[DCSW:BS2] Tutorial – Black and Blue - Multiple cockpit textures for Ka-50

As a big fan of both Richardo/Devrim's Black HD cockpit and Richardo's Blue cockpit, I've never been able to choose one and always found myself switching between the two. The thought of having them both installed at the same time and picked according to livery did occur, but I never pursued the idea. Until I bought the Huey, which has that feature. So, a quick look at the files of the Huey, revealed that adopting it for the Shark, would be an easy task.

Note! All credit goes to Devrim, Richardo, Belsimtek (for showing how it's done) and Eagle Dynamics of course!

If interest exists I could upload the whole ready-to-use package, textures included (I know Devrim thinks it OK, just waiting for confirmation on Richardo as well)

In the meantime, this is how it's done:

What you'll need:

Basic computer skills, copy, rename, working with archives, etc. But don't worry, it's super simple - if anything seems strange, it's just my inability to explain clearly. Just ask and I'll try to better myself.

Cockpit textures

Note, this procedure work with any BS2 textures, and you could have more than two, this is just my preference and what is used for the example.

• Ricardo/Devrim's Black Cockpit - http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=94081
  
• Ricardo's Blue Cockpit - http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=99751
  (download available in this post: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1825818&postcount=153)
  

Software

• A text editor. I use Notepad++, but just Notepad is fine.
  
• A program for (de-)compressing ZIP archives. I'll use the free 7zip, but WinZip, WinRar, Windows-built-in etc. is fine, but you will have to modify some step as per your programs mode of operation.
  

Steps

1. Copy both texture-packs to a temp folder, I'll call it [TEMP] from now on and extract them like shown below, you'll get two new folders with the same name as the archives.
    
   
   
2. We'll use the Blue packs folder (the one named [TEMP]\Cockpit-Ka-50 Textures) as our work directory. Open that folder, the many files here are the different textures that makes up the cockpit. The neat thing is that most of the textures are the same for both the black and the blue version, so we only have to work on a few.
    
   Append _blue to the name of the following files:
    
   

   Ka-50 dash-board
   Ka-50 devices
   Ka-50 interior
   Ka-50 interior2
   Ka-50 Panel L
   Ka-50 Panel R
   Ka-50 RightTopPan
   Ka-50_recockpit_1
   

   For example: Rename Ka-50 dash-board to Ka-50 dash-board_blue
    
   
   

3. Navigate to [TEMP]\Devrim_DCSWBS2_UpgradedHDPit_v1.1\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\Cockpit\Resources\Model\Textures\Cockpit-Ka-50 Textures.zip. Select all files within the archive and copy and paste them to our work-dir (the folder where we renamed the files remember). When asked about replacing, choose no. Your work-dir should now look like this, green marks whats different from stock:
    
   
   
4. Re-compress the cockpit textures like shown below:
    
   
   
5. Copy (and replace) your new zip to [DCS World]\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\Cockpit\Resources\Model\Textures (I'll use [DCS World] to indicate your DCS World installation path)
   
6. Copy [TEMP]\Devrim_DCSWBS2_UpgradedHDPit_v1.1\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit_Ka-50\english.description.lua to the corresponding location in your DCS install
   
7. Now we need to bind the different textures to the corresponding livery.
   I'll use the Russian Worn Black for this example. Open the file [DCS World]\Bazar\Liveries\ka-50\Russia Worn Black\description.lua and add this after line nr 19:
   

   {"dash-board", 0, "Ka-50 dash-board_blue", true},
   {"devka 50", 0, "Ka-50 devices_blue", true},
   {"interior", 0, "Ka-50 interior_blue", true},
   {"interior 2", 0, "Ka-50 interior2_blue", true},
   {"panel ka 50 left", 0, "Ka-50 Panel L_blue", true},
   {"panel r", 0, "Ka-50 Panel R_blue", true},
   {"right top panel", 0, "Ka-50 RightTopPan_blue", true},
   {"Ka-50_recockpit_1", 0, "Ka-50_recockpit_1_blue", true},
   

   
    
   Final step: Open [DCS World]\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\entry.lua and add this after line 75:
   

   mount_vfs_texture_path(current_mod_path .. "/Cockpit/Resources/Model/Textures/Cockpit-Ka-50 Textures")
   

   
   

8. Try it!
   

Now repeat step 7 for any livery that you want in blue colors. Knowing which one is supposed to be blue is of course the real challenge here. I'd love some help on that. So far I've only found three cockpit-livery pairs when searching the net. (With one being a grey pit. :noexpression:) I'm sure the truth is out there! (Wish I knew Russian. :()

Great work Hunden. Really nice.

I sent PM to Ricardo. Waiting for reply.

Thanks again for work. :beer:

Thanks a lot Devrim! And thanks for the Ricardo connection!

For those curious, since I didn't want to make the first post look scary - like this one will ;):

The lines added to the livery description.lua that looks like this:

{"panel ka 50 left", 0, "Ka-50 Panel L_blue", true},

Translates to something like this:

{“surface name”, surface type (0 = diffuse), "texture name", search outside current dir},

So it basically tells what texture file to map to each surface and where to look for it - just what we need. However, the tricky thing was, how do you know the name of the surface? You can get plenty of help by looking in the DCS World\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit_Ka-50\english\description.lua file. Which in the same way as we override black cockpit textures with blue, overrides Russian with English in the vanilla game. But you don't get all from that file. To do so, load up the cockpit model file in a hex-editor and search for the texture name. In the screen-shot below I searched for the “ka-50 panel l” texture, and you may find the name of the surface highlighted in green. This can of course be repeated for any texture.

Great info buddy. Really thanks so much. :)

Hello

Just came across this...

Fantastic find but I'm wondering something - is it possible to have random cockpit colours, So for example if you load up Worn Black you get either black or blue cockpit?

Or can you only have 1 per skin?

Also, any ideas on other liveries and their cockpit colours (I see only 3 were identified when this thread was posted)?

good idea and nice try!!!!

suggestion:

IMO, you don't need to add more dds into original pit zip file and re-pack it (save operations and avoid update/repair fix issue).

I think you can just create a folder 'Cockpit-Ka-50 Textures' beside the original pit zip file with the same name, then move all the modified/black/blue dds into that folder.

And the following instructions remain same.