Exporting correctly from Photoshop after painting from a master psd file

[Guest Trainx3]

So I have finally decided to try painting textures/liveries for flightsim aircraft. My question is since I have to paint in a master PSD file for the fuselage, how exactly do I export from Photoshop in such that I create the proper bmp files needed in order to make the texture/livery I have created actually usable in flightsim?

 

Also should mention that I am only able to use Photoshop on a Mac, and that sim wise, I only have FS9/FS2004 available for me to test on.

 

Below is a screenshot of what I am working in case anyone was curious, the bottom part of the screenshot is what I have been working in:

 

[PAULCRAIG]

You should save your texture as 32bit bmp & if the original texture has an alpha channel layer to control shine or in some cases transparency you can use a program called DXTbmp by Martin Wright from here to add these, you can use DXTbmp to extract the alpha channel from the original texture & save it, then load your texture add the alpha & save as either "Extended Bitmap" 32 bit 888-8 or DXT3, also when saving files with DXTbmp make sure that in the "MipMaps" section that "Include when saving" is unchecked or you will end up with blurry textures. Edited December 16, 2018 by PAULCRAIG

[Guest Trainx3]

Thanks for the info, will keep that in mind when I get to that point. However, while I understand how to do that, what I am trying to do is get from this:

 

 

To having individidual files like this, the ones that are typically found in a texture folder:

 

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by Trainx3

[PAULCRAIG]

Ok, included with the paintkit should be blank textures which represent unpainted (White) textures that are identical in layout as the originals or maybe the aircraft you are painting has a white unpainted set of textures. When you have the blank textures the first thing to do is save your complete aircraft texture (the one you painted your livery on) as a 32 bit bmp, open this file & your blank fuselage texture & copy & paste the sections from your complete aircraft texture onto your blank fuselage texture making sure that they align correctly, it's easier if you create a new transparent layer on your blank fuselage texture first, then save them as 32bit bmp & then add the aplha channel layer with DXTbmp.

 

Also the logo's & reg numbers need to be flipped for the starboard fuselage side, so do this on your complete fuselage texture, I always saved the complete painted fuselage textures as left & right side.

Edited December 16, 2018 by PAULCRAIG