Creating Textures

There are many different texture formats. Please use 8-bit extended bitmap format for all normal building textures. A resolution of 256x256 pixels is good enough for nearly all cases. Many FS200x building textures have even a lower resolution. Textures with high resolutions need a lot of disc space, download time and decrease the frame rate in FlightSimulator.

The 8-bit extended bitmap format is also ideal to create trees or buildings with semi-transparent windows. Just use always the same color for the transparent areas (e.g. black). You can load the bitmap file into BMP2000 to make any color transparent. The level of transparency can be adjusted for colours between fully opaque and fully transparent. This produces a nice, semi-transparent effect for windowpanes.

The 16 bit 444-4 extended bitmap format offers more possibilities for transparency effects. The cloud textures of FS2000 are 16 bit 444-4 extended bitmaps.

The 32bit 888-8 format is even more powerful, with 16.7 million colors and 256 color alpha channel offers this format great possibilities. But be careful and don't forget the file sizes of your textures.

Note
While flying in FS200x, the graphic card stores textures in it's memory for faster access. FS200x doesn't always show the current texture file if you changed the texture while FS200x was running.

Here's a list of all different texture formats:

Type	File extension	Format	Tools
FS98 Textures	.r8/.pat/ .?af/.oav/ ...	256x256 pixels 256 colors defined by the FS98 color palette	'Convr8' from Martin Wright Please don't use this texture format for FS2000 and later versions.
8 Bit (extended) Bitmaps CFS 1, FS2000 and later versions	.bmp (sometimes also .r8)	1x1 or 2x2 or 4x4 or 8x8 or 16x16 or 32x32 or 64x64 or 128x128 or 256x256* or 512x512 or 1024x1024 pixels with any 256 colors 256 transparency levels for each color *=recommended	Any paint program to create a 8-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'BMP2000' to define transparent and semi-transparent colors. You should also use BMP2000 to create SubImages that are responsible for a smoother distance view of the texture (MipMaps).
16 bit extended (565) Bitmaps FS2000, CFS 2 and later versions	*.bmp	same as above; form 1x1 to 1024x1024. 65536 colors no transparency	Any paint program to create a 24-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'DXTBmp' to convert it into this texture format.
16 bit extended (555-1) Bitmaps CFS 2, FS2002 and later versions	*.bmp	same as above; form 1x1 to 1024x1024. 32768 colors transparency either on or off for each pixel	Any paint program to create a 24-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'DXTBmp' to convert it into this texture format.
16 bit extended (444-4) Bitmaps FS2000, CFS 2 and later versions	*.bmp	same as above; form 1x1 to 1024x1024. 4096 colors 16 transparency levels for each pixel	Any paint program to create a 24-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'DXTBmp' to convert it into this texture format and to add an alpha channel.
32 bit extended (888-8) Bitmaps FS2000, CFS 2 and later versions	*.bmp	same as above; form 1x1 to 1024x1024. about 16'777'216 colors 256 transparency levels for each pixel	Any paint program to create a 24-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'DXTBmp' to convert it into this texture format and to add an alpha channel.
DXT 1 Texture CFS 2, FS2002 and later versions			Any paint program to create a 24-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'DXTBmp' to convert it into this texture format. EOD can't read this texture format
DXT 3 Texture CFS 2, FS2002 and later versions			Any paint program to create a 24-bit Bitmap. Use Martin Wright's 'DXTBmp' to convert it into this texture format. EOD can't read this texture format
Please read Martin Wright's documentations for more information about the different texture formats. We couldn't create realistic sceneries without his great tools and good documentations. Homepage of Martin Wright

Producing photo-realistic textures involves a lot of work. A digital camera and a good graphics program can be utilized. Video cameras can also be utilized in conjunction with a video capturing card fitted to the PC. The resolution of the camera does not have to be high, since the textures in FS2000 are normally 256x256 pixels.

Further topics:
- The texture dialog box.
- Seasons and day/night adjustment
- What is SCASM?