Adding a skin, im stuck.

[Vekkinho]

There's an alternate way - placing the first digit directly before the nomera positioning.

 

You mean painting the first digit directly onto the skin?! Tried to do so but I'm not completely satisfied with the result. It's pretty hard to get painted number and nomera lined up properly. In case of MiG-29 this option is almost impossible because nomeras lie too close to a intake opening so there's no place for a fistr digit. And that's probably the main reason that Russians placed 3 digit numbers onto vertical fin surface.

[Alfa]

Sorry about the belated quote, but a thought just struck me. Having opened the Mi24W.cmd file with notepad (and receiving a ton of hieroglyphs on the screen due to the binary format), I scrolled down to the bottom to see the entries referring to:

• mi24-okras.bmp
  
• nomera-yellow.tga
  
• sopla-f.bmp
  
• nomera.tga
  
• ukr-krug.tga
  
• mig23-fon.tga
  
• bano.tga
  
• wint-3-drive.tga
  
• mi8-wint.tga

Is there any idea how LO would handle a clone of a Mi-24W.cmd file with the edited texture references pointing to alternate ones, provided we can smuggle in a new CLSID? Or is FC unable of that and we have to wait till BS to be able to do so?

 

No you cannot get lockon to accept a "clone" of an active entry. There are such clones in lockon already e.g. two "mirror" entries of the Tornado in the Meinit.xml(one for UK and one for Germany), where two different CLSIDs point to the same code in the lockon.exe, but the problem is that this is defined there.....in the lockon.exe.

 

So you won't be able to do that in Black Shark either - but with Black Shark you get new 3D models in .lom format for varies units, which means that you can expand on and re-configure texture sets via associated .skins files in the same way as is currently possible with the Su-25T.

 

Edit: While I'm at it, what's the difference between a Mi-24W.cmd and a Mi-24W-OBLOMOK.cmd? FreeTranslation claims "обломок" means "fragment" - could it be a damage model?

 

Yes the "-oblomok" one is the damage model.

 

There's an alternate way - placing the first digit directly before the nomera positioning. I believe a similar trick was used for Alfa's MiG-29K and the subsequent Navy Supermod, where the first digit was directly painted onto the skin, while the other two "responded" to the plane # and so formed a three-digit nomera.

 

No that's not what I did - what I did was....

 

Alternately, editing the nomera files to have 2 digits taking up the width of one (ergo getting 11 instead of 1 or 13 instead of 3) would work.

 

....exactly that :) .

 

However, as you suggest, it only worked because the two digits I cramped into the spot of one were "3" and "1"......there isn't room for e.g. "3" and "2" :) . Moreover, for some reason the "slot" of the first digit("0") in the nomera.tga is a pixel or two wider than the rest - so while I could change the "0" to "31" and make it look ok, it probably wouldnt have been the case if I had tried changing the "3" to "31".

 

- JJ.

[Alfa]

In case of MiG-29 this option is almost impossible because nomeras lie too close to a intake opening so there's no place for a fistr digit.

 

Well then you would just have to paint the third digit instead ;)

 

And that's probably the main reason that Russians placed 3 digit numbers onto vertical fin surface.

 

Hehe.....no there is room for a 3-digit bort # on the intake ducts of the MiG-29:

 

MiG-29K

 

- JJ.

[Stealth_HR]

Cheers, Alfa. Cleared up a lot. Looks like we'll have to do with a replacement texture until BS comes along.

[Vekkinho]

 

Note the strange looking pylon on that #318 SMT in the background...

[EricJ]

Sorry about the belated quote, but a thought just struck me. Having opened the Mi24W.cmd file with notepad (and receiving a ton of hieroglyphs on the screen due to the binary format), I scrolled down to the bottom to see the entries referring to:

• mi24-okras.bmp
  
• nomera-yellow.tga
  
• sopla-f.bmp
  
• nomera.tga
  
• ukr-krug.tga
  
• mig23-fon.tga
  
• bano.tga
  
• wint-3-drive.tga
  
• mi8-wint.tga

Is there any idea how LO would handle a clone of a Mi-24W.cmd file with the edited texture references pointing to alternate ones, provided we can smuggle in a new CLSID? Or is FC unable of that and we have to wait till BS to be able to do so?

 

 

Getting a hex editor makes things more intelligible. Note you can change the texture assignments, but that's about it though.

[snowbird2]

I have been following this thread and have been picking up a great deal from it. The one issue I am still stuck on is once I have generated and placed the CLSID's for the different skins into the MEinit.xml, how do I connect that to the 3D Max model with the LOMUtils?

I have my 3D Max model on the screen in the program with the proper textures applied but I am not sure what to select in the LOM Utils to connect the displayed textures to the CLSID and then to the final LOM.

