Wyvern

There has to be another way tho. I mean, it wouldnt seem unrealistic to sue people who do it. Just giving us textures and a lua file will not cut it for livery making. My suggestion would be: Include the ModelViewer as a function into the game. This would be a perfect use for the Encyclopedia tab. However, that would pose the question of how you can add in the functions we have in MV. Let me show you which tabs I have open when working on something, and give a general overview of the modelviewer and its important functions: Just to explain why we make such a big deal out if it. (this ended up being a bit longer than I thought) i added some color help to make it easier to understand: LiveriesToolPlugin With this tool we select the liveries we are working on. It gives us a list of all liveries, for all units in the game that have liveries in the first place. CONNECTOR_TOOL_PLUGIN With this tool we cal select the connectors on the aircraft, which is how we usally put on Fuel Tanks, to see how they look on the plane. Scene Window Here we can select the object we are viewing. If you add an Object with the Connector Tool (lets say a Fuel Tank), we can go to the Scene Tab and select it. After this, we can click on the livery in the Livery tool to change the texture we are viewing. This is where the abilities on the Mission Editor ends. Argument Viewer With this tool we can see all the arguments (aka animations and Blendshapes) We use this to extend the gear, open the canopy, move the ailerons and flaps, so we can texture in more detail. Without it, we would have to load into a mission, and then fly and maneuver in certain ways, just to see the flaps fully extended. On some planes (like the flanker for example) The arguments also change the visual shape of the pylon. While on other planes (like the F-16) it controls where or how the Bortnumbers look, aswell as the number they display. Overall, this is one of the most important tools we have, as it saves an excessive amount of time. Texture Viewer Here we can see (most) textures that are being loaded. We can use it to navigate to the folder that has the texture in it, we can view the UV layout, and we can view the texture in detail. Here it shows both the Default, but also the modified textures the livery has loaded. This tool is EXTREMELY useful, as not all textures are located where you would expect them to be (F-16 Fuel tanks are a great example with them being in Bazar, and not in the F-16 Core Mods folder) Reload Textures As you might guess, this button reloads the textures. If you would use the game to look at your changes, you would have to re-launch the game each time you make a change. Obviously, having this button is 500x times faster, which obviously is going to be better than waiting 5 minutes to start the game and load into a mission, just to see that you need to move the camo by a few pixels to make it align across different textures. Environment/Lighting This here lets us view the loaded object in different Lighting conditions. From Dusk, night, cloudy, desert, or Woodland, its a good thing to have, as this way we can get a reference how the skin will look with certain weather options and maps. Generate Lua File This button lets us generate a Lua file, that has all the texture-names and lines for the Description.lua on the aircraft/object we are viewing. Other Notable Tools: FOV tool: Lets us zoom into the aircraft to view areas with more focus Free Camera movement: We can rotate and move the model to get better lighting angles and such, which is very important and irreplacable for making camos, especially when they have smooth, gradients as edges. F1-F12 keys: They let us view the textures in different overlays, those being the following: F1 Regular Lighting F2 Wireframe F3 Base Color (with no lighting, just shows the diffuse textures how they are with no reflections) F4 Normal map (shows the normal maps in a special color view, that helps to see the effect of the normals) F5 Roughness (shows the Green Color Channel of the RoughMets in greyscale, this controls how Rough (matte) or smooth (shiny) the surface is) F6 Metallic (shows the Blue Color Channel fo the RoughMets in greyscale, this controls wether a surface is Metal or not) F7 Emissive (shows areas that emit light (Formation lights, F-15E Afterburner Cans, etc) F8 Material Errors (honestly, i still have no actual understanding what this does specifically) F9 Ambient Occlusion (shows the Red Color Channel of the RoughMets in greyscale, this shows where a surface has a shadow (in simple terms)) F10 Cavity Maps (shows the Alpha/transparency Channel of the RoughMets in greyscale, this adds some extra shade for seams and screws) F11 Combined View (shows all the previous views, has been broken for a few years now) F12 Cockpit Global Illumination (not sure if im correct, but it shows how and where exactly shadows are being applied on the model Shift+F11 Diffuse Light (technically shows how much light is being applied on each area of the model, can be used to see the normal maps better than F4 view) This is a basic overview of the tools we have in Model Viewer, and as you see, most tools we NEED to make skins, are only avialable in the ModelViewer Sorry for the giant message, but i feel like ED/the community mods dont fully realize the importance of the tool, and why we need what we are asking for. I hope this helps with understanding, have a nice day!

Then how about ED settles with Razbam and actually uses their legal team to actually sue said individuals instead.

then how about this: How about YOU try and make a livery with a public build of DCS, and then we will see how far you will get. We can NOT make skins when everything is hidden. Again. its great that we have a livery template. (the template itself is great and well made) But its literally useless, since we dont have the ability to make anything with it. We dont have a lua we can use as reference, we dont have the modelviewer to actually track our progress without having to boot up the game for 10 minutes each time, we dont have textures for misc stuff so we can add in the detail we simply add in. And honestly? Im fairly certain that most people here know that the models can be ripped regardless. Afaik there are tools that let you rip the models from the game directly. (dont quote me on that, i have not looked into that as i cant do anything with 3d anyway)

This will likely not be added since it is an Flaming Cliffs aircraft.

Not if they do the same questionable encryption stuff they did with the F-5E

The problem is that there is nothing being said about the modelviewer by ED. It wouldnt surprise me if they ran the competition, without actually modifying the Modelviewer to use EDCE files.

Of course ED has the right to protect their assets. However the question is, at what point will it start taking away the communities ability to create content for DCS. Just to put it into perspective, there is a total of 23046 files uploaded to the user files as of this moment. 13172 out of those are skins, although some uploads will have multiple skins in them, so its probably closer to 15.000 skins. It probably is fair to say that encrypting the models without giving us a tool to actually make skins is going to slowly kill off that part of the community. Especially if future models are going to be treated the same way.

The issue is that the modelviewer problem already existed when the new B-52, B-1B, and S-3 came out. There has been 3d model theft in the past. There is websites where you can casually buy DCS models, that have been accquired illegally. Almost every game has that problem, and now ED tries to counter it, while also taking away the communities ability to actually make high quality liveries.

What is the point of a template if you cant load EDCE files into the model viewer to view the model while making a skin. Because without it, you have to launch the game, load into mission editor and then select the aircraft to view each little change, and if for some angles you have to load the mission, then depending on your PC, thats a process that takes up to 5 minutes, which in itself might not be much, but will stack up, and is just something you cant ask of a skin-creator. Making a good skin takes time, and this will just make it take arguably twice if not 3 times longer, especially since now you have to open the game and wait 5 minutes, just to see that you need to move a layer by a few pixels. And im not even talking about making camos work across texture seams. Same goes for the upgraded AI models for the S-3, B-1B, and B-52. I get that this may be a kind-of niche problem, but its something that shouldnt be hard to implement from what i can tell, since the game already can load EDCE models.

the JF-17 left EA a year ago roughly

yup

alternatively, i made a mod here. It does break Integrity Check https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3327498/

never happened, the Server owners are using this method in the video when making the mission. The J-11A never had PL-12, and will never officially have PL-12 what you are talking about, is a test for the JF-17, to test the new code for the missile.

Not possible without modding. Some servers use custom preset loadouts, but aside from that you wont get them without breaking integrity check. The J-11A doesn't carry PL-12s irl, ive spent a lot of time trying to find proof that it does, and i can assure you that none of the A models carry it. I did make a mod for it, but thats likely all there will ever be. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3327498/

Its 21.3 nm Pod wont stabilize above Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk Due to range Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk