Texac

Absolutely. I remember the times from 2015 where long development times, bugs or incomplete features, etc. were all we had to deal with, the usual stuff. But nothing I would lose my mind or trust over in a product/company since thats the side effect of a niche and complicated game genre with relatively small but dedicated teams behind it. I made my last purchase in 2023 for the F-15E by Razbam. There are a lot of really well made and exceptional modules or maps (even in Early Access) for DCS that you can still fly perfectly fine, shoot stuff and have fun with. But after watching all these ridiculous ****shows this year, including this new one, I just don't see myself spending any more cent into something that has Eagle Dynamics, DCS World or Early Access written on it.

My fictional Have Glass VI livery is now uploaded to the User Files. It's not a complete replica of my Super Viper skins with HG but it includes a few ideas and parts from my Super Viper liveries mixed with a new evolution of the Have Glass coating. I've decided last minute to change the missile launchers to dark gray (coated) and mirror the US flag patch on the pilot until ED might revert it. So the images aren't the latest regarding that. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338175/

I've updated the files. Download again through the PDF. Fixed an issue with the Mod making the new pilot textures for the new 3d model for all F-16 liveries corrupt.

Aren't we allowed to point out issues and leave feedback because to your opinion we have to be an actual maintenance crew member to do so? What makes your opinion so much clearer? Are you painting real F-16s? In any way a meaningless argument. Painting a digital 3d model compared to painting an actual aircraft made up of metals are two entirely different things. I don't think MipMaps or color profiles are a concern for crews working on the real jet. Whoever you're referring to, but no one here is really conceited with their work. We don't have to get personal. Most of us writing here are mainly interested in seeing the visuals recreated down to every little detail as close as possible since it's what we enjoy most with DCS. Some of us would have liked to contribute to the official pack as well and I think we are totally fine in sharing our views and highlighting any issues or concerns. Since it's clear that you are now single handedly going to work on all the next official liveries, we would just like to see some inaccuracies or errors that we notice flushed out. Though it seems you are not open to any kind of critique or feedback: "something about metallic and blabla thing".

ED won't implement it because it's also not optimized for performance. Since you also don't export with MipMaps checked and you haven't zipped it. Increasing file size to roughly 500MB or so for each skin. However as a side note, exporting with MipMaps and choosing the right choice of colors doesn't seem to be much of an issue for ED. Your file size is huge because, which I think is worth pointing out, you don't use ED's template and instead use a custom made template which adds much more details, fixes and stuff left out by ED. Meaning Normal, RoughMet and a whole other edited textures need to be included, resulting in a higher file size. I don't see dynamic bort numbers on your skins as well.... which, apparently as written above, also appears to be a reason to not include them. Anyways, IMO there are quite a few accurate representations of Have Glass V out there. Some were mentioned by Mach3DS but those won't be included unfortunately... Have Glass V CAN have a metallic appearance to it but it is not the rule. Since it probably takes a bit of time and flight hours to wear on the coating. And then it'll also highlight another detail that the maintenance stencils are very matte. Same as it was with the first Have Glass variants. @Cydrych I think your Have Glass V liveries look pretty decent so far, only the missing MipMaps and the stencils that aren't matte stick out to me.

I've worked on a few more Have Glass liveries for the 55th, 77th and 79th squadrons. The main difference is they are painted with black stencils. And a weathered/worn Have Glass V scheme with replacement parts from the standard blue/gray 2-tone for the 79th Tigers. Making 4 new liveries in total. They will all be uploaded separately, so not part of the pack.

The key issue this thread is supposed to translate is, that with the recent forum thread made by Wags for submitting F-16C community liveries for inclusion in the base game was short lived and ED's decision rather disappointing for other livery creators and parts of the community. The submission process went from a possible multiple entries from various talented users to the selection of only a single livery creator from the community in a week. Whilst this is totally viable to do by ED it's also in my view additionally a massively missed opportunity in great potential from other artists and a significant loss in quality even. I don't claim to be an expert 2d/3d graphics artist, and I only do this as a hobby/passion for free as well, but as you mentioned, I was able to implement a few liveries for the Hornet back in 2018 with the excellent help of Eagle Dynamics' 3d artist and you @Flаnker. During this process I learned to follow certain guidelines and rules for a uniform quality standard that would keep all skins at one level of quality. An example would be choosing the correct color values, checking for a good balance between quality and compression, correct export settings, file size, etc. Till today I have been trying to go by these standards as best as possible. However years have passed and I don't know what technical level of quality is acceptable for Eagle Dynamics nowdays and what they are aiming for. But the level of detail, the default Viper textures bring to the table in comparison to other modules is IMO subpar. Hence that was something I wanted to tackle with my Viper Textures Overhaul. I also don't intent to neg on anyone, or break the forum rules, but from my experience and from what I have learned in the past 7 years of 2d painting, I'm claiming that with the current selection of livery creator(s) they would fall short and not even meet this technical standard mentioned above. At all. Still a lot of users are showing great interest in that work so that is something none should dismiss and I fully respect their opinion. But again I personally don't believe the quality or detail would achieve a much better or higher level (if that were to be the goal?) with the latest selection in livery creator(s). Which I believe other artists would strongly surpass.

Any other F-16 mod that adds another variant of an F-16 will not be compatible with this mod or vice versa without making changes to the files. That is because they are overwriting each others files. So the last mod you activate in OVGME or JSGME will be the final mod making changes to your original files, defining what aircraft variants are activated and which not. It's a bit complicated so I don't want to type it all down here now but you'll need to edit the two entry.lua files. For every mod that adds another F-16 variant these are located at: CoreMods\aircraft\F-16C\entry.lua Mods\aircraft\F-16C\entry.lua You will need to insert the names/new lines of code of another variant mod you want enabled into the LUA files which will be overwriting any of those entry.lua files from other mods. Or you simply combine all mods together into both entry.lua files with the same folder structure, etc. Compare all the entry LUAs from all the mods and check what lines were added to enable their aircraft variant.

That is on purpose. You're free to choose between standard gray or coated external fuel tanks by copy/pasting them into the skin files and edit the description.lua

I haven't tested it, but I don't think both mods are compatible as they overwrite each others files. Installing it via OVGME should also work.

First post updated. The mod with the skins is now released! Download directly from Mega: https://mega.nz/file/Y6xkUAxJ#JbPhlP5gqdNr91E9nHhC3Q8lajvc0dyQ7ZMd8tFJRzA Or through the User Files with a README: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3335542/

Took a little while longer, sorry for that, but I have finished the mod and skins now. I'm looking to release everything until February 2nd. Since were talking RCS and RAM coatings here is an article explaining this topic a bit more in depth. https://www.key.aero/article/have-glass-making-f-16-less-observable Because I make liveries my main and first intent was to recreate the Have Glass V coating. But afterwards I wanted to go a bit further and create a mod that gives these "skins" a noticeable effect in game. Unfortunately, as already written above, the simulation of RCS in DCS World is kept fairly simple overall and does not consider important factors such as aspect and stores configuration to calculate the RCS of an aircraft in real time. Instead a single static value in a LUA file defines the RCS of an aircraft. The article from above states a RCS reduction of 76% from 5m² to 1.2m². By default the in game RCS value for all the F-16s is set to 4. The new base value for the new F-16CM bl.50 HGV will be 0.96. A reduction of 76% as stated in the article above and a few other sources. The other Vipers are left at 4. So if you believe the reduction of 76% is straight up wishful freedom philosophy, or just doesn't fit with how it is simulated in DCS, you can change the value by editing the following LUA entry: Make sure the mod is uninstalled when making any changes! In the main mod folder go to: F-16C Have Glass V Mod\CoreMods\aircraft\F-16C Open F-16C_50_HGV.lua with Notepad++ or text editor Go to Line 581 RCS = 0.96 and change the value as you desire

That's not possible for us. ED needs to spend some time to finish the external cockpit 3d model including textures. Currently, as you can see, this area behind the pilot is empty and there are no texture files defined for it.

@SickSidewinder9 Thank you! You can replace any skin with another by simply swapping out textures or editing the description file. If you don't manage to revert these files to default, it will be done with every DCS update. However replacing or editing core files like textures or description files will result in a false IC. I'm not going to replace any default skins with my Have Glass V pack.