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REPAINT KIT FOR THE REALAIR SIMULATIONS SIAI-MARCHETTI SF.260

Copyright 2002, RealAir Simulations

www.realairsimulations.com
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE:

If you purchased the RealAirSimulations SF.260 from www.realairsimulations.com
or other bone fide sources, you are granted a licence to use this repaint kit.

ALL graphics contained in this kit are the exclusive copyright of
RealAir Simulations © 2002 and no part of any of the textures contained
in this package, or any other files within, in part or in whole, may be copied,
re-distributed, disassembled, re-packaged or in any way be exploited for any 
purpose whatsoever, whether for commercial or non-commercial
reasons, without the express and written permission of RealAir Simulations.




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EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!

If you wish to offer free alternative textures or liveries to other
bona fide purchasers of this package you may do so ONLY with the
express and written permission of RealAir Simulations, such permission
to be sought in writing. The decision to grant permission is the sole
right of RealAir Simulations.

To request permission to release a FREE custom texture for the SF.260, please contact Sean Moloney at:

sean78@bigpond.net.au

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NOTES ON USING THIS KIT:

This kit is intended for those who are experienced at repainting aircraft for Microsoft Flight-Simulator. We will provide LIMITED assistance to those creating repaints of the SF.260 using this kit, but please don't expect us to provide step-by-step instruction on the repainting process!


SOME GOOD REPAINTING TUTORIALS:

http://www.aluminumcloud.com/skinning.htm -- Tutorial by Eric Joiner

http://www.avsim.com/hangar/flight/tutorials/ -- Tutorial by Jim Oates

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CONTENTS OF THIS KIT:

Enclosed in this kit are six layered Photoshop Files. They can be found in the "PSDs" folder. Please note, the six photoshop files are the only ones you really need to modify to create a new paintscheme for the SF.260. There are other files such as "pilot.bmp", "sf-260_prop.bmp" and "vc_glass.bmp" that do not need to be modified for a new paintscheme. That is why I have only included the six main texture files. As a final note, you don't need to modify any of the files ending in "_L.bmp" to create a new paintscheme.

The layers in each PSD file are arranged as follows:

1. "detail overlay" Layer:- panel lines, rivets, oil stains, high-lights etc. This layer should not be modified. If you want to modify this layer, you're on your own....

2. "paint goes here" layer:- This is where you will apply your custom paintscheme. You CAN however have more than one layer containing your paintscheme, the important thing is to keep the "detail layer" as the very top layer.

3. "part outlines" layer:- This layer is not needed in your final textures. It is purely intended to show you where each part's edge lies.

4. "Background" layer:- This layer contains all the textures that do not need to be modified to create a new paintscheme for the SF.260. If you want to modify this layer, you're on your own.....


ALSO NOTE: each file contains an alpha channel, used to control aircraft reflectivity in FS2002. This alpha channel should not need modifying, unless you wish to change reflectivity values. If you decide to change reflectivity values in the alpha channel, you're on your own.....

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PART LOCATIONS:

For a rundown of where each part's texture is located on the texture files, open the jpegs located in the "Part Locations" folder.

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BRIEF INSTRUCTIONS:

These instructions are intended to help the experienced Flight Simulator repainter to get the textures working properly. THEY ARE NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR THE TUTORIALS MENTIONED NEAR THE TOP OF THIS README.

Once you have created your custom paintscheme, do the following:

1. Save your completed photoshop file as a 32bit TGA file using the "save as" command in Photoshop. You MUST save this file as a 32bit file, or the aircraft reflections WILL NOT WORK!

2. Open the TGA file in Microsoft's Imagetool. 

3. Convert the 32bit file to "DXT3" format.

4. Save this DXT3 file as a BMP.

NOTE: Be absolutely sure to maintain the exact file names of the bmps or they won't show up.

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To get the files working in FS2002, you'll have to create a new "texture.*" folder in the SF.260 root directory, and then modify the "aircraft.cfg" file to make it work in FS2002. To learn how to make the necessary aircraft.cfg changes, consult the tutorials mentioned near the top of this readme.

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Lastly, for LIMITED support with creating new SF.260 paintschemes, contact me at:

sean78@bigpond.net.au

Also, feel free to contact me when you commence your repaint, as I'd love to hear from you and find out what you plan to create.

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Revisions:

23 October 2002: Error with SF-260_t2.psd detail overlay layer fixed.

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Sean Moloney, October 2002
