US Navy Fighter Squadrons Vol I & II (Fictional)

[Home Fries]

My Su-27 skins have been made available for the Su-33 using jamison1982's template.

The screenshots are of the Su-27 skins, but the Su-33 skins are near-identical.

Note: this skin pack uses an EXE installer that creates common texture folders and an autoexec.cfg (if you already have one, you can make manual changes). I would like your feedback on this system; if it works I intend to apply it to my other skin packs.

 

Volume I: VF-21, VF-103, VF-124

Volume II: VF-2, VF-111, VF-213

 

Volume I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Volume II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy, and Fly Navy!

[Winston 60]

Love the skins Home Fries. Would love even more a conventional install so I could just put them into \bazar\liveries\Su-33 folder.

[Home Fries]

Thanks, Winston.

 

I'm open to suggestions, but I'm curious: why do you prefer putting skins in your installation directory instead of user files?

 

Reason I ask is that user files don't need to be toggled/updated after patches and there's no way to accidentally compromise the main install. Likewise, having shared texture folders saves over 3X the hard drive space versus the conventional method if you have all three versions of DCS installed. Even with only a single install, some files are shared between skins and volumes (and even between the Su-33 and Su-27) which still helps with the hard drive footprint.

 

What you can always do is install to a dummy folder, then either copy the liveries to Bazar and Textures to TempTextures (all texture files, no nested folders), or you can create a JSGME mod with the same folder structure. All of the filenames I use are unique so you won't have to worry about overwriting filenames.

 

BTW, If I get enough feedback wanting conventional installations, I'll figure out a way to make that an option in the installer.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Home Fries

[Winston 60]

It's pretty much like a "what kind of car do you have?" option. I'd hate to be told that I have to buy a Chevrolet because someone tells me that's the only way I can own a car. An option to install these fine skins in the conventional way would be a nice addition to your work.

 

I just prefer to do things manually. It's pretty easy to simply drop a folder into \Bazar\Liveries\ the folders there are not affected by updates and are never removed or altered by updates. I like to be able to easily change or add/remove any and all skins/folders manually as the need arises.

 

I have but one DCS World install and a SSD with over 400gb remaining. I don't see a few megs of additional description.lua files as a problem which would be the only thing you'd have to add besides separating the .dds files to make these new skins install in the conventional manner.

 

But thanks for these great Su-33 skins. I have all your similar Su-27 skins installed, in the conventional way of course, and I'll probably just make my own description.lua files for these if you decide not to offer an install option.

 

Cheers,

+1,

and Reputation added!

[Home Fries]

No problem at all. I do things this way because it is easier for version control, both in changing things and then retroactively applying the upgrades to existing skin packs. I used to keep two versions of each skin pack (a public and private version), but testing and version control gets unwieldy.

 

I'll see if I can figure out a way to set up a macro in NSIS that can parse files to folders and automatically update the true/false flag in the desc.lua. This may take a while, though; NSIS uses a lot of push/pop assembly type instructions, so something I could do quickly in VB6 may not be as easy for the installer.

[Winston 60]

Home Fries, No problem, I see that this is probably a better way for you as a skin maker and I'm sure other users will like this and see it as a great install solution, but... well, you see, it's the .exe installer that's a turn off for me. I'm a manual kinda guy. I don't want any .exe's installing extremely simple things for me.

 

I'll settle for separating your graphic files into individual folders and building a description.lua for each and although it will take me some time and detour me away from "Steel Winter" and other tasks, I'll be happier in the end and I will still retain my skins in their conventional location.

 

Cheers

[Home Fries]

DCS 1.5.5 introduces some incompatibilities with skins, in particular the Su-27 and Su-33. However, fixing the skins is fairly easy.

 

First, you will need a unicode compatible text editor. Notepad++ is free and is extremely popular among programmers and modders. Once Notepad++ is installed, perform the following steps:

 

1. Go into your c:\users\<username>\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Su-33\<skin name> folder.
   
2. open description.lua in Notepad++.
   
3. repeat steps 1 and 2 for all Su-33 USN skins (it should open tabs for each file).
   
4. press ctrl+h to bring up the replace box.
   