Can someone please get me past this last hurrdle.:helpsmilie:

 

Tom

[Cosmonaut]

I have been following this thread and have been picking up a great deal from it. The one issue I am still stuck on is once I have generated and placed the CLSID's for the different skins into the MEinit.xml, how do I connect that to the 3D Max model with the LOMUtils?

I have my 3D Max model on the screen in the program with the proper textures applied but I am not sure what to select in the LOM Utils to connect the displayed textures to the CLSID and then to the final LOM.

Can someone please get me past this last hurrdle.:helpsmilie:

 

Tom

 

I'm no expert with 3d modeling but do you have a ".skins" file for your 3D lom model? Edit: I think its the Value= number in the skins file that links to the ID number in the xml file.

[snowbird2]

I see what you mean here as far as the .skins folder.

 

From the .skins LOM:

value = 0.2;

material = {"Bottomwingrt", "per pixel specular", "bottomwingrt-3.bmp"};

material = {"fusalageltside", "per pixel specular", "fusalageltside-3.bmp"};

material = {"fusalagertside", "per pixel specular", "fusalagertside-3.bmp"};

material = {"rudderrt", "per pixel specular", "rudderrt-3.bmp"};

material = {"rudderlt", "per pixel specular", "rudderlt-3.bmp"};

 

And the corresponding MEinit file:

 

A-10A

- <ColorSchemes>

<ColorScheme

 

CLSID="{2C99F172-EAF3-4E49-8020-475E89467C02}">Snowbird 3 Left

 

But, when I have the model on the screen in 3D studio Max, it only can display one texture when I use the utility to create the .LOM file of the plane, which is the texture I am seeing when I import it into the game.

I am not sure how to tie in these 3rd plane textures when I only am displaying the first plane textures in 3D Max when I create the plane LOM.

Being that when you apply a texture in 3D Studio Max, you first select the part of the model to texture then apply the bitmap to it. Let's say it is xxxxxx-1.bmp texture.

How does the game know to apply the xxxxx-3.bmp texture when the plane LOM was created only with the xxxxx-1.bmp texture.

This may sound confusing but it is the only way I can explain it.

[Cosmonaut]

CLSID="{2C99F172-EAF3-4E49-8020-475E89467C02}">Snowbird 3 Left

 

The CLSID you posted is the second entry.. The entry above it, in the xml file, shares the same CLSID number but also has an ID= number linking it to the skins file. eg.

 

<ColorScheme CLSID="{9F46E21D-88F0-41b3-B7CF-0D825D9A4A6B}" ID="0" Name="AF Standard 1"></ColorScheme>

 

 

 

second entry;

 

<ColorScheme CLSID="{9F46E21D-88F0-41b3-B7CF-0D825D9A4A6B}">AF Standard 1</ColorScheme>

[Alfa]

Hi Snowbird,

 

The colurscheme set you apply in Max is the default one, which is listed as the first one in the *.skins file and given the value "0.0". What the *.skins file does is actually just to provide alternatives to the default skin.

 

These alternatives are identified and distributed via the meinit.xml - first listed under the aircraft entry, where each colourscheme line contains a unique CLSID and an "ID=" - the ID number corresponds to the value in the *.skins file :) . Then colourschemes are distributed to countries by listing them with their CLSIDs for the aircraft under each country entry.

 

In other words declaring alternative colourschemes is done entirely via the .skins file - i.e....

 

value = 0.2;

material = {"Bottomwingrt", "per pixel specular", "bottomwingrt-3.bmp"};

 

...for colourscheme set 0.2 (ID # 2 in meinit) the model part "Bottomwingrt" should load a texture called "bottomwingrt-3.bmp"

 

Hope this helps.

 

I see what you mean here as far as the .skins folder.

 

From the .skins LOM:

value = 0.2;

material = {"Bottomwingrt", "per pixel specular", "bottomwingrt-3.bmp"};

material = {"fusalageltside", "per pixel specular", "fusalageltside-3.bmp"};

material = {"fusalagertside", "per pixel specular", "fusalagertside-3.bmp"};

material = {"rudderrt", "per pixel specular", "rudderrt-3.bmp"};

material = {"rudderlt", "per pixel specular", "rudderlt-3.bmp"};

 

And the corresponding MEinit file:

 

A-10A

- <ColorSchemes>

<ColorScheme

 

CLSID="{2C99F172-EAF3-4E49-8020-475E89467C02}">Snowbird 3 Left

 

But, when I have the model on the screen in 3D studio Max, it only can display one texture when I use the utility to create the .LOM file of the plane, which is the texture I am seeing when I import it into the game.

I am not sure how to tie in these 3rd plane textures when I only am displaying the first plane textures in 3D Max when I create the plane LOM.

Being that when you apply a texture in 3D Studio Max, you first select the part of the model to texture then apply the bitmap to it. Let's say it is xxxxxx-1.bmp texture.

How does the game know to apply the xxxxx-3.bmp texture when the plane LOM was created only with the xxxxx-1.bmp texture.

This may sound confusing but it is the only way I can explain it.