P-51D Alabama Rammer Jammer skin

[tonialkon]

One of the Nicest Skin for DCS P-51!!!

[Whiplash]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the positive feedback!

 

Did some flying yesterday. Mighty fine template Whiplash, easily on par with the one by Tom Weiss. Aluminum finish looks really good not only during romantic sunsets ;) but in a bright daylight as well. Do You consider using it for some Pacific/Korea liveries by any chance :D?

 

The bare metal template could be used for anything really but I haven't got around to making any Pacific/Korea ones yet. I have a back list of a few from the MTO I want to make eventually like Bob Goebel's Flying Dutchman from his book mustang ace.

 

Wow. That's outstanding work!

 

I have a couple of questions that have probably been answered elsewhere but I can't seem to find them.

 

Number 1, can you get the bare metal finish to look that way by just bumping up the video settings in DCS and selecting the proper skin? I've had some bare metal skins that didn't look shiny at all, but were dull gray. I thought I had my settings bumped up after getting a nicer graphics card but maybe I'm missing a setting.

 

Number 2, what can anyone tell me about the SPEC files. If I remember right, those are to make the finish either dull or shiny when the textures are applied. Is that correct? The follow up would be, are the whiter areas in the SPEC files shinier and the blacker areas more dull? I've seen some SPEC files with a lot of pink and yellow and I've seen others with just black and white.

 

Thanks, and again, that's an awesome skin. I do believe I'm going to have to find that and put it in my stable.

 

From what I know its all in the Spec layer if you want to make the metal shinny. I haven't played with ultra low video setting too much so I can't really comment on how they effect the spec layer but from what I have experienced its very little. I have spent a lot of time playing around with different contrast of colors with different lighting just to see how they effect the shine of the plane. Their is nothing revolutionary in the spec layer I used for this skin. The base layer are all from the ED template. I enhanced a few as well as created my own layers until I liked the results.

 

If you look at my spec layer you can see that I really only use three different color contrast, Pink, Green, and Black. Pink is the shinny layer, green is smi gloss, and black is flat. I got the best results with these contrast, but you could easily make it light red, yellow, and dark blue or something. From what I have experienced the lighter the color the shinier the skin will be and contrast is essential.

[311Gryphon]

From what I know its all in the Spec layer if you want to make the metal shinny. I haven't played with ultra low video setting too much so I can't really comment on how they effect the spec layer but from what I have experienced its very little. I have spent a lot of time playing around with different contrast of colors with different lighting just to see how they effect the shine of the plane. Their is nothing revolutionary in the spec layer I used for this skin. The base layer are all from the ED template. I enhanced a few as well as created my own layers until I liked the results.

 

If you look at my spec layer you can see that I really only use three different color contrast, Pink, Green, and Black. Pink is the shinny layer, green is smi gloss, and black is flat. I got the best results with these contrast, but you could easily make it light red, yellow, and dark blue or something. From what I have experienced the lighter the color the shinier the skin will be and contrast is essential.

 

Thank you! I downloaded your skin and have looked it over a little. I'm at work so I'll have to take it home with me to fly it around. I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my first P-51 skin and this should help me sort out some of the little things that make it nicer.

[311Gryphon]

Okay.....new question. I've been working in Model Viewer to try to speed up the process of checking my skins and also to try to find the proper name for some of the textures to edit the description.lua. I can't make the prop work. When it is stationary it grabs the part of the fuz_front file and so that works fine. But as soon as it spins up to the point where it starts swapping textures it goes back to default. I would assume that I have something wrong with the description but I've gone over it repeatedly. If anyone has a chance to look this over, let me know what I'm doing wrong.

 

{"pilot_P51_helmet_A", 0 ,"pilot_p51_helmet_MissA",False};

{"p51d_blade prop", 0 ,"p51D_prop_bladeMissA",False};

{"p51d_prop_3", 0 ,"p51D_prop_3MissA",False};

{"p51d_prop", 0 , "p51D_propMissA",False};

 

I've also tried:

{"p51d_prop_blade", 0 , "p51D_prop_bladeMissA",False};

because I've got two different textures that look like they could be the blade file in Model Viewer.

 

You'll have to take my word for it that I have my file names correct for the textures I've made. Also, the helmet works perfectly. Thanks in advance.

[Whiplash]

Sorry, I don't have any experience with the animated pop texture. I thought I saw another forum on here a while ago that had a solution for it. Hopefully someone who knows better can help you out because I am interested in knowing as well.

[311Gryphon]

I know this thread was about making Alabama Rammer Jammer and not general skinning, but I thought I'd post a picture of my skin since we discussed it. I never did figure out how to get the .lua to change the spinning prop to my texture but that's okay I guess. The prop on this plane in real life has a very reflective front surface for about half of each prop blade. That shows up well when the prop is barely spinning or not spinning. Oh well.