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Fixed a couple things and its working now, anyone who is new to this and has never installed custom skins need to read the tutorial by the 476th vFG, by far the best tutorial out there. I had to create a couple new folders and also the description files kept reverting to .txt rather than .lua. :thumbup:

Thanks Blooze, just changed them all to false but still don't see the new skin as an option to pick in the ME. Any other ideas? I even added all the .bmp files to the same folder as the screen above.

Just tried everything as TRUE. No luck, the 338th isn't showing up in the drop down menu to pick from, any help is appreciated, here is a screen:

I'm trying to save the description file in the liveries but I keep getting "access is denied" error, any ideaS? EDIT: I just saved it to desktop and then moved the description file back into the folder. DCS is still not showing the skin as an option to pick from though. I have the new folder in the liveries in DCS World, OpenBeta, and the 2.0 Alpha. Any suggestions? I created my skins, saved them as bmps, used dtxbmp to convert to .dds, saved all those into a new folder in the appropriate liveries folders, then altered a description file from a different skin to reflect the proper .dds files and then changed everything from {true} to {false}.

I only have spent time in the A-10C, but the thing I did to get the basics was to play the training missions. They are excellent. I also have a few community made checklists or step by steps that I have on my ipad that I use as my knee board. Just learned how to drop laser guided munitions, so much fun.

I guess what I mean is I know how to place things and where on the template but do the layers have to be named a certain way and do they have to be in a certain folder? If someone can help me I'm more than willing to put the skin up for anyone to have.

*Air National Guard is what the title should be. Anyways, I made this this morning. Would like to use it, anyone have a good tutorial about where to add these things to the model you wish? I have the templates and can see where things should go but do they have to have special layers in certain areas to show up?

Yes, borchi brought up a good and obvious point, you should use what Blender calls the "mirror modifier," then you only have to worry about modeling one half of the model and any change you do to the mesh will mirror itself on the other side. :thumbup:

Anyone know of a Colorado Nat. Guard skin for the A-10C?

1) Not sure about the coding/animations etc but first things first, a 3D model of the gear is needed. 2) Should be able to make some of that work in the ME and the use of scripts. 3) Been mentioned a lot, who knows what will happen, its alpha still. Also, ATC seems to be going through a major overhaul which will be great to see. 4) If you get the skin, you could do it in the ME: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2590350&postcount=203

I'd start with making sure the airfield isn't set to neutral and there is a ground unit there. I'll let someone else chime in from here cause I can't remember the rest either.

BAK-12 is what I was finding as well, thanks. :thumbup: All ground based arresting gear is used mainly for emergency purposes for all branches. The USN and USMC would also use our E-28 and M-21 gear to get current before going on a float and would also use what the USAF had, because it was nicer, newer, and to keep their crews on top of their game since a USAF aircraft trapping is rare since it basically scraps the airframe.

I noticed that USAF Nellis has the arresting gear cable textured onto the concrete and the markers signaling the arresting gear placement. Awesome to see! Any plans on modeling the arresting gear? I was an aircraft recovery specialist in the USMC and was thinking about modeling the E-28 and M-21 gear and researching what the USAF uses and possibly doing that. However, if ED has plans for this I won't bother.

As far as separating things for animations yes, but I don't have much knowledge in that area. I'd say try to complete the external model first, then worry about animations. Someone with more know how may say different but that is my approach. Yes! Save and save some more. I think I have about 15 different file saves for the F4 at multiple stages of the build. As far as polys, like I said DCS seems to let you get away with a bunch of polys which is awesome, but don't let that make it seem like you have use all they give you, if you can have the same exact outcome with half the polys then go that route. Here are a couple screens of what I'm talking about: The first shot is of the wing at 3000+ tris. Once I was happy with the shape and smoothness, I start to delete what isn't needed, then attach/fill/link the remaining verts. Go slowly at this stage, because some deletes you make will change the look to the model so always check. The second shot was after about 30 minutes of deleting what wasn't needed, and it kept the same exact shape and look as the 3000+ tris but now is only 800 tris. It is a boring step but much needed if you want to save on your overall poly numbers.

Nice. You should start thinking 10 steps ahead at this point, more on that later. As far as your question about what to model first, it really is up to you but you are starting good. My work flow is the large parts, fuselage, wings, etc, then the smaller parts but really I move around a lot. When I get stuck or frustrated, either walk away and come back the next day or move on to another part. Don't be afraid to remodel things either, you'll start to learn tricks and different ways to model. I think I modeled certain parts of the aircraft I've done about 10 times. Mess around with the subdivision surface modifier as well, I use this to get smoother things and once you are happy, you can apply them, then go back and get rid of unneeded polys without changing the overall appearance. As far as looking ahead, where you are at is a good place to look ahead, is this AI or do you want it flyable, this will change certain things you do. Take for instance the canopy area, if you want it to be animated then you'll have to start thinking about how you'll cut this area out. Anyways, your model looks great at this point and as far as I know DCS gives you a TON of polys to play with, so keep mess around with it. Right now it looks like you are less than 1000 tris. The less the better as long as the quality is there (for games) but DCS gives you a lot to work with. One last thing, with that shape you will either have to mark sharps or apply an edge spilt modifier because you are going to end up with some odd shading issues with out them. Cheers

I just opened up the NEVADA Cold start mission in the editor, deleted some of the AI placed, added a few others and then added some at Creech and GL. Saved it under my missions under a different name. Then you have a template to build from. :thumbup:

Great, thanks for the response. For some reason I remember reading somewhere that Blender couldn't be used so this makes me happy for the future. I'm modeling with TF for CLoD so my focus is there but PM me if you have any questions with Blender. I started from scratch as well about 14 months ago and finished modeling my first aircraft about 4 months ago. Keep it up, you are making great progress in a short time, it is cool to see. I understand about no time recently... NTTR is a lot of fun and drains time! Cheers

Nice progress man. Does DCS allow models from Blender?

I guess someone could create an airliner skin for the KC-135 since its very similar to the 707. The only way we will get some civilian AI air traffic soonish would be if it comes from a private modder. It is a shame that Blender users can't contribute, correct me if I am wrong but I believe I heard that you cannot use Blender for DCS. The only other way I see it happening is if companies who develop for FSX can painlessly move over some of their models to DCS. If it is strictly AI then perhaps it might happen.

Sweet thanks for the link! There is just too much info out there sometimes to find what you are looking for. Appreciate it. :thumbup:

Anyway we can see the ATC F commands be constant, meaning Nellis is always F1, McCarran F2, etc? With voice attack you assign what you want to say to bring up a certain command, and it works great but depending on your location the airports move around in the F commands, so Nellis is sometimes F1 but will change to F2 if I'm closer to Creech, etc. Not a big deal at all, just curious on if this is possible.

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Agreed. Pretty amazing stuff. The lighting is excellent. Speaking of night, we even have a correct starry night. Here is a shot of Ursa Major and the Pleiades! Incredible detail. They are even in the correct spot at the correct time and date. :thumbup:

Posting these things is new to me so let me know if this is not what you needed. Thanks! The sim is amazing just getting frustrated at the crashes. Logs.zip

Not sure if it is related to the other posts but it seems different. I flew a campaign mission in the A-10C for about 50 minutes, perfect everything. I come in for a final approach to Batumi and the game crashes... DCS has stopped working error. Same error I have got since I started playing DCS with the open beta. Not sure what is causing it but it is frustrating. I can't play for longer than an hour before this happens. Desktop.zip