Leen de Jager

When colors look dark and dull (downloadable instruction PDF) 0 Follow this file When colors look dark and dull I am painting aircraft-models for flightsim for many years now. To be frank ,I did not expect to find much I did not already know. Until some wheeks ago , when I started to make a repaint (Thai Royal Air Force) for the ATR 72-500 ( Aerosoft/McPhatstudios ) Not really a big deal , a white airplane with an emblem and a blue and gold cheatline. The "white" happened to be the problem. I tried,tried once again I really was going mad. Even a complete pure white texture turned out to produce a greyish kinda thing. I realised that had to come from the OBJ files. An OBJ file can be opened with a text-editor so I did. Ok I knew, a command line reading ATTR_shiny_rat 1.00 gives us a plane with a bit of gloss, ATTR_shiny_rat 10.00 gives us even more. We can fill in the value we like. There are many different ATTR commands. Among them is a special one , ATTR_diffuse_RGB 0.00 (or other values) This is the command which drove me mad. In the OBJ file for the front section of the fuselage I found this line , ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 That was the explanation of the problem ATTR_diffuse_rgb 1.00 1.00 1.00 means 100% of the color/bightness ( pure white is 255.255.255) ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 means less than 100% 0.820 is 18% less than 1.00 As 255.255.255 is white at 100% brightness and 18% of 255 is 46 , the command ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 reduces the brightness of the texture (all colors) with approx 46% Thats all , I opened all OBJ files related to the fuselageparts and changed all ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 values into ATTR_diffuse_rgb 1.00 1.00 1.00 I could also simply have inactivated all ATTR_diffuse_rgb commands by placing a # in front of them , # ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 An ATTR_diffuse_rgb 1.00 1.00 1.00 does not change a thing so we can forget about it. Now I was able to have my bird in sparkling colors. Ohh and yesssss, the default liveries , brand new and good looking too. No need to say back-up all files first , however, its very unlikely you`ll ever want them back. See the result , the front of the fuse displays the colors exactly the way they are on the texture, the rest of the fuse the suffers the ATTR_diffuse command. ( 3d modelers should not fiddle with color-values and leave that to the texture-artists ) Second screen shows the files involved, they are in the main objects folder. Its only some minutes of work. (the # will do nicely , just search for ATTR_diffuse_rbg 0.820) Look at this all I wrote above as a general explanation of what this command is about, I you are content with the ATR the way it is , do not do a thing. My bird however will aways be a dark and dull one for you then. No need to say ALL ATR72- liveries you have will benefit this operation. Enjoy, Leen de Jager When colors look dark and dull.pdf

How far can we go in adding detail to the ATR. Very far.................have a look. If you have the ATR in your sim. Just launch the model en look for the differences. ( mind this livery has an additional right front exit and therefore showing this door when looking into the cargo)

Thanks for the feedback. Now ,a few days later, I found out whats all about. The screen showed on the McPhat-Facbook shows us a version wich has never been published. In fact it was the very first livery made for the ATR (before McPhat started their activities with the bird) This first livery had various details we do not find on the McPhat-liveries. ( e.g. the emergency-exit on the cockpit and detailed propellors) On the other hand McPhat improved the textures and added many other significent details in high definition. Why I am making such a fuzz about this? Last months I have been working on a livery for the ATR. ( Royal Thay Air Force 6th Wing 60314 , with the "Valour without Arms" logo on it) ) Its my intention not to make "just another livery" , I am recreating the looks of the bird. This one will not be "dirty" and "worn-out" , it will look, lets say, a bit fresher. AND it will have the details ( I re-created myself) we see on the first initial livery in combination with the McPhat-looks (except for the dirt as said) In other words , it try to make it a "McPhat-Extra" ("Plus" if you prefer) This work is based on my own ATR72 paintkit ( based on McPhat "blanks") and re-woked normals.

The Air Nostrum livery at the McPhat site is the same as the deafult one. This one is completely different.

Hi guys. I have a simple question. Who has this livery and where did you get it? MIND this is not the default Air Nostrum. This one has more detailed propellors, striping OVER the wingfairings, emergency hatch on top of the cockpit etc. http://www.simflight...908990116_o.jpg Regards Leen de Jager

As I said before , it might be a good Idea to have a look at the 340. I am sure there are more models wich come close.(at least) Carenados planes , the Jetstream you name it.

