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FS Repaint by Abacus Software

FS Repaint

Abacus Software

Version:? 1.18.46

 

Review by:? Gregory D. Swagler (SpectroPro)

With contributions by:? John Young (Groundsquirrel)

Date:? 05/09/04

 

System reviewed on:

Dell Dimension 4600 with 3.3 GHz processor

512 mb 400 MHz DDR Ram

128m DDR ATI Radeon 9800 pro

 

Rating:

Appearance:???????? 9

Ease of use:??????? 9

Features:?????????? 8

Built in Editor:??? 8

Documentation/Help: 8

Overall:??????????? 8.4

 

NOTE:? This review is a re-review of the program.? I did this re-review as the first one was done while looking at the program from the point of view of a Graphic Designer.? After discussions with the designer, I had to take a look at my method of review.? Points were made to me that I couldn?t argue with if I stepped back and looked at it from the viewpoint of someone that doesn?t have the high end software that I have access to or that has only the desire to re-color an aircraft.? This review is done via the eyes and knowledge of a novice or first time plane painter.? If I honestly look at the feature list and what it does?? it does exactly what it says.? I do still post some suggestions here that would even make the novice happy.? I also do still stand by my first review of the program as someone that expected more.

 

I won?t be showing screenshots here as you can download a free demo of the program that will do everything except let you use an external editor or save your repaints.? But you will quickly get the hang of what you need to do to change the paint on existing aircraft.

 

Let me start out by saying that I am very excited to be reviewing this program.? I have read other reviews about it on several flight sim sites and forums.? Everyone talks about how incredible this program is and how easy it is to use. They also discussed how they spent only an hour or so using it to come up with incredible aircraft repaints.? As I am getting into scenery design and plane painting, and having done my very first repaint totally by hand (more power to they who do it all the time) I was blown away by what I read about FS Repaint.? I also know that Abacus puts out some very nice software and upgrades.

 

The installation is very simple.? If you download the software, you simply double click the installer file and it does its thing after a few simple questions.? From there, it all goes down hill.? At least, it did for me.?

 

Having done a repaint totally by hand, and repainting probably 95% of the plane using a pencil tool a few pixels at a time, I thought that anything would be better.? Why couldn't someone come up with a program that incorporates painting and viewing the repaint in one app.? Well, they did.? And I gotta say....This program is a beginners dream come true.

 

Once this program is installed, you need to tell it where your flight sim program is located.? This will handle both fs2002 and fs2004.? I am not going to get into the prefs as they are self explanatory.? And the help system explains them all very nicely. ?You should not even start to play with the program until you familiarize yourself with the Help system.? It is very thorough and explains just about everything the program has and does very well.? The only problem I found is the Search feature of the Help system does NOT work.

 

One thing, that is a very nice feature of FS Repaint, is that you can set the program to use an external paint editor.? I highly recommend this as the default one is quite basic; however, it will do the job wonderfully for beginners and anyone that wishes to quickly and easily change the stock colors and text of a pre-designed aircraft.

 

You have all the basic tools needed to repaint an aircraft.? Paint bucket fill, selection tools, text tool, magnify, brushes, etc??

 

One very nice thing about using the built in editor, is that you see your changes AS you make them. It is one of the bright spots of the internal editor.? The BEST part of the built in editor, in my opinion, is the placement of lights and lighting effects.? I must say, this impressed me very much.? I will be using this feature a great deal in future repaints.?

 

One negative about the built in editor is the lack of layers.? This would make life so much easier but I understand that for the price of the software, that just isn?t possible.? The place you may notice this lack of layers the most is in text editing.? You can add, manipulate, edit, move, etc? the text you want.? However, once you leave that text selection to save the program and quit, or enter new text somewhere else, or just paint something else, you can NOT edit that text again.? So if you don?t like the color, font, size, placement, or anything else with it, you are out of luck.?

Added: May 6th 2004
Score:
Related Link: Abacus Software
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