Military AI Works

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,

what paint programme are you working with ?

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

http://www.getpaint.net/

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/

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?

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.

Thanks a bunch Daryl, I will try that out.

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.

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?

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

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