Paintkit Manual

Aerosoft/DA CRJ
for the Microsoft Flight Simulator

(C) Stefan Hoffmann for Aerosoft/Digital Aviation, March 2021

V0.9 March 19th 2021

Table of Contents

1 What´s new in painting MSFS aircraft compared to legacy procedures................... 3

2 How it works on the Aerosoft CRJ............................................................................ 7

3 Activating your paint inside the sim......................................................................... 17

(to be continued soon here...)

Chapter 1 Page 3

What´s new in painting MSFS aircraft compared to legacy procedures

Until now as a repainter we just had a 3d model we placed our pixels onto, being it a large scale decor
that reached meters across the aircraft structure or just a tiny label with only a few centimeters in length.

The good thing about that was to have all possible items at once in our paint software, but getting smaller
in details the quality of the assets degenerated geometrically because of the few pixels we had in support
to display those tiny assets. Overcoming this issue with scaling up the livery sheet simply is also not an
option, as even to double or triple the side-pixel amount not brings a satisfying quality to those small
items but substantially drains memory and computational resources.

The graph above shows an example 8K livery created out of the Asobo MSFS A320 fuselage map;
(source: JetBlue "Mosaic" [8K] - A320Neo , https://flightsim.to/file/9764/jetblue-mosaic-8k-
a320neo). The most upper label was overtaken in 1:1 quality from the paintkit. Like you can see even
with geometrically enlarging system demands you not get the small details in satisfying quality. This label
you would see in that fashion standing 2 meters beside the aircraft. More down the curve you see the
same label in smaller resolutions. So what you get is at best a linear increase in visual quality, while you
need quadratically more system resources for each step.
Chapter 1 : What´s new in painting MSFS aircraft compared to legacy procedures Page 4

And it is not done simply with graphics memory alone here, those huge pixel amounts ( 4 million for a 2k
map, 67 million for a SINGLE 8k map) must be also processed and projected onto the aircrafts geometry
before becoming visible at the display which is also in duty of the graphics card.

The solution provided by the makers of the new MSFS is to split the model into two classes of geometry:
The first class is the classic aircraft model, containing large scale details and supporting paint like dirt,
scratches etc. in the PBR shaders model. The second class however is used for small, high quality details.
This not only means text labels, but any kind of small detail which could not be displayed in satisfactory
means by the classic painting variant.

Asobo, the actual creators of MSFS, went a very strict course even, only delivering a pure white fuselage
and doing any and all detail by the so called DECAL technique, a term we also use in the coming
description of the process.

To make the consequences of the new process better understandable, we will go over some example
images first. The image below shows the Asobo sample model of a DA-62:

Figure 1.0: The complete 3d model (Source: Asobo Studio SARL (C) 2020)
Chapter 1 : What´s new in painting MSFS aircraft compared to legacy procedures Page 5

A complete model is now a combination of two different layers:

• a model base layer with a PBR material and a texture map resolution of 2048px max per sheet
optimally (recommended by Asobo Studio SARL)

• a decal layer that contains the needed high resolution data

Both need of course a geometric basis to function. So the term “decal” can be taken literally here and
functions similarly to childhood plastic kits where you did put water decals onto the finally base painted
aircraft plastic models.

Figure 1.1: The model base layer, containing only large scale pixel information.
(Note the aliasing steps at the blue-grey border region)
(Source: Asobo Studio SARL (C) 2020)

To overcome the limited detail that the classical paint method can give us, Asobo introduced a rendered
technique that allows us to put geometrical assets just ontop the base model, without having to bother
over flickering problems during realtime rendering. The Decal sheets are rendered in a special pass, so
they keep displayed cleanly all the time ontop the base surface. This was a problem in older simulators,
that were not able to cleanly differentiate clearly between the depth positions on the assets, which did lead
often to odd display behaviour, as the rendering engine could not decide if a base model pixel or a decal
pixel would be now nearer to the observer (due finite precission in depth rendering the effect worsens if
you get distanced more from the object).

