Changing aircraft reg numbers in FSX

[Ron Hollins]

I am attempting repaints on aircraft in FSX everything is working OK with Abcus FS Repaint v2.22 and I found it was a help to also install the DXT Compression plug in if you use Adobe Photoshop CS as your editor. The DXT Compression Plug In for Adobe Photoshop allows Direct Draw Surface (DDS) texture files to be opened and saved, I found even though Abacus FSRepaint convers the DDS files for you, when you attempt to save them from Adobe Photoshop after editing, it fails to upload the changes into FSRepaint and you get a lock-up, but I find with the DDS plug in installed in Photoshop everything works without problems.
On the subject of repaints does anyone know how to change or delete the aircraft registration numbers that appear on the side of the aircraft, in FS Repaint they appear as black boxes but I cannot find the related alpha channel to change it, example I am trying to change the American registration to a British registration G-ABFF and get ATC to recognise it.

[Rod Yallop]

ATC uses the information from the aircraft CFG file to identify the a/c.

[Ron Hollins]

Thanks Rod for your speedy reply that solves the ATC ident, so I just type in the new British registeration in the config file and save but how do I clear the black type reg marks on the side of the aircraft since I don't
 want them to show as I paint my own in the texture file.
                                                        Ron Hol

[Andrew Letchford]

Ron, unless you have a .pdf with the original 'layers' in which there would have been a separate one for the reg markings, the only way I know is to 'paint' them out using the 'clone' tool or similar in photoshop and then use the text tool with an appropriate font to write in your replacement reg marks.  This creates a text layer and the image would have to be flattened before you could convert it back to a DDS format.  I hope this helps a bit.

[Ron Hollins]

Thanks Andrew   snag is it only shows in FS Repaint on the 3D view as a black box but not in any of the Texture or Alpha channels, I will take a closer look to see if I have missed it, if I find it I can delete it but at the moment I have nothing to delete which makes me think perhaps it is being generated by an aircraft config file, if you delete it from the aircraft config you don't get ATC recognizing your call sign, just thought someone other repainter may have met this problem.

see photo



Ron Hollins