A possible quick way to make aircraft night texture?

[col1948]

I'm being lazy plus I can't make out the _LM texure to see what I'm doing.

I re-touched/edited an existing aircraft texture, that worked no problem as I've done it many times, this model had another night texture with the extension _LM
I tried to edit that to match the the daytime _T texture but it is very dark and I am struggling to see properly, so I wondered if there was a quick way of converting the day texture to a night texture.
I thought may be it is possible to add a dark mask or something over the daytime texture, is that possible?

I have DTXbmp, PaintShopPro7, plus FSrepaint will any of those do the trick but not too complicated please lol?

[col1948]

I'm bumping this thread again, I recently did an L1011 texture, again can anyone help me please?
The textures I did are daytime, problem is when it goes dark they still show up very bright, I copied and changed the relevant textures and renamed them with _LM but that doesn't do anything as regards to making them darker.
Is there a way to mask over them to give them the night texture look?

[MIKE JG]

The FS2004 SDK is your friend! Direct from the MakeMdl document:

NightMap
The NightMap "_LM" texture is used for an object at night. For dawn or dusk, Flight Simulator blends the NightMap and Base Texture. NightMap textures are normally used for scenery objects, not for aircraft objects.

LightMap
The LightMap "_L" texture is used at night to light the Base Texture. Unlike the NightMap texture, the LightMap texture does not replace the Base Texture at night. Instead, it is always combined with the Base Texture. The LightMap textures for aircraft are special because the alpha channel contains a mask that allows you to select running lights or landing lights. (Use A=0 for running lights; use A=255 for landing lights.)

You are telling the program to use a scenery night texture as an aircraft model's night texture. Try changing the extension to just "xxxxxxxxx_L.bmp" and see what happens.

[col1948]

Hi Mike,
I changed the _LM to _L and then I got just the grey aircraft no textures.
The original aircraft had the wings and other stuff as _LM that is why I changed the fuselage, I then noticed in the details it was 8bit bmp and the fuselage I had was dxt1, after a bit of messing I managed to change it but still it shown up bright in the dark.

I have put the wings properties in and you can see the details, they show up as night textures but you can see the fuse hasn't got these details, I'm not sure why.

Col.

[col1948]

Sorted! It was 'Ambient Light' I noticed in the other _LM textures the Ambient Light was set darker that the daylight textures, so I changed the Fuselage to make it darker and that did it.

Strange though how the original night textures were _LM and not _L as you suggest, still it's working now, thank you.

Col.