Jim Robinson

In PS7 anyway it throws up a " File must be saved as a copy with this selection" warning and appends "copy" to the filename (i.e. "Alabeo172a_T.bmp" becomes "Alabeo172a_T copy.bmp") if you don't flatten it first. It still saves the .bmp just fine except that you have to backspace the "copy" out of the filename each time so I just started flattening them first to avoid the hassle. For screen shot editing and stuff where I use "Save for web" instead of "Save as" I never bother flattening it first. Thanks for the kind words Bean. Yeah maybe the detailed lead-in wasn't necessary, I "fluffed" it up a little :) . Jim

Here is a mini tutorial I posted in the Avsim painter's forum a couple years back. The particular thread has long since vanished for all but the most advanced users of the search function, and the images I originally posted in context with the tutorial have been reduced to hyperlinks. Since I put a moderate amount of effort into typing this up and editing the screenshots, and I still feel it may be of use to someone at some point, I'd like for it to once again see the light of day. Thanks :) ***** I notice a lot of discussion about importing and exporting alpha channels in DXTBmp. There's really no need to do this if you're using PhotoShop to edit your textures. The alpha channel can be easily edited from within PhotoShop at the same time you're working with the main RGB channels. In fact I believe it's much easier to do it this way because you have the RGB channels to use as a guide when placing an alpha fill. This allows you to place your filled areas precicely where they need to be without guesswork or fiddling. I've done up a small tutorial here that shows my method of editing alpha channels. I'm using PhotoShop 7, but I'm sure the basic procedure is the same using any graphics editor capable of working with alpha channels. This is just a simple example I've created specifically for the purpose of explanation. I'm adding an alpha fill to the aluminum underbelly of this repaint to simulate polished aluminum in the sim. These are bits and pieces of a repaint I did for the iFDG A319 using the official iFDG paintkit. __________________________________________________ Here I'm working on the right fwd part of the fuselage. So far I've copied two layers from my full-length master .psd; the base paintjob and the polished aluminum underbelly as a seperate layer. I've pasted them onto the "fuse.bmp" blank template that came in the paintkit, flipped them horizontally, and slid them into position over the template with the move tool. http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/PS_alpha-1.jpg I've added the aluminum underbelly as a seperate layer rather than merging it with the base paintwork because I'm going to use it's selection to fill the alpha channel in the appropriate area. First I must create an alpha channel because this .bmp template doesn't have one (24 bit). This is done in the "channels pallette", if you don't see the channels pallette, you must enable it in the PS "Window" menu. http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/PS_alpha-2.jpg When you create the alpha channel it will automatically be pure black so you must fill it. You can fill it with white, but in this case I'm going to use a very light gray (#F4F4F4) which will give my entire fuselage a bit of overall reflectivity. I set the foreground color to my desired shade of gray and then use "fill/foreground color" to fill the alpha channel. http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/PS_alpha-3.jpg Next I want to darken up the alpha channel in the area underlying my aluminum underbelly, to add extra reflectivity and make it look like polished aluminum in the sim. I click on the RGB channel in the channels pallette, then return to the layers pallette and click on the "underbelly" layer to select it. Now I will load it's selection from the "Select" menu. (Alternatively you can simply click the "underbelly" layer in the layers pallette while holding down the CTRL key, but do explore the "Select > Load Selection" menu because there are a lot of possibilities for loading selections that aren't available through shortcut keystrokes such as "invert" or "intersect with selection") http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/PS_alpha-4.jpg With the selection loaded I now switch back to the channels pallette and click on the alpha channel. Notice the underbelly area is still selected, all I need to do now is fill the area with a darker gray. This image shows the selected underbelly on the RGB, and the corresponding area on the alpha channel after filling it with gray: http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/PS_alpha-5.jpg Doing it this way precisely places the alpha fill directly beneath the underbelly area on the finished texture .bmp. Attempting this with an exported alpha channel would obviously require either some guesswork or pasting the exported alpha channel onto the main .psd as a new layer in order to get the fill area positioned properly. The latter is pointless in my opinion when you're already using a graphics editor capable of working with alpha channels - you have the tools, use them. Now I'll repeat the process for the right-rear, left-front, and left-rear portions of the fuselage, and save this file as a .psd. This enables me to re-open it and modify the alpha, or add an alpha fill to another part of the texture later if desired. Once I'm ready to try out the texture in the sim, I simply re-open the .psd, flatten the image, and do a "Save as", saving it as a 32 bit .bmp with the appropriate filename for the particular model I'm working with. The .psd remains completely intact for future editing if desired. Finally I open the saved .bmp in DXTBmp for a final save to make it DX compatible. Notice that you can now see the newly created alpha channel in DXTBmp's alpha preview window. No need to export or import anything. I then save it as either "Extended 32 bit 888-8" or "DXT3" and fire up the sim to see how it looks. This final save for DX compatibility is really the only reason I have DXTBmp installed. Everything else gets done in PhotoShop. I hope that clears up some of the myths associated with importing and exporting alpha channels, and sheds some light on alpha editing in PhotoShop. Jim

Hey bushp04 how have you been? You've been AWOL for a while my friend. Good to see you back. I'd buy that 206 if I were you. You get a float version and a cargo pod version in addition to the one shown above, plus the choice of wheel pants or bare wheels for all. The plane's got some balls, at 8000' you'll still be climbing at 1000 fpm. You'll like the prop sound too. Virtual cockpit is excellent, I'm not a VC flyer but I fly this one from the VC. At $30 bucks for the whole 9 yards I don't see how a person could go wrong. The only things I don't like about it are the lack of a "Both" position on the fuel selector (one wing gets heavy, switch tanks and pretty soon the other wing gets heavy), and the sluggish control response (plan on turning up your control sensitivities). Frame rate impact is less severe than Posky's new 777, and the textures are in DXT3 mode right out of the box. The Skyhawk on the other hand I probably wouldn't have bought if I had it to do over again. I didn't like the flight dynamics, but then I've been spoiled by over 200 sim hours in the RealAir Skyhawk. The Carenado Skyhawk exhibits the same sluggish control response as the 206, maybe even to a greater degree. The visual model is quite nice though so I'm currently flying a merge of the Carenado visual model, RealAir flight dynamics, and the default FSX Skyhawk panel (yes, in FS9) which I fly quite a lot. Have a good one, Jim

It's a beatiful Sunday morning here in N. Idaho, bluebird sky, and a balmy 15° F at 8:15 AM. Life is good this morning as I swill my first cup of cowboy coffee, I've got a rip-roaring fire going in the woodstove, a whole day to kill in front of the computer, the nearest human being is at least 1/4 mile away, AND I have some new payware to play with. Yes, I am rubbing all of your honey-doing noses in it :) . Last week I crawled out from under my rock and purchased the Carenado U206 Stationair II package as well as the newer 172N Skyhawk II. So far a short flight in the 206 is about all I've had time for so today's the day and I'm very much looking forward to it. http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/c206_65s00.jpg --------------------------------------- So there you have my first ever blog entry. I was checking out the forums this morning and found myself reading some user's blogs and for whatever reason decided to start my own. I already have a website that I don't maintain and have no reason to believe that this will be any different, but we'll see. Have a great day.