OK what is the ATR showing us. Where comes that 15 layers varnish-look from. The gloss on the model comes from an ATTR command inside the OBJ files for the airplane exterior. The way this gloss shows on the plane depends on various factors. A very important factor is the surface the light is been reflected on. When the surface is smoorh and flat we have exactly the amount of gloss the OBJ files is making the model gloss by its ATTR command ( e.g. ATTR_shiny_rat 1.500 ) A less smooth surface gives us more gloss. Better said a surface having a smooth 3d surface and a more orange-skin look due to an orange-skin producing normal file. Thats what we see when are looking at the ATR by McPhat. The first time I saw this effect was when I saw the Caranado Beechcraft Bonanza . Simply said , creating a varnish like gloss by creating a non-smooth normal file. Adding some noise to the texture for the normal file will do the trick. ( some =very fine and very little) The more un-smooth we make the normal the fatter the gloss goes . On the ATR the varnish is very fat , its McPhat if you like. This all has some disadvantages. Most important, it makes regulation of the gloss ( by editing the alpha-layer (specular-layer) in the normal texture) on spots where we do not like to see gloss more complicated. Clear coat over everything, including the algae....is such a problem. This problem however CAN be solved , if a painter really wants to. On the screen below you see a part of the wing I removed the orange-skin-effect. On the second screen you see a part of the plane where I reduced the orange-skin-effect and I regulated the gloss. The bottom-screen shows one of the default-liveries I made for the LES Saab 340. I used exactly the same method. ( in a fine and high densety) In this case very mild applied and only visible at extreme short distance, giving the bird a very nice appearance at normal viewing distance. Just knowing the trick does not do the trick..................its all about how to execute it. Mind, the engine nacelles and the underside of the wings do not have the orange-skin-effect by default. Its not my intention to say whats nice and whats wrong. Thats for you all to decide. I just explaned what you see and where it comes from. Many developers use it , the Saab by LES has the effect too , as I stated above. Cheers Leen de Jager

Hi guys. I happen to know a bit about textures ( including McPhat-textures) and I`ll be back later today to do some explanation about it. Not saying I know all and not saying I am the only one, nevertheless I can tell some interesting things I think (hope) Cheers Leen

These days , I cannot say what McPhat is developing for X-Plane. They are working on a Fokker 50 and I expect ( just expect) it will be available in a X-Plane version too. Saying their ATR is probably looking the best at the outside...............................mhhhhhm................you should have a closer look to the Saab by LES. Flying the Saab is closer to reality than flying the ATR anyways. In other words I am in love with both planes. I would marry the Saab!!!! Leen

OK Nicola , thats good to hear. As I said before this is not special for the ATR only, We find this stupid ATTR_diffuse command in many OBJ files. There is not much logic in investing time in nice paintwork and destroy it with ATTR_diffuse_rgb afterwards.

I use WordPad (windows) or Notepad++ Open office will do the trick also

Yes , I managed to learn something last years I am painting aircraft-models for flightsim for many years now. To be frank ,I did not expect to find much I did not already know. Until some wheeks ago , when I started to make a repaint (Thai Royal Air Force) for the ATR 72-500 ( Aerosoft/McPhatstudios ) Not really a big deal , a white airplane with an emblem and a blue and gold cheatline. The "white" happened to be the problem. I tried,tried once again I really was going mad. Even a complete pure white texture turned out to produce a greyish kinda thing. I realised that had to come from the OBJ files. An OBJ file can be opened with a text-editor so I did. Ok I knew, a command line reading ATTR_shiny_rat 1.00 gives us a plane with a bit of gloss, ATTR_shiny_rat 10.00 gives us even more. We can fill in the value we like. There are many different ATTR commands. Among them is a special one , ATTR_diffuse_RGB 0.00 (or other values) This is the command which drove me mad. In the OBJ file for the front section of the fuselage I found this line , ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 That was the explanation of the problem ATTR_diffuse_rgb 1.00 1.00 1.00 means 100% of the color/bightness ( pure white is 255.255.255) ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 means less than 100% 0.820 is 18% less than 1.00 As 255.255.255 is white at 100% brightness and 18% of 255 is 46 , the command ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 reduces the brightness of the texture (all colors) with approx 46% Thats all , I opened all OBJ files related to the fuselageparts and changed all ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 values into ATTR_diffuse_rgb 1.00 1.00 1.00 I could also simply have inactivated all ATTR_diffuse_rgb commands by placing a # in front of them , # ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820 0.820 0.820 An ATTR_diffuse_rgb 1.00 1.00 1.00 does not change a thing so we can forget about it. Now I was able to have my bird in sparkling colors. Ohh and yesssss, the default liveries , brand new and good looking too. No need to say back-up all files first , however, its very unlikely you`ll ever want them back. See the result , the front of the fuse displays the colors exactly the way they are on the texture, the rest of the fuse the suffer the ATTR command. ( 3d modelers should not fiddle with color-values and leave that to the texture-artists ) Second screen shows the files involved, they are in the main objects folder. Its only some minutes of work.( the # will do nicely) just search for ATTR_diffuse_rgb 0.820. Look at this all I wrote above as a general explanation of what this command is about, I you are content with the ATR the way it is , do not do a thing. My bird however will aways be a grey one for you then. Enjoy, Leen de Jager

File Name: Finnaviation-Santa livery Saab 340A File Submitter: Leen de Jager File Submitted: 16 Dec 2013 File Category: Heavy Metal X-Plane Version(s): X-Plane 10 Livery For: Click Here For Aircraft Finnaviation-Santa livery for the Saab 340 by L.E.S ( a paint by Leen "Flybike" de Jager ) Unzip LDJ_Finnaviation-Santa.zip into a temp. folder Place the folder LDJ-Finnaviation-Santa-High-Res or LDJ-Finnaviation-Santa-Low-Res in the liveries folder of the aircraft. Enjoy! Leen de Jager http://www.flybike-paints.nl Click here to download this file

Hi Jim , you are actually looking at a paint. This is the Saab 340 by LES I just uploaded it to the X-Pilot library a few minutes ago.

