Technical

[ganymedes62]

All of Dee's base models are still available at the following address:
Dee's Community Projects

[ganymedes62]

Jenks' paints are generally 1MB or so, mine for some reason are double that.

Make sure that you convert your .bmp's to DXT3 without mips, that seems to give the best overall result on most systems and settings. You can check the format of your .bmp files by simply looking at the size of your 1024x1024 files:

32-bit: 4.097 kB
DXT3 with mips: 1.366 kB
DXT3 no mips: 1.025 kB
DXT1 with mips: 683 kB
DXT1 no mips: 513 kB

Lightmap files that are 'common' to an aircraft need only to be placed in the general texture folder of FS, not in EVERY repaint folder
By making sure your repaints are the right format, you should be able to fit quite a lot of repaints in a 10 Mb zip file

[Charl]

Good thing Adrie is keeping a watch on all this!
Bear with us folks, this is info for all the repainters:
Adrie, a quick forum trawl delivered DXTBmp as the weapon of choice. Do you have a better one, perhaps with batch processing facility?
I've taken my original 4,097 kB paint image and saved it as an extended Bitmap as follows:



This produces a 1,366 kB image which looks OK in FS to me. Any problems with that?

Lightmap files that are 'common' to an aircraft need only to be placed in the general texture folder

For the HTAI models, which are those? And what folder structure do you use to reference them?

[ganymedes62]

This produces a 1,366 kB image which looks OK in FS to me. Any problems with that?

Yes, a slight problem. In some setups, using mips will most definately result in blurry textures. This can be avoided by unchecking the MipMaps 'Include when saving' option in DxtBmp It will then reduce the file size to 1.025 kB.
If you have multiple files to convert, make sure you leave DxtBmp open and use drag and drop to load new files, it's not as good as batch operating, but will save you some time

As for the lightmaps, the installer for the HTAI Cessna's will automatically have installed the lightmap files in your general texture folder (they are the HTAI_Cxxx_l.bmp files in your FS/Texture folder).
Most other aircraft though will have the xxx_l.bmp files within the texture.xxx folder. When this is a standard lightmap file (ie unaltered from the original) a single one can be placed in the FS/Texture folder and shared by all the repaints. If an aircraft uses a special lightmap, it can still be placed in the texture.xxx folder and FS will then use that one instead of the 'shared' one. (I hope that makes sense ).

[Charl]

like to be able to distinguish between my flyable craft and AI

Yup there are various utilities which can alter the air files to suit.
Happily the AI will land on your system as non-flyable, and so are invisible in the selection area.

On another note, Adrie and I have swapped a few PM's, and he gets three cheers for saving the GNZ LAP a great deal of frustration, time and hassle regarding textures and utilities. Good man, thanks Adrie

[Nunner]

Had a word with Charl today as I didn't know wether to contact him direct about any faults found with the gnzlap21 which I downloaded today. Anyway I have been experiencing all sorts of issues with repaints not showing up etc so it was timely to get this today after I finally sorted out my own issues.
From the package I noted that and I will use the Cessna Skyhawk ZK-JMY as the example. The folder is named "texture.jmy" but in the relevant aircraft.cfg file the texture line is "texture=JMY", this will not work as the texture file and the texture line have to be the same,one in upper and one in lower case will not work. This along with ZK-JSP are the only 2 textures I have tried to load so look out for this as a problem with others, also in JSP not a major but the atc id is atc_id=JMY.
I know most will be aware of this but for those who aren't its for you and of course it would be good for future packages to iron out these problems now because we only want to get better at it.
I also came across a fault with afcad for NZPN (Picton),again I have recently been working on this airfield in conjunction my Soundsair fp's. Basically it needs an exclude file to go with it and for some reason when I started fs it placed me in a paddock about 1/2 a k from where the airfield was. On my own afcad it is okay although I am having trouble getting anything to land there which may be an app issue ? (help)
Cheers
Nunner

[Charl]

Thanks for the feedback Nunner.
Quite right the ATC ID was inadvertently copied over. I've fixed it, and it will be part of the next upload (one of the reasons for doing cumulative packages)
Seems I uploaded more AFCADS than were required for this package (no Picton flights here)
But the ones where you'll find AI should be OK Again, the cumulative uploads will cure this when I get to Zone 4.
And, you backed up your AFCADS, so no worries, eh?

