Version History
---------------
V2 - 7 September 2002, initial release
V1 - never released
Overview
--------
Thanks for creating a nother great livery for the A310-203! Your help in
making this aircraft even more popular is greatly appreciated.
This paint kit is made available to support the re-painting of my Airbus
A310-203. It contains all texture files in Adobe Photoshop format. They
where actually never tested with Photoshop, as I created them with Jasc
Paint Shop Pro. hope they work with Photoshop as they to with PaintShop.
You require the base model download A312AIBv2.ZIP to apply the textures
correctly. Older version 1 won't work properly.
As this is my first FS aircraft, the texture mapping might appear a
little "strange" at first, mainly for the fuselage. I used non-planar
mapping for the fuselage to avoid the texture distortions (stretched
pixels) you often see on the top, bottom and nose of simply planar-
mapped aircraft. Unfortunately GMAX only allows simple straight
cylindrical maps for tube-like things, leading to stretched polygons
at the nose and aft section. To ease the painting I added a lot of
"helper" lines, mainly for horizontal cuts, into additional layers (see
below).
The individual files are multi-layered to ease the painting process. All
files include one alpha channel named "Alpha Channel 1" for reflections
(diffuse maps) or running/landing light selection (light maps). The
typical layer stack for the most-important fuselage textures are (from
bottom to top):
Paint........: Basic (white) paint as background. Normally you don't
change this layer.
Lines........: Any line-type applications that are standard for the
plane.
Livery.......: This is where the livery colors are painted, this paint
kit includes Airbus House colors livery as an example.
LiveryLines..: As the livery paint covers any possible lines drawn
below, you can add any lines you want to be seen on this
layer. Alternatively you can just promote the "Lines"
layer above the "Livery" layer and change the line colors
as appropriate.
Equipment....: Any fixed installations of the airplane.
Windows......: Painted windows, not cockpit windows.
LiveryWindows: If you don't want to change the "Windows" layer for
window adoptions for your livery, you can make the changes
here.
Doors........: Painted doors, both passenger and cargo.
LiveryDoors..: If you don't want to change the "Doors" layer for door
adoption for your livery, you can make the changes here.
Template.....: Original mapping from the 3D program, important to
exactly align parts from one map to the other.
Outline......: Initially this only contains the "outlines" of the
"Template" layer (blue). In addition there are some "red"
and "green" lines representing cuts through the model to
ease alignment of horizontal lines and the often-used
diagonal paint schemes at the aircraft's tail.
To create Flight Simulator compatible bitmap use Microsoft's "imagetool"
program. Make sure to select only the layers you want to have included
in the final texture, normally these are all except "Outline" and
"Template". I'm using "DXT3" format for the diffuse maps (_t) and
"32-bit" for the light maps (_l). 32-bit results in larger files, but
the DXT3 compression algorithm is not good for very lightly shaded parts
as the light maps.
Files
-----
The A310-203 model was compiled to make use of "diffuse maps" (textures
with reflection alpha channel, _t prefix) and "light maps" (running and
landing light effects, _l prefix). These textures are available:
all_engines........: Common engine parts, engine strut only in this re-
lease.
cf6-80a3...........: GE CF6-80A3 specific parts, e.g. cowling, thrust
reversers, fan stages.
cockpit............: Inner and outer cockpit, e.g. pilot/copilot, static
panel, outer cockpit frames.
fuselage_aft.......: Fuselage behind the straight "tube" part. First
section "cylindrical mapping" (check stretch),
second section "planar mapping".
fuselage_middle....: Middle straight "tube" part of the fuselage. wing/
fuselage intersection is covered by special texture
in "fuselage_nose".
fuselage_nose......: Fuselage in front of straight "tube" part.First
section "cylindrical" mapping (check stretch),
cockpit/nose section "spherical mapping", leads
to stretch around cockpit windows, see separate
cockpit window frames in "cockpit".
fuselage_nose_plate: Special nose section below the cockpit windows with
planar mapping to apply non-stretched logos or
names.
tail...............: Horizontal and vertical stabilizers, simple planar
mapping left/right.
wings0.............: Right wing bottom and left wing top plus flap
fairing and left wing flap textures.
wings1.............: Left wing bottom and right wing top plus right wing
flap textures
solid_materials....: Special texture patches for single-color parts,
e.g. chrome, turbine, blades, engine exhaust cone,
cockpit window glass, tire textures, wing below
slats, bare metal and cockpit interior. This eases
the size of required textures significantly.
fuselage_sections..: Helper file showing the parts of the fuselage going
to the respective fuselage textures
"fuselage_nose", "fuselage_nose_plate",
"fuselage_middle" and "fuselage_aft".
In addition I've included a TrueType font file "airbus.ttf" with the
original airbus font set + logo. I don't know the original author, but
it is available as freeware from "http://www.dafont.com/".
Repaints
--------
Repaints of this aircraft are welcome, as long as the result is released
as freeware with the same license as layed down below and proper credit
is given to the original authors.
If you plan to release a repaint of the A310-203, you have two options
to package the result:
1) Textures only (preferred)
This is the way I'm packaging repaints myself, as it leads to
significantly smaller distribution archives. After you've converted
all your texture files (_t and _l) with imagetool to .bmp files, put
them into a folder called "texture." in the main
A310-203 aircraft folder. You can find your repaint's airline code e.g.
at IATA (http://www1.iata.org/membership/airlines/airlinemembership).
Additionally you can then have to ask your
user to include a custom section for your repaint into his
"aircraft.cfg" file:
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
[fltsim.x]
title = A310-203 sim = a310-203-v1
model =
panel =
sound =
texture = kb_checklists =
kb_reference =
atc_airline = atc_flight_number =
atc_id = atc_heavy = 1
ui_manufacturer = Airbus
ui_type = A310-203
ui_variation = description = \n(C) \n(C) Harald Nehring, Frank Weiss 2002
visual_damage = 0
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
2) Full model
You have to package ALL the files of A312AIBv2.ZIP, except the
"texture.AIB" directory. Include your own texture directory and adopt
"aircraft.cfg" accordingly. Make sure to include the original
"readme_aib.txt" with your extensions.
License
-------
This paintkit is released as Freeware. Copyright Harald Nehring. As
freeware you are permitted to distribute this archive subject to the
following conditions:
- The archive must be distributed without modification to the contents
of the archive. Redistributing this archive with any files added,
removed or modified is prohibited.
- The inclusion of any individual file from this archive in another
archive without the prior permission of the author is prohibited.
This means, for example, that you may not upload an archive that uses
our visual or flight models with your own aircraft or include it in a
package containing a panel or aircraft sounds without first obtaining
the authors' permission.
- No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the
cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear
to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to
cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive.
- The authors' rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.
Copyright 2002 by Harald Nehring. All Rights Reserved.
Contact Information
-------------------
Harald Nehring, mailto:harald.nehring@web.de
