Creating skins ... multiple countries?

[CrazyD]

As per title, I'm ready to package my latest skin and would like to make it flyable in two countries - should this be possible, or do I have to make it into two packages?

 

I went through RCN Moose's tutorial - apparently you can only select the country that has a "KA-50" listing. So I take it this means having "Canada" is out of the question?

Edited February 20, 2009 by CrazyD
More info ...

[RCN_Moose]

Crazy, you can add the KA-50 to Canada. It will add in the appropriate info as required. (pretty sure) I do not believe you can add multiple countries in on one skin. (actually going to test it out this weekend) I think you'll need to create 2 seperate skins, one per country. I'll let you know how my trials go :)

[DragonRR]

Moose, any news on the damage texture issue?

[RCN_Moose]

I haven't heard anything back from Skypat yet. Not sure if he's tied up with real world issues, or just deciding the best way to approach the problem.

[crazyeddie]

The number of skins is determined by the Lod File, if there are say 5 skins in there then that is all you can create. Where you put them is determined by which countries you allocate that aircraft to. If you put the Ka 50 into say Russia and Canada you then have to decide which skins to allocate to the Ka 50 in that country, say skins 1 to 3 in the Russian Ka 50 and skins 4 and 5 in the Canada Ka 50. Not hard to arrange, just takes a little time.

 

If you want you can have all 5 skins in each country, but they will always be what they were created as, Russian or Canadian skins.

 

Or are you trying to do something else and I have completely missed the point here ?

[CrazyD]

crazyeddie - you've got the idea. I have the 2 Canadian skins created, and someone asked to have them flyable as Canada-selected in the country's list. So if for example you create a mission with Russia and Canada as allies going after insurgents, you would be able to fly with Canada, using the Canadian skin. Looking in the countries' list, Canada doesn't have the KA-50 listed and I don't know how make it work. Or does just inputting the Canadian CountryID number in the lma7 file create that list?

 

I would assume that if a skin is country specific, ie has the Canadian Flag on the tail, you would want to put it into the Canadian country's file, and not into the Russian. Does this affect the "reality" of the simulation? I guess that's for the people to decide of course, seeing that Canada doesn't have this machine.

 

One more thing, has Mitch's skins been reset for the latest Modman install?

Edited February 20, 2009 by CrazyD

[crazyeddie]

CrazyD

 

KA 50 - Scripts - Database - db_countries. Open that up with notepad.

 

Scroll down until you fine the Russia section.

 

Scroll down to Helicopters.

 

There you will find the KA 50. These are the files.

(It is important you get everything in the right order, the { etc etc, miss one out and the game will not run)

 

{

cnt_unit("{3457BB1E-523F-4C24-BBEA-58D028623F05}", "Ka-50", {

color_scheme("{060AFECF-BFBD-44c5-9C47-D9B5EF35D104}", "Standard"),

color_scheme("{CC7B095B-038D-432e-B8D2-AE1F9A9F0E3A}", "Standard (faded)"),

color_scheme("{3E5CA0B0-C1CA-4b55-87BC-B230371124DA}", "Demo paint scheme #024"),

color_scheme("{B72394A9-596C-433B-9F1F-742F67B1BCC1}", "Demo paint scheme # 22 \"Black Shark\""),

color_scheme("{AC7E6F33-30A3-4560-B80A-5509BDF89BBE}", "Demo paint scheme \"Werewolf\""),

color_scheme("{84E30899-5D49-4bdd-96F1-B0FA6AC9B2B6}", "Fictional Snow Splatter scheme"),

color_scheme("{19822419-B967-43fd-AD73-FC6E1E82E32C}", "Fictional Swedish scheme"),

color_scheme("{E293EDA2-B401-4045-88B6-22F400879492}", "Fictional Olive Grey scheme"),

color_scheme("{BFE322AC-E7C7-11DC-934E-78D056D89593}", "Fictional Desert2 scheme"),

color_scheme("{DC56EAAA-7BD0-4269-8754-CF1BBE42CC99}", "Fictional Tropic Green scheme"),

 

}),

 

 

Now scroll down to Canada

 

Scroll down to Helicopters, Canada has no helicopters set up as yet, yours go in the empty hole below.

