Kolyma

This thread is on fire. So much great info and examples, day after day. Kudos to all

Hmm. Maybe this is why I've been stuck on not accepting the dullness in PS without realizing DCS would render it differently. Thanks for the details. I'll experiment a bit later this weekend. Is OK if I'm only using CS6?

Yes! Seems to be retaining lines and panels. How to?

Thanks for the additional information. I guess my basic question is: how do I get a bright color skin based on this template? I cannot see how to do that and keep all the fine lines. All easy techniques will appear to create a color-dulled appearance So when you used the "procedural nodegraph texturing" the base color was inferred into that? Not added later once all the 2d-photograph from 3d-object to 2d-projections(layers) were made? For example, here's the F-18 skin again. I can get bright color skin with details. But I cannot figure out how to do with F-14 template. Of course, these are just examples. Even I'm not trying to fly around in a neon green F-14. :joystick: I guess the ED people made the F-18 skin some other way where they were able to isolate the individual lines. Maybe that was a recreation rather than an isolation. You asked for version 1.1 requests, so I made one: asking for the source layers that made "Base Texture copy 2" layer. I guess I'm to understand that layer was generated directly from your "procedural nodegraph texturing" without any intermediate steps. Sorry I'm a bit stubborn and won't be swayed much by the sentiment that I shouldn't be trying to do what I'm doing. Thanks for entertaining my inquiry

Without really understanding why, I get that you're stating this is a special kind of paintkit, however it is put together in a way that's different than all the other paintkits I've worked with from DCS and their partners. In all cases, there was the ability to turn off the base color while retaining fine lines and panels. And I wasn't looking for real-world color accuracy or to make a custom skin for some little-known real-world squadron. I make fictional skins with all kinds of wild colors and patterns and that's why I asked about getting the base color out of there. Unless you've used an external photograph to create the "Base Texture copy 2" layer, I am certain it is a composite layer that was previously built with several layers, many of those were just lines and circles, with maybe some shadows. And then an overall metal grey was added. Aircraft come in base colors other than metal grey, regardless of albedo Thanks for your reply and the great module. I'm really enjoying it and appreciate the release of the paintkit.

I understand how to do that as a workaround but the result is much too dark for what I was looking to do, like airshow qual w/o weathering and such. Having to leave that grey "Base Texture copy 2" layer in there to retain lines and panels is just gonna darken everything. And adjusting that layer's opacity will wash out the original lines and panels. Guess I could run a threshold and other processes on "Base Texture copy 2" layer to eliminate the background color while retaining major features, but that really shouldn't be necessary for a production paintkit. Maybe the version 1.1 release that was mentioned could include the source layers that were combined to produce "Base Texture copy 2" layer?

For the F-18, we can turn off the background layer and retain all the other details like this: And then can replace with completely different background color like this: But with F-14, when I turn off background color layers, it seems a lot of lines, panels, etc are gone. So when the background is replaced with totally different color, many lines and panels are missing Where the originally file looks like this

Is is just me or is all the fine lines and details mixed into the "Base Texture copy 2" layer which also includes the overall grey background color? With other paintkits, we got a clean background color layer and then higher level layers with just lines and details and such. That way you could make a skin with a completely different color scheme and keep all the details. For example, doesn't seem possible to make and all-red F-14 skin with this template and keep all the lines and details.

https://i.imgur.com/Z0JzKuM.png Thoughts on these errors? Is this because I'm using CS6?

Heatblur server getting Slashdot Effect right now. All these downloads.... I'm getting just a dribble of packets

lmfao, all these peeps licking their chops waiting for a paintkit template. Like you're stacked on final with only a 100lbs of fuel left.

No idea who this Strikeeagle345 is and don't care to find out, but clearly with all those posts he only confirmed his idiocy. Next time the Internet shames you dude, just say my bad and stop posting. Sheesh Now this fun and happy thread has a giant one-page of shit on it. Thanks idiot

Of course, we'd rather have your best work vs your rushed work. Take all the repeated template release inquiries as a compliment to how much we're enjoying the F-14 module

I'm guessing we get their production psd files, just with reduced layers and layers labeled for the masses. I'm not sure where the wireframe layer that highlights individual components comes from. Maybe they do that manually? No, can't be.

So even if there's a delay in releasing an official paint kit, is it safe to assume all the "stuff" will be in the same locations it is now in the existing *.dds files with the currently included F-14 skins? Meaning if I just make some layers in photoshop with a current dds as a stencil, later they will be portable to the official F-14 paintkit?

