A Cockpit retexture.

[FlankerKiller]

Please? 

[Ghost79]

+1 to this, i love flying the F86 but it needs a little TLC.

[Squiffy]

+1. I would love a clean gunsight glass, especially with the new clouds and weather.

 

[Tiger-II]

What's wrong with the existing textures? Any reference photos to compare? Every F-86 I've looked at looks different from the simulated version we have.

This is the closest I could find: https://www.airliners.net/photo/Japan-Air-Force/North-American-Mitsubishi-F-86F-Sabre/3935899/L

Edited March 20, 2022 by Tiger-II

[Squiffy]

Nothing too bad. I guess some want more weathered or even higher res skins, but for me, I want to get rid of that annoying greasy gray hue to the gunsight glass/lens reflection in most angles relative to the sun and clouds. I'm still using Beta 2.7 or so in order to keep my Sabre Lua edits. With the current AI MiG power climb defense, it's friggin' disgusting trying to snipe them in the "wild blue yonder" with your supposed higher muzzle velocity rounds while they stand on their tails. Nobody cares what the reflection of the projector lens looks like, or which airman puked in your cockpit last, we're trying to tracer lead the Sputnik wanna be "coef. of lift > 0 at airspeed = mach 0.0" bandit.

[Tiger-II]

41 minutes ago, Squiffy said:

Nothing too bad. I guess some want more weathered or even higher res skins, but for me, I want to get rid of that annoying greasy gray hue to the gunsight glass/lens reflection in most angles relative to the sun and clouds. I'm still using Beta 2.7 or so in order to keep my Sabre Lua edits. With the current AI MiG power climb defense, it's friggin' disgusting trying to snipe them in the "wild blue yonder" with your supposed higher muzzle velocity rounds while they stand on their tails. Nobody cares what the reflection of the projector lens looks like, or which airman puked in your cockpit last, we're trying to tracer lead the Sputnik wanna be "coef. of lift > 0 at airspeed = mach 0.0" bandit.

LMAO!

Yes... the AI is outrageously OP. The F-5 AI has a similar problem.

[Squiffy]

Does anyone have a nice clean gunsight glass texture to download? I really want to swap that out.

[lee1hy]

F-86F_Cockpit_ILS.dds

[Squiffy]

Holy Crap! Why didn't I think of that. Of course the trick is to get it to load. I'll work on it, thanks.

[Squiffy]

You know, this might be the one that actually makes it happen. F-86F_cpt_L.dds

I edited the alpha channel to all black, making the ghost image completely masked out. The alpha allowed the other parts of the skin to display normally and was only unmasked(filtered) around the gunsight lens reflection, pretty much creating the translucent reflection of the lens. I still have to test where the right install is. I tried the test first in the cockpit folder and it didn't work, but the early black install should be in liveries only as shown here in the screenshot. I also wonder if it needs to be rezipped to work. I don't think so in the liveries folder. Had some good dogfights too. You need to force the AI into knife fights and stay away from the hammerhead climb fights.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Squiffy

[Squiffy]

The cpt_L file was NOT in the Early Black install. This is part of why my earlier efforts had no effect. Now that I know the Early Black is unzipped AND was lacking the cpt_L file, I will try again tonight and see what happens. If I end up with a Black Circle UFO stuck in my gunsight, I'll know I went the wrong direction with the alpha. At least this would show it's having an effect.  "L" is for "Lens."

[Squiffy]

OK, no black disc UFO but still no go on the crystal clear glass. I also looked at the description.lua file and tried my hand at the true/false statements in the code there. Didn't work, but didn't kill it either. I'll keep at it. I am not sure what "mirroring" actually means in the code. I have a feeling it's related to the stock file folder (not all files are listed)  but what does mirror mean and then what does true/false mean relative to that?

