AIA 747-400GE: all textures blank

I can't get away with anything can I?

 

This one is so random and pretty annoying. One day I realized a blank 747 at ORD. After some waiting I found out it was a KLM, so I tried a number of things, including modifying the texture to see if it was corrupted. No fix.

 

I then attempted to just replace the textures with ones found online and... nope! Same issue.

 

I checked the "syntax" or the spelling of the .cfg files making sure nothing was spelled incorrectly, even copying and pasting the text after texture= directly onto the texture file, but still no success. I then hypothesized what if it was the model that was having issues?

 

I check out FRA which has lots of 747GEs and yes, it seems that all paints associated with this particular model appear to be blanked out.

 

I checked again the syntax, making sure there were no bad fltsim.# entries, but no, they're all in order.

 

I then decided to replace the model entirely with a new one online, directly from AIA, pasted all the textures back, pasted all the fltsim entries back in.....

 

 

 

Still blank!!

 

It's so annoying, it's as if the simulator has a bias towards this aircraft and that is something I cannot really change or troubleshoot. Has anybody ever had an issue where one particular ai aircraft, no matter how much you troubleshoot, blanks out all the textures for that given aircraft? I'm out of ideas right now. This would be incredibly overkill to have to reinstall the sim from scratch because of one lousy ai model.

A couple of things could be happening here:

 

This 747GE (with General Electric engines) could be an FS2004 or earlier model which can only accept .bmp format textures.

 

- or -

 

This 747GE (with General Electric engines) could be an FSX native model which can only accept .DDS format textures.

 

- or -

 

The liveries you've tried are actually for a 747 made by a different developer such as The Fruit Stand, AI Malcontent, etc.

 

- or -

 

The liveries you've tried are actually for the RR (Rolls Royce) or PW (Pratt & Whitney) version of the 747.

 

- or -

 

Any combination of the above!

 

AI traffic liveries can be an absolute minefield at times.

Edited September 3, 2022 by tiger1962

A couple of things could be happening here:

 

This 747GE (with General Electric engines) could be an FS2004 or earlier model which can only accept .bmp format textures.

 

- or -

 

This 747GE (with General Electric engines) could be an FSX native model which can only accept .DDS format textures.

 

- or -

 

The liveries you've tried are actually for a 747 made by a different developer such as The Fruit Stand, AI Malcontent, etc.

 

- or -

 

The liveries you've tried are actually for the RR (Rolls Royce) or PW (Pratt & Whitney) version of the 747.

 

- or -

 

Any combination of the above!

 

AI traffic liveries can be an absolute minefield at times.

 

Thanks for replying!

 

The baffling thing is it’s a WOAI-installed model and I haven’t touched any of those models or airlines in ages. The sim just decided it was going to discriminate against this model and make all those textures blank.

 

1. Hmm, the files are definitely BMP. I thought the initial KLM files were corrupted somehow because they were the only ones where you can see the actual textures instead of the default bmp image. But all textures are definitely affected, like Lufthansa, Qantas, etc.

 

2. It’s woai and it’s always worked up until now. I downloaded the FS9 model directly from AIAardvark and it does show up, but any textures are blank. I did check to see if it is FS9 and not accidentally a different model.

 

3. Checked, they’re AIA.

 

4. Checked, GE.

 

I also checked to make sure the textures are named properly as there is a format they must follow but to no avail.

 

I almost feel like I have to “trick” the sim into making it accept the model. I don’t know how I’d do it here, hmmmm…..

I have a lead... and a "trick".

 

I looked at an Air France AIA_744GE aircraft that is installed separately from WOAI (new textures so I just use a new model rather than inserting them into WOAI), and it appears that this time it /does/ appear just fine in the sim. It's still very bizarre that the sim ignored my previous attempt when I changed the model.

 

I also tested dumping the KLM textures into this aircraft with the AFR textures and voila, it works.

 

I have no idea why when I install a fresh new aircraft the sim ignored the textures, but when I use a technically also new aircraft (found in my backup) with existing textures, they work just fine. I checked with Lufthansa as well and they work as well.

 

99% safe to say it's the model, but then why didn't a freshly installed, perfecty working model from the manufacturer's page didn't work? And TECHNICALLY the original model I used came from a WOAI package: I just stripped all the airlines so I could use it for new textures. Why it won't work I'm still very curious about.

 

 

 

Anybody with the same problem: hopefully you have spare aircraft of the type you're having trouble with, check if those ones work. There's somethings I never understood with FS9 that had the WEIRDEST of fixes to solve when everything looked just fine.

Could it be that the model= entry name in the aircraft.cfg doesn't match the actual model name in the Model folder?

Could it be that the model= entry name in the aircraft.cfg doesn't match the actual model name in the Model folder?

 

Hmm, no, they all indicate =GE which matches what's on the name of the folder.

Hmm, no, they all indicate =GE which matches what's on the name of the folder.

 

Sorry, the name of the .mdl file INSIDE the model folder is what should be named in the aircraft.cfg file, e.g:

 

B747GE.mdl

 

model=B747GE

Sorry, the name of the .mdl file INSIDE the model folder is what should be named in the aircraft.cfg file, e.g:

 

B747GE.mdl

 

model=B747GE

 

Yup, it's accurate.

 

I think it's just one of those scenarios where that one particular file, for whatever reason, has something within that makes it corrupted somehow.

 

I once couldn't get the sound to work in one aircraft until I copied all the text in one file onto a different one with the same name, and it worked. Weird eh?

Possible theory here why this bug happened.

 

I noticed I had a UPS 747-400GE AIA model in my aircraft folder. Inside the file, I didnt' see the aircraft.# entry, but instead I saw entries for all the WOAI aircraft I have installed. Perhaps a duplicate entry in the sim caused it confusion? But I didn't think that would make textures blank....

Ahhh but that's just it! The simulator for some reason prioritized reading the entries in this UPS aircraft folder which had no textures inside! Hence /sometimes/ the aircraft appear painted because of prioritization.

 

Solution: make sure you don't have any other aircraft with entries of other aircraft repaints inside your aircraft folder.