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FS2004 Livery Reflections

P

PW4000

Messages
50
Country
italy
Hi guys,
I'm trying to draw a livery for the realair siai marchetti SF260, and I'd like to know in wich way it's possible to see, once on the simulator, the reflection as seen on many other (wonderful) aircraft, like the fuselage would be made of reflective metal.

Could someone help me, please?
Thanks in advance
Alessandro
 
Could you please explain me step by step how to do that?
Thanks
 
Last edited:
Ok, then:
Download DXTBmp (free);

Open the bitmap file you want with the referred program;

Check the small square on the top right of the program's window, if it's all white it means that the texture has no alpha channel (if the texture file ends with a _t, like in "c172_t.bmp", it supports reflection, if not that means that, if you add alpha channel it will appear as transparent textures, depending on the intensity of the grey scale colors: black is the most transparent or most reflective and white is 100% opacity or 0% reflection;

Now to create a new alpha channel from the textures go to the top menu and click on "Alpha" and then "Create Alpha from Template".

Then click "export alpha channel" and save as bitmap and edit the file with an image editor, ALWAYS with grey scale colors.

After editing go to dxtbmp and open the texture file and click on "Alpha" but this time go to the "Import Alpha Channel" option.

Select the edited alpha channel file and go to "Alpha" and click "Apply Alpha to Image". The alpha is now in the bmp file.

Save it as a 32 bit bitmap or other alpha supported bitmap extension.

And that's all step by step...
 
Thanks a lot.
Only one thing: when I edit with the grey scale, I have to select all the areas where the reflection is required, isn't it?

Saving in DXT1 (extended bitmap) is a problem?
I'm afraid that 32bit textures wuoldn't be fps friendly with old PCs...
 
Ok, I solved by using reflections made for another livery for the same plane.
Now I have a 32bit reflection livery.... :D

Thanks a lot.
Bye
 
Cool, about the DXT textures it's ok as long as you don't save them as "DXT1 no alpha".
About the greyscale: It's better you select the areas of the fuselage, for example, where you want more reflection, like in the bottom, or less, like on the painted part of the fuselage...
 
Need to eliminate or reduce reflection

Ok guys, I have the opposite problem. I have Aerial Foundry's excellent Candanian F-18 [FS2009] but I want to tweak the skins a bit and reduce the reflection from the sun, which turns the aircraft completely white.

I took your advice and saved left side textures as DXT1 (16bit) with no Alpha, which should prevent reflection, right?

I know FS9 is using my skin b/c I can see the Red Cross I put on the left elevator.

But as you can see, this dark grey skin is still white when reflecting the sun, even with DXT1 and no Alpha. The level of reflection is identical to the rest of the plane.

DXT1_no_Alpha.png


I'm no expert with creating aircraft, never use SDK; I just like improving skins. But this hideous white reflection doesn't appear to be coming from the Alpha channel/skin. Any idea how I can tone it down?
 
That's because it's not alpha reflection, it's gloss shine, or specular glow, that can only be edited in the plane's source file, or with other program that reads MDL files and edits them...

P.S. Sorry about the delay..:)
 
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