day long and keeping my breath when walking through a crowd is un-avoidable I am sure we all hope and many of us pray for better times. Not praying myself because I am not a religious man. I used the phrase hope and pray as a saying we often use. And yes you are right, when the release of MSFS2020 will mean the crisis is over, I hope I`ll be able to buy it a.s.a.p.

Would`nt it be a good idea to close this useless discussion. We have a huge problem named Corona. Lets hope and pray we will survive. THATS whats in my mind today, MSFS 2020 being published today, tomorrrow next month, next year or never is of total non-importance under present cercomstances. Just my 2 cts. Leen de Jager

Sorry to say , this is not the way to behave on a forum. (*) About a week ago Miquel Rodenas posted his question. Within two hours Ron gave a reaction on the post. And then.what happened...............nothing !!!! No reaction whatsoever. (*) OK Miquel might have had an accident , or suffer a sudden illnes , if so I am really sorry and wish him a speedy recovery. Of not..................??? Leen

Nevertheless there is a difference between the standard AlaskaAir livery and the one wich is used for the E175 Its not only the callsign wich tells us about Horizon. Actually the name Horizon is in big fat characters painted on the fuselage of the plane aside Alaska. So we do not have a E175 in Horizon dress , we do have a special Alaska Air-Horizon livery.

What you are showing is a screenshot taken in a paintingprogram , working on a PSD. THAT does not tell me what kinda file you are working on . Is this a texturefile (diffuse) , a specular file. I suppose its a specular file and if it is, you must keep in mind this is a file for lighteffects and the higlighted white spots could have a meaning in that. I think it`s a good start studying all filetypes and understand how they work before starting paintworks.

The filetypes are the same , the way they are made is different. An airplane wich is not capable of handling PBR cannot be made PBR by making a livery with PBR files

Yes Ron, the CFG is essential to use the right files. I forgot about the CRF as in X-Plane we have no texture.CRF file like the one in P3D

Hi guys, Must begin saying these days I do not make paints for P3D etc. ( its XP for now) I do not have P3D installed nor the model so its difficult for me to help. BUT We have three * sorts of texturefiles in our model e.g. diffuse , bump and spec files. These are basicly the same kinda files we have for many years, PBR is giving same the kinda (type) files. The graphic engine in our sim has been changed and they way we make the texturefiles is different due to PBR. The file-types did not change I have the feeling you are mixing different files from different liveries, in other words deiffuse , spec and bumps from different liveries get mixed. When you make a copy of the ( complete )white plane and start making your livery from there , I do not expect any problems. First make your diffuse textures representing your livery and then compose your specular file. Then its not possible to end op with a grey plane showing red spots. When you do not paint any red in your work on the white files, there will be no red in your result. Maybe ist pure nonsens what I am saying here, nevertheless I think there is some logic in it. If not , I am sorry. Cheers Leen de Jager ps * I forgot to mention the LIT files

https://www.juergenbaumbusch.de He made some repaints using the latest paintkit. Contact him

How did you achieve it ? You might not be the only one having the same issue. Please share your knowledge. Just sharing the problem and not sharing its solution does not help on a forum like this. Cheers Leen de Jager

Ohh yes I think it is caused by something going wrong when saving the DDS from the start. The point is I want the OP to share HIS experince and solution. This forum is about sharing experiences and not presenting a problem and saying afterwards "its solved" without sharing how it was solved.

Please share your solution, then we all can benefit your knowledge. Thats what this forum is about. Sharing experiences. What caused your problem and how did you tackle it.?

I think there must be a definition for use of speculars in the ACF-file. Only the developer of the plane can go there.

Does the original plane for wich you are making this livery have specular files? Must say I am not 100% sure,but, I think you cannot do much about this as a painter if thats not the case.

Might be the effect of saving the files with MIPS Try saving without mipmapping

Make suire the images on the DDS files are upside down when saving. Its typical for DDS files used in FSX etc. DDS files in X-Plane do not need to be vertically flipped.

Marina D`Or flying in Aerofly this was published by me on X-Plane.org in 2013 too I am afraid many models initially made by Alcala were converted ( with or without permission ) to a model for Aerofly and many third-party liveries available were used without asking. ( I checked and Antonio Navarro was not asked either for his Spanish Tomahawk) Th LV-YOD version I made is used too. This is really to bad. https://www.aerofly.com/community/forum/index.php?thread/14321-pipercub-released-for-public-download/