• 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:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
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    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Textures for FSX

Messages
19
Country
us-texas
Ok...I was getting pretty good with creating aircraft for FS9. Now, with the new FSX tools, I am back at square 1. How do I add textures to the models in 3ds Max and how do I convert them. Is there a tutorial or a SDK out there just for this subject?
 
Messages
58
Country
australia
The SDK comes on disk 1 of FSX Deluxe. There will be a SDK SP1 update available.... hopefully soon from FSinsider.com. The update will have documentation on materials for FSX models.
 
Messages
35
Country
us-connecticut
FSX Deluxe version comes with a SDK that contains tools for creating & texturing FSX models using 3DS MAX 7 & 8. You can find the SDK on FSX Disk 1 I believe.

After installing the SDK follow the instructions for installing the MAX plugins. That will give MAX the ability to export X files. It also allows it to use DDS texture files.

The SDK comes with a texture tool named ImageTool. Its okay & will do the job but if you use Photoshop there's a really nice plugin by NVIDIA that'll let you create DDS files directly in Photoshop. That can be found here:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

The initial version of the SDK is a little sketchy (there's an improved one in the works apparently) so after reading the SDK guides, you might want to surf these forums for clarification on some stuff. Good luck.
 
Messages
13
Country
us-illinois
Anyone know what "these required .dlls" are and where to get them if you prefer Paint Shop Pro??;)
 
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Messages
1,243
Country
canada
The Nvidia link above has another link in the text regarding using paint shop and the photshop dlls.

"If you're using Jasc Paint Shop Pro, read these simple instructions that explain how to use the DDS Authoring plug-in with. "

Ron
 
Messages
683
Country
us-california
The instructions for using the plug-in with PSP tell you to download the plug-in and "these required DLLs" which don't appear to be there. I think that's what N400QW was referring to above.

Robert
 
Messages
69
Country
newzealand
As a PSP user I too got excited about the possibility of creating DDS files with PSP using the Photoshop plugin.
Unfortunately the reference seems to be rather old and there are no .dlls around (nor are they specified). I spent some time Googling all over trying to track the "magic" solution but to no avail.

Rick Piper has suggested saving the file in DXTbmp as DXT5 DDS with mips which has worked for him in FSX.

I haven't as yet tried that.
Cheers
Mike
 
Messages
147
Country
denmark
It seems you need to get a older version of the Nvidia plug-in; the one on Nvidia's site is too recent. From Corel's knowledge base: "Paint Shop Pro supports the Adobe PhotoShop 5 plugin specification. Any plugin filter made with this specification should function fine with Paint Shop Pro products. If the plugin was made with a later PhotoShop plugin specification, then it may not function with Paint Shop Pro products."

For use with PSP9 I dowloaded version 1, 0, 0, 1 of the "dds.8bi" here: http://www.bhmotorsports.com/download/3897. I have, however, not been able to find a similar older version of the "NormalMapFilter.8bf".

One other thing, though: it may not work if you put it in a sub-folder within the plugin-folder, even if you check the "use subfolder" option within the preferecenses/file location dialogue. Put it directly into the plugin-folder.

Peter
 
Messages
69
Country
newzealand
Hi Peter
Many thanks indeed for the link. I have downloaded it, and of course became concerned regarding the description on the site about needing .dlls, and then realised that was part of the original sites description.

I use PSP7 and so created a "plugin" folder and placed the dds.8bi file in there. Fired up PSP and voila, I was able to save my .bmp file as a .dds file!

Works just fine.

I would like to recommend to you and others, the "WTV DDS file viewer" which is also on the nVidia site as a free zip file. I installed it and associated my .dds file to it. Works a treat for viewing any .dds.

Thanks again
Mike
 
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