• Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning old domain name stealing credentials

  • Special Server Maintenance

    Just when you think you have everything running some what better...

    You get a message from the Hosting company. Short story they need to move us to a new server. I have been working with them to plan a good date for all concerned. Here is what we have come up with as a schedule.

    1. November 4th 17:00 -5UTC shut off the forums and start backup proceedures. During this time there will be no access to the forums or the Resource Section.
    2. November 5th Continue with Backups and download same until complete.
    3. November 6th 7:00 turn over server to hosting company to move system to new server
    4. November 7th - 8th restore backups and upgrade forum software.

    If all goes well we should be back online on November 8th.

    To keep you updated we will post updates on AVSIM forums.

    Thank you for your support.

Paint query: _norm.png.dds

SpaceWeevil

SpaceWeevil

SOH-CM-2026
View attachment 88045

This is a question for all the brilliant repainters in our group - I realise I may be out of luck as far as a simple explanation goes, but anyway....

The image on the left is a _NORM.PNG.DDS from one of the Aeroplane Heaven Chipmunk liveries. The image on the right is a _NORM.PNG from their plain white texture 'repaint kit'. The _NORM.PNG looks like an old-fashioned bump map and seems to produce a different apperarance & reflection in the Sim compared with the _NORM.PNG.DDS textures; it's very obvious if, say, I swap out just one wing. Saving the PNG as a PNG.DDS makes no difference.

Is there a trick to saving these _NORM.PNG textures so they look and behave like the _NORM.PNG.DDS on the left? I'm still using paint.net, which opens the image on the left looking more like the one on the right. I may be hopelessly confused in trying to work 'old school' but I'd be grateful for any pointers.
 
That's basically what the SDK generates if you feed it with an aircraft project and let the Sim do the conversion.
Don't know if there's any option for repainters to do something similar.
 
Not at my computer now, but i think if you make the Blue channel black it will make it like the one on the left. Just going from memory at the moment.
 
Making Normal Maps

You may want to look at the following site.

NormalMap-Online (cpetry.github.io)

This can create normal maps from images. White looks suppressed into the surface and Black has height slightly above the surface. The blue you see is tied to glossiness. A lot of folks tune down the glossiness by making the background a shade of drab-green by suppressing the blue content. In military aircraft you want a little glossiness-reflections but not a lot. You have to play with it a lot to get the right effect.
 
View attachment 88061

If anyone's still interested it turns out that paint.net can save the normal.PNG files as DDS BC5 (Linear, Unsigned) which give the same effect in the Sim as normal maps generated by the SDK. They don't look quite so psychedelic but they do the job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top