Aircraft repaint error

[lillaz]

Howdy Simmers, I am doing some experimentation with aircraft textures and I have hit a snag. I will take an existing ai aircraft texture and I will either paint over the current paint scheme or manipulate the registration number. Afterwards I will save it back into the aircraft file under the same name, but when I go into FS9 to see the results the entire paint scheme of the aircraft is gone. Any answers as to why this happens?

Thanks Laz,

[f4nutter]

what paint programme are you working with ?

[lillaz]

Its a freeware called "Paint.Net", here is a link to it.

http://www.getpaint.net/

[f4nutter]

hmmmm! not heard of that programme before.
when you save your finished paint can or do you save it as a DXT3 ?
here is a free programme that allows you to open and save paints in the correct manor.
http://dxtbmp.softpedia.com/

[lillaz]

No I did not think to save it in that format. I use DXTBmp but when I open it in the the "Alpha" botton has an option that says "send to Alpha editor" which opens Paint.Net. Is it possible for me to edit just in DXTBmp?

[delbydoo]

Save the image as 24-bit bmp from dxtbmp, then do what you need to do with your paint program. When that's done, open it with dxtbmp and save as extended format/dxt3. That should sort you out.

[lillaz]

Thanks a bunch Daryl, I will try that out.

[delbydoo]

Just be warned though - there will be progressive degredation if you use someone elses paint; which is why it is always best to start from scratch. If you keep recomiling textures using dxtbmp, there will come a point when the texture will look like a blurry over-mipped image. If you are going to do something as simple as renumbering, then open the original texture everytime - don't continue recompiling the texture with different numbers otherwise you will get the above result.

[lillaz]

I will advise, but I have a set back with finding blank textures for certain aircraft. Do you have any advice on what is an alternative option if a ai model does not have a blank texture?

[delbydoo]

Simple answer to that is make your own......it's how most repainters started

[lillaz]

I will look into how to do that. I appreciate it.