What settings should I use on this save dialogue?

This Intel one dated 2015-2016? https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-texture-works-plugin

Any thoughts on why when I open any of the F-14 dds files in PS all I get are black images? I've been making skins for a while and can view dds files in other plane liveries. I'm using CS6 (don't hate, lol is that the issue?) with the NVIDIA dds plugin.

Thanks for this thread. I'm just now coming up to speed on the PBR changes from the more simple diffuse/specular maps. The start of this thread was succinct and easy to follow. Much appreciated

It'd be nice if ED would just go ahead and enhance their own scripting engine and absorb some of the stuff we're trying to shim externally. Moving a lot of these complex LUA ideas into compiled core DLLs would help a lot.

Gah, I should have searched! I knew doing taxiway takeoffs on busy public servers was gonna make me stupid.

I should have found and checked this thread before starting a new one. And should have checked the bug tracker but forgot about it. I do watch the tracker for the cold-start bug. This problem is on the public Razbam bug tracker. Listed as "Low" priority, which must mean it will be a long time until it's fixed.

Am I correct that on the AV-8B there is no way to get the TPOD to point at a location on the map on the MFD? So in order to set at initial position, you have to dip the nose, point at the target, and bump the TDC to choose an initial position. Then resume level flight and fine tune the TPOD target. The only other way is to blindly slew the TPOD and watch the top-down view of the aiming dot move across the TPOD display. I can see how to get the DMT to lock on to a waypoint, but not how to get the TPOD to do the same. Help?

