Paintkits

[Mach3DS]

It's not as bad as it's being made out to be. Yes, you won't be able to just use generic PBR files. if you were using custom Alpha channels and custom Specular files for P3D/FSX (properly) in your current paints then the learning curve will be very shallow. If you were using specular files in a way that actually didn't use them correctly but thought that they were being used correctly, then you've got.some learning to do. But it's not that bad. Honestly, the quality of improvement in the work, and the satisfaction of the results are so dramatic, that it would behoove any repainters to not take the reasonable amount of time to learn a new set of skills.

Just as a comparison, if you go to the DCS forums, your think that everyone who plays also repaints...there's that many. If you setup the PBR files correctly, you can actually not.habe to really touch them for most paints. But the devs would.have to be very attentive to details about thinks like metal types. Steel vs aluminum vs polished vs clean aluminum vs oxidized aluminum, vs titanium etc etc. vs gfrp/cfrp, etc. The one exception is metal exteriors with paint, each paint job would be it's own custom PBR files because generic would.bot.work for individual paint schemes.

Any way, bottom line, satisfaction with how stuff turns out in PBR is so high that it makes the reasonable amount of time it takes to learn how to do it worth it.

 

[pilto von pilto]

The basic difference is that you're not repainting a single layer as we did a while ago, or two layers with Alphas for FSX and earlier versions of P3D; you need to work on every single material layer and that's going to be an absolute pain for most repainters.

Whether you're using Metalness (P3D) or Roughness (the PBR packages that I've worked with for years), you have to work on every single layer to get the "right" effect on a model. Most developers use packages to apply materials directly to the model, which is then exported to create the texture files as they are seen by end users.

I think we're likely to see a lot of repaints that only work on one or two layers and just try and create general fudges fir the rest, personally.

My answer to Baz would have to be that he can only release what he's comfortable releasing commercially. As long as it has a wireframe layer, it's going to have to be up to the repainter how much work they're prepared to do on what they're given.

I can see an opening here for someone to create a "FSRepaint" or Substance/Quixel style application that can read the P3Dv4 .MDL format and allow materials to be applied directly to a model, but how you'd isolate different parts of the .MDL format file I don't know, to apply materials to them.

Ian P.

Hey Ian

If you want to try a newer version of the pbr paintkit out, we've uploaded the Socata paintkit and manual ( you'll need the manual to understand why we havent put the metal maps into the paintkit ) online. Head over to the socata product page and you'll find the downloads there. Basically on the socata theres 3 different Metal maps that you can switch out on the fly ( check the youtube video for some more information about that ) and of course with some mix and match you can have variants again. But yes your thinking is about right. Simpler repaints ( reskins if you want to differentiate between the 2 methods ) will most likely be less common.

If you open up the PSD ( made in affinity but they have been tested for full compatibility - actually would be handy if someone who still used ps could tell me ) you'll see that we've got the base / wires and in the case of the socata due to the aformentioned paint patina switcher a dirt map. This is pretty much all you need on something like the socata where it is all painted. Something like the DC3/caravelle or any half and half paint/metal is going to be tougher to make a paintkit for and by proxy a repaint for.

Agree on the texture application. but the end user would still need to do the same amount of work. Eg sliding the roughness settings into the correct channel etc. I dont know.

Colokent : Agree with you fully... or perhaps this is an opportunity. Eg Devs have historically had to up their game with every new " must have thing ". This could be impetus that a lot of texture artists might be looking for to extend their enjoyment. I know I have super enjoyed learning and slowly getting to release stage an x-plane development. Maybe the extra learning/time needed might inject some more enjoyment into the hobby for some repainters ?

Of course if y'all want to know what is super annoying in the current implementation of P3d for me personally ? Masked materials selfshadowing and shadowing as a solid shadow. I'm sure the critics on certain sites are going to say "literally unplayable ! "