So the solution was to split a more “roughly” painted base model into two main parts and on the next
image we can see the decal part.
Chapter 1 : What´s new in painting MSFS aircraft compared to legacy procedures Page 6

Figure 1.2: The decal layer, containing information for large scale decors
(Source: Asobo Studio SARL (C) 2020)

Decals can function in two ways. You can use them for large scale decors and keep the line edges razor
sharp even at very short observation distances, but you can also use them for small scale labels with
locally high pixel resolutions:

Figure 1.3: The decal layer, containing hires pixel information for small scale decors
(Source: Asobo Studio SARL (C) 2020)
Chapter 1 : What´s new in painting MSFS aircraft compared to legacy procedures Page 7

In Figure 1.2 and even more in Figure 1.3 you can witness the underlying geometric structure in form of
the thin blue lines. Those are the edges of the actually used polygons, the decal texture is mapped on. To
avoid displaying the whole polygon, a special transparency/opacity channel is used to make only the
wished pixel visible during rendering.

Figure 1.4: A typical decal texture sheet, left side shows its albedo component,
the right side shows the opacity information with white regions to be displayed during rendering.
(Source: Asobo Studio SARL (C) 2020)

So all those sources combine finally to a very detailed, but also pretty efficient 3d model as we not waste
texture memory for regions of the fuselage which not bear small details, but which would have to be in
high resolution all over in the classical painting way. Second, we can define more freely how much detail
we want to add into the small and important things:

Figure 1.5: The final model

(Source: Asobo Studio SARL (C) 2020)
Chapter 2 Page 8

How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ...

As an attentive reader/repainter you may have asked yourself maybe already several times:
If the decals are sitting on actual geometry which I dont have direct access too, how then do I define
custom decal layouts as they can be very different even on the same airplane?

Well, that may depend upon you have access to 3D Software and the actual 3D model, the knowledge to
use the former with the latter and even some important points more. So here we reached the complicated
part of the story and lets face it: The regular repainter wont have the chance to manipulate the model at all
and it is unclear still what feature import/export plugins will bring us who may be available for free to use
3D software like Blender. The current videos on YouTube at the time of writing only tell about painting
the base fuselage with the classic texture map, which is the one of much lower resolution. Others try to
upscale the base texture to tremendous sizes like 8K coming from the delivered 2K maps. But this wont
help you too, as you waste huge amounts of texture memory space and computational resources as maps
need to be projected too in realtime, on the other side you will still fail to display small labels in readable
and so visual satisfying fashion, especially on larger aircraft.

Secondarily the task was also about including all the legacy repaints made for the former LookheedMartin
Prepar3D CRJ versions. So the mapping layout had to stay exactly the same to make it possible, to
drag&drop the old large scale decors into the new texture maps.

Figure 2.0: Comparision between Prepar3D and MSFS textures in Photoshop

(notice the removed smaller pixel asset which now are display by the decal map)
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 9

So to transfer old paints you only have to drag and drop the large scale decors which stayed also active in
the MSFS conversions of my old legacy default paints.

Figure 2.1: A special layer group holds your painted assets

(Photoshop layer-tab shown here)

To paint fully new liveries there are of course clean paint sheets available for each CRJ subversion you
can fill completely for yourself.

The next images will show you a bit more of the new asset layout the Mircosoft FlightSimulator
demands. As already told unlike before the smaller details reside on an extra map sheet / extra geometry.
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 10

Figure 2.2: Floating above the basic fuselage geometry there are now residing DECALs
which contain the local high detail assets

Figure 2.3: A close look at the appearance of decal components

inside the 3DSMAX software.
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 11

The information projected onto the decal geometry comes from a special texture sheet which is contained
in any paintkit to stay manipulable. It is important to save it with opacity information to only show the
desired pixel sections and not the full rectangular decal geometry area:

Figure 2.4: A close look at the texture sheet „ASCRJ700_EXT_DECAL_FUSE_SOLID_A.psd“,

which will contain the manipulable decal ALBEDO and OPACITY information.

So changing the color of label functions via the Albedo part, making decals visibile or invisible work via
the Opacity component which serves basicly as Alpha-Channel source.

To each livery belongs also a cockpit texture sheet that contains the registration visible to the piloting
crew of the aircraft.

