I use MSFS desktop and build liveries. Over the years, I’ve omitted the NORM.PNG.dds files whenever I make a livery, but just curious what they actually do. It seems they might provide 3D embossing effects for rivets or airframes?
They never re-save properly for me (Photoshop v24 w/Nvidia DDA). They first appear as grey embossed images but they always save as black with lime outlines.
Cheers.
Hello,
I have moved your post to the SDK category.
Exactly. It’s called a Normal map. Find out more on Wikipedia.
Thanks much FloSchulz. I surmise when the NORM files are not included, a livery relies of the model.cfg file. With the 787-10 in MSFS desktop, it appears the detail of rivets and airframe mesh are present and provide the same level detail with or without including the NORM files, or am I not looking close enough.
I’ve only used SDK to make thumbnails, but I’ll spend some time with the SDK Documentation page this weekend. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Moderator. I have a feeling it will help with my newest challenge – creating liveries that draw upon B787_lod0.bin, B787_lod0.gltf and B787.xml files within a model folder. I may not be able to crack that one though, but I will give it a go.
Cheers.
Yes and no. In repaints, it’s sufficient to include the files you changed and specify fallback folders in texture.cfg
Take a look at the stock 172, for example. There is a base livery including every file and the derivative ones will fall back to that very base pack. Therefore, repaints can be kept limited in file amount and total size.