Mach3DS

Thanks! I actually have 2 more to release but they require normals to look right. One is an update. The other is a "like-new" version.

You guys need to revert back to the old model from 2021. The newest one no longer supports NORMAL Maps. So the surface skins are totally smooth. It also has some unwelded vertices on the nose radome. Perhaps Grinnelli can fix this but the easiest solution is to just use the old model.

You can't do what you're describing. You must have separate folders for different liveries as they all have to have their own description.lua file. However what you can do is put ALL the textures in the same folder and just call out that folder as the "common" folder. In each description.lua file instead of putting the common texture name, you call out the specific texture for each members specific texture. For example: If this was the F-16, I can use the above lua callout to tell the sim to look at this folder for these textures. You would just do this for every single texture entry. If you were wanting to only change the MAIN_1 texture for example, that's where you put the name and number you wanted for your members, then you could simply put an _THEIRNAMEHERE at the end of the texture, like I did above for me. You would do this for every member and that is how you would call out the textures for your individual squadron members in each of the lua files for each livery folder. No textures would be in the livery folders. Just a lua file that calls out the common folder like you see above. The problem with doing it this way is that now you have a massive folder that constantly needs to be updated every time you add a member. So if you just place all the custom files in the specific livery folder, for this example. Just he MAIN_1 texture. then All you need to do is leave that first entry without the folder path in front, and you don't need to even add the name at the end, unless that helps you keep track of things. Everything else gets the folder path as it's calling on the textures from the common folder for everything else which should be the same for all the jets. Below is an example of how it actually looks in the real situation where I'm using this method for my squad. You can see that the normal is the same for all jets. The MAIN 1 and the MAIN 1 Roughmet are custom for each jet. So those don't get the common folder callout. Only the Normal does. And I don't need to rename anything. Keeps it simple. These custom textures are placed in the custom livery folder for each squadron member and the specific description.lua file. This keeps file sizes much lower. All you have to do is give the livery name in the description.lua the correct member name and name the folder as well. That's it. Keeps it really simple. The common folder WILL NOT look like this. The common folder will reference the actual location of the textures. and Either FALSE or TRUE if you want to use your custom textures or the default ones. Make sense?

100% Concur on all points.

Having the entire game loaded plus Photoshop or whatever other editor you use is not ideal at all. No offense to this idea. But changing what we have is putting livery making back to the stone ages. That's not compromise and it's honestly not a good idea. The ED devs know this already. There's no way they don't. Plus you absolutely DO NOT have the same inspection ability in the sim as you do in Model Viewer. If we did, this thread and the numerous threads in Reddit and Facebook etc. wouldn 't exist. Because it wouldn't be an issue. That's to say nothing if the plethora of other features that make MV such an amazing tool.

Yes, unfortunately, this action does not actually protect anything. That's why so many devs in other games have essentially realized that unless the business is selling the model itself for use by others that it's basically a lost cause to constantly be trying to protect it in this way. If someone wants to rip any of these models they're going to do it. As has been described by others already. So in the end this just ties the hands of the community members who want to support the projects anyway. For crying out loud, you can literally check any users account to see what they've purchased. If it's really that important why not just tie in MV with the launcher? Add it to the launcher and make it only able to load encrypted models and textures when launched from the launcher with a good account check... is that not possible? @NineLine Thank you sir for your honesty. It really is appreciated. I think many of these feelings represent how much of a passion there is among the creators for making liveries and how emotionally connected people actually are to it. So just know that none of my comments are directed at you personally. I love painting in DCS and so the prospect of losing that ability in the frankly great way that we've been able to experience up to now is very demoralizing to say the least. And I think many people are having that visceral reaction to it as well.

No offense intended or taken. This has nothing to do with that. What the "Pros" see that you guys may not is that by going out of your way to create anything, no matter how much effort and especially no matter the time that goes into it, is feeding the beast. Because it doesn't stop with the F-5. What the "Pros" are concerned about, isn't the competition at all. It's the continuation of being able to make art in the best most efficient way possible. No one needs to feel bad about doing anything, but you should at least understand that spending 10x more time on something for less quality than it would take the alternate way is moving backward not forward. And it tell ED indirectly that they infact do not need to change anything because people are willing to do it no matter the cost. Which I am not. So that's .y perspective. I don't consider myself a pro, just an old guy whose been burned in deals in the past and would rather negotiate a win win rather than something else, if possible.

So additional features needed: 1. Mouse and keyboard functions for rotation and movement of the model in free space. Including zoom and Orthogonal views. 2. Texture inspect, all the Texture views. Full shader, Diffuse, wireframe, Normal, Roughness, Metallic, AO, Cavity, Material Errors etc. 3. Textures loaded and inspect window with locations. 4.... You can see where I'm going with this. You guys designed a great tool and it was well thought out. It can't be easier to make all this in the base game rather than simply code the DRM I to MV. That seems hard to believe for me. And we get to keep the full functionality of all that work that went I to the tool to begin with.

What I don't understand is that is it really EASIER to have to code all that new functionality into DCS, or would it be easier to simply code a account login into Model Viewer? It doesn't make sense to me. You have all the functionality you need in the tool. Now you want to code all this other stuff into the base game? It seems like pie in the sky requests for stuff that already rxists. And all this taking up RAM over and above what it already takes to load a shell for working purposes in MV already, let alone having to run the editor also. Just a thought.

