• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

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FSXA Problem with DXTBMP!

Try this

Everytime a .bmp is converted to a paint editor, it is re-formatted, same when you convert the paint file to a .bmp

It took me some time to figure this out...
The way around the degradation of quality is such:

The texture you are editing, rename the master copy of the texture a designation of your choice. This is to be where you do all your painting. When you are ready to test it in FSX, save this as the .bmp file (not renaming the original) Then convert that file to bmp with dxt bmp, and never save a bmp with mipmaps, that makes the texture blur terribly when you change camera zoom or angles.

If further painting is needed, do it to the master .paint texture, as converting your bmp back to an editable file will again dither the paintjob, and then thats what you'd be re-saving. It basically blurs fine detail and changes some colors.

Simply make this habbit second nature and always do this procedure when going back and fourth between painting, converting, and viewing in FS.

ABACUS' FS Repaint is a very good program, but it doesn't offer as many options (if any) for .bmp conversion as DXT BMP does, but you can see your changes on the aircraft/object in almost realtime with FS repaint so if you do a lot of painting it's a nifty program to have. It also helps alot when you are trying to do a repaint on not so user friendly textures where locations are tough to figure out.
 
If I don't have the original, master artwork from which to make changes, I load the FS9 type extended DXT3 .BMP file into DXT.bmp, then Save As 32bit Targa w/Alpha.

I then load the .tga file in Photoshop, do my desired edits, then Save As .tga again.

I load the edited .tga in DXTBMP, then Save As Extended DXT3 .BMP.

Simple, and doesn't degrade at all... :D
 
Or, if you have ten dds files that you want to convert to editable format, use convimX, also by Martin Wright, it converts them all in one go, with target formats including tga and 32-888 bmp.
 
Yep, there are many different ways to skin this cat; some are better than others though... ;)
 
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