Ugh, if I just cut-n-paste what you have it doesn't work. I can change the model in LoadModel and get different models, but the LoadLivery has no effect --autoexecute sample for model viewer --mount_vfs_liveries_path("Mods/aircrafts/Wunderluft/Liveries") --mount_vfs_liveries_path("CoreMods/aircraft/FA-18C/Liveries") --mount_vfs_texture_path("Mods/aircrafts/Wunderluft/Textures/base_zip_package") --LoadModel("Bazar/World/Shapes/A-10.edm") --LoadLivery("A-10C","184th FS Arkansas ANG, Fort Smith (FS)") --SetArgument(0,1) --SetArgument(3,1) --SetArgument(5,0.75) local lfs = require("lfs") local function service_file(file) return file == "." or file == ".." or file == ".svn" or file == "_svn" end function scan_for_textures(path) local lower_case = path:lower() if lower_case:find("liveries") then mount_vfs_liveries_path(path) return end local is_texture_path = lower_case:find("texture") ~= nil local mounted_already = false for file in lfs.dir(path) do if not service_file(file) then local fn = path.."/"..file local attr = lfs.attributes (fn) if attr.mode == "directory" then scan_for_textures(fn) elseif is_texture_path then local ext = string.sub(file,-4) if '.zip' == ext then mount_vfs_texture_path(fn) elseif not mounted_already and ( '.dds' == ext or '.bmp' == ext or '.jpg' == ext or '.png' == ext or '.tga' == ext) then mount_vfs_texture_path(path) mounted_already = true end end end end end function scan_for_environment_cubes(path) local lower_case = path:lower() for file in lfs.dir(path) do if not service_file(file) then local fn = path.."/"..file local attr = lfs.attributes(fn) if attr.mode == "file" then local ext = string.sub(file,-4) if '.dds' == ext then AddEnvironmentMap(file) end end end end end print("----------------------------------------------------------------") print("scan for textures and liveries") scan_for_textures("CoreMods") print("----------------------------------------------------------------") scan_for_textures("Mods") scan_for_environment_cubes("Bazar/EffectViewer/envcubes") print("scan done") print("----------------------------------------------------------------") --LoadLodModel("tech.lds"); --[[ LoadModel("d:\\Projects\\trunk\\LockOnExe\\Bazar\\World\\Shapes\\farp.edm"); Move(0, -1.22, 0); local d = 10; local f = LoadLodModel; local file_name = "tech.lds"; --local f = LoadStaticCharacterModel; local file_name = "tech_animation.chanimgpu"; --local f = LoadCharacterModel; if f ~= nil then for i = -d,d do for j = -d,d do --f("d:\\Projects\\trunk\\LockOnExe\\Data\\tech_animation.lua") --f("d:\\Projects\\trunk\\LockOnExe\\Data\\tech_animation.chanimgpu") --f("tech_animation.chanimgpu") f(file_name); Move(i, 0, j); end; end; end; --]] LoadModel("CoreMods/aircraft/FA-18C/Shapes/fa-18c.lods") LoadLivery("FA-18C_hornet","Australian 75th Squadron") SetArgument(0,0) SetArgument(3,0) SetArgument(5,0) Here's the model viewer log 12:50:24 INFO: DCS log enabled! 12:50:24 WARNING: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile 3.3455 TRACE lua_loadfile ModelViewer2::createLua: Config\ModelViewer\DefaultAnimation.lua 3.4719 ERROR EDCORE Can't mount c:/program files/eagle dynamics/dcs world openbeta/coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/textures. Drivers errors: 3.4719 ERROR EDCORE FSDriver: there is no directory c:/program files/eagle dynamics/dcs world openbeta/coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/textures 3.4719 ERROR EDCORE ZipDriver: Can't open zip archive c:/program files/eagle dynamics/dcs world openbeta/coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/textures.zip. 3.4900 ERROR EDCORE Can't open file 'c:/program files/eagle dynamics/dcs world openbeta/coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/fa-18c.lods.ilv' from fs. 3.4900 ERROR EDCORE Can't open file 'c:/program files/eagle dynamics/dcs world openbeta/coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/fa-18c.lods.ilv' from fs. 3.4900 WARNING VIEWERCOMMON file c:/program files/eagle dynamics/dcs world openbeta/coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/fa-18c.lods.ilv not found 3.4901 TRACE EFFECTS creating ODCSParticleSystem effect 3.4901 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND render target 'cockpitDepth' not found 3.4921 TRACE lua_loadfile ModelViewer2::createLua: C:\Users\kolyma\Saved Games\edModelViewer2.openbeta\autoexec.lua 3.4921 TRACE lua_loadfile ModelViewer2::createLua: Config/ModelViewer/autoexec.lua 3.4923 DEBUG ModelViewer2::createLua ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3.4923 DEBUG ModelViewer2::createLua scan for textures and liveries 3.7548 DEBUG ModelViewer2::createLua ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4.5440 ERROR EDCORE Can't mount mods/terrains/caucasus/vfstextures/trees.zip. Drivers errors: 4.5440 ERROR EDCORE FSDriver: there is no directory mods/terrains/caucasus/vfstextures/trees.zip 4.5440 ERROR EDCORE ZipDriver: Can't open zip archive mods/terrains/caucasus/vfstextures/trees.zip. 4.7447 DEBUG ModelViewer2::createLua scan done 4.7447 DEBUG ModelViewer2::createLua ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4.7450 ERROR EDCORE Can't mount coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/textures. Drivers errors: 4.7450 ERROR EDCORE FSDriver: there is no directory coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/textures 4.7450 ERROR EDCORE ZipDriver: Can't open zip archive coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/textures.zip. 4.7451 ERROR EDCORE Can't open file 'coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/fa-18c.lods.ilv' from fs. 4.7451 ERROR EDCORE Can't open file 'coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/fa-18c.lods.ilv' from fs. 4.7451 WARNING VIEWERCOMMON file coremods/aircraft/fa-18c/shapes/fa-18c.lods.ilv not found 4.7451 TRACE EFFECTS creating ODCSParticleSystem effect 4.7533 INFO DX11BACKEND resize to resolution 1201x629 6.1331 INFO DX11BACKEND resize to resolution 1841x666 7.0053 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND texture 'MISSING_TEXTURE_COMPARATOR_THIS_IS_NOT_ERROR' not found. Asked from 'VIEWERCOMMON' 7.0072 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND texture 'MISSING_TEXTURE_normal_COMPARATOR_THIS_IS_NOT_ERROR' not found. Asked from 'VIEWERCOMMON' Help!!!???

For models that do not support an external specular map, the per-model global simple reflection/specular values stored in model.edm.json are the only way to affect their lighting "fuz-nose-steel": { "reflMult": 1.0, "reflAdd": 0.20000000298023223877, "specMult": 0.0, "specAdd": 0.50400000810623168945, "specSelect": 0, "albedoLevel": 0.0, "albedoContrast": 0.89999997615814208984 } Is it possible to override these values in a single livery skin while leaving the defaults for all other skins? Maybe placing some file in that livery directory or adding content to description.lua (like where the skin is defined) {"fuz-nose-steel", 0, "SU39-fuz-nose-steel-PAINT6-DEF-01", false}I'd like to change the shinyness of a custom skin without having to mod the DCS installation itself