Fallback Skins?

[CptGurke]

Hello there,

i am currently getting into skinning of the F/A-18 and now have to questions about it. I wanted to create a bunch of skins, customized for each pilot (name on the airplane, and helmet with logo), but also keep the overall size of the files down.

So first question: I know about the option to "inherit", but is it possible to "inherit" the Texture Map 1 and combine it with a transparent texture with only the name on it? Since the template Description.lua only mentions 0 (dif), 1 (nm), 2 (roughmet), 5 (damage), and 10 (damage_nm), i assume not, but maybe there is something i don't see here.

Second question: Since I can't assume everyone of my friends will get my updated skins, or want to have a bunch of extra skins for a plane they don't use, they maybe want to stick with the previous ones. So i asked myself, if it's possible to define something like a "fallback skin". E.g. if i choose my custom skin "VFA-103 Line 'Gurke'", can i make it show up as a "VFA-103 Line Default" skin for everyone who didn't download my updated skins?

Thanks in advance

[Sawamura]

First qusetion: What you ask is, from what I know, not possible so I will give you the standard answer. If you are only adding/modifying your name on the cockpit for customization, you only need to change the fuselage part (DIFF 1) of that livery. Unless you fly sorties with 40+ jets on a single airbase lining up for departure, don't worry about performance drop due to liveries.

Second question: How I've seen many virtual squadrons do it: Create the batch of liveries, throw it as a package on Google Drive or whatever and send everyone a notice with the link of it. If you update liveries at some point, create another pack that's identical to the previous one just with updated textures and description.luas so it's easy to overwrite the old pack. I don't know anything about a poissible fallback livery. If you have a livery others don't, for them you will have the default livery of the Hornet.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Sawamura

[CptGurke]

12 hours ago, Sawamura said:

First qusetion: What you ask is, from what I know, not possible so I will give you the standard answer. If you are only adding/modifying your name on the cockpit for customization, you only need to change the fuselage part (DIFF 1) of that livery. Unless you fly sorties with 40+ jets on a single airbase lining up for departure, don't worry about performance drop due to liveries.

Thanks. With my own <profanity>ty PC in mind, i just wanted to optimize as good as possible. I now went from 4 skins to 9, with custom names on the aircraft and custom helmets, and went up from ~100mb to just under 160mb, which is good enough i think.
 

12 hours ago, Sawamura said:

Second question: How I've seen many virtual squadrons do it: Create the batch of liveries, throw it as a package on Google Drive or whatever and send everyone a notice with the link of it. If you update liveries at some point, create another pack that's identical to the previous one just with updated textures and description.luas so it's easy to overwrite the old pack. I don't know anything about a poissible fallback livery. If you have a livery others don't, for them you will have the default livery of the Hornet.

Yes, the distribution of the skins "internally" is one part. Another one is multiplayer on random servers. I think it would be nice to have your custom skin on, while others still see you with the "default" skin of that squadron, not the "default default" skin.

But i can work with that, thanks for your advices

[shaun paul]

what skins gives the best performance in your opinion ?

snaptube vidmate

Edited May 3, 2023 by shaun paul

[CptGurke]

4 hours ago, shaun paul said:

what skins gives the best performance in your opinion ?

What do you mean exactly?
For the Hornet I think most skins, also the default livery are sized 4096x4096px (lets call this 4k). There are also 8k or 2k skins. Also I guess a livery with more textures will performe worse. Like modified pilot skin, highly detailed helmet and patches.

But overall I think liveries have a "small" impact on performance compared to terrain textures. A 2k skin may help a bit though, if your GPU is struggling with VRAM.