How to paint in PS channels

Tako_Kichi

Tako_Kichi

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Staff member
I am trying to make a PBR texture for P3D v4.5 (specifically a 'metallic' one) and wanted to paint into each of the individual red, green and blue channels for the 'metallic' texture option but it will not let me paint in the individual channels. I have made layers for each channel and shaded them appropriately and my idea was to copy and paste into each respective channel as required much like I would do for the alpha channel. I normally make up the alpha as a diffuse layer and then copy and past it into the alpha channel and then hide the diffuse layer. No matter what I try I cannot paint or copy/paste anything into any of the individual channels.

I have tried Googling for the answer and some suggestions say to try 'splitting' the channels in the channel menu options to allow painting but that command is permanently greyed out for me and not accessible.

Any suggestions? I am using Photoshop CS4 and I have tried both an 8-bit image and a 16-bit image to no avail.
 
Yes I did thanks to a tutorial that is in our library here and some helpful posts over at FSDeveloper. The guys at FSDev told me the correct search term to use (channel packing) and then I was off to the races.

I made a lengthy post about my discoveries when converting FSX textures to P3D PBR textures here: https://sim-outhouse.org/sohforums/threads/converting-fsx-textures-to-p3d-pbr-textures.163637/

I've also made a quick and dirty tutorial in Notepad for myself so that I can remember how to do it when I need to and it's already been useful as I did a bunch of British airline paints for Manfred's P3D v4+ C47 as there were none available.
 
I like what you did with the C-47. Nice to see my paint kit was helpful. I stopped all activity in 2019 so it was somewhat unfinished.

Have you looked at the Howard 500? That is my favorite aircraft of all time. I wished it was updated like Nacelles to reflect the real aircraft.
The latest version is limited to color choices too.
 
I've not tried the Howard in P3D although I did fly it quite a bit in FS2004. Is it a port-over to P3D (i.e. v1-v3) or is it a true P3D V4.5+ native version with the PBR materials set?

It would need to be v4.4+ native with the PBR materials applied in order to look it's best. The tutorial here (https://sim-outhouse.org/sohforums/resources/p3d4-4-pbr-conversion-tutorial.54/) explains how you can use MCX to export a P3D V4.4+ native model with PBR materials from a FSX source providing you have permission from the original developer of course.

I know Milton would be OK with a conversion like that so it could be an interesting project for someone. The only downside might be the gauges but if it works in P3D V3 it should work in V4.4+ but the 64 bit versions of P3D don't like the old .gau gauges.
 
Just out of pure curiosity I dropped the FSX/P3D v1.1 edition of the 500 into my P3D V4.5 sim and all the gauges were there and appeared to be working. :D

The VC backgrounds for the panels definitely need up-scaling to at least 2048 x 2048 standard and probably need the the text reworking as they are very fuzzy and hard to read but the aircraft and gauges work.

Your upgraded external textures plus a rework of the the VC textures and a conversion to PBR compatibility would make the 500 absolutely stunning again!

Hmmmmm!!!! :unsure:
 
I'm not a modeler, if I were I would work on the flaps and nacelles since the flaps move straight back not at an angle. All I can do is through the normals shown here.

I've also completely reworked the panels and rivets back in 2019. Currently unfinished.



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