F14 Skinners thread (Paintkit in 1st post)

[captain_dalan]

1 hour ago, Swordsman422 said:

 

Cosmetic args for the early F-14A. Copy to your description.lua and edit as required for the pre-1983 appearance:

custom_args = {
    --[115] = 1.000,         -- Remove Entire TCS Chinpod --
    --[116] = 1.000,         -- Add ALQ-100-only Chinpod --
    [701] = 1.000,         -- Spine GPS Dome Visibility --
    };

No way of doing this through the mission editor? 

[LanceCriminal86]

16 minutes ago, captain_dalan said:

No way of doing this through the mission editor? 

No, it's an appearance only. If the actual ability to change them comes about then that would be reflected in changelogs.

[Swordsman422]

Edit: fixed the formatting and tab alignment of my original arg post.

Edited October 23 by Swordsman422

[captain_dalan]

1 hour ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

No, it's an appearance only. If the actual ability to change them comes about then that would be reflected in changelogs.

Ah, so it needs to be changed every time before starting DCS (if we want for the appearance to change of course)? And the effect is only applied to the A (early)?

Sorry for the noob questions, while playing with custom control inputs and even a bit of skinning, I just haven't played with the description.lua before. 

[draconus]

Never done that either but from what I know you could take your favorite livery, copy it to \saved games\dcs\liveries\ (into the proper Tomcat folder of course), change the folder name and make changes to the description.lua there including the new folder name and livery name. Then you'll be able to just change the livery to your own in the DCS ME or rearm-refuel request.

[Tomcatter87]

6 hours ago, draconus said:

Never done that either but from what I know you could take your favorite livery, copy it to \saved games\dcs\liveries\ (into the proper Tomcat folder of course), change the folder name and make changes to the description.lua there including the new folder name and livery name. Then you'll be able to just change the livery to your own in the DCS ME or rearm-refuel request.

This is the way. At least for now. One thing I discovered though was that my AI wingman still had the TCS, even though I had edited his skin as well. 

[LanceCriminal86]

I'd expect to see better solutions roll down in follow-on updates and as the early art gets done these arguments might change. Probably the TCS variations should just be one animation and need a way to ensure when you change jets it resets the argument so it doesn't carry over. There is also a goal to try and make sure that the 80s/90s skins and Yae's 70s stuff would get moved over to the 80s 135, but still have a link over so the late jet could use the skins without actually copying the files (so missions don't break or for those that like blasphemy). You can use the description.lua to reference another folder/skin, like we used on the Phantom to share some common bits like roughmets or helmets and pylons. Hopefully updates to the base files should also help slim down the need for custom roughmets and normal maps too, at least for a good portion of the jets.

Hopefully, someday a better livery management solution comes along so folks that want to slim down the install size can, and those that want the terabytes of skins can get them directly from HB or through the ED launcher or something.

[Nealius]

One other minor annoyance, similar to when we got the option to remove the fuel tank pylons, is that most skins have a black oval where the TCS once was when we use args to show the ALQ-100.

Also, how do I get Yae's VF-41 skins to work with the 135-early? I tried putting the commons.zip items in my Save Games liveries folder but only the x00 birds work. All the others have missing texture issues. 

VF-213 has missing textures issues on the engine nozzles as well.

Edited yesterday at 03:13 AM by Nealius

[LanceCriminal86]

12 hours ago, Nealius said:

One other minor annoyance, similar to when we got the option to remove the fuel tank pylons, is that most skins have a black oval where the TCS once was when we use args to show the ALQ-100.

Also, how do I get Yae's VF-41 skins to work with the 135-early? I tried putting the commons.zip items in my Save Games liveries folder but only the x00 birds work. All the others have missing texture issues. 

VF-213 has missing textures issues on the engine nozzles as well.

As the proper 80s art comes around I know most of us will be working to have all our past skins reworked to include pylons and TCS mounting areas. One thing to note is I did find shots of VF-111 around the time TCS was coming online where they had the ALQ-100 affixed, but you could clearly see an outline where a TCS had been. So for 80s skins it might actually be correct in a way to have some outlines of TCS footprint in the grime, versus skins intended purely without it may want to clean up those areas further.

The big problem with removable bits is that the Ambient Occlusion, Normals, Roughtmet, etc. are intended for one or the other, and I don't believe you can dynamically switch between two sets of each and have that be triggered by the anim argument through the loadout page. You'd need multiple sets of each of those with unique names or in a dedicated folder, which would then increase the amount of textures that need to be loaded increasing overhead. And of course if a skin is using patterns that call for roughmets different from the standard TPS or gull gray schemes, a whole extra custom set is again needed.

Ultimately something will be done to clean it up, but trying to make all conditions perfect to swap those arguments around "live" and expecting it to always look perfect is not realistic right now the way the engine is set up.

[draconus]

Is the fate of rudder glitch decided yet?