High Resolution Repaints

[Aztec]

G'day all. This might have been more appropriate in "The Paint Shop", but I thought it might receive a wider audience here.

After doing a recent repaint for the ESDG Citation II I discovered I couldn't quite achieve the resolution I would have liked, namely the finer stripes blurred into each other. (See here http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=48994&pagenumber= , but the picture really doesn't do the problem justice.)

I was wondering if any knew if it was possible to increase the resolution of the paint kit to make painting more accurate/detailed, and if it then needs to be reduced again for inclusion as a texture file (or otherwise does it have implications as far as the time it takes to load textures). I see people talking about high-def paint schemes (mainly for FSX) and wondering if this is what they were getting at.

I would like to do another repaint for the C550 in this scheme, but it really requires greater definition to do it justice.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Seve...76028/L/&sid=bb4d84f901c8b04347935026cab42e7d

I'm sure this information can be found elsewhere, but as a relatively novice painter it's difficult to wade through the volumes of information out there to find what you're looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Az

 

[OBIO]

The key to getting the sharpest skins possible in FS9 is to use Extended 32-but DXT888-8 format when saving the skins for use in the sim. That is the highest res format going for FS9. And make sure that Mip Maps are OFF.

Changing the resolution in Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro really hasn't given any sharper results, at least not in my experiments with using higher resolutions in the paint program.

OBIO

 

[full]

Have you tried painting them in a larger resolution like 2048x2048 then reducing then to 1024x1024, i dont know what definiton you will get but its worth a try.

 

[nazca_steve]

As far as I know, starting at 2048 and going down to 1024 will not make anything look sharper. It's a shame about 2048 textures - I was always under the impression that 2048x2048 was not supported in FS9, but was one of those nice new things about FSX. I tried doing some 2048 textures for my Canberra VC and nothing ever loaded in. Perhaps someone can confirm if this is the case, or if I just have a really slow computer!

 

[Sunny9850]

I often use 2048x2048 for the really detailed stuff.....but it does depend on the program you use if that will make a difference in the end result once you "shrink" it back to the ma useful dimension for FS9 1024x1024.

That might be the one thing where the payware spray booth applications such as PSP or Corel still have an edge over the freeware such as Gimp.

Cheers
Stefan

 

[Cazzie]

As far as I know, starting at 2048 and going down to 1024 will not make anything look sharper. It's a shame about 2048 textures - I was always under the impression that 2048x2048 was not supported in FS9, but was one of those nice new things about FSX. I tried doing some 2048 textures for my Canberra VC and nothing ever loaded in. Perhaps someone can confirm if this is the case, or if I just have a really slow computer!

Unless something in the FS9 engine is rewritten, 1024 X 1024 is the maximum pixel size texture map allowed. FSX will allow up to 4096 X 4096, ergo the very high resolution on FSX aircraft.

I generally work using 2048 X 2048 textures (except the A2A super textures, which are 4096 X 4096), because I usually do an aircraft that is also available for both FSX and FS9. For FS9, I simply resize the texture maps to 1024 X 1024. Yes, resolution in the stencil text is worse, but since I use Rastor graphics and text, they resize fine elsewhere.

Caz

 

[nazca_steve]

Good to know the score on that, Caz, and that is indeed working smart, with the high res base textures. Something I need to start doing myself...

 

[Aztec]

Thanks very much for everyones input. It looks like the current results are about as good as I'll get in FS9; I'll try saving them as 32bit and see if that helps the clarity.

 

[Mick]

That will work - as long as you don't forget to save without mips.

Mipmaps are low resolution versions of the texture files, lacking in detail because they're meant to be seen from long distances where the details wouldn't be visible anyway. It's intended to reduce the frame rate hit when the plane's some distance away (like if it's being used for AI) but trouble is, FS often brings up the low resolution mips when the plane is near enough for the lack of detail to show up as severe fuzziness. If the textures have no mipmaps, that can't happen.

32-bit textures without mips will give you all the clarity you could ever desire.

There will be a frame rate hit, but whether that's a problem depends on your computer.

BTW, another advantage of the 32-bit format is that it doesn't lose detail every time you open and close the texture file, like in DXT format. If you've been working in DXT you've seen how each time you open a texture file you get some artifacts around the little detail bits, and some of the colors don't hold, differently in some places that others. 32-bit is completely non-lossy, so you can opena nd close the files as often as you want and they won't deteriorate on you.

(256-color textures won't lose quality either, but they display at a very low resolution in the sim. The texture files can be razor sharp but will still look soft and fuzzy in the sim. And of course, you won't have very many colors and shades available either.)

 

[Trans_23]

What I have started doing lately for our VA paints is to release them in DXT3 textures with a zip file included in the aircraft folder that has the 32bit textures for exterior maps that people with computing power can use to overwrite the DXT3 files. I leave all interior stuff DXT3 to keep the overall file size down and the fact that people don't fly from the passenger or cargo areas. They are common files anyway and if someone absolutely needed them in 32 bit for some reason they could install them on their own.