And that one works perfectly Thanks Leen

That could be (probably is) the case. I like the looks of the plane and I can fly it. Most realistic planes ( like the Saab,CRJ etc) I cannot fly, there is not much of a pilot in me. I am just dabbling with the virtual brushes.

Making a repaint is almost always allowed , most developers welcome repaints ( when they are good) , its boosts the popularity (sales) of their product. Strickly spoken I just made a repaint , I white one. Then I offered it as a paintkit to work with for my friends. I stated " based on edited and composed blanks made from the original McPhattextures" Only publishing the white aircraft would be almost the same , without that little extra help. Why would they get their underwear in a bunch , my paint-help only results in more and better liveries.( I hope ) Thats all. I never asked a developer permission to make repaints. Some times they even invite me to. Cheers Leen PS You must have noticed my Royal Thai Air Force is actually really "white" It took a lot of time to discover how achieve that.

File Name: Paintkit with layered PSD files for the McPhatstudios ATR 72-500 File Submitter: Leen de Jager File Submitted: 05 Dec 2013 File Category: Plugins and Utilities Layered Paintkit for McPhatstudios ATR72-500 by Leen de Jager By Leen "Flybike" de Jager.( based on edited and composed blanks made from the original McPhattextures ) This paintkit includes a set of "neutral-normal-files". Make sure to place these normal-files in the objects -folder of your livery. These normal-files have an edited normal and /or specular layer. Their individual file-weight is much lower than the original ones , approx 7Mb instead of 16Mb Using these normals prevents the default normal-files from making the default texture visible on your paint when sunlight is striking the texture . These customised normals (V2) replace the set I made and published earlier. This paintkit is free ( for non-commercial use ONLY). When publishing a repaint based on this paintkit, credits : Paint made using ATR paintkit by Leen "Flybike" de Jager Unzip LDJ-Paint-kit ATR72-500-V2.zip to a temp folder. Have fun Leen "Flybike" de Jager http://www.flybike-paints.nl Click here to download this file

Thats strange. The first version (the boxed DVD version) works perfectly under XP 10 (all versions including the latest beta) I just updated to V1.10 this week on my rig. As I said, I was busy with the Saab and did have no reason to update it until this week. I was just curious to see what had been updated.

Have this baby in my sim for a several years now. Then the Saab 340 took most of my spare-time. Now.............. at last her is my Thai . Making my own painkit (layerfiles based on composted and edited blanks from the default liveries) first, it was quiet a job.

Thank you , I`ll give it another try. Cheers Leen

File Name: "Neutral-Normals-Set" for the Aerosoft/McPhat ATR72-500 File Submitter: Leen de Jager File Submitted: 28 Nov 2013 File Category: Heavy Metal X-Plane Version(s): X-Plane 9 & 10 Livery For: Click Here For Aircraft "Neutral-Normals-Set" for the Aerosoft/McPhat ATR 72-500 It`s not as simple as it looks. A real nice paintkit (set of "blanks") , has already been made available. I hope I`ll be able to make a layered version shortly. Vital is the fact this paintkit is missing "neutral" normal files. "Neutral " normal-files are normalfiles having a specular alpha without livery-dedicated textures. When making a livery based on this paintkit and implementing this livery in the liveries folder, this livery will use the normal-files for the default "TRIP" livery., resulting in the fact the TRIP-textures will be visible on the aircraft when sunlight strikes the texturised surface. Without a set of "neutral" normal-files its not possible to make a real high quality livery-paint for this plane without the disturbing effect of the speculars in the normals. The picture below shows the excellent livery vakigary made for us , as you can see the default "Trip" disturbs its beauty. I addition to the paintkit I made a customised set of normalfiles. Better said I made no changes to the normal-effect, I edited the specular layer wich is in them. Thanks to Martin Wright who provided me with the tools to handle these rather complicated files.( Convimx and DXTbmp ) Original normal structure and original specular-layers, with all livery-dedicated details removed. Just add this set to each repaint you make. DO NOT add this set to existing McPhat -liveries.( They all have their own normals wich should be kept in place and not be overwritten) Adding these files to liveries wich have no normals in their objects folder corrects the unwanted appearance of the default normals. These files are free to use for all repainters, Do not forget: Credits: Customised normals (speculars) by Leen "Flybike" de Jager Click here to download this file