Livery Textures by Joao Paz,
(for Milton Shupe's Dash7 model, mapping and GMax generated textures)
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Allow me to start by addressing some heartfelt 'Thank You!' notes!
Thank You...
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... Milton Shupe, for your wonderful and inspiring model, for your quest for perfection, for your constant kindness and, of course, for your invitation: This is my first non-repaint work and I owe you that ;-) We went through Spring and Summer, many more moons, some thunderstorms and bright days and, on top of all that I learned with this work, comes the value of mutual respect turned into admiration. Thank You!
... Henrik Korning Pedersen, for the simply awesome digital pictures you took of the real Gronlandsfly birds (these would deserve a special release on itself!); for returning to the airport for more pictures when it was needed. This is your work, too.
... Team 7, for all the warm support, input, and extra pictures! which not only prompted me to do more and better but also pumped me through downfalls and hard times.
... Chris File, for his tutorial on "Alpha Channels for FS2002 in PSP" (http://thegreatptmd.tripod.com/) that put me right on track for a very happy conversion into FS2002 formats.
... Jan Visser & Yannick Lavigne, always, for the excellence of your work. I learned my trade through your textures and with your support.
... Alaskan Winds Pilots, who beared with me (or should I say without me?!) through the past ... what? ... six months?!
... and last but by no means least, Luisa, my wife, who really knows how to transform adversity into fun and was always there for me, with enthusiasm, unbiased input and love :-) She's also a flight simmer, yep ;-) Love You!
Technical (and not so technical) Stuff
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These textures were developed with Paint Shop Pro and made extensive use of its layering capabilites... (I believe each fuse climbed well above the 50 coats of paint (layers) while wings and vertical stabiliser were on the 40 layers range. If this interests you, please refer to the Dash7 web site textures page). http://flightsimonline.com/dash7-5
99.9% of these textures were made from scratch; the other 0.1% I believe, were a couple of handles and locks that blended well into the painted stuff. All logos and lettering (and even some font styles) are 100% custom made, using in some cases original Henrik's photos as a basis for decalc.
As much as possible I tried to capture all the structural elements. For this Henrik's pictures were crucial. I don't have the slightest pretension of having put everything into place (as that would delay the release for another year or so! :-D but I tried my best ...
However there may be some issues, in particular, with the Tyrolean liveries as I could not find a set of pictures that would complete the whole of these beautiful birds... Namely on top of wings and elevators I had very scarce sources, so I tweaked the available photos until I could find how they are for real. In the Classic repaint that was impossible and so I took some 'artistic license' to finish those parts as I think they could be. I 'reversed' the paint scheme evolution and, based on the known parts, I filled in the gaps. If someone out there could help me on this, I'd be happy - as time permits!! - to issue a patch ;-)
Also, Milton made the model ready for nightlight texturing; the current textures are simple lightmaps, however. After some talk on this issue we decided to do it this way... In spite of how fancy those spot lights look on tail we were assured that these featured Dash7 don't have'em, and so you know why!
Once done in PSP, all textures were saved to Truevision Targa format with the alpha channels already in - About alpha channels, I used various tones and zones, but all felt in the grayscale range of 190 to 223 (to whomever this may interest ;-). Then those Targa images were loaded into Imagetool for the final conversions... what a great and small app!
I have created complete sets for all 3 liveries in the following formats:
*** DXT3 - The format that came with CFS2 and FS2002, with alpha channels for reflections or transparencies. This is a light set, as it cuts a bit on the quality of the regular channel paint; however, in the end, this may be the majority's selection so this is the format that accompanies the Official Dash 7 Release.
*** 8 bit / 256 colors - no alpha channel; and another very light set...
*** extended 16 bit 565 - no alpha channel; doubling the size of DXT3 (and also 8 bit) this is the set for those who'd wish to trade reflections for texture detail, while having some residual concern for frame rates ;-)
*** extended 32 bit 888-8 - This is the 'want it all!' pack! Textures with maximum detail & reflective! However you may need an above the average computer to run these...! The 11 textures that comprise the whole livery parts are about 11 MB, ... each set.
Mine, you ask?!
...hmmm... while I'm running my Pentium III 800, 384 MB RAM, with my good'ol Riva TNT2 Ultra gamer *and* fighting severe hard disk space problems I may stick with DXT3 for all parts but the wings and vertical stabilizer - in 32 bit... but hey! that's me... You may try them all :-)
Also, there are 2 textures that were kept in 8bit in all sets... last minute issues - and not being that important for the overall result - dictated this. Not a big issue, I just wanted to put it in printed letter...
To finish, I'd like to state once again that I'm very aware of things that - in time - could go better; but that's also part of the learning process and so, eventually, the time comes when you must let it go :-) Perhaps next time, who knows? Not me, for sure!!
Input will always be welcome (though sometimes I have trouble replying to all...) - but feel free to reach me at joaopaz@yahoo.com
Well ... and now, if you excuse me, I have some serious flying to catch up!!
Guess which bird I'll be flying ;-)
Joao Paz, 6th September 2002
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End of README
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