crazyeddie Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 I see somebody has worked out how to add extra skins to the existing skins for the Mig 29A, and that seems to work really well with some excellent new skins being added just recently. I have been trying to add a couple of UK skins to the F4 using the same method but no matter what combination of entries I make in the 'description' file the game always defaults to the F4-OKR-1 skin. Has anyone ever managed to work this out, I see previous posts about it and others have tried but they all seem to give up in the end. I realise the F4 .edm file only has 2 skin slots written into it, but if it works for the Mig29A why not the F4, and any other aircraft we might like to add skins to.
crazyeddie Posted April 27, 2014 Author Posted April 27, 2014 I was hoping somebody could suggest a way to do this. Here is an example of the skins I am trying to add to this very old aircraft. I appreciate most of the Sqn represented never flew the F4E but given it is the only working airframe we have I thought they might add something to the sim, and give us some competition for the new Mig 19. If I can get this project to work I will add other skins, USMC and RAAF. 1
joey45 Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 Nice UK liveries. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. "Me, the 13th Duke of Wybourne, here on the ED forums at 3 'o' clock in the morning, with my reputation. Are they mad.." https://ko-fi.com/joey45
crazyeddie Posted April 27, 2014 Author Posted April 27, 2014 2 Slightly better images of the USN aircraft. The VF 111 Aircraft still needs a little tarting up.
Home Fries Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 It can be done. As long as you know the mat names, you can use the DCS World version of a description.lua and just assign the textures to the mat name of the first slot. Just make sure to rem out the id=x at the end of the file. This post regarding the MiG-29A might help. I haven't played with the Phantom, but if you PM me your textures I'll see what I can do. -Home Fries My DCS Files and Skins My DCS TARGET Profile for Cougar or Warthog and MFDs F-14B LANTIRN Guide
crazyeddie Posted April 27, 2014 Author Posted April 27, 2014 It can be done. As long as you know the mat names, you can use the DCS World version of a description.lua and just assign the textures to the mat name of the first slot. Just make sure to rem out the id=x at the end of the file. This post regarding the MiG-29A might help. I haven't played with the Phantom, but if you PM me your textures I'll see what I can do. Cheers mate. I had a go at what they did with the Mig 29A but I must be missing something, I tried every combination I could think of but each time it defaulted to the Okra-1 skin. I will read that link during the week and have another try, and I will zip up a pack of the skins I have done for you. Thanks again Eddie
Oesau Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 crazyeddie - thanks for posting this, when you are done do you intend to upload to the user file section?
Home Fries Posted April 28, 2014 Posted April 28, 2014 (edited) Cheers mate. I had a go at what they did with the Mig 29A but I must be missing something, I tried every combination I could think of but each time it defaulted to the Okra-1 skin. Here is a sample file with all of the mat names that exist in f-4e.edm: livery = { {"texture F4-OKR-1.bmp f2 g0",0,"custom",false}; -- {"texture F4-OKR-1.bmp f2 g0",0,"F4-OKR-1.bmp",true}; -- {"texture F4-OKR-2.bmp f2 g0",0,"F4-OKR-2.bmp",true}; {"texture f-16-okras-r.bmp f2 g0",0,"f-16-okras-r.bmp",true}; {"texture EJECTSEAT.bmp f2 g0",0,"EJECTSEAT.bmp",true}; {"texture PILOT-USA-AF-OKRAS.BMP f2 g0",0,"PILOT-USA-AF-OKRAS.BMP",true}; {"texture PILOT-USA-HOLE.bmp f2 g0",0,"PILOT-USA-HOLE.bmp",true}; {"texture SOPLA-F.bmp f2 g0",0,"SOPLA-F.bmp",true}; } name = "My F-4E Skin" countries = {"USA","UK"}The 1 and 2 slot defaults are remmed out (double-dash); they are here to show you how they map. If you take the first line and insert your own texture, you should be good to go. The other mat names near the bottom are if you want to make custom pilots, etc. You can also omit them and only include the first line in the livery section; this works as well. This tested fine in the model viewer, and you might want to see how it works with one of your skins. Edited April 28, 2014 by Home Fries -Home Fries My DCS Files and Skins My DCS TARGET Profile for Cougar or Warthog and MFDs F-14B LANTIRN Guide
crazyeddie Posted April 28, 2014 Author Posted April 28, 2014 Thanks Home Fries, will start on it tomorrow. I did try to get the Tomcatz Mod up to date but the pylon placements are all over the place in his DCS Mod unfortunately and I gave up on it. Some of those are skins are ones I did for LFC2 years ago, which I have now updated a bit for DCS World. Now he is a modeller of some repute, his Mig 29UB was a little gem but he never converted it to edm format. I did get somebody to convert his Nimitz Class for me and we now have 2 of those in game, which I love. And his Kutz of course, we did 2 of those as well at the same time. Anybody interested I changed one of those to a UK style carrier Deck, HMS Furious (which never got beyond the drawing board in the 1960's). Ill throw that into the pack as well. Nice to see what appears to be a new model Moscow in the future projects thread, better ships are always a bonus Eh. If this skin mod works I will upload it once the skins are ready.
crazyeddie Posted April 28, 2014 Author Posted April 28, 2014 Home Fries Brilliant, that now works. I had not realised that in order for this to work I had to remove the default 'description' files for the 1 and 2 default skins, with them gone from the F4 Liveries file this works just fine, many thanks mate. Now I can get cracking on sorting this lot out. What next - C17 RAF perhaps !!!!!!! Thanks again mate, I knew that solution was out there somewhere.
Home Fries Posted April 28, 2014 Posted April 28, 2014 Eddie, Glad it worked for you, but you really don't need to remove the default description.luas for 1 and 2. I just remmed those lines out so that you could see where the mat names in the file were pointing, and that you need only use the first mat name for a custom skin. I left my default description.lua intact and just added the custom folder into the liveries\f-4e folder and had no problems. -Home Fries My DCS Files and Skins My DCS TARGET Profile for Cougar or Warthog and MFDs F-14B LANTIRN Guide
crazyeddie Posted April 28, 2014 Author Posted April 28, 2014 Cheers Mate. For some reason if I leave the default 'description' in the Liveries folder it defaults to that no matter what skin I load up, so in order to overcome that I just removed it and it all works fine now, I have just tested it with all the skins I have and it works perfectly now. I wonder if that has something to do with that very old .edm file, I don't really know the answer to that. I had already tried that description.lua that you had given me earlier and got the same problem in game, so assumed it was not that, then I read your earlier post about the Mig 29A and after thinking about it for a while I wondered if removing the defaults would sort it - and it did. So I will pack it up and upload it to the site later: Skins: 892 Sqn RN - HMS Ark Royal 899 Sqn RN - Sqn that was going to be formed as F4K but never happened 41 Sqn RAF Camo 23 Sqn RAF Gray Interceptor 3 Sqn RAAF (In the original US Camo which they used until the F18 arrived) USAF Vietnam Camo German Gray Two Tone VF96 Fighting Falcons Vietnam era VF111 Sundowners Vietnam era VMFA333 Fighting Shamrocks Vietnam era Anyways: Thanks again mate, I was getting to the point where I was going to give up, your little bit of help made all the difference and I really do appreciate it. Eddie
crazyeddie Posted April 28, 2014 Author Posted April 28, 2014 (edited) a Edited April 29, 2014 by crazyeddie V2 Released 1
Home Fries Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 Eddie, I had no problems using the skins with the default skins enabled. I created a mission with a flight of Turkish F-4s using the "1" camo and a flight of German F-4s using both your custom GER camo as well as the "2" camo. Both worked, though your German Camo was "doubled up" on the German markings. If you want to go forward with the German pattern, you will want to find the file that has the nationality markings and assign it as "empty". It looks like I missed that mat name and I'll see about finding it for you. Bottom line, though: I didn't need to remove the original skins; I had your skins and both defaults working in the same mission at the same time. A couple of other things: Since you have the texture files in the livery folders, you don't need to put them in TempTextures. The only things that need to go into TempTextures are files that supersede an original file (i.e. if you wanted to use on of those pilot skins as default for all USAF pilots). I did just fine only copying the liveries folder over and leaving TempTextures alone. You no longer need to save the files as BMPs, and in fact you don't even need the BMP extension anywhere in the file. DDS is the format of choice; DXT1 for these textures is fine (DXT3/DXT5 for textures with alpha channels). This should cut down your file size by a large margin. DXTBmp is the freeware program of choice for converting BMP or TGA to DDS. And a nitpick on the US/RAAF skins: both the US and RAAF put roundels on the bottom of the wing as well. RAAF does both sides with the kangaroo feet facing inboard (like you have on the top), and the US services put the roundel on the underside of the right wing (starboard). Great job breathing new life into an old bird. Now we just need ED to enable the F-4E for the UK, USA, and RAAF. -Home Fries My DCS Files and Skins My DCS TARGET Profile for Cougar or Warthog and MFDs F-14B LANTIRN Guide
crazyeddie Posted April 29, 2014 Author Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Thanks again Home Fries. I realised that the Temp Texture aircraft files were not needed last night after playing around with a couple of the texture files, improving on them etc. In V2 I will remove those and I will convert the .bmp files to .dds, I have the tools to do that. I have been trying to work out the best combinations for the pilots helmets as well, using Tomcatz textures you can do just about anything you like with that, which is a nice touch. I realise that some of the texture files are missing odd items like roundels etc and I will sort that out when I get back. I have a blank German skin that can be slotted into the German section as well, I only added the roundels and numbers because I have it allocated