[Squiffy]

I was able to break it yesterday by removing the F-86 entry in the Cockpit folder rather than in the Liveries folder. What appeared in game was a grey kind of hyperspace with star streaks, like in the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. The grey was dirty and kinda green with heavy pixilations in it like Minecraft. So I replaced that, including some early edits on other textures. I also had the unzipped folder in there so I would have files to look at and find which ones had the texture I wanted. Now I also did this in the Liveries folder so you can imagine how confusing it would get. I really need a guide here on how livery mods work because the early Black is supposed to install without any "higher" cockpit mods above or equal to Liveries. I also deleted my F-86 folder in the saved games mods folder. What I have left now is a fairly light lens reflection, maybe the same as stock Early Black, but the files I modded that are in there, should have no translucency at all. I found that sometimes the files would be written over with stock Early Black and I think that is due to the "description.lua" and the logic in whether the file "mirroring" is true or false. I got the textures set one last time, with my mods showing in DXTbmp, but still no change in game. Working properly with no gray hyperspace, but no invisible either, which is what I was striving for. I will think about it a while. I did add my textures to the zip file too and sometimes they didn't save or would be overwritten, or never saved in the first place due to write protections or other file management in the code. I tried setting them to read only after my changes but it didn't seem to make a difference. Any clues or help would be welcome. Computer projects seem to be the best task right now in this heat wave on the east coast. Driving, yard work, working on my cars is just crazy right now with inflation and the heat wave.

[TAIPAN_]

On 7/18/2022 at 1:14 PM, Squiffy said:

You know, this might be the one that actually makes it happen. F-86F_cpt_L.dds

I edited the alpha channel to all black, making the ghost image completely masked out. The alpha allowed the other parts of the skin to display normally and was only unmasked(filtered) around the gunsight lens reflection, pretty much creating the translucent reflection of the lens. I still have to test where the right install is. I tried the test first in the cockpit folder and it didn't work, but the early black install should be in liveries only as shown here in the screenshot. I also wonder if it needs to be rezipped to work. I don't think so in the liveries folder. Had some good dogfights too. You need to force the AI into knife fights and stay away from the hammerhead climb fights.

 

Hi,

Add your modified F-86F_cpt_L.dds file into the Early Black folder (in the location you've confirmed Early black is working from).

Edit the description.lua and insert this line:

{"F-86F_cpt_L", 0, "F-86F_cpt_L", false};

The only part I'm not sure of is the "0",  if it doesn't work try "1".

If it still doesn't work try changing false to true.. though I'm pretty sure that false means to load from the local folder only.

Let me know if you got it working anyway, because I also want to clear up my gunsight glass.. having trouble seeing stuff.

[TAIPAN_]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:08 AM, Squiffy said:

I was able to break it yesterday by removing the F-86 entry in the Cockpit folder rather than in the Liveries folder. What appeared in game was a grey kind of hyperspace with star streaks, like in the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. The grey was dirty and kinda green with heavy pixilations in it like Minecraft. So I replaced that, including some early edits on other textures. I also had the unzipped folder in there so I would have files to look at and find which ones had the texture I wanted. Now I also did this in the Liveries folder so you can imagine how confusing it would get. I really need a guide here on how livery mods work because the early Black is supposed to install without any "higher" cockpit mods above or equal to Liveries. I also deleted my F-86 folder in the saved games mods folder. What I have left now is a fairly light lens reflection, maybe the same as stock Early Black, but the files I modded that are in there, should have no translucency at all. I found that sometimes the files would be written over with stock Early Black and I think that is due to the "description.lua" and the logic in whether the file "mirroring" is true or false. I got the textures set one last time, with my mods showing in DXTbmp, but still no change in game. Working properly with no gray hyperspace, but no invisible either, which is what I was striving for. I will think about it a while. I did add my textures to the zip file too and sometimes they didn't save or would be overwritten, or never saved in the first place due to write protections or other file management in the code. I tried setting them to read only after my changes but it didn't seem to make a difference. Any clues or help would be welcome. Computer projects seem to be the best task right now in this heat wave on the east coast. Driving, yard work, working on my cars is just crazy right now with inflation and the heat wave.

 

Attached is the full description.lua for the F-86 cockpit.

It looks like I was wrong about the material name (column1). I believe the lines you're looking for are:

	{"F-86F_cpt_Lamp",	DIFFUSE			,	"f-86f_cpt_l", false};
	{"F-86F_cpt_Lamp_SI_R",	DIFFUSE			,	"f-86f_cpt_l", false};
	{"F-86F_cpt_Lamp2",	DIFFUSE			,	"f-86f_cpt_l2", false};

Stumbled across this awesome video by @311Gryphon that explains how to get the Description.lua for the cockpit. The Sabre cockpit model is in /mods/aircraft/f-86/cockpit/shape. 

Make sure you removed the "\bin" from the path when creating a shortcut.

 

Let me know how you go if those entries are related to the gunsight lamp reflection.

Also do you know what the "F-86F_Texture_AI_Shadow"  (F-86F_AI-Sh.dds) is used for?

F86F full cockpit livery file.zip

Edited August 21, 2022 by TAIPAN_

[Squiffy]

Thanks Taipan! I will look into it. Been busy the last week and now out sick all week. Just checking this now. I'll be out again tomorrow and will have time to check and test. I think I still have files doubled up which is complicating things.

[Squiffy]

OK I cleaned out all of the extra files, folders and zips. The new file I made does work and reduces the lens reflection a lot. You have to be pointed almost straight up in to the wild blue to really see it like stock. I think the texture of the cockpit hood, which includes the lens in a top down view might actually be reflecting off the glass as well. But the specific "greasy" file is much reduced. Keep all files in the early black folder and the description.lua should read FALSE. This means to use the extra file and NOT mirror it from the zip. You can see that some files are not used at all and they are all TRUE or don't appear (covered by the first line which I think mirrors all except those that are cited.)

Let me also say that fighting the dang AI on rookie level 1v2  is @#$%^ BORING! But by this I mean, it flies like an airshow ace PR officer hand picked to meet and greet at airshows. I mean the damn stall turns and run for the mountains are just dumb and supremely frustrating. Maybe I should fight with wing men or even 2 or 3 so tactics can be more varied? What is the point of 4 levels of difficulty if rookie is a dang airshow ace? And yes my stick is shot but a good carpenters never blames his tools.  And going for some payback with a newer ship means reprogramming the damn shortcuts. More BORING! OK I am sick and this was a lot of work. Read it how you like.  

[TAIPAN_]

Sounds good, had a sick kid here it's not fun

Is your new file aaaF-86F_cpt_L.dds? 

Can you share a link? 

Thanks 

[Squiffy]

Haha, you know it! 

Yes it's the cpt_L.dds

Time to reset my F-16 controls  Can't wait for the F-100

F-86F_cpt_L.dds

And you need to change the description line for the cpt_L file. Just follow the code and set it to FALSE so it uses the new one and does not mirror.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Squiffy
lua hint

[Squiffy]

Well that was fun. The F-5 was not mapped but the F-16 was. And sure enough, air show Eddie was flying on the numbers though massive stall turns at Angels 35. So I goofed a few times in the Viper but eventually remembered my corner speed and gave him a taste of his own medicine.

Then I switched the AI to trained plus random v Sabre. Well what do you know! A little more aggression from the AI and I was able to knife fight them and bait them into high speed dives. After some damage from slashing attacks you can rip the wings off pretty nicely if you can stay out of the range of their cannons. No running for the mountains either.  

Gunsight glass seems OK. It's hard to tell. The pipper is much lighter, maybe that's the ILS file? Wait, isn't there a knob for that?

Edited August 26, 2022 by Squiffy

[TAIPAN_]

8 minutes ago, Squiffy said:

Gunsight glass seems OK. It's hard to tell. The pipper is much lighter, maybe that's the ILS file? Wait, isn't there a knob for that?

 

If you use the mod as a Cockpit livery in Saved Games folder, you can quickly select it in Special Settings->F-86F, then you can do a before and after instant action to compare the glass. Taking screenshots helps.

Or you can use the model viewer, but looking at the ground/background through it is important I think.

For the Pipper brightness, yes there's a knob I believe it's an axis available to map as well. I mapped my F18 HUD controller to it.

