A MINI-TUTORIAL ON SELECTIVE TEXTURING
Hello,
   I've been fooling with selective texturing and have come to realize there are lots of ways to screw things up -- and, of course, at least one way to do it right. I thought I'd put things together in a mini-tutorial.
   Overview: The process has 3 phases. It involves A. preparing the texture, B. selecting the portion on which it is applied, C. applying the texture and telling the computer how to display it and, last, D. preparing FS2002 for the texture. Note, if it's a single texture, then steps A-C-D still apply, with step B being a simple selection of the entire object.
   A. Preparing the texture.	 
        1. One of the GMax files you'll be using a lot is Imagetool.exe. Put it on your desktop for easy access.
	2. I use Paint Shop Pro 6 to produce the .bmp. It MUST be square AND it MUST be a power of 2 in size, i.e., 256 x 256, 512 x 512, etc. For this tutorial, let's name them Texture1, Texture2, Texture3, etc. (In general, avoid spaces like Texture 1.)
        3. Use Imagetool.exe to ensure that Texture1 has 24-bit Format (if it doesn't already have it from PSP). Save it in this format in GMax/Matlib ("materials library"). Note: GMax works with 24-bit format, FS2002 does not; hence, all the use of Imagetool.exe to come.
   B. Selecting the portion of your GMax object.
	1. Fire up GMax and open your scene. See the entire object in each viewport.
	2. If it isn't already so, change the object to Editable Mesh. (I use the Select and Move Tool to select it, then right-click to do the change.)
	3. Click on Editable Mesh in the object stack in the right-hand menu. ("Editable Mesh" turns blue.) 
	3. Click on Modify in the right-hand menu.
        4. Scroll down to the Selection array with icons for Vertex, Edge, Face, Polygon and Element. Click on Polygon. (The icon highlight turns yellow.)
        5. Move the cursor to the polygon to be textured in any viewport. (It turns into a + when it's over any polygon.) Click on the selected polygon. (The polygon's outline turns red in each Viewport.)
   C. Applying the texture and telling the computer how to display it.
        1. Click on Materials Editor (icon with Red ball, upper right). (Materials Editor screen opens.)
  	2. Click on New, and on Difuse Map.
        3. Navigate your way to GMax/Matlib and select Texture1. (It appears in the Materails Editor screen.) Name it Texture1. Close the Materials Editor.
        4. Click on Materials Navigator (icon with three balls, upper right). (Materials Editor screen opens.)
	5. Click on the Texture1 Sphere. Drag it to the selected polygon and release. (The polygon turns gray.) Close the Materials Navigator.
  	6. In the pulldown Modifiers list, click on UVW MAP, in the UVW Coordinate Modifiers. (The selected portion displays Texture1.)
        7. Click in any Viewport's unused area. (The Texture1 remains; other UVW guidelines disappear.)
	8. Repeat process A-B-C with Texture2, Texture3, etc. Each time you'll get another UVW Map in the Editable Object stack. This is fine, as once you're happy with it all, you can right-click on each and collapse it (i.e., incorporate it within the basic Editable Mesh format).     
   D. Preparing FS2002 for each texture.
	Remember that GMax uses 24-bit texture format; FS2002 doesn't. Here, we use Imagetool.exe to convert each texture and place the converted one in the plane's texture folder.
	1. Open ImageTool.exe.
	2. Click on File, Open and navigate your way to GMax/Matlib.
	3. Select Texture1 and Open it. (It appears in the ImageTool screen.)
	4. Click on Image, Format, and 32-bit. 
	5. Click on File, Save As, and navigate your way to your airplane's texture folder. Name the converted .bmp Texture1 here as well (it MUST have exactly the same name). Save it.
	6. Repeat Steps D.1-5 for each of Texture2, Texture3, etc.

	Last, Export your GMax model to FS2002. It should display the multiple textures you've selected. 
        Good luck,
	All in good fun. -- Dennis S, FSEngEd@aol.com