How to repaint the F-16 cockpit?

[JetCat]

Hi,

maybe someone can help me with repainting the F-16 cockpit. No matter what .DDS texture format I try (DXT3, DXT5, BC7 DX11+ with various compressions, BC7 with alpha channel, BC7 without alpha channel, BC7 without any compression, Gimp DDS conversion, Photoshop CS25 DDS exporting tools or compressions) - no matter what I do and try it just does not work in the F-16! I can repaint any other airplane outside and in the cockpit but it does not function in the F-16.

No matter what I try every texture looks fully normal, but will turn neon green as soon as I switch on the light on in the cockpit.

So please can someone tell me what I am doing wrong? Thank you very much.

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by JetCat

[swartbyron]

You may get some help from the guys in the user mods forms. 

[JetCat]

Hi I already managed to find out by myself what´s wrong - it was the alpha channel. Now with the knowledge of how to illuminate stuff inside the cockpit I could also fix this bug with the whole fuel quality selector (plus the NO DATA instrument plus the empty slot) fully being illuminated in green:

 

If you fly the Viper at night you will notice this bug. I have fixed it today, and made a whole new style of night lighting for the cockpit instruments:

 

I have added a few nice logos into the two cockpits:

 

Adding other details was important too, like for example this one to the right of the eject seat:

https://www.xflight.de/pe_org_par_rgc_mdstowage.htm

 

 

 

 

There is still literally every single square inch scattered with scratches and still a lot of clean-up to do, but the black stealthy cockpit is making good progress and the night light is finished.

 

 

 

[fagulha]

Love that kind of details! Keep up the awesome work.

[PLUTON]

slt impressive work I downloaded it when it came out but there was the problem of the lighting, I look forward to being able to re-download it as soon as possible thank you in advance very nice work

[Dauntless]

[JetCat]

Hi my friends,

the grey version is now almost ready, with a lot of subtle changes (mostly clean-ups and illumination bug-fixes).

I need to check some details and I upload both cockpits tomorrow evening.

Now the cockpit is perfectly cleaned from all these scratches and brown dots, very neat and tidy. Night lighting is completely overhauled (no longer is the cover and the base of the steering stick unrealistically completely glowing at night, and other details.)

 

 

[JetCat]

The two-tone grey and black cockpit version is almost finished too, and will also be uploaded tomorrow evening. It features the same night lighting bugfixes as the light grey version. Finally the two cockpits for my favorite aircraft are 99% finished......

There is one texture on the aircondition behind the ejection seat that need to get the same dark gun metal grey as the rest of the cockpit, and the cockpit canopy frame will be a bit darkened for the perfect two-tone look to match the glareshield blackness.

Before making my own repaint I have tested every single cockpit repaint for the F-16, and I have noticed that two of these repaints feature strange numbers (coordinates I assume) left of the HSI and on the right side of the canopy glass..... because these coordinates may lead to UFO crash sites or other mysterious discoveries in Area 51 Dreamland I have decided to add these numbers to my repaint.

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by JetCat

[fagulha]

Eager waiting for tomorrow

[JetCat]

Hi, here are the promised cockpits

Download:

https://www.file-upload.net/download-14844279/BlackCockpitUpload.zip.html

https://www.file-upload.net/download-14844354/GreyCockpitUpload.zip.html

One is a fully overhauled and cleaned grey version of the cockpit just as many older F-16 look like, and one is the stylish black cockpit of the

The installation consists of two steps if you want the cockpit really perfect.

 

Step 1:

Make a backup of the default folder in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\F-16C\Liveries\Cockpit_F-16C and insert the black or grey cockpit default folder in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\F-16C\Liveries\Cockpit_F-16C.

Step 2:

Look for D:\Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\F-16C\Cockpit\Textures -> F-16C-CPT-TEXTURES.zip make a backup of this zip file somewhere.

Insert and overwrite these files from the downloaded new default folder into the zip file of the DCS main cockpit textures in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\F-16C\Cockpit\Textures -> F-16C-CPT-TEXTURES.zip

f16c_cpt_seat.dds
f16c_cpt_seat_NRM.dds
f16c_cpt_seat_RoughMet.dds

f16c_cpt03.dds
f16c_cpt03_NRM.dds
f16c_cpt03_RoughMet.dds

f16c_cpt01.dds
f16c_cpt01_NRM.dds
f16c_cpt01_RoughMet.dds

f16c_cpt07.dds
f16c_cpt07_NRM.dds
f16c_cpt07_RoughMet.dds

Otherwise the normal maps and reflective maps are not recognized correctly and there are several nasty visual glitches in the cockpit like black scratches and other stuff I have cleaned up. Oh and fagulha please send me the file you want to have implemented in the cockpit so I can do that for you and re-upload.

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

[fagulha]

Awesome work. Thank you for sharing.

 

About the pic in the cockpit right panel i didn´t pick up yet the one i want  tomorrow, if you don´t mind, i will pick one and message you to see if you can add to the cockpit, and really appreciate that thanks.

When i arrive home i´m going to try your liveries  awesome!

[PLUTON]

Thank you for the hard work done, and thank you for the will and the speed so that we can download it.
it is beautiful and fun to watch.
very nice job

[Underscore]

great pit - thankyou for your work and effort

 

FYI the canopy grease pencil coordinates move around in VR so need to go for VR users....

 

also its better to install it in...

C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Liveries\Cockpit_F-16c\Default

Edited February 6, 2022 by Underscore

[fagulha]

2 hours ago, Underscore said:

great pit - thankyou for your work and effort

 

FYI the canopy grease pencil coordinates move around in VR so need to go for VR users....

 

also its better to install it in...

C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Liveries\Cockpit_F-16c\Default

 

I use OVgme to enable/disable the cockpits. Easy to use.

EDIT: "grease pencil coordinates move around in VR" i also noticed that. Already happened to me in a previous cockpit liverie that i downloaded

Edited February 6, 2022 by fagulha

[JetCat]

Hello pilots,

Here is the newest version of the "Black Pearl" a nice stealthy F-16 cockpit.

Please make a backup of the "F-16C-CPT-TEXTURES.zip" texture folder which is the default cockpit.

On my computer it is located in:

J:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\F-16C\Liveries\Cockpit_F-16C

Afterwards open F-16C-CPT-TEXTURES.zip and my download Black Pearl.zip, and copy my textures from inside the zipped Black Pearl folder into the F-16C-CPT-TEXTURES.zip zip file. Overwrite everything. Sorry it´s a little bit annoying to do this but my DCS still don´t accept custom F-16 cockpits chosen in the extras menu that´s why I have to replace the textures manually for the F-16.

Afterwards you will get this nice black cockpit from the screenshots that is flown by some real F-16, I have seen this on some YouTube videos and pictures.

Two textures with coordinates are borrowed from I think it was the Raven cockpit or another dark one, because I liked these coordinates numbers on the canopy. The whole cockpit and also the ejection seat is overhauled and way more newer and more beautyful looking with these scratches and sand-coloured dots everywhere gone. Some texture bugs of the night lighting are fixed (I think the default F-16 still has this bug that a few main panel instruments are not correctly lit, my cockpit fixes this.) Please note that these coordinates look strange when flying in 3D VR - I will upload a version without the coordinates on the canopy glass later.

Sorry the grey version takes a bit longer than expected that´s why here is only the black version for now. The main computer switches are better now, the IFF switch that was labeled as "FF" in the previous upload and a few other things are fixed now.

Good-looking new throttle and sidestick included.

The other website stated in Firefox "that the download is risky and might contain malware" yadda yadda that´s why I have chosen a new file hoster to download this black cockpit:

https://ufile.io/ti5travs

Have a great night flight over Area 51!

Please note that this was tested in my Steam version only and I don´t play or fly anything in multiplayer. This cockpit might break the multiplayer function when installing it and it might be necessary to redownload and reinstall the F-16. So try at your own risk testpilot

 

By the way I need to know if the "M" button on the bottom instrument of the middle main panel, I think this is a backup VOR or TACAN gauge, is illuminated. If yes I will illuminate this switch together with integral night lighting in the next update

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by JetCat
New black cockpit version

[Notrix]

Just replying to inform you that the latest link shows the download expired, is there a way to get it uploaded to the user files or maybe Google Drive and so on? @JetCat

[_Heater_]

20 hours ago, Notrix said:

Just replying to inform you that the latest link shows the download expired, is there a way to get it uploaded to the user files or maybe Google Drive and so on? @JetCat

Bump.

[GarrettJMorgan]

How do you go about adding the text for the canopy been trying to get that to work for the past few days to no success.