Crashmo

Cal Fire for Skulleader Hi Skull, Sorry for the delay--I had to go out of town for 4 days and no work then. I'm always spending time learning new things. I figured out how to make the gun mounts white until the slick comes along.

Very nice work How did you do the clear "MAT" on the fuselage? Just for future reference.

Cover Hey WildBill, The "cover" files are in the Bazar/textures folder. If you want them to have the camo, you have to copy them, convert them back to a .bmp or .tga file. Then open them in your Photoshop or whichever painting program you use. Unlock the backgound layer--you will only have one layer OR add a layer over the background layer. Copy your camo over the cover, save it as a .bmp again. Convert it to a .dds file and throw it into the skin folder that you are using. Now change the .lua in the description file to read: , false. next to the cover line. Here: I colored the cover and put it into my Calfire skin folder. uh1_cover_Calfire Then changed the .lua to this: {"uh1_cov", 0, "uh1_cover_calfire", false}; Now it reads the cover from the Calfire folder, instead of the generic cover from the textures folder. In the textures folder there are a few covers. One of them is _cover, one is _cover_blk and one of them is _cover_spec. Use one of the first 2 and leave the _spec alone. That is a specular file and gives the panels a bit of gloss and reflection. I hope this isn't too simplified. I started not long ago doing this and I wish there was a detailed, simple manual. :pilotfly:

This is good info, thanks Marker. I saw your discussion with aussie in another thread. I don't have, anywhere in DCS, a file that is uh1_panel_anything. It doesn't exist in my DCS folder at all. More info on that, please??? :helpsmilie: Thanks

Upuaut was right. Even with his knowledge, I goofed around with the description.lua yesterday and could not get anything to change between the 2 pilots or the 2 gunners. Maybe it will be an option some day when they write the materials files as separate pilots and gunners.

Helmets I did see a gunner helmet in the texture folder. It is the same as the pilot helmet. You would have to write it into the .lua description file. Or you could just make a change to the pilot helmet, name it something different, then write it into the .lua file. I just haven't done that yet. Maybe later. I will let you know how it goes.

Calfire Inside For Skulleader and anyone else interested, This is my first shot at the uniforms and helmets. More to do, like take the vest off so you can see the name patch. Progress so far:

Mastiff, "I bet that's the hole for sling loads.. " My question, "What is that thing?" was rhetorical. I meant that I spent the day saying that to myself and then answering it by detective work. I'm the helicopter police--LOL. The "Hell Hole" for the sling load hook and gear is round and just forward of the aft skid crossmember. It sits directly beneath the main rotor mast for CG purposes. Todd, Your red circle doesn't seem to be anything related to weapons, but I don't know for sure. In the PS layer, it responds under the "occlusion: Gear" layer. So I guessed it had something to do with the skids. But I cannot find it. I cannot find anything related to the gun mounts on the template except the post that the M60 sits on. I believe the rest of the mount and weapons parts exist in the textures folder somewhere. I color the parts and then create .dds files from them. Then I load them into a livery and display them in Model Viewer. Then I get creative and move the camera everywhere. There are some things that are static only and do not show up in Model Viewer. Like the blades--they can have both static and dynamic files--one file for sitting still and another for motion. So I start up DCS and skin a Huey with that livery and fly and look some more. I thought one of the unknowns was the ammo feed shoots, but as you can see in the last screenshot, that is not the case. I am still looking for the texture file that has the aft VHF antennas on it. The "handles' on the lower tail. This is the inside of the engine cowl, looking aft. Model on, my friends, keep the info flowing. :pilotfly: PS. Skulleader, I am working on the Cal Fire skin, but got side tracked watching Youtube videos of those guys. Then I ended up watching how cops shot someone's dog. How do we digress like that every time we go to Youtube? Anyhow, notice the white tail... it is in motion.

Things that hide in templates I spent yesterday unlocking things that hide in Huey templates. What is that thing? This is a reference for skinners or anyone who would want to skin. This will show you where some of the stuff is on the templates. Some of it is still hiding and unknown, except for the privileged few. The blades reside in the textures folder as a .tga file. Like the .bmp files, you can only use them as a guide to paint over the top as they are not layered like the Photoshop files. The same is true of the interior and engine panels and the like. Also all of the blade and shaft mounting components. Self explanatory:

Capdat Green Canadian Disruptive Pattern with some markings. http://www70.zippyshare.com/v/23903585/file.html

Always possible. I watched the videos. I'll make this my next project, but it looks a challenge, so give me some time. A few days, maybe.

Canadian Disruptive Pattern One of the many Canadian Disruptive Patterns. I haven't researched any unit markings yet for Canada.

Digital Urban Camo Skin Here you go: http://www3.zippyshare.com/v/76973271/file.html :pilotfly:

Thanks for the reply, now I know. The 212 I flew many years ago was just the civilian version of the UH-1N. Essentially the same airframe with 2 engines. Maybe it means something completely different to the Belsimtek team. Who knows with creative types? I mean, a Huey with guns in an urban camo livery--anything can happen. :D

7th cav Mastiff, is this the 7th cav you are talking about. I didn't find a whole lot after 20 minutes of research, so I took this and applied some artistic license.

That's a good looking hide, Gryphon. I'm doing the same thing in terms of cleaning, as though it will never be done. Do you know how to remove the covers altogether? How about the weapon mounts? There is a good mission where the pilot just resupplies and rescues with no need for those things. Crashmo

More prelim work Something new. Awaiting desires in units, markings, etc. More details added then like cover painting. :pilotfly:

I don't know, I would suspect if BS1 (I never owned it, so I don't know the file structure) has similar file structure. e.g. Bazar\liveries, etc. I would think you can somehow tweak the description.lua file to meet it's requirements. if you can screenshot or describe the file path for other skins in BS1 I may be able to help more. There has to be someone else on these forums that can answer that question better than I can. :huh:

Prelim Digi Camo Work Well, I got right on it. I guess it intrigued me. This is very preliminary and requires refinement. Any ideas what markings or stencils you would like? I'm in the water, might as well swim in the deep end.

I'm making skins and wondering how to change the ID numbers on the aircraft. I've noticed the _bort_numbers refer to the side numbers on the fuselage and the _turkey_numbers refer to the tail numbers in the description.lua file. How do I go about changing those from the standard 00 numbers? Thanks in advance for any help.

A Request Ok, then. Keep your eyes open right here over the next couple days and I will do what I can. Do you want the Forest Green or Blue/Grey theme? I could probably find some more, given enough research time.

What I did with the Ka-50 Skin I played with this idea and finally made it happen. It's perhaps fictional, but it seemed more appropriate to an attack helicopter. I could do it for the Huey. Extreme fiction! Is anyone interested in a Digi Huey? Otherwise I don't think I would put in the effort unless someone wants one. Different scheme: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=109701 :smartass:

I have been playing the skin hobby and thought of these. If the Air Forces and Navies can use them... Find the .rar files here: http://www73.zippyshare.com/v/5794829/file.html http://www59.zippyshare.com/v/31679378/file.html :D These are available on the DCS User downloads site as well.

Thanks Upuaut:thumbup:

Gun Mounts I have notices that the M60 gun mount shafts get painted the same as my base color. Does anyone know where on the template this shaft is? So I can paint it something more respectable, like fuscia. ;)