FS Texture Editor 4.1
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By Toby Vickers, 2001
This program is based upon my FS Texture Editor Pro, which over 1300 of you were interested enough to download the advert, but noboday could actually be bothered to fork out a measly 7.50 UKP in return for my hard work!! Instead you downloaded my earlier freeware version in large quantities! Here's a taste of what you missed out on. Version 4 is based on the "Pro" version but you'll find one or two things that were advertised with that version are not in this one. The gradient tool does standard transitions only, you have to provide your own stock logos, and the help feature has been simplified and there is no painting tutition - however there are LOTS of improvement over version 3:
* New layout using menus and Toolbar
* Gradienting Wizard
* Faster more bug free code
* Model File Texture Name Editor to assist with repainting without an AFX
* Ability to reuse and share stock logos (e.g. airline/airforce logos) as bitmaps
* Friendlier interface giving the ability to identify colours by number
* Popup help advice
REMEMBER - If you like this program, please vote for it in the flightsim monthly contest. If people show appreciation for my work, it will make me want to do more! Also if you have an idea for a utility or want to work with me on a utility, contact me at the email address given near the end of the file.
Requirements:
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At least 10MB free spave on Hard drive, but remember aircraft and particularly texture files use lots of space, although the 64KB format is quite efficient as it fits into an exact number of clusters.
A Pentium CPU I have run the program on an AMD 266MHZ system and a 500MHZ system with 32MB and 64MB ram respectively and found it to be fine on both. I would not recommend using this on a 486!
Windows 95 although you might find its works with the Win32S add-on for Win 3.1X.
SVGA graphics in 256 colours mode or higher. 800*600 is recommended minium resolution
Operation:
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This section is lifted from my earlier version 3 program:
The first thing to understand is tha painting an aircraft is NOT easy, and if you are 'artistically challenged' then this may not be the program for you :-( . Usually you'll find that each texture file is actually two halves, e.g. left and right sides of a fuselage, or upper and lower sides of a wing. Every aircraft has a different layout of texture files, and often has a different number. It is not always possible to paint some parts of some aircraft, e.g. engines, wheels etc. On other aircraft there are many detailed textures covering every inch of the plane. Its up to the original designer, and sadly you can't change that. ALWAYS ASK THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S PERMISSION BEFORE REPAINTING A PLANE. When you are painting an aircraft, make sure that all your textures line up, and that all apertures, e.g. doors and windows are aligned. Check you have used the same colours throught (where appropriate). Sometimes, its all too easy to use slightly different shades in the editor, which then become all too apparent in FS! If you are drawing a curve, which ends up looking rather jagged, try clicking sqaures in, in a colour that is tonally between the colurs of the curve and its background, e.g. grey between black and white. this will soften the edge of the curve, making it look less 'pixelised'.
To open a file, click open, and then find the file you are looking for and either double click it, click OK or press return. The progress bar, will show you how far its has got opening the file. (Matching colours against the FS palette and manipulating the layout of the file so it is possible to edit it). The bar will go from 0 to 100 twice. This is emant to happen. The same thing is happening (only more slowly in reverse) when you save the file. Clicking 'Copy' will place the WHOLE texture onto the clipboard so you can paste it in Paint for example. BEWARE! Not every colour available in Pait is available in FS, so whenever you introduce a new colour in Paint, be sure to use the change facility in the editor to set it to a similar FS compatible colour.
Clicking on the palette with the left button sets the foreground colour
Clicking on the palette with the right button sets the background colour
Either button may be used in all drawing facilities so you can use two colours at once.
Graphics Methods Menu:
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DRAW - colours in one pixel
LINE - clicking two points draws a line between them
CIRCLE - clicking two points draws a circle, the first point being the centre, and the second being any point on the circumference
FILL CIRCLE - same thin only solid
BOX - clicking two corners (a diagonal in effect) draws a box
FILL BOX - same as above only solid
CHANGE COLOURS - changes all points on the texture in one colour to a different colour
GRADIENTING WIZARD - starts a wizard that allows you to create effective horizontal and vertical gradients
LOAD STOCK LOGO - allows you to load any bitmap stored in the same folder as the program itself. The file can be any size. Regardless of the colour format, ensure all colours within the file are available in the FS aircraft palette
File Menu:
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REVERT - In case of disaster, reverts the texture to the last saved version
Transformations Menu:
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SWITCHES - will switch any adjacent 128*128 squares without flipping rotaing or replacing any part of the texture as a whole.
SHIFTS will replace any adjacent 128*128 sqaure of the texture with another
FLIPS - will flip either horizontally or vertically any of the four 128*128 sqaures in the texture
Help with palette, model editor and other parts of the window is available on screen while in the program
Installation:
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Unzip all files as necessary (perhaps to a temporary folder) and use Setup.exe . Follow the on screen instructions.
Limitations:
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There are perhaps some bugs still(!)
Not all nite-light colours work properly as they are (in RGB terms) the same colour as a normal colour in the palette
There are some restrictions in version 4 over the Pro version
DISCLAIMER:
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THIS PROGRAM IS COPYRIGHTED BY TOBY VICKERS 2001. YOU MAY NOT DECOMPILE IT OR OTHERWISE REVERSE-ENGINEER IT, MODIFIY IT, SELL IT, INCLUDE IT IN ANY CD OR PACKAGE, UPLOAD IT TO OTHER SITES, ANY MAY NOT CLAIM THAT IT IS YOUR OWN WORK. THIS PROGRAM IS FREEWARE AND MAY BE DISTRIBUTED AS ALONG AS THE ZIP FILE IS UNMODIFIED FROM THIS ONE. NO WARRANTY IS PROVIDED WITH THIS SOFTWARE. YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. I ACCEPT NO LIABILITY FOR ANY HARM CAUSED TO YOUR COMPUTER THAT YOU BELIEVE WAS CAUSED BY THIS PROGRAM. FINALLY, REPAINTING OF A COPYRIGHTED TEXTURE FILE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO ALTER CONSTITUTES BREACH OF COPYRIGHT/AN ACT OF PIRACY.
OK! Hope you like the program. If you have any comments about it, suggestions or would like a utility doing or perhaps would like to work with me on a utility, contact me at:
