My first FS9 repaint: Eric Cantu's 737. and still questions

[Simplex]

First of all, sorry for my delayed reply. Went to LEipzig and visited my girlfriend over the weekend.

Thanks for the quick help adlab's hint worked out as the right one

Still fiddeling with the night textures.. tried everything what you told me but all had the same effect

[adlabs6]

By the way, I downloaded a United Airlines texture for the Kittyhawk 732 at FlightSim.com, and it had the type of lights you are trying to make. The panel lights control the cabin lights on the externals. Downloading that file and seeing how it's done on that plane might be helpful.

[Simplex]

ua7372sg.zip - is this the file you spoke about?

I'm not able to tell you how this is be done.. and i don'T understand why both channels come with the landing light beams.. nor why the windows are cut out... wahhh

[Simplex]

Ok.. opened the united stuff to find out how it is saved.
It is a 512x512 DXT3 16bit bmp.

Than I set up mine.. 2 nice night texture channels with the alpha one including landing light beams.. saved as the above.. AND WAAAAAM.. all pitch black beside some odd artifacts:

[adlabs6]

Hmm, what program are you making/saving the alpha maps in?

EDIT: And I don't think those are artifacts, they are the lights for the porthole windows in the doors.

[Simplex]

You are right with the circular dots.. due to resizing the small white pixels are not visible anymore..

I am using dxtbmp's "send to editor" functions for both channels to send them to Photosop7. There are temp images open in which i copy the desired layers and save them as 16bit bmp ie. as the dxtbmp bmps default setting

[1.JaVA_Platypus]

Pffff... I worked on 737's for the KLM (royal Dtch airlines) for a year and I can tell ya, most of them are pretty dirty! Especially the undersides where runway-dirt and tire-dust hit the hull. The upper side is reasonably clean tough. And there are also some dirt streaks at the hinges of the various control surfaces. But always in the direction of flight. As I recall.

Nice paint-jobs tough.

[Simplex]

Aye! Noticed that too.

I am pretty satisfied with the overall weathering as i did not want to add too much grime and dirt (it should still be a bit representable )

MY only problem, beside the night textures, is the belly of the plane. as it is tough to place the dirt properly. On all images I've seen the lower fuselage of the 737s is REALLY dirty, so you are really right!

[1.JaVA_Platypus]

I've still got the full technical manual of the 737-800/900 here somewhere on CD-ROM Maybe I can sell it to some bearded gentleman from the middle east for alot of money.

I can't help you on skinning for FS2004. The last time I skinned for FS was in the 5.1 days.

[adlabs6]

Hey Simplex, incase it's of help, I've worked out the process for adding this alphas to lightmaps and compiled it into a short article. Here's the link for those interested:

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...ticle&artid=40