Figure 2.5: A close look at the texture sheet „CRJ_VC_MAINPNL_ALBEDO.PSD“, which is

needed for any cockpit belonging to a certain livery
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 12

To get an oversight of the paintkit at all lets get a view at the CRJ700 with the special texture sheet
connected to each section:

Figure 2.6: A close look at the texture sheet „CRJ_VC_MAINPNL_ALBEDO.PSD“, which is

needed for any cockpit belonging to a certain livery

So for the fans of N-K texture sheets: Overall we get a 6K resolution for the whole fuselage here, lining
up three 2K sheets linearly behind each other. And no, this not harms the performance like the 8K sheet as
we can easly show in short calculation: An 8K sheet would consist of 4x4 2k sheets, bringing it to sixteen
2k sheets in comparision, while we use only three 2k sheets here.

As for technical reasons the fuselage has been cut into three segments, but we know that some repainters
like full fuselage sheets, so this paintkit features a single wide-aspect texture sheet which contains the
fuselage as a single piece with special transport markers. Those markers will allow you, to move the full
fuselage map to their correct positions in one of the three partial fuselage map FUSENOSE, FUSEMID
and FUSETAIL.

The single large texture sheet is named “ASCRJ700_FuselageMaster_A.PSD” and displayed on the next
page.
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 13

Figure 2.7: The file “ASCRJ700_FuselageMaster_A.PSD” contains all sections of the fuselage at
once , so you can paint without having to think about continuation of larger structures.

• So the first step would be here to draw you fuselage assets to a final state in one piece.

• After this you need to distribute the whole asset group into one of the three maps FuseNose,
FuseMid and FuseTail.

• To achieve a correct fit you will use one of the three red markers in the upper area (which you can
of course hide during active painting); the markers have a label to which map they belong

• To drag&drop the content to the right place you have your target sheet also opened in photoshop
and you select all layers you want to move in the source texture file layer-tab (via STRG on the
keyboard and clicking with the left mouse button at the desired layer slot)

• having done so all the assets are highlighted and blue and now connected to the activly left
clicked mouspointer, hold the mouse button clicked and pull all the assets to the target texture
sheet

The images on the next page will show you the correct setup of the stages again more visually.
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 14

Figure 2.8: In this state the LeftUpperCorner-Marker and the assets to move are selected and
ready for the drag&drop action

Figure 2.9: The assets after they were dragged into the
target map; the marker can be deleted afterwards
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 15

The last important texture sheet is the wing and winglet textures.

ASCRJ700_EXT_WINGSBELLY_A.PSD contains the wing and belly surface of the CRJ model. For
resource reasons the WINGSBELLY.PSD contains only a smaller and mirrored version of the winglet
area. So for pure solid color fills you would take this area. Also registrations are done in the winglet decal
texture as described later.

Figure 2.91: ASCRJ700_EXT_WINGSBELLY_A.PSD contains only large scale

decors and the winglet areas there are mirrored and thought for simple
solid fills only

For detailed painting of underwing registration numbers and winglet decors you got an extra decal map
with the name ASCRJ700_DECAL_WINGTIP_A.PSD. The following graphics shows the coverage:

Figure 2.92: ASCRJ700_DECAL_WINGTIP_A.PSD contains special highres

painting areas for registrations and winglets (inside and out)
Chapter 2 : How it works on the Aerosoft MSFS CRJ... Page 16

Below you can see a label description of the interior layout of the wingtip and registration decal.

Figure 2.93: ASCRJ700_DECAL_WINGTIP_A.PSD layout in detail

As this map has the function of a DECAL, it must be saved with active transparency (or opacity)
information.

So to conclude the description of the pure texture set which is needed to paint the CRJ product, the
following section contains a list and short function/format description of each texture:

ASCRJ700_EXT_FUSENOSE_A.PSD → save as plain 24bit RGB map

ASCRJ700_EXT_FUSEMID_A.PSD → save as plain 24bit RGB map

ASCRJ700_EXT_FUSETAIL_A.PSD → save as plain 24bit RGB map

ASCRJ700_EXT_WINGSBELLY_A.PSD → save as plain 24bit RGB map

ASCRJ700_EXT_DECAL_FUSE_SOLID_A.PSD → decal sheet, save with transparency info

ASCRJ700_DECAL_WINGTIP_A.PSD → decal sheet, save with transparency info

The formerly described steps were still without taking the simulator itself into consideration. The
following chapter shows how to administrate the addon livery correctly inside the sim platform.
Chapter 3 Page 17

Activating your paint inside the sim

There is currently worked on a streamlined pipeline to compile the raw assets directly into runnable
content by the MSFS creators and Aerosoft. This section will be updated soon...