If you're using the Radar gunsight, it's a bit off due to ballistics but there's a mod that helps https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3320042/  although some say they made the guns TOO powerful

Since you mentioned the F-5, there's a beautiful cockpit mod for that too:

 

[Squiffy]

Thanks!

 

[TAIPAN_]

21 hours ago, Squiffy said:

Thanks!

 

Unfortunately it looks like the section on the main canopy reflection is causing the gunsight lamp reflection to stay.

This file F-86F_Cockpit_glass.dds has a part that has the reflection.

Not sure how to edit that layer/channel, if you've got some skills see if you can remove?

 

Also the gunsight tint looks a little TOO clear when fighting in bright sun that's why the sight doesn't look bright enough. If we can add a little tint back to the F-86F_Cockpit_ILS.dds file but without any reflection it would be perfect.

[SkateZilla]

On 8/19/2022 at 8:59 AM, TAIPAN_ said:

Hi,

Add your modified F-86F_cpt_L.dds file into the Early Black folder (in the location you've confirmed Early black is working from).

Edit the description.lua and insert this line:

{"F-86F_cpt_L", 0, "F-86F_cpt_L", false};

The only part I'm not sure of is the "0",  if it doesn't work try "1".

If it still doesn't work try changing false to true.. though I'm pretty sure that false means to load from the local folder only.

Let me know if you got it working anyway, because I also want to clear up my gunsight glass.. having trouble seeing stuff.

Syntax for the Description Lua is as Follows
{ "MATERIALNAME", MATERIAL_CHANNEL_#, "TEXTUREFILENAME", SCAN OUTSIDE CURRENT PATH }

MATERIALNAME is Set in 3DS Max,
Channel is also set in Met
Filename can be set by user.
Scan outside current path, is self explanatory

Material Channels:

MAP SLOT NAME	CHANNEL ID	PURPOSE / FUNCTION
DIFFUSE / ALBEDO	0	BASE COLOR
NORMAL	1	Normals/Depth and Depth Affects (ie Rain/Scratches on Glass, Panel Lines and Rivets.
SPECULAR	2	Surface Properties for Surface Flare Intensity, Width and Reflection (Replaced by RoughMet Map w/ DCS 2.5)
DECAL	3	Decal Layer, a opacity layer for adding Decals w/ out changing the base color layer.
DIRT	4	Layer used for Dirty Build Up on an Object
DAMAGE	5	Layer Used for Procedural Damage Volumetric (Small Scuffs -> Bullet Holes -> Large Holes -> Removed Surfaces)
PUDDLES	6	Used to Place Water/Puddles on Surfaces (Puddles on Runways etc)
SNOW	7	Used to Place Snow on Surfaces (Snow on Buildings/Bunkers/Runways etc)
SELF_ILLUMINATION	8	Used to Make a Texture Self Illuminated (Diffuse = Color, Alpha = Strength)
AMBIENT OCCLUSION	9	Used to Place Ambient Occlusions on Models (Replaced w/ RoughMet Map w/ DCS 2.5)
DAMAGE	10	Used to Place Damage Diffuse Color (Appearance of Dirt/Burn Marks around
UNKNOWN	11
UNKNOWN	12
ROUGHMET	13	Used for PBR Surface Properties, (Ambient Occlusion, Microsurface, Reflectivity)
OPACITY	14	Used for Surface Opacity (Mainly for Glass Material, or Textures for Meshes)

 

[Squiffy]

Thanks again. I can edit the channels with DXTBmp. That's what I've been using.  I realize there may be another mask and filter on the same texture, just below the portion I blacked out.  If you look carefully, you can see a dark gray circle below where the main reflection texture is placed/filtered on the alfa layer. This may be allowing the reflection to persist depending on how the texture is used and mapped. I can re-tint the ILS file with a lighter gray - off white and see how that goes. usually 128-128-128 gray is the transparent color used in masks. That is how it worked in CFS3 and is standard in DDS afaik. Shades lighter and darker allow more and less transparency. I'll check on it tomorrow.