"texture=JMY"... one in upper and one in lower case will not work

I don't believe it matters, seems OK on my system:



Erm, well up to a point

[Charl]

Here's the lowdown from the horse's mouth about how to do the banners on HTAI Cessna's:

There are only two aircraft that have banners: the 152 and the 172. Each has a specific model that has the conditional banner. You cannot add a physical banner to any other aircraft.

As for custom banners, you will notice a texture called "banner.bmp"Â￾ in the texture folders of those specific aircraft. All you need to do is create a new texture called "banner.bmp"Â￾ and overwrite the texture in the folder you wish. I don't recall the specific dimensions of the banner.bmp, but you can use the originals as a guide. The banner.bmp texture will also need to have an alpha channel so that the banner is transparent and the text is opaque.

First, I would double check to make sure that you have the correct model version listed for the aircraft you're using (model=banner_tow).

[fltsim.XX]
title=HTAI Cessna 172 Skyhawk Banner Tow 01
sim=HTAI Cessna 172 Skyhawk
model=banner_tow
panel=
sound=
texture=01
atc_heavy=0
atc_id_enable=1
atc_id_color=0x00ffffff
atc_id=
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=
ui_manufacturer=HTAI
ui_type="Cessna 172 Skyhawk"
ui_variation="Banner Tow 01"
atc_parking_codes=
atc_parking_types=RAMP
description=HTAI Cessna 172 Skyhawk by Henry Tomkiewicz.

If that checks out I would make sure that your aircraft.cfg is setup for retractable gear. Even thought the Skyhawks obviously have fixed gear, the banner "condition"Â￾ is setup to show the banner when the center gear is up and disappear when the gear is down. You can check this behavior in your flyable version by taking off and cycling the gear. In the example below for contact point.0 (center gear), the "¦1,1,"¦ toward the end of the line are the gear retraction and extension times (1 second each in this case). If those values are set to 0 (fixed gear) then the banner will never show up in an AI aircraft.

[contact_points]
static_pitch = -1
static_cg_height = 3.7
tailwheel_lock = 0
gear_system_type = 0
max_number_of_points = 3
point.0 = 1, 4.15, 0, -3.75, 10000, 0, 0.4, 90, 0.25, 2, 0.7, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0
point.1 = 1, -1.45, -4.2, -3.87, 10000, 1, 0.5, 0, 0.3, 2, 0.7, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0
point.2 = 1, -1.45, 4.2, -3.87, 10000, 2, 0.5, 0, 0.3, 2, 0.7, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0

Hope that helps,
Henry Tomkiewicz

[Charl]

Here's the new format of the typical GNZLAP AFCAD:



On the right is the AFCAD plan, main pic is what it looks like on my system.
The format will make a GNZLAP strip readily recognizable.
This is required partly because there have been queries from users who have no AFCAD experience.
It often transpires they are not even using a GNZLAP file. This way there will be no confusion.
Notes:
All airstrips are bounded by a dirt area, high-viz so it can be found, with a grassed touchdown stripe down the middle.
Generally no lines or lights anywhere.
A small oil-treated surface points to where a/c will park (inset pic)
No flatten, exclude or other DOS switches required.
Trees masts and other autogen are not often found in the runway!

They have been produced on RBE 20m mesh + topo scenery.
This is essentailly spatially correct.
The process followed was:
Collect airstrip data
Position a/c in FS top-down view on strip co-ordinates
Open server link from MyFS GoogleEarth and check using aircraft position in Google Earth
Open AFCAD and create AFCAD file.
Save, exit FS, restart, and check for trees and other autogen issues.
Repeat as often as required.