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Black Square on Manfred Jahn's Lockheed Constellation

R

Ramjett53

Charter Member
I have been having a blast flying Manfred Jahn's outstanding L-1049 Super G "Connie" in FSX. I could not find either a decent American Overseas Airways or Delta repaint for it, so I did my own. The texture bitmaps in FSX are slightly different from the FS9 version, so a straight across texture copy will not work, even though the FS9 bitmaps and the FSX bitmaps bear the same names. . However, I have an issue with my FSX repaints that is not visible in the liveries for EAL, KLM, and TWA that come with the aircraft. Please note, this issue is not visible in the FS9 version (I use both FS9 and FSX)...I don't know why?

Immediately behind the forward antenna mast on the roof...about where the astrodome would be if equipped...there is a black square on my repaints. That square is not there on the "stock" liveries I mentioned above. If their roof is white that square is white. If metal, then the square is metal colored. Mine are both black (Delta's roof is white like EALs and AOA's is metal-colored like TWA-F) and I cannot for the life of me find that "square" on the texture bitmaps.

I have looked at these bitmaps as closely as I can, comparing my textures to the textures for liveries that came with the model that do not have black squares...fins_t.bmp, fuse_t.bmp, and wings_t.bmp which appear to be the three bitmaps for the aircraft exterior. I can find no white area on the EAL texture that is not white also on my Delta texture and I cannot find any area on the TWA-F texture that is metal-colored that is not also metal-colored on mine, yet my repaints have a black square and the "factory" repaints don't. There are also four other bitmaps besides the three above and the ones for the vc, but all of these are identical in all of the textures, regardless of skin color...floor_2.bmp, propdisk.bmp (tips have different colors, but map is same in all), shade_01.bmp, and xxcal_121.bmp.

I have looked at the four models that come with the download; model.1049vc_rs, model.1049vc_rst, model.1049vc_s, and model.1049vc_st with MCX and I can see the square on all four model (r=radar nosecone, s=spinner afterbodies, and t-tiptanks), but that gives me no clue as to where the square is on the texture sheets...or maybe it would if I had a better understanding of MCX

Anyone have any ideas about where this elusive "square of color" could be hiding.

Randy
 
Ramjett53 said:
I have looked at these bitmaps as closely as I can, comparing my textures to the textures for liveries that came with the model that do not have black squares...fins_t.bmp, fuse_t.bmp, and wings_t.bmp which appear to be the three bitmaps for the aircraft exterior. I can find no white area on the EAL texture that is not white also on my Delta texture and I cannot find any area on the TWA-F texture that is metal-colored that is not also metal-colored on mine, yet my repaints have a black square and the "factory" repaints don't. There are also four other bitmaps besides the three above and the ones for the vc, but all of these are identical in all of the textures, regardless of skin color...floor_2.bmp, propdisk.bmp (tips have different colors, but map is same in all), shade_01.bmp, and xxcal_121.bmp.


Randy
Click to expand...

I think to remeber that is _dcal_01.bmp

Roland
 
@Roland,

That bitmap is used on the FS9 model, but none of the liveries that came with download and aircraft have that bitmap in them. I believe xxcal_121.bmp replaced it since both dealt with the outline of the black antiglare portion of the nosecone. On a whim, though, I changed xxcal_121.bmp to white. No difference. So I found a _dcal_01 bitmap from one of my FS9 liveries and changed it to white...again, no difference...other than the antiglare portion of the nosecone turned white with xxcal_121.bmp colored white.

@Huub,

A light effect? There's only one light on the dorsal part of the fuselage, the red beacon, and it is there and works. If it is a missing light effect how would I go about tracking it down. Light effects are controlled by the aircraft.cfg aren't they and one config parameter covers all liveries doesn't it? So why should the "default"...for lack of a better description...liveries that came with the aircraft not have the black square and the repaints I did have one. That doesn't make sense from a configuration file standpoint. Both use the same model file, by the way, model.1049vc_rst. I have not tried a different model yet...don't know why I didn't think of that earlier, but I will and report back.

Randy
 
I had (quick) look at the model and the textures and I wonder whether you have the file named "xxcal_121.bmp" in your texture folder.

For the rest I didn't notice anything which is likely to have caused this anomaly

Cheers,
Huub
 
Yes Huub is right, it's xxcal_121.bmp, representing a circular skylight (in place of the astrodome) on a background of the current top fuse color. You may have to paint it white or whatever, or use the one contained in the C-121C/R7V-2 pack. However it may also be possible that FSX doesn't like decals that close to the surface.
 
Thanks Huub and Manfred. Yes, I have xxCal_121.bmp in each texture folder. I mentioned I had changed that bitmap color to white and the black square was still there.

I doublechecked after seeing Manfred's post and found xxcal_121.bmp was still black in the Delta repaint folder. Apparently I changed the color with GIMP 2.6 and saved the new bitmap and thought I had reloaded it to DXTBMP and saved it, but didn't.

Changed it again this morning and all is good, no more black square.

Thank you all and especially to Manfred for this amazing freeware Constellation. :applause:

Randy
 
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