How do I add shine to an aircraft?

[teisco]

I downloaded a plane this flat in texture and I want to shine it up a bit,,do I edit the alpha?

[MarkGilmore]

Wax on wax off
first thing that popped into my head when I saw your question
Sorry!!

yes you need to edit the alpha layer .
Download DXTBmp and open up the texture you wish to alter .
In the top right corner you will see the alpha layer , if it is white or light grey change it to a darker shade of grey .
the darker the grey the more it will shine

Mark

[CAFedm]

Beware that alpha is also used for transparency - add too much and the aircraft may start to become somewhat see-through. Another caveat being whether or not the model has been coded to use night textures (bitmaps with _l extension), if not then the aircraft will probably turn transparent at dawn/dusk. Hope it works for you.

EDIT - If you want to increase the specularity of the model (which would be a better solution), download MDLMat from Martin Wright's website http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/ - this permits permanently changing the properties of the materials used on a given object. Once again, be aware of objects using minimal materials (e.g., one or two) as the whole aircraft would then take on the properties that have been changed. When initially using this program, I inadvertently made an aircraft glow at night! (p.s. - Thanks to Mr. Wright for all of his useful programs)

[MarkGilmore]

Beware that alpha is also used for transparency - add too much and the aircraft may start to become somewhat see-through. Another caveat being whether or not the model has been coded to use night textures (bitmaps with _l extension), if not then the aircraft will probably turn transparent at dawn/dusk. Hope it works for you.

EDIT - If you want to increase the specularity of the model (which would be a better solution), download MDLMat from Martin Wright's website http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/ - this permits permanently changing the properties of the materials used on a given object. Once again, be aware of objects using minimal materials (e.g., one or two) as the whole aircraft would then take on the properties that have been changed. When initially using this program, I inadvertently made an aircraft glow at night! (p.s. - Thanks to Mr. Wright for all of his useful programs)

Good advice !!
I guess I opted against recommending MDLMat as the last time I looked it was still a beta programme
And forgetting to back up a paint is bad but , well you know where i am going

Mark

[garryrussell]

Regarding the comment about being careful as too much alpha making it transparant......well.... the parts will be set to reflection or transparency.

So alpha will make any particular part shiny or transparent but not both.

As for the original question, it might help if we know exactly what it's for and if it's FS.X as that uses a different method for shine if it is a true FS.X model

If you do darken the alpha to increase the shine then you need to darken the paint to compensate for the lightening that increasing alpha shine causes.

Garry