DDS textures will not reload in Abacus' FS Repaint

[Paul K]

Here's the gist of what I'm attempting to do...

I have the Aerosoft Catalina, and I'm attempting to repaint the civilian Dutch one based at Lelystad. Actually, repainting is a bit of an overstatement - in fact, I am tweaking it for now, removing the Dutch markings, the name on its nose etc.

I am doing this using Photoshop Elements 9, with the Nvidia DDS plug-in installed. So, I am not using DXTBmp at all. I am editing the relevant layered psp. file in the Aerosoft-supplied paintkit, then saving the result as the relevant dds texture in the aircraft's texture folder.

However, when I then ask Abacus' FS Repaint to reload the textures to I can see what the latest edit looks like, it freezes up. I have to shut down FS Repaint completely and restart it before I can see the modified texture.

Anybody have any ideas what I am doing wrong ?

Any help gratefully received, ta!

[Garry Russell]

Hi Paul

They need to be converted to bmp to read in FS Repaint I think

[DaveG]

There are a couple of freeware utils you can use to view the model & textures.

There's Arno's ModelConverterX (http://www.scenerydesign.org/modelconverterx/) I'd recommend using the development release package.

or there's Paul Gausdens MDL Viewer (https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=06b52833 ... 20717E!245) Download MDLViewSetup102.

[Paul K]

Hi Paul

They need to be converted to bmp to read in FS Repaint I think

Garry, it will view DDS files at first, before any editing takes place. After editing, it wont reload them - the program locks up and has to be shut down and restarted.

Dave G, thanks for those links, I'll go and investigate them.

Question for both of you...if I use DXTbmp what should I be saving these textures as ? DXT1, DXT3, DXT5 or what ?

[DaveG]

I don't use DXTBmp, as I always save directly from Photoshop as DDS, but I normaly use DXT5.

[DaveB]

Hi Paul..

My fivepennyworth which is probably worth nowt The usual scenario (for me) when working on for example, a DXT3 texture is to use DXTBMP to convert it to 24bit then you can edit it in Windows. When finished fiddling, save that as 24bit then use DXTBMP to convert it to Extended format (32bit extended-888) for higher quality or DXT3 (the lower the number, the more degradation in quality). I think DXT5 is similar in quality to dds though not quite the same. It's been a while since I've fiddled FSX uses dds as native and these as you know need to be flipped for native models.

It's probably rather more complex than this but basically, use DXTBMP to convert your file to a bitmap compatible with your editor (24-bit colour) then when done, save as 24-bit then use DXTBMP to convert it to whatever you wish. DXTBMP is used to take a bitmap from an uneditable state into an editable state then back again once you've finished. Does that make sense at all?
EDIT on this.. My Elements is a lowly v2 and doesn't (as far as I'm aware) see DXT5 or dds as native which is why I have to use DXTBMP

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

DXT5 seems to be the norm but when I tried it the textures were very soft and fuzzy

[Paul K]

Dave G ...thanks again for those links. Can't get MDL Viewer to work, even though I've installed the neccessary software as advised in the readme. I shall work on it. Model Converter works nicely however, so very pleased with that.

Dave B...thanks for the 'walk through'. Hugely useful info that, very much appreciated.

Garry...yes I wonder if thats why the crewmen's faces have gone fuzzy. Worth being aware of.

Chaps, thanks for all this stuff, I am grateful. I'm going to try using GIMP for a while as Ive got a housebrick-sized manual for it, and it has some features that PSE9 doesn't seem to have, such as drawing curved lines ( at least I cant find it in PSE9 ). It also handles DDS files without any plug in, and it shows up the alpha channels in a way thats easier to edit. Crikey, all this makes it sound like I know what I'm banging on about, don't it ?