Well, I downloaded a trial version of Paint Shop Pro and I'm trying to modify an Australian NBAI A-4 texture to get a Brazilian one...
I guess it works like this: the image is made up of different layers, one showing the panels and one with the decoration. Am I right? If so, how can I separate the layers?

I think it is not possible to separate a texture file (bmp format) into its original layers.
It's the "source" file of the particular texture that has layers. When saving it as bitmap all the layers are combined irreversible.

Of course you can load the bitmap into Paint Shop Pro, then duplicate the texture to get several layers and cut out parts of these layers thereby separating it into layers manually. This can be quite time-consuming, especially with panel lines/bolts/rivets...

Thanks, Hawk. I ended up downloading a paintkit (the PSD layered file available in Nick Black's F-22 base package) and understood how it works... not difficult at all! Well, being this the first paint I've done something extremely simple... Then I saved the image as a BMP (24 bit) file and converted it with dtxbmp... But here is the result


As you can see, the tail painting (that is the only thing I changed from the psd file) is not as crisp as the rest of the paint and comparing to other repaints I've seen: why?

you need to save it as 'extended bitmap' when the save window pops up select DXT3 and make sure mipmaps is unchecked on the right hand side of DXT.

f4nutter wrote:you need to save it as 'extended bitmap' when the save window pops up select DXT3 and make sure mipmaps is unchecked on the right hand side of DXT.

Thanks, Ray, let's see how it turns out!

Ta-dah!
Totally fictitious, but next year we should see the real ones! Thanks Ray for telling me how to fix it!


Now one question: as you should have already read somewhere on this board, I would like to paint the Brazilian A-4s, and perhaps some Hornets if I manage.
Does anyone know where to get the layered PSP files to do that/feels like sharing them?