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F14 Skinners thread (Paintkit in 1st post)


David A Sell

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A suggestion for our very talented skin makers. I think some gulf war era (1991) VF-114 Aardvark Tomcats would be a great addition. It would be even better if they could be added to the default skins the way that the VF-14 and VF-41 skins were. Vf114.jpg

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Anyone know if FlyingIsoko's Black Knights liveries were updated to fix the texture shimmering? I remember he posted a test livery that fixed that one jet, but I haven't kept up with any developments since then.

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On 5/8/2022 at 3:41 AM, Nealius said:

Anyone know if FlyingIsoko's Black Knights liveries were updated to fix the texture shimmering? I remember he posted a test livery that fixed that one jet, but I haven't kept up with any developments since then.

Probably two weeks.

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On 5/8/2022 at 11:41 AM, Nealius said:

Anyone know if FlyingIsoko's Black Knights liveries were updated to fix the texture shimmering? I remember he posted a test livery that fixed that one jet, but I haven't kept up with any developments since then.

I fixed it by opening and saving the DDS files in Paint.net - I think it has to do with the DDS settings.

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Modules: F-14A/B | M-2000C | AJS-37 | Mi-24P F/A-18C | A-10C II | F-16C | UH-1H | F-5E | Mi-8 | FC 3 | AV-8B | A-4E | Gazelle | Ka-50 | Yak-52 | CE2

Maps: Syria | Marianas | NTTR | Persian Gulf | Caucasus

Setup: Virpil WarBRD Base & VFX TM Warthog | Arozzi Velocita Stand | Monstertech Mount | MFG Crosswind | Cougar MFDs | VRInsight Panel | JetSeat 908 | TrackIR

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8 hours ago, Tomcatter87 said:

I fixed it by opening and saving the DDS files in Paint.net - I think it has to do with the DDS settings.

Just save as generic DDS or are there specific DXT settings that need to be selected in Paint.net?

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16 hours ago, Tomcatter87 said:

I fixed it by opening and saving the DDS files in Paint.net - I think it has to do with the DDS settings.

Yeah he used a weird compression, I fixed one livery by just using the base compression the NVDIA Plugin gives you for photoshop, but I havent gotten around to redoing all the files, would be cool if there were a fix. 

 vCVW-17 is looking for Hornet and Tomcat pilots and RIOs. Join the vCVW-17 Discord.

image.png

 

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8 hours ago, Nealius said:

Just save as generic DDS or are there specific DXT settings that need to be selected in Paint.net?

I use the standard DDS setting of paint.net, that works for me.

Modules: F-14A/B | M-2000C | AJS-37 | Mi-24P F/A-18C | A-10C II | F-16C | UH-1H | F-5E | Mi-8 | FC 3 | AV-8B | A-4E | Gazelle | Ka-50 | Yak-52 | CE2

Maps: Syria | Marianas | NTTR | Persian Gulf | Caucasus

Setup: Virpil WarBRD Base & VFX TM Warthog | Arozzi Velocita Stand | Monstertech Mount | MFG Crosswind | Cougar MFDs | VRInsight Panel | JetSeat 908 | TrackIR

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Oh jeeze I was so confused. I kept trying to go to paint.net, as in the website, and it was leading me to an unclaimed domain. Genius name for software if you don't want anyone to find it 😄

Okay so got it but, there must be a specific setting somewhere for the DDS export. If I use the default settings pictured below it does not fix the jaggies. Are my settings wrong?

exHnyIU.png


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2 hours ago, Nealius said:

Oh jeeze I was so confused. I kept trying to go to paint.net, as in the website, and it was leading me to an unclaimed domain. Genius name for software if you don't want anyone to find it 😄

Okay so got it but, there must be a specific setting somewhere for the DDS export. If I use the default settings pictured below it does not fix the jaggies. Are my settings wrong?

 

  I used this same method to fix that problem...these were my settings.

vlcsnap-2022-05-10-20h46m05s803.jpg

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31 minutes ago, Nealius said:

Did you do every single file, including the acid-trip yellow/orange ones? I started off with just the primary textures. 

For my part, I only did the main textures, not the roughmets.

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Modules: F-14A/B | M-2000C | AJS-37 | Mi-24P F/A-18C | A-10C II | F-16C | UH-1H | F-5E | Mi-8 | FC 3 | AV-8B | A-4E | Gazelle | Ka-50 | Yak-52 | CE2

Maps: Syria | Marianas | NTTR | Persian Gulf | Caucasus

Setup: Virpil WarBRD Base & VFX TM Warthog | Arozzi Velocita Stand | Monstertech Mount | MFG Crosswind | Cougar MFDs | VRInsight Panel | JetSeat 908 | TrackIR

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got an F14 question.

Do i need to export mipmaps for each part?

Context: I modified some skins with the HB paint kit. When I zoom out the skin reverts to the defult. So i modified the HB_F14_LOD1_3in1 file to match the new skin. When i zoom out, the skin now looks as it should.

So for an experiment, I exported each section (including the LOD1_3in1 file) and exported with no mipmaps. In game there seems to be no diffrence with the skin i made with mipmap vs the one without. Zooming out looks the same.

The only diffrence is i've seemed to saved 40mb on the file size with no mipmap. Follow up question.

Is there a negative preformance impact for a skin with no mipmaps?

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On 5/25/2022 at 9:12 PM, DarkJedi_7 said:

LOD needs fixing 

LOD needs fixing.jpg

LOD needs fixing 2.jpg

Already fixed internally, did not know this was getting released so you gave me a bit of a surprise when you posted the screenshot. I've been paranoid for about 2-3 days now. I will see if the fixed LOD DDS file can be posted or shared somehow until the next patch.

Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™

 

VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP]

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On 5/7/2022 at 5:32 AM, ShinyMikey said:

A suggestion for our very talented skin makers. I think some gulf war era (1991) VF-114 Aardvark Tomcats would be a great addition. It would be even better if they could be added to the default skins the way that the VF-14 and VF-41 skins were. Vf114.jpg

Any bird in particular you'd like to see? Or maybe your own bird from VF-114? 😁

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6 minutes ago, Kondor77 said:

Personally I'm all for the grey ones. AFAIK the only ones made so far are early 70s version, and another 80s color version. You catch a snippet of one in the OG Top Gun intro as it's launching. 

Yes, I prefer lowviz, or at least tps grey with some color on the tail

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It's all part of the plan. There's fixes and stuff slowly trickling in on the external model and with those plus the additions and potential early external model, a lot will need to be re-worked. Not to mention the entire mountain of existing pilots and helmets, retrofitting the corrections to those skins, and then trying to also keep adding new stuff. Research is also a big part of it, and quite a bear. Trying to get whole squadrons from a single cruise with crew names is damn near impossible, usually lucky to get a good handful. Even with cruise books there's no guarantee you will find photos of canopy rails and gear doors, plus some squadrons did callsigns while others didn't. Some cruises they never even showed names. Sometimes they were one one side only and the only photo you have is from the other. I like when we can do times that match historical events but sometimes it's dictated by how much reference material there is. Helmets is another tough part, while F-14 squadrons enjoy a lot more coverage there, I've had a lot of instances where we had no closeups at all and had to go with best guesses. Especially during transitional years.

The goal is definitely to get every squadron represented with some different eras, but there's also the concern about hard drive space as *good* liveries with custom roughmets and pilots and all easily are 300+ MB zipped. And there's the issue of waiting for the right helmet models and externals for later squadrons versus releasing now and having to go back around and fix them later.

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Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™

 

VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP]

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been researching early F-14 variants the last couple of weeks, and to my surprise i found out something new on my all time favorite VF-1. I knew from before they started losing the anti glare by the start of the 80's, but i never knew how early this process began. Namely, it seems that by the start of the first cruise, the black anti glare was gone from the hump, side panels and canopy frames and was only retained in the front. Also, it appears that with the first cruise they got the brown radome as well. Anyone more versed in the history of the Navy paint schemes knows why this came to be? Was black anti glare in scarce supply at the time? Was it purely squadron aesthetics? But the latter doesn't make sense as this was a newly formed squadron without previous "traditions" and the scheme was if memory serves designed by a Grummanite. Looking forward to your opinions and info! 

