Shiny Problem

[Koedje]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this forum, so to aircraft painting in FSX.
I've just finished my first attempt of a paint with a project opensky paintkit. But when I load my aircraft in fsx, it goes all shiny: I can't see any textures. When I zoom in the textures become visible. Does someone know the solution to this problem?

Cheers,
Koedje

[adlabs6]

Hi and welcome,

Sounds like there might be an issue with the reflection map for the skin? I've never skinned for FSX, so I am not certain of the new features it brings.

I have moved your thread to the "Flight Simulator" skinning forum, which may have some similar issues addressed in other threads.

[Sir_Galahad]

Sorry for the very late answer: hopefully you've already found a solution!
Only lately I made a repaint for FSX of a kite almost all bare alluminium, so I'm not a big expert, but I found some fundamental things:
1. the textures are better saved in dds nVidia format; but even in bmp they need to be 32 bit, that means they'll include the Alpha Channel
2. in FSX (possibly also in FS2004, I'm not sure) the Alpha Channel, made of 255 gray tones, controls the shininess of the material: the more dark the Alpha Channel, the more shiny
In fact if you want a completely mat aircraft, you can just save it as 24 bit texture (without the 8 bit alpha channel)...
So you'll need to verify if you've saved a 32 bit file that includes the Alpha Channel, and as it seems you should have a completely black Alpha (mirror like reflection); you should eventually convert or select one of the RGB channels and after editing the lightness and darkness of the parts and details, assign it to the alpha channel of the intended skin.
If you do not understand what I'm talking about, try opening one original skin, and check the Channels panel to detect the presence of an Alpha B&W channel, and observe how it is made...

Hope it helps

S!