to the "UK" slot in my game at present. I will throw that back into the German File later. There is only 1 underside wing template so I have opted not to add the roundels to the USA aircraft because it will show up under each wing and not just on the one side, if you think it would look better with it I will add them on. One other thing I am having a problem with is the High Visibility Strips in the fuz and tails, some of the early models did not have those and I would like to remove them but cannot work out what the file name is for that item, and I cannot find anything in the .edm that relates to that skin texture. Do you know how that all works ? (Disregard - worked it out, it is part of the texture file, it will need an alfa channel to get rid of it) I am going away for a week shortly and I will sort the last bits out on my return. I also have a couple more US skins to add, but they are far from ready yet. Eddie Edited April 29, 2014 by crazyeddie
Home Fries Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 Eddie, If you can PM me a link to your template I'll be happy to take a look. As for the US roundels, it's obvious that the F-4 model ironically wasn't meant for US use (it doesn't show the USA as being a user in the datafiles). You're right that less is more in this case. -Home Fries My DCS Files and Skins My DCS TARGET Profile for Cougar or Warthog and MFDs F-14B LANTIRN Guide
crazyeddie Posted April 29, 2014 Author Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Home Fries It's okay, I see that the High Viz Plates are actually part of the skin texture, it will need a .tga file with an alfa channel to get rid of those, I will have to do that later on when I have more time. Here is V2 with blank skins for Germany, Turkey and Spain included and .dds texture files for each skin. I have managed to tart up some of the skins even more, every little helps and every time I look I see something else that could be improved. http://www.mediafire.com/download/e9iy52t2bide8dv/F4-E+Skinpack+V2.zip Anyone getting a problem with the Pilot textures can resolve it by going to the description.lua in F4 892 Sqn RN and remove the line : {"texture F-15-Y-LIGHT.tga f2 g0",0,"empty",true}; I put that in by mistake and missed it on the final uplaod. Edited April 29, 2014 by crazyeddie
Home Fries Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 Thanks, Eddie. Right now I'm up to my eyeballs getting my Cougar profile for 1.2.8 released, but I'll take a look later this week. -Home Fries My DCS Files and Skins My DCS TARGET Profile for Cougar or Warthog and MFDs F-14B LANTIRN Guide
NRG-Vampire Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 nice skins Eddie :thumbsup: please make some more :thumbup: http://www.airliners.net/photo/South-Korea--/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2433091/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Iran---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2432321/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2429811/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Turkey---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2421302/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Greece---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2415983/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2302099/L/&sid=dfbbe2d8d98d514837f8cb298c083a36 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/0960013/L/&sid=dfbbe2d8d98d514837f8cb298c083a36 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/0489051/L/&sid=dfbbe2d8d98d514837f8cb298c083a36 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2413058/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2412773/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2388690/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/1686483/L/&sid=331a8f32484706a7465bef4565c3b5c9 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/0960012/L/&sid=331a8f32484706a7465bef4565c3b5c9 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/1865768/L/&sid=331a8f32484706a7465bef4565c3b5c9 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/0668220/L/&sid=331a8f32484706a7465bef4565c3b5c9 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/1937370/L/&sid=331a8f32484706a7465bef4565c3b5c9 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2344750/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/1593333/L/&sid=331a8f32484706a7465bef4565c3b5c9 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Egypt---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2129237/L/&sid=d5d72826325e19379ebab67d97d962c0 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Egypt---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2129238/L/&sid=9cd51489243730fa93da22534c2f6656 http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E/2337599/L/&sid=33c8b9a1d7a925624c5510ba7cfe0176
crazyeddie Posted April 30, 2014 Author Posted April 30, 2014 Working on a couple more but will have a break for a few weeks to go on Holiday, there are mountains to fall down and lakes to fall into. And at my age I might not get up or out !!! Thanks for the picture links, one of those is nearly finished, the light gray job from Alaska, or was it Iceland, I forget which.
Recommended Posts