CrazyD

Of course its like in the automotive industry - whenever the concept vehicles are out in public view, they cover the majority of the vehicle panels in to protect their "design", or whatever. So I left out my paint job, cause I want to dazzle you all when its completed.:D

Slayer, when checking on the skin progress by installing the .bmp files into the temptextures directory for the "Standard" skin, the "Star" kept showing. When I completed the skin and installed using Modman, the "Star" went away. You can get it at LockonFiles. @Crazysundog - Glad you like the skin. I haven't had much "stick" time with this simulator, been working on a remake of my first skin pattern, but after I get this second version done, I'll be sure to download the desert mod and try it out. Its too bad though, that there isn't a desert terrain modeled (ie Iran/Iraq/Afgahnistan/etc), as it would be a pain to have to uninstall the desert mod in order to play an autumn mission, vice-versa.

Thanks HUAF. As per my posted pic (above), I thought it was part of the background template that I left un-coloured. But you pointing out were it was on the template shows that I already had painted it, where I was looking all over the un-painted section.:doh: The funny thing is, of all the time I've spent with this game - I've put maybe 85% of it into skinning. I've flown the helicopter, but I've yet to fire a missile (or even the cannon). After this next skin I'm working on, I'm gonna have to get more into the actual simulation.:pilotfly: (but I've got several great skin concepts that I want to do. THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY!!!!!!!!)

Could someone point it out - I've searched Paint1 and Paint2 and I can't find it anywhere! Its the bottom panel, to be precise. I know where the side and upper curved panels are, but d@^^ned if I can find the bottom one.

I followed the suggestion, and viola! Now I can take ground-level screenshots and be able to see up close to the helicopter from below to check on skinning details. I know I could have it in the air and do the same, but well, when I post pics of the finished skin, looks way cool from that viewpoint, lol.

I also had intermittent issues with the TrackIR, I found uninstalling and re-installing usually fixes the problem, though I don't usually Alt-Tab as I found some programs just don't like it. As to your faster usb thing - I kept getting the same "suggestion", and I run WinXP. Doesn't seem to be happening any more, though, and I don't know why it did stop.

Thanks, Glowing Amraam.

I'd like to be able to lower the exterior (F2) view while on the ground, so that the point of view is at ground level. Anyone know how to set this?

From what I understand, if someone made a skin and had the country "Canada" selected, then their skin folder is missing the cockpit .bmp "paint3" I believe. Tell you what, Doomhawk - I'll be re-creating my first posted skin pattern, and I'll try to make it "Country - Canada"-selectable. If I succeed, then I'll remake my desert pattern to do the same.:thumbup:

I'm afraid that you'll have to select Russia to fly this. My goal at this point was to get a skin made and distrubuted. To start messing around with country files at this point is out of my reach until I get more in tune with this whole skinning bit. I still have the raw files if someone wants whatever is needed to make this "Canadian" fllyable.

Ok, after a several hour struggle with Photoshop, and having to make work-arounds to get the #%##$ files to save as bmps, then going through the growing pains of creating the Modman-auto-install package, I've submitted the final skin onto LockonFiles (hasn't shown up yet - don't know how long that will take). Let me know how you like it (when you're able to get it of course ....:thumbup:) Oh, and the "Stars" disappeared - as I thought, when doing the temptextures install route, there must be a file that still calls for the original file that doesn't get overwritten by any of the 10 new files temporarily installed into temptextures. With my own skin file installed by Modman - the skin is set up as desired. :smilewink:

You know, there are times when I absolutely HATE computers, software, and anything directly related! For the last hour, I've been trying to save my .psd files as .bmp files, or renaming .bmp files to my skin design as per Moose's tutorial. For one reason or another, re-naming some files causes the process to crash and trying to return to the folder will cause the crash again. I have to delete the folder cause I can't do anything with it, as it crashes and closes on its own. Any experts out there want to ask me detailed questions to help me figure this out? All I'm trying to do is contribute to the community!!!! :cry:

Moose, I went all the way and deleted the star layer on both "Paint1" and "Paint2" files. But you know what? I'm gonna compromise and place the Canada Flag beneath the "Star", a bit bigger as per pitbull's suggestion, and we'll pretend that its a joint Russian/Canadian squadron!:pilotfly:

Desert Fiction ver2 Ok, here's what I think might be a good desert fictional skin. Of course I'm trying to eliminate the stars but this is pretty much how I'm gonna leave this skin. I'm also going to do a second version of my first posted skin design - a better aligned and cleaner pattern. The next question is: does anyone want this? CRD

Ok, folks - I think I've got a really good desert (fictional) skin to present to you all. however, I need to get rid of the star on the tail and bottom fuselage. I've gone so far as to delete the "star" layer and it still shows up in-game. Any reason for this? Edit: For info's sake - I'm using the temptexture's route to do quick check of skin - if I were to create the full skin file - would they finally disappear?

Moose - had a quick read-through of your final tutorial - looks really good, except for one thing - I still cannot find the sample .lma7 file in Modman - wait, ok I just had a look and found the file in the Modman directory under the "tmps" using the browse feature within Modman. Funny that it doesn't show if you browse from your desktop to that same folder. Maybe put that into your tutorial so people will know how to find that sample .lma7 file. Other than that, great job. I'm hoping to give it a go tomorrow.

Moose - I've just read your tutorial - WELL DONE!!!!!. Very clearly laid out and understandable. You asked for input, and so for no other reason than for editing's sake, my 2 cents: 1) Method 1 - temptextures route: when typing out the skin value to insert to the Temptextures folder as per your example - the line should read: "KA-50-Paint1-DEF-01", not "KA-50-Paint1-DEF01" (I know - I've typed this out countless times while checking my work, lol) 2) Method 2 - manual install: you indicated that you should add to the last listed value line by "1" - maybe ".1" would be better, even though you did demonstrate that by showing your example as "Now you will need to change the value (increase it by one) In this case we would change it to 3.2 " Like I said - just some editing points - otherwise, really well done. Of course, I've only read through this, though I expect actually doing it will prove to be successful. Thanks again, Moose. You're efforts have not been in vain. Next time you're through (or to) this area, drop in for a beer (or wine, I make both!) CRD

No comments? I know we're all brought up to "If you haven't got anything good to say, then don't say anything", but I need input if I'm going to be able to produce a skin you all are going to want to fly in! :thumbup:

That's good news, Moose! In fact, I'm wanting to start saving my skin projects to their own file now that I've gotten the hang of it. As for input - if you could start right from the beginning - ie: Step 1: Open Modman 7.1. Step 2: Click on ..., etc. I trust that for example - if I am able to create the skin, save it and pack it so it could automatically install in its own skin slot. Then if I saved the original template layers - and I make some modifications, I could simply replace the original Paint1 bmp installation with the updated paint1 bmp? Or something like that?

Ok, here's version 2, more of a desert fictional. This one was an attempt to keep the pattern aligned throughout the various panels - I think I was fairly successful. I know the top of the rotor is the wrong colour. And for the life of me, I can't get rid of the red star on the tail. I've unchecked that layer, and unless there's something I don't know - I guess I'll try deleting that layer. And I think the main colour is too "orange-y" for a desert scheme, what do you all think?

Hi Moose - How's Halifax? Nippy? We had 10 -13 degrees here yesterday! Thanks for your suggestion - (Gulp!). I have to admit - that sounds better than my thought of using a grid and trying to measure distances and guestimation. Your tutorial - looks like you might have another couple weeks avail before I'm gonna need option B and C, lol. I've got the other skin downloads from LockonFiles that are non-modman 7.1 compatible - I was thinking that since no-one has remade them into 7.1 compatible that I would try myself (unless people are holding off and wantin to submit them to DCS for their upcoming patch). But of course, I'll need some guidance. I made an attempt using that DOSAAF skin - having just the CDDS file - but I couldn't locate any lma7 file in the CDDS explorer or Modman window - simply just don't know what I'm doing, ha ha.

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm afraid that in my attempts to clean up the skin, so that the pattern lines up properly on the various skin panels, I ended up seriously screwing up the whole thing so bad that I had to start again (and lesson Number 1 is to save a copy somewhere, lol). At any rate, I'm doing another skin - this time its going much faster, but I'm wondering if anyone can advise on how to align the patterns better, given that not all the panels are actually next to each other on the template? I thought about having the grid view enabled - any other suggestions?

My second, more involved attempt at this skinning business. I know its not perfect (the stars on the tail shouldn't be there, the colours don't line up - that will be hard to fix!, and probably some other issues too. But its a start. CRD

Nighthawk - be advised that once RCN Moose settles in at the other end of the country, he's planning to finish his tutorial on adding skins into the game. See a couple posts up from this one, he's aware that he only did one method, and that he's planning to update that tutorial to include the next 2 methods he knows of. Congo's last posted method replaces one of the in-game skins already installed. Personally, I'd like to be able to keep all of the skins available, and with info regarding installing with modman this should be easy (once someone walks us through it of course, lol)

Congo - I know Photoshop has these features galore - lucky for me, my wife works with it in her job (pre-press), and has a fair amount of insite that she can show me. Unfortunately for me, I don't have time to really get into the gritty detail stuff like some of these other fantastic artists produce. At this point, all I'm doing is re-working the colour schemes, and using the path tool to create the various patterns. I'm working on one now (quite original, I think), I'll be sure to post a pic and request some input for improvement. Give me another week. CRD