9L I know you're doing what you can and that you're not the decision maker. I thank you.

I'm not participating. For the same reasons. Anyway, I want to do my best work. It's not possible. Sure, people have proven that you can put paint on the asset. It's not their best work. It CAN'T be their best work. And the work flow is simply unreasonable in terms of time wasted doing things that could be done in 10x less the amount. The fact that people never knew about model viewer is irrelevant. They have simply been missing out, and have not been doing their best work. This competition by the nature of even being held is saying that you don't care about having high quality work included in your product. Your willing to fully accept liveries that are misaligned etc. There .ight be someone who decides to spend 100 hours of their life to accomplish what could have been done in 10. Yes. I realize that. That's not reasonable. My biggest fear, and I've said it before, is that you will move ahead with this as the new model for all business in the future. Converting older assets with updates that lock out files. Why do I want to spend that much time on something which can't be my best work? Honestly, it feels like the "MV can't load encrypted files" is an excuse. I'm not trying to be rude. It just does. It comes off that way. Anyway. For me this has little to do with the F-5, and everything to do with setting a precedent and future direction full of uncertainty if we can even participate in livery making in way that allows the best work we can do to be used. I don't want to do anything other than my best work and I don't want to share with anyone that which I know is sub par. So to me this is a competition about who can submit their best looking sub par work. That's not an insult. It's a fact, as outlined. And not an insult either. I know.leople.are.doimg the best work they can with the circumstances. (So please don't delete this post). No one can produce their best work because it's physically not possible to inspect areas of the model in the game the same way you can in the MV. And the host of other functions that it provides. Which is phenomenal. That's why for the life of me I don't understand this decision. So I get it. You need to do what you need to do. That's your business and your IP. I respect that. I can't support it. I hope that ED will not wait years to implement a solution while still pushing out updates and content that further place a wedge into the community. This isn't just a livery artist thing. It affects everything from campaign designers to special liveries where this direction simply makes doing the task un enjoyable and more difficult than it needs to be. And harder to find people who will want to do it under these circumstances. Respectfully, Mach3DS

Available. Enjoy! 1st post updated as well. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3344119/

Uploaded. Will be available whenever ED gets around to approving it!

ok this one is good to go...I think. I'll do a once over to double check. I added the correct GBU-12 texture for the time. It will revert back to stock when you drop it but it will look great until then! LOL.

So converting these to the new template takes almost no time at all. But I realized I need reduce a layer opacity on one thing by about 69% lol. Then it'll be ready to upload.

Appreciate it man.

Are/were you a Boomer (job not.gen) Storm?

Converted another one my paints that has been in the private hangar for a long time. This one has my take on some combat weathering. DL LINK: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3344119/

I haven't had a lot of time lately to just paint as I like. But I wanted to try making an RDAF HG jet. Since most of the leg work is alreDy complete with my base HG jets it shouldn't require too much work. Some additional stencil work but not much. The biggest issue is creating some of the additional stiffener plates and I wanted to have a go at making the search light. This is my first attempt at it. I think it looks ok. The biggest issue is that this has to be normalized and theight is split right down the middle on 2ndifferent texture sheets and the 2nd one is slightly warped compared to the main sheet. But I think it turned out ok. Not usually any problem when dealing with a line of paint or a stencil but converting the image to a normal has proven quite difficult to align since there's use of shadow s as well. But I feel like it's as good as I'm willing to spend time on it. LOL. I toyed with the idea of showing it in a forward tilted position but because there isn't actual 3D geometry associated with it It would look weird at different view angles so I opted to show it side looking. Which offers the most normal view from any angle.

Thanks my man! Appreciate it! Waiting on all your sekrit works to be made known!

Uploaded to User Files. Should be available in the next few days whenever ED gets around to activating the file.

A full up 1950's Korean war would be out of this world. all those aircraft mentioned would be a welcome addition!

Converted! Had to change some of the stencils and edit the weathering and Roughmets.

or those seeing the green digi-camo of the interior cockpit from the external view, it's a description.lua file entry I missed. Sorry. here's the fix for those that don't wan to wait. I will also update the User Files entry with the corrected File. It's pretty easy fix. The correct files are included already. Simply: 1. open the Livery folder 2. Open the file description.lua 3. Scroll down until you see the highlighted parts in the image 4. Delete those parts OR replace the entire lines (x3) with the following: {"f16c_cockpit_1", DIFFUSE , "f16c_cockpit_1", false}; {"f16c_cockpit_1", NORMAL_MAP , "f16c_cockpit_1_NRM", false}; {"f16c_cockpit_1", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "f16c_cockpit_1_RoughMet", false}; 5. Save. 6. Done. Fixed.

For those seeing the green digi-camo of the interior cockpit from the external view, it's a description.lua file entry I missed. Sorry. here's the fix for those that don't wan to wait. I will also update the User Files entry with the corrected File. It's pretty easy fix. The correct files are included already. Simply: 1. open the Livery folder 2. Open the file description.lua 3. Scroll down until you see the highlighted parts in the image 4. Delete those parts OR replace the entire lines (x3) with the following: {"f16c_cockpit_1", DIFFUSE , "f16c_cockpit_1", false}; {"f16c_cockpit_1", NORMAL_MAP , "f16c_cockpit_1_NRM", false}; {"f16c_cockpit_1", ROUGHNESS_METALLIC, "f16c_cockpit_1_RoughMet", false}; 5. Save. 6. Done. Fixed.