Schritt für Schritt-Tutorial Image editing with alpha channel

1. DXTBmp Texture Tool

The program DXTBmpManipulator is an image processing program for FSX. Its main purpose is to view all possible image formats, make alpha channels visible, display them and of course send the images for image processing. During installation you can choose a language, but the program is generally in English.

1.1. Why another program?

Beside a variety of different image processing programs, there are also different file extensions. Not all image processing programs can handle all possible image file extensions. For Omsi, the image formats dds and tga are specially important, as these file formats can also contain an alpha channel, or one needs a program that can create an alpha channel. Most of the times, only expensive image processing programs can process the alpha channel, but hardly any freeware programs or they need plugins.

Also when creating repaints, problems sometimes occur, because you have to pay attention to transparencies, which cannot be set correctly with free image editing programs. The DXTBmp displays these images without transparency.

Here the DXTBmp is helpful, because it provides a picture preview and then also shows all pictures, no matter if they have an alpha channel or not. The alpha channel is also shown. Once you have found an image that you want to edit, you can choose:

• Send the image to the image processing program
• Send the alphabet image to the image editor
• Repeat the image from the image editing program
• Retrieve the alpha channel from the image editing program
• Change image or alpha channel (mirror or flip)
• Creating an Alpha Channel
• Inserting an Alpha Channel
• Save the previously opened image without any changes
• To save an image with an alpha channel

These are just some of the jobs the DXTBmp can do. In the following we will mainly deal with the most important and most common functions.

1.2. Structure of the DXTBmp

1. Display area for the main image (texture)
2. Display area for the corresponding alpha channel
3. Program menu
4. Options menu for the main screen
5. Alpha channel options menu

Before you can start, you should first set the preferred image editing program so that DXTBmp can send the images to the image editing program.

First go to the tab <Prefs> and go directly down to the selection <Select Editor> of the image editing program (Paint.net, Gimp, Adobe Photoshop, etc.). Then, another window opens by following the program path to the image processing program and clicking on the file .exe (executable file).

By confirming with Open, the image editing program is saved. The most important setting has now been made.

1.3. Image Preview

Sometimes it is helpful to look at the textures first. This is because the texture names do not always match the objects or the file names are foreign.

Via the tab <File> you can reach the menu item <Browse for Images>. In the following window, set the path to the texture folder on the left. All textures in the folder will be displayed in the middle column. If one clicks again on an image file, the main image is shown as a small preview. Additionally, the size of the texture in pixels and the file form is shown in the status bar at the top. With the arrow keys up or down, one can switch through the images.

A double click on the image or on OK closes the window and the image opens in DXTBmp.

Here the main image is displayed in the main window and any alpha channel image is displayed in the upper right corner. If the main image is too large, you can click on the magnifying glass (at the bottom of the image menu) to open a window to reduce the image so that you can see the whole texture.

1.4. The picture menu.

The menu for the main picture and the alpha channel is very clear and small.

There are eight menu items in the menu for the main screen. From left to right are these:

1. Info about the program
2. Open and display new file
3. Send main screen for processing
4. Retrieve and insert main screen from editing
5. Save main image
6. Main screen flip
7. Mirror main image
8. View main picture in overview

There are only 6 menu items in the menu for the alpha channel. From left to right are these:

1. Open and insert an image as alpha channel
2. Send Alpha Channel for Editing
3. Retrieve and insert alpha channel from editing
4. Save the alpha channel as a single image
5. Create a new alpha channel
6. View alpha channel in overview

With these menu items, one or both of the images can be sent to the image processing program separately. These images are displayed in the image processing program as BMP and you can edit them as you like.

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Important! After editing, the image must be saved in the image-processing application.

To do this, click on the diskette symbol at the top (not <Save as>)

Example Paint.net

If you now retrieve the edited image from the image editing program, it will be displayed again in the same place, but in a different form.

With the tab <File> you can save the image with the same settings or save it as a new file.

If a template with a set transparency was opened before, the image will be displayed completely without transparency in the image processing program. There it can be edited and changed like any other normal image. Then the image is saved and retrieved in the program DXTBmp. When you save it again, the image is saved with the same file name, file extension and the same previous image settings. Of course, the edited image is saved in the folder where the original image was opened.

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Therefore you should always make a backup copy of it before making changes.