Instructions for Paint Kit Fokker F27 “Friendship”.

 

 

General.

Only intended for use with the F27 “Friendship” package by Willem Bruijns.

The package contains Paint Shop Pro files mainly for fuselage, wings, nacelles in a layered format and also Alpha Channel bitmaps for reflections. You can add layers to include your own paint scheme and logos.

It is essential that you know how to use layers and know your way around your graphics program.

 

 

Textures in Flight Simulator.

The color depth used by FS ranges from 8,16 to 32 bit. PSP uses a 24 bit format which is not recognized by FS. Once you have completed your repaint, it should be resized to 1024x1024 pixels and saved as bitmap (xxx.bmp). You can save to your working folder.

FS uses Alpha Channels to control reflectivity or transparency of a part. If the texture name is say fuselage_t.bmp, the inserted Alpha Channel controls reflectivity. If the texture name is fuselage.bmp (no “_t”), the Alpha Channel controls transparency. The darker the more reflection, or the more transparent a part is.

 

I use a program called DXTBmp to insert an Alpha Channel into a texture and in the process convert the texture to the correct format (colour depth). The program is freeware, just google it.

DXTBmp is easy to use, so after installation:

 

First browse to the F27 folder in FS. There will be one or more folders in there called Texture.something. These folders contain the textures that are installed for the F27. Each of them contains many of the same files for the pilots, wheels etc, but also for the fuselage, wings etc. You have to create such a folder for your repaint as well. Let’s call it texture.M1. You copy the contents of an existing texture folder to your new folder. Now all we need to do is to place the texture bitmaps that we repainted  into the texture.M1 folder (thereby overwriting the existing one).

 

 

-open DXTBmp and select file -> open, browse to your bitmap in your working folder.

 now the main window shows your bitmap.

-select Alpha ->import Alpha Channel,  click Ok to continue and browse to the Alpha Channel bitmaps supplied in the package.

-uncheck the box that says Include when saving under the header MipMaps. Otherwise you end up with blurry textures in FS.

-select file -> save as -> extended bitmap and browse to the F27 / Texture.M1 folder in FS. Make sure you use the correct name for the texture and that the format is one that supports Alpha Channels (for instance DXT 3). Save your file.

 

Texture names used: fuselage_t.bmp, wing_t.bmp, nacelle_t.bmp etc (only one nacelle needs to be repainted, the other side is copied automatically).

 

 

 

How to get a repaint to show in Flight Simulator

 

You have to configure the aircraft.cfg file to include your paint job so that FS knows it’s there. You will find the aircraft.cfg in the F27 folder in FS. Open the aircraft.cfg file with Notepad.exe.  At the top of the document you should see something like this:

 

 

[fltsim.0]

title=Fokker f27 NLM

sim=f27

model=mk200

panel=

sound=

texture=nlm

kb_checklists=f.27 200 check

kb_reference=trim

atc_id=JA8768

atc_id_color=0xffffffff

atc_airline=NLM

atc_flight_number=PHFHF

ui_manufacturer=Fokker

ui_type=F27 mk100

ui_variation=Nederlandse Luchtvaart Maatschappij

visual_damage=1

description=Repaint in historical colors currently used by Aviodrome for a/c s/n 10105, officially a mk 100 aircraft. This is the oldest still flying F27, built in 1958. Now it's been placed in a flying museum in the Netherlands.

 

Your paint job needs to be added here. The shortest way is to copy/paste the section of text and edit it to your liking, the red marked text is edited in the example below:

 

 

[fltsim.1]     (1 is added for each repaint, so the next will be [fltsim.2], etc)

title=Fokker f27 Maritime M1 (description, must be a unique name)

sim=f27

model=maritime (description)

panel=

sound=

texture=m1 (name of texture folder)

kb_checklists=f.27 200 check

kb_reference=trim

atc_id=JA8768

atc_id_color=0xffffffff

atc_airline=JAC

atc_flight_number=G525 (callsign)

ui_manufacturer=Fokker

ui_type=F27 mk100 (enter the correct mark aircraft you have repainted)

ui_variation=Netherlands Airforce Maritime (description)

visual_damage=1

description=Maritime patrol version of the F27. The Netherlands airforce had two of these F27's stationed on the Dutch Antilles for years.  (description)

atc_heavy=0

 

Note:

1.model=maritime can be changed to mk100, mk200, mk400, mk400pylon or maritime. This corresponds to the model files that are included in the package.

2. The ui_type=F27 mk100 entry can be changed to:

F27 mk200, F27 mk400, F27 mk400 pylon tanks or F27 maritime depending on your choice of model. This is what appears in the aircraft model selection box in Flight Simulator.

 

Save the aircraft.cfg file, start up FS and enjoy your freshly painted F27!!!

 

 

Share your repaints!

If you have made your own repaints, you can release them as freeware texture files.

 

 

Copyright and Distribution
--------------------------
 
This paint kit is released as Freeware. Copyright Willem Bruijns.  As freeware you are permitted to distribute this archive subject to the following conditions,
 
- Repaints are to be released as texture only files.
 
- No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the
cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear
to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to
cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive.
 
- The authors' rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.
 
DISCLAIMER
 
These files are used at your own risk. They should not harm your computer in any way, but one never knows.
 
It has been tested on a wide variety of different systems with no problems encountered.
 
There is absolutely NO warranty or guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, for any problems arising from the use of these files. This includes, but is not limited to, any hardware and/or software problems. All use of these files and its related files is at the user’s own risk.
 
Copyright 2006 by Willem Bruijns. All Rights Reserved.
 
e-mail:kanogek@hotmail.com