Hunchback skinmakers

[Black_Hawk]

First when I opened the official ED Su-25T template my heart allmost stopped - 12 TEXTURES???

So, I got Photoshop 9 CS2 since I was unable to edit the textures with my Paint Shop Pro X. Then another dissapointment: I cannot save the damn textures in BMP! I'm relatively new to Photoshop so I thought some of you guys that have made some Hunchback skins to help me out on this one. And one other thing: is there any other format except .psd that accepts layers to be saved? Because I cannot open the .psd files with PSP X and PS doesn't offer .pspimage saving format.

 

Cheers!

[zaelu]

You have a template not a skin. The template has layers. When you finished editing just flatten the image (in the right side down corner you have the layer panel with a small button on the right side up corner).

 

Now you are abble to save as bitmap or whatever you want.

 

 

Alternatively after flattening the imge you can use the tool from nVidia to make the skin completely compatible with Lock On... the dds format. For this you have to make shure you switched your file to RGB from CMYK and the save as DDS.

 

If you are interested in more info about this metod of saving the file ask.

[Black_Hawk]

Ok, I am asking. :) :helpsmilie:

 

How do I do it? Because I always tend to install a file in CDDS.

 

And I know about the layers stuff since I have experience in making skins from templates but I didn't know it affects saving files in Photoshop, that's why I like Paint Shop Pro.

[zaelu]

OK.

 

First photoshop is asuming (wrong actualy) that you know everything about it so when you left the file in layers it offers you the chance to save only in his format. If you let the file in CMYK and try to save dds it will say that it has bad imput format but no clue how to fix it, etc etc.

 

So, the dds file is a bmp type of file with no quality loss like jpg but with a trick, it contains mipmaps. Mipmaps are smaller versions of the same texture that are used to "skin" the object when it gets further away from the view point. This does 2 things mainly: a) it lowers the video memory load and GPU load as the "skin" weights less bytes b) makes the object look better at distance with a smaller filtered skin than with a larger one. Something that MSFS dont do with its default terain :D . Alternatively the video card can use its power to make mipmaps and filter them anisotropicaly, trilinear or bilinear.

 

 

So:

 

1) You switch the file to RGB mode from CMYK. After you finished working an flatten.

 

 

2) You save the file as .dds

 

 

3) This shoud be the settings in the dds save dialog that apears next. You may experiment with the way the mipmaps are made. I use box filter cause I find it good enough. You hit save and ignore the warning from alpha info that is lost if you have alpha channels in the file.

 

 

4) This should your dds file look like when you open it back in Photoshop and you select to show the mipmaps. If you use a picture viewer the mipmaps may not show.

 

 

The dds plugin you may get it from here:

 

my version via "yousendit" http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=B8DCD89D025159F2

 

 

or

 

the new version directly from nvidia site http://www.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

 

 

I recomand using my older version first cause the dialog looks different in the new one. I didn't check for long time an update apparently lol.

 

You should install the plugin (copy the file) in "\Plug-Ins\Adobe Photoshop Only\File Formats" from you photoshop folder.

 

 

have fun :)