It seems that many users have been having problems with the FAIB paints and confusing FSX and FS9 textures. There were an influx of posts on this forum around the time of release of the FAIB 737 Next Generation models and now that AIG are releasing a large number of flightplans that are using the FAIB model, yet again there has been a peak in users reporting the same issues.
Firstly it is worth pointing out to those still unaware FSX textures and FS9 textures aren't compatible and therefore you cannot use FSX textures in FS9 on the FS9 model. You will get a whole load of weird results – hollow planes, lots of domes on the top of the aircraft etc. Hence if you have a problem the first step is to check that you are using FS9 textures on the FS9 base model in FS9 and the same for FSX – are you using FSX textures in FSX on the FSX base model. If not here is your problem.
Another common problem is people resizing the textures themselves. Some less reputable authors release FSX paints only or FS9 paints only. Below are the differences between the FS9 and FSX textures.
Firstly the majority of painters will cater for both FSX users and FS9 users, hence in most cases there is no need to resize, but if you really want a paint in your sim that's only available for the FSX model and you wish to scale it down, then you must understand the following explanations and differences.
It is also worth noting - Never scale FS9 textures up for use in FSX. You are increasing the texture size by 2 and as a result you will get a disgusting pixelated mess!
Size
FSX – 2048 by 2048 pixels (both the main texture and lightmap)
FS9 – 1024 by 1024 pixels (both the main texture and lightmap)
Alpha Channels – (this is the biggy)
I am no expert on the alpha channel and its uses in FS (if you so wish, there are plenty in depth explanations about exactly how to use it – some bedtime reading for you)
I will therefore only explain the uses of the alpha channel in the FAIB Next Generation base models.
FSX – Firstly the most striking difference to other models is that this alpha channel looks like a lightmap. Well that's because it partially is. The window configuration in this alpha channel should match the window configuration your/the paint. Hence if you leave a window coloured in white, when it's plugged on the paint, then the window will appear illuminated in FSX when your paint shows this window to be plugged and therefore it should be dark.
The other difference that we see in this alpha is that it is used to control the domes on the top of the fuselage.
If you would like a specific dome to show up, then you should colour in the respective box white. Any black boxes will not show up in the simulator.
You can see below that all boxes at the bottom of the alpha channel are coloured in black, hence in the sim, this repaint will have no activated domes (Note – I have scaled down the alpha channel down for its inclusion in this thread).
FS9 – The alpha channel for the FS9 paint looks vastly different to that of the FSX alpha channel. Firstly it serves no purpose as a lightmap, but only for dome activation.
I see that many people have scaled textures down from FSX and either left the FSX alpha in the paint or made the alpha completely white (removed it). The first one is completely wrong, the second is not too wrong, but as of yet I haven’t met an aircraft with every single dome activated.
The FS9 alpha contains a series of black shapes at the bottom of the plain white channel. They each represent a dome. They are in the same order as the FSX domes (see below). Colour in the area white to activate the dome, if you wish for it to stay inactivated then simply leave the area blank.
(obviously don't include the red text, that's there just to reiterate what each dome is for)
Lightmaps
FSX – We have already established that the window configuration is controlled by the alpha channel. Hence if you open up the FSX lightmap Erez has put Seeing white squares? This is correct for FSX”. However the lightmap still needs to be included. I personally use the same FSX lightmap for every paint, as I can't think of any example of when I would need to edit it. (Erez may wish me to modify this post to correct this)
FS9 – The lightmap for FS9 paints is very much a conventional l one. I don't think I need to explain how this works. Match it to your/the paint and Bob's your Uncle!
Hope this little sticky thread helps some of you out.
Thanks
Robert