Mac_Maddog88 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Lets call this Part 1 - My wishes for the future... Something I've wanted in FSX for awhile is an MD80 or PMDG-like quality. I found the Leonardo Maddog which seems to be regarded as one of the best / most well made FSX aircraft. Despite it's age, it seems like something I'd buy, and despite it's age, the textures are pretty good. With airliners in FSX, we're spoiled by choice. Such great companies bringing us amazing planes. For an aircraft such as the MD80, we have many options. CLS - Amazing looking cockpit, however systems are of beginner level Coolsky - Amazing exterior, however, flat but still functional VC Leonardo - Dated textures and model however, great flight model and realism, still very much enjoyable. Damn... One of these times, when you wish you could take the aspects of all three of these aircraft and MUSH them right together! Coolsky for the model, CLS for the interior, and Leonardo for the realism. While we cannot edit an aircraft's model, we can edit textures, be it those of the exterior or cockpit. After looking around on forums and people's debates on the best MD80 available, many as I said above regard the Leonardo as having the PMDG quality of systems without the higher resolution of textures, it's even often criticized for the textures. What would be an immediate solution? - Creating a new, higher resolution texture set that includes more of the finer details found in products today. This could easily be done with (a) dedicated artist(s), however, we run into what I see as a major roadblock. What legal issues come into releasing a brand new texture set for an aircraft's virtual cockpit and releasing it as freeware? Something makes me feel like there may be an issue here, despite being free to repaint a payware aircraft's exterior and release it as freeware. PMDG has stated that they have no plans of releasing an MD80. Coolsky has expressed desire at updating their MD80 to the quality of their DC9. Does anybody who has worked with aircraft textures, notably those of virtual cockpits have any idea how complex of a process it is to create new textures? I can imagine those who design aircraft can create high quality textures in what must be a 1/16 or less of the time it takes to create the model/ flight model/ systems. Before I tie up this essay, gotta thank you all for reading through this. Hope there's a chance somebody gets that warm excited feeling I do of this being a reality! Note that I did post a thread similar to this about a month ago, however that interest quickly died due to Raazbam's possible development of a Dash 7. My family does have access to many aircraft due to their jobs in the airline business, so I doubt finding source images of an MD80 cockpit would be too hard. Part 2 - Making textures for the aircraft.. This has been most likely the most confusing part of creating an addon for Flightsim, be it scenery or an aircraft. Now with scenery, you can find a generic plank texture, generic corrugated tin texture, etc. However, with an aircraft, no matter ho many images you take, how on Earth do you manipulate that image of an aircraft's seat fabric, circuit breakers, tiller, throttles, you name it... onto that 3D model which in this case would already be provided for you? Lets say I have a picture of the MD80's panel that all the gauges sit upon. How would you manipulate that image onto the 3D model? Is this something you'd have to draw by hand with the image you took as reference, then, paste that onto the model? Same with the floor or any other thing. Look at McPhat's replacement textures for the Coolsky DC9? How did they go about getting those cockpit textures or creating them? If there's anybody that has their feet wet in this sort of thing, please do explain - I've always wondered how developers do this. Always wished MCPhat could redo the interior of the Maddog as I have been typing about, however I don't see this happening any time soon. Again, kudos for reading through all this... I'd as always love to see your comments and ideas... Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownCityMisfit Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 The quick answer - you extract the VC textures as you would an exterior paint, edit them in Photoshop, save and replace. You cannot edit the geometry (3D mesh), so you are stuck using the original texture as a template. The elements you create can be illustrated from scratch using photoshop/illustrator, or stitched together using reference photography found online. Hell, if you have access to the aircraft, take your own digital images and use those! If you want to create a higher resolution VC texture than the one that exists already, it is possible to do so. If you have no concept of how Photoshop works, find some tutorials on Youtube. Maybe then you can wrap your head around the process behind editing textures. This will get you started. I am in the process of reskinning the VC of the A2A C172, and having tons of fun with it. Adding retro cloth, retro gauge covers, new carpet, embossed leather door panels, retro fonts to dash, etc. A2A celebrates this kind of modding, so I am not worried about ruffling any feathers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac_Maddog88 Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 I myself don't have Photoshop but have Gimp. Could I do mostly the same thing with textures in Gimp as I could in Photoshop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownCityMisfit Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Yes I believe so, although I've never used Gimp. Been an Adobe user for 20 years. Again I'd suggest some Youtube tutorials, but search for "gimp layers tutorial." That will get you started on EDITING a texture. Extracting and replacing the textures is a whole other beast, and the process will vary depending on the aircraft addon producer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan V Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Dear Out... I think the idea you are proposing is done all the time for FSX. Unlike FS2004, FSX has a separate interior model.cfg file, so replacing an interior is merely a matter of creating your own interior model with new textures and then letting users substitute in their own copy if they want to use it. No copyright infringement is involved as the original material is not republished - just your replacement interior textures. It's equivalent to any other repaint. One example is described above in BladderBoy's post. Another notable example is currently generating much excitement over in the Sim-Outhouse forum and it involves a new vintage interior being developed as freeware by the tremendously talented Jan Visser for the Douglas C-47 freeware model by Manfred Jahn. So, if you have or want to tackle such a product, I think you are pretty much free to do so. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominique Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I myself don't have Photoshop but have Gimp. Could I do mostly the same thing with textures in Gimp as I could in Photoshop? In case you don't know, you can get an old version of Photoshop for free here https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?pid=4485850&e=cs2_downloads All legit . All you do is create an Adobe account.I am an old Paintshop Pro user but I think I prefer that Photoshop C2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac_Maddog88 Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 Woah! Tons of replies, thanks for your comments. I'll definitely be getting that free version of Photoshop. Now, all I need to do is wait until i can get access to an MD80 cockpit. Just glad that i have connections for this. If anybody else here has access to one or has some good Maddog cockpit pictures, would you mind posting them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Robinson Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 ...but I think I prefer that Photoshop C2. All the airport buildings at 65S as well as the ground poly textures are done in CS2, it's a very capable program. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominique Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 its pretty powerful indeed ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac_Maddog88 Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 I'm surprised somebody hasn't made bank off of this sort of thing. I've only seen replacement textures for VCs once or twice, and those being for default planes. It seems very logical, an old plane like the Maddog is popular with many people still, textures are dated, you could easily update the cockpit like I plan to and sell it for $10 or so. Not only that addon, but other older ones that are still popular. I don't see the ethics of releasing textures for somebody else's plane as payware, but still, I'm sure people would buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.