5. In the Find What box, type "empty.tga" (including quotes).
   
6. In the Replace With box, type "empty.png" (including quotes).
   
7. Click the button that says "Replace All in All Open Documents". This should correct every instance in every file.
   
8. Save all files.
   
9. Optional: copy these folders in c:\users\<username>\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries to Saved Games\DCS.openbeta. Do not apply to Saved Games\DCS.openalpha.
   

What this does is replaces the tga extension with png in the texture file call, which is important in the new default texture folders. Now the skin will look for any file called empty with the png extension instead of targa. That should fix your Su-33.

 

Special thanks to Winston 60 for this fix.

 

This should hold you over until the 1.5.5 skin issues are stabilized and I can put out an updated version.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Home Fries

[X_Man]

Thank you for this! Wondering if you could make a US "Marines" Aggressor Skin for the Su-33, That would be awesome!

[Home Fries]

Great idea, X_Man. It shouldn't be too difficult. I'll put it in my queue of things to do, but it could be a couple of months.

[Home Fries]

I got motivated and had a few hours, so I knocked out an air superiority blue Marine adversary Su-27 for TOPGUN. I've also done a Navy ASB version, and in addition to ASB I plan to do desert and woodland camo patterns for VFC-12, VFC-13, VFC-111 and VMFT-401.

 

[X_Man]

Home Fries - Thank you so much! Just upped your reputation for your super speed in responding!

[frodrigues2016]

skins

 

Hi all....i would like to know if copy skins to DCS could damage it?

[Home Fries]

Hi all....i would like to know if copy skins to DCS could damage it?

 

Anytime you touch your main install, you can corrupt it. However, there are ways to install skins to DCS without even touching the main install.

 

Simply navigate to your c:\users\<username>\saved games\DCS, and add the folder called "Liveries" if it isn't there already. From there, you add the aircraft type (e.g. Su-27 or Su-33) and then copy the skin to the new folder (e.g. liveries\su-33).

 

If you use my skins, I put them into an installer that will default to your saved games folder and then install them without ever touching the main dcs install.

[Home Fries]

Volumes I and II are updated to 1.02. The biggest part of the update is the installer that now allows for a traditional install (i.e. textures in livery folder). The 27 volumes are also updated, and the adversaries should be released shortly (27 only).

[Winston 60]

Home Fries, thanks for the new installer and updating these great skins. This will be a big plus for many users and will make my US Navy Squadrons Su-33 Carrier Ops missions much simpler to create and easier for users to download and play with your skins.

[X_Man]

Thanks Home Fires!

 

Could someone help me edit the correct .lua files to install all the missiles the F/A-18C on the Su-27. Using JSGME to install and uninstall the modded files is the plan - can anyone help?

[X_Man]

Downloaded them last night! Thank you for your hard work and maximum effort!

Question - how what do I have to do to get these skins ready for the Su-33?

[Home Fries]

Downloaded them last night! Thank you for your hard work and maximum effort!

Question - how what do I have to do to get these skins ready for the Su-33?

 

All you should need to do is run the installer. It will point to your saved games folder and take care of the rest.

[Home Fries]

Both Su-33 skin packs are updated to 1.05. This is a significant update that aligns the skins with the official Su-33 template. You'll see a lot more detail now.

 

Special thanks to jamison1982 for the Su-33 template that held us over until ED released its official template.

[Winston 60]

Both Su-33 skin packs are updated to 1.05. This is a significant update that aligns the skins with the official Su-33 template. You'll see a lot more detail now.

 

Special thanks to jamison1982 for the Su-33 template that held us over until ED released its official template.

Thanks Home Fries. I removed the old Su-33 skins that I had modified and installed in the conventional manner several months ago and installed your updated skins using the conventional install method to take advantage of the new alignment. The installer worked well and an quick inspection of the skins didn't turn up any problems that i could see. I'll check them out more thoroughly later.

 

Thanks for taking the time to update these.

[Home Fries]

All Su-33 skins are updated to 1.05a. This version updates the installer for DCS 2.5 and DCS Legacy 1.5.

[t00nsoldier]

Awesome. Thank you. Worked flawlessly:thumbup: