About chrome

**Holliday** · 07-28-2003, 02:43 PM

The chrome on many of my add-on planes seemed a bit wacked. I have seen the shots others have posted and it all looks too bright. I loaded the textures for the Premier and toned down the alpha channel and it seems to do the trick. Solid black is just too much; you need a lighter shade, something in a grey works much better. So any repainters out there might want to keep this in mind. We need more painters to play with this because one persons experience tells us very little.

**Scott_Jensen** · 07-28-2003, 03:37 PM

>Solid black is just too much; you need a lighter shade, something
>in a grey works much better. So any repainters out there
>might want to keep this in mind. We need more painters to
>play with this because one persons experience tells us very
>little.

Solid black was too much in FS2002 already, generally few really experienced painters used 0,0,0 in alphas because it just overpowers everything. Generally a good metallic effect comes from an alpha channel of about 30-40 percent (in photoshop 7), maybe less, along with hand-painted metal textures under it. That tends to do the trick quite well.

Scott

**Holliday** · 07-28-2003, 04:38 PM

I was speaking in general terms (or in shades of grey if you prefer). It's a whole new ball game in FS9. Everything is going to have to be tested and tweaked. Bottom line; if the chrome is wacked, back off the alpha channel.

**Scott_Jensen** · 07-28-2003, 04:40 PM

I may have misread your original post,am I correct to assume you're saying that MS reworked the alphas so that they can be even stronger than before?

Scott

**Holliday** · 07-28-2003, 06:15 PM

From my limited experience that seems to be the case. I did the default paint scheme for the Eaglesoft Premier and the chrome trim on the engine is way too bright in FS9, but fine in FS2002. I don't know what the grey scale numbers were on the original alpha channel, but it was very dark and very close to pure black. I had to back it way off in FS9. Milage may vary.

**Fly1** · 07-28-2003, 08:48 PM

I have been working on different alpha levels for my project, Lancair Legacy, and find I am at 239/239/239 and still it appears a bit hot, but also now I am loosing the wonderful wet shine perspective you get in FS2002.

Oh well, tinker - tinker - tinker.

Cheers

Bob C.

Attached pic is just having fun, loving the turbulence and lightning effects.

**Holliday** · 07-28-2003, 08:53 PM

I haven't picked a level yet, I have just been making quick adjustments to see if that was truely the problem. I have around 125 repaints out there in flight simulator land. I don't like the idea of updating them all.