Relevant info attached as a picture bellow:
 

01.jpg

Modules: FC3, Mirage 2000C, Harrier AV-8B NA, F-5, AJS-37 Viggen, F-14B, F-14A, Combined Arms, F/A-18C, F-16C, MiG-19P, F-86, MiG-15, FW-190A, Spitfire Mk IX, UH-1 Huey, Su-25, P-51PD, Caucasus map, Nevada map, Persian Gulf map, Marianas map, Syria Map, Super Carrier, Sinai map, Mosquito, P-51, AH-64 Apache

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1 hour ago, captain_dalan said:

I've been researching early F-14 variants the last couple of weeks, and to my surprise i found out something new on my all time favorite VF-1. I knew from before they started losing the anti glare by the start of the 80's, but i never knew how early this process began. Namely, it seems that by the start of the first cruise, the black anti glare was gone from the hump, side panels and canopy frames and was only retained in the front. Also, it appears that with the first cruise they got the brown radome as well. Anyone more versed in the history of the Navy paint schemes knows why this came to be? Was black anti glare in scarce supply at the time? Was it purely squadron aesthetics? But the latter doesn't make sense as this was a newly formed squadron without previous "traditions" and the scheme was if memory serves designed by a Grummanite. Looking forward to your opinions and info! 

Relevant info attached as a picture bellow:
 

01.jpg

 

Look at the BuNOs of those first jets: Those were the -65 pre-production block jet 158627, and those didn't stay with VF-1 and VF-2 long. Basically, there's your answer. After that the factory standard applied scheme was the smaller anti-glare you see there. They likely re-did the paint to match the other jets for the cruise. VF-2 also had a -65 jet briefly as well.

Oh, and that '73 timeframe is when they were still training up the squadron, we've seen a lot of instances on the early squadrons where things changed during the initial cross-train to Tomcats before their first cruise.

158627 later was rebuilt and went to VF-201, and when she was scrapped they kept the forward fuselage which is now on display in a museum.


Edited by LanceCriminal86
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Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™

 

VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP]

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4 hours ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

 

Look at the BuNOs of those first jets: Those were the -65 pre-production block jet 158627, and those didn't stay with VF-1 and VF-2 long. Basically, there's your answer. After that the factory standard applied scheme was the smaller anti-glare you see there. They likely re-did the paint to match the other jets for the cruise. VF-2 also had a -65 jet briefly as well.

Oh, and that '73 timeframe is when they were still training up the squadron, we've seen a lot of instances on the early squadrons where things changed during the initial cross-train to Tomcats before their first cruise.

158627 later was rebuilt and went to VF-201, and when she was scrapped they kept the forward fuselage which is now on display in a museum.

 

65's? Those were the ones with the stiffeners on the wing gloves? 

Modules: FC3, Mirage 2000C, Harrier AV-8B NA, F-5, AJS-37 Viggen, F-14B, F-14A, Combined Arms, F/A-18C, F-16C, MiG-19P, F-86, MiG-15, FW-190A, Spitfire Mk IX, UH-1 Huey, Su-25, P-51PD, Caucasus map, Nevada map, Persian Gulf map, Marianas map, Syria Map, Super Carrier, Sinai map, Mosquito, P-51, AH-64 Apache

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6 minutes ago, captain_dalan said:

65's? Those were the ones with the stiffeners on the wing gloves? 

They were the first production jets after the prototypes, -60 mostly went for suitability testing and many of the -65 jets made up VF-124's first jets to train VF-1 and VF-2 on. VF-1 and 2 each had one -65 jet, which later were replaced with "serial" production -70 or -75 jets.

It looks like partway through -70 the stiffeners/fences changed, then later partway through -75 the boat-tail shape changed.

Ultimately many of the 60/65 got the 135 full rebuild with new ALQ-126 jammers and everything but kept the old 7-hole vents until the 90s. Most of those jets ended up with VF-14, 41, 154, and 211 in combat over Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq with LANTIRN upgrades.

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Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™

 

VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP]

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