 

 

Helicopters =

{

CATID = "{828CEADE-3F1D-40aa-93CE-8CDB73FE2710}",

Helicopter =

{

 

INSERT WHAT YOU WANT TO FLY UNDER CANADA HERE FROM THE LIST ABOVE. The green is a copy of everything above, just cut and paste this if you want the lot.

 

cnt_unit("{3457BB1E-523F-4C24-BBEA-58D028623F05}", "Ka-50", {

color_scheme("{060AFECF-BFBD-44c5-9C47-D9B5EF35D104}", "Standard"),

color_scheme("{CC7B095B-038D-432e-B8D2-AE1F9A9F0E3A}", "Standard (faded)"),

color_scheme("{3E5CA0B0-C1CA-4b55-87BC-B230371124DA}", "Demo paint scheme #024"),

color_scheme("{B72394A9-596C-433B-9F1F-742F67B1BCC1}", "Demo paint scheme # 22 \"Black Shark\""),

color_scheme("{AC7E6F33-30A3-4560-B80A-5509BDF89BBE}", "Demo paint scheme \"Werewolf\""),

color_scheme("{84E30899-5D49-4bdd-96F1-B0FA6AC9B2B6}", "Fictional Snow Splatter scheme"),

color_scheme("{19822419-B967-43fd-AD73-FC6E1E82E32C}", "Fictional Swedish scheme"),

color_scheme("{E293EDA2-B401-4045-88B6-22F400879492}", "Fictional Olive Grey scheme"),

color_scheme("{BFE322AC-E7C7-11DC-934E-78D056D89593}", "Fictional Desert2 scheme"),

color_scheme("{DC56EAAA-7BD0-4269-8754-CF1BBE42CC99}", "Fictional Tropic Green scheme"),

 

}),

 

 

 

},

},

Fortifications =

 

Its that easy, next time you open Mission Editor the KA 50 will show up in Canada and in Russia. If Canada and Russia are in the same coalition then both will be the same colour.

 

The way to get it right is to decide what skins you want for Canada and which ones you want for Russia, and delete the ones you do not want from the country you do not want them in. That takes a little practice, or just leave all the skins in both and select what skin you want from the Weapons drop down in the Mission Editor.

 

One final word of advice, make a copy of your countries file before you do it, if you screw it up you can just reinstall the original and have another go.

 

Have fun.

Edited February 20, 2009 by crazyeddie

[CrazyD]

I went through the process you described crazyeddie - my first attempt failed. First off, when I remade the install package and tried to install, it said that the id # was already in use (I'm assuming its referring to the colour scheme id). So I uninstalled the original "load to Russia" version, then installed the "load to Canada" version. Created a mission, selected Canada, I was able to select the KA-50, but going to the loadout screen, the skin was not shown.

So I looked in the db_countries file and saw that the colour scheme did not load into it.

 

So to make this simple, here's the lma7 file that corresponds:

[color_scheme]

country = {32A0DDDF-E2C1-4F0B-A3AD-17719BB371F2}

cnt_unit = {3457BB1E-523F-4C24-BBEA-58D028623F05}

color_scheme = {7F1A4DF1-776F-4a92-9B05-18CB2094519B}

 

color_name = Canadian Forces Standard Fictional

file = Scripts\Database\helicopters\Ka-50.lua

 

I looked at the countries that have the KA-50 "cnt_unit" id # and they are the same - I take it, this number is the identifier for the specific model -(for Russia, Turkey, etc), so I assumed that the same line would start off for the Canada Helicopters' list - as per your example. Then Modman would install the colour scheme automatically after the "cnt_unit" line (or so I thought)

 

Here's a copy of the db_country section:

 

Helicopters =

{

CATID = "{828CEADE-3F1D-40aa-93CE-8CDB73FE2710}",

Helicopter =

{

cnt_unit("{3457BB1E-523F-4C24-BBEA-58D028623F05}", "Ka-50", {

 

 

}),

 

},

},

Fortifications =

 

Any suggestions? I would like to know what the thoughts are on reconfiguring this game so that this kind of thing can be played as US, Brit, or Canuk - open up more mission possibilities or does it take away from the "reality"?

[crazyeddie]

CrazyD

 

Where did you get this CLSID Number from, it's not one of the original Ka 50 Texture codes allocated to the Ka 50. ? The original 10 are shown above in my last post.

 

color_scheme = {7F1A4DF1-776F-4a92-9B05-18CB2094519B}

 

The game will not recognise that number, it's not in the allocation of 10 skins within the LoM File and not shown in the Lua file either, so it's not going to show a skin of any kind for that number. The game does not recognise it.

 

If you use the 10 original CLSID Numbers and simply change the skin to whatever you want it to be it should work fine. You have to identify the unique skin reference first, for example KA-50-Paint 6-DEF-01 and match that to the description in the Lua file using the CLSID Number. You just paint the new skin over the old and it will recognise it by the CLSID Number and the Skin reference - Old skin gone, new skin showing in it's place.

 

None of this is much use if you are going to fly on line, for it to work then everyone has to have the same set up, same modifications etc, it's a very different ball game then. Hence the need to keep things standard for everyone. If you are going to fly off line you can do anything you want.

[RCN_Moose]

crazyeddie, thats not actually true. the game will recognize a unique GUID just fnie, as long as its properly setup.

 

Crazy,

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you can set-up your skin to work with MODMAN and have it be Canadian :)

 

The bad news is, that you can't do it with the default db_countries.lma file. MODMAN looks for the KA-50 ID when it goes to enter the info, which unfortunately doesn't exist for Canada. I was hoping to just be able to add the KA-50 ID line )[cnt_unit] and go from there, but the game won't let you have a class ID, with nothing after it. The best working method I've tested so far is to follow crazyeddies directions and delete all the skin lines except for the Standard skin. That leaves one existing default skin for Canada, BUT it allows you to use MODMAN just fine thereafter, since there is a KA-50 cnt_unit already there, it will add any news after it with no problem.

 

I'm still thinking about the best way to get this out there for the masses. I'm thinking that the best way is going to be to make MODMAN compliant skins, setup for Canada, and include a modified db_countries.lma file with a readme along the lines of, unstall all MODMAN addons, then backup your db_countries file and replace it with this one. Then reinstall all your mods...

 

I'm hoping Skypat will have a better suggestion.

Edited February 20, 2009 by RCN_Moose

[CrazyD]

crazyeddie - that guid you asked about is the colour-scheme id for my latest skin (now avail at LockonFiles, wink wink), and it does work. Installing as normal to the Russian side, all is well.

 

Moose - I had a feeling that it might need at least one of the original skins installed to the Canadian list in order for Modman to recognize Canada as a legitimate KA-50 country, but haven't as of yet got around to trying it out.

 

Now to extend this issue with the number of skins further - there are what, five skin slots avail in any one country? Modman gets around that limitation but increasing the number by 1/10th ie 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 1.3 ... so theoretically you could have 59 skins avail for Russia. So once you have filled that number, you'd have to go to Ukraine to fill up the next or spread it around to the other countries, so therefore it must be worthwhile to work this problem out, and have skins made for Canada, US, UK, French, whatever, to be able to put them into their respective countries, and fly them as such.

So whether what I just said makes any sense (a couple or three beers are tasting good after a day of renovation work), then it must be better for making skins for a specific country to be able to put them into that country for use. So this needs to be worked out, right?

[CrazyD]

Ok, I've copied the "standard" skin from the Russia list into the Canada - Helicopter - colour_scheme line, then Modman was able to install the skin modified to place into the Canada slot. Create a mission with editor and select Canada as country and the two skins show up in the weapons loadout, and the skin I created shows up as expected. Now for anyone that wants to specifically add this to their copy of the game has to modify the db_countries file first before this will show up.

 

Does anyone want a copy specific to Canada?

[Doomhawk]

Me!:)

[CrazyD]

Ok Doomhawk - this is for you. After I post this, I'll submit my modified latest skin to LockonFiles under ver2.1, and it will install to "Canada" as the selectable country. Now as posted above, you'll have to copy the cnt_unit line, as well as the first colour_scheme line in order for Modman to recognize and install properly. If it doesn't work for you let me know.

 

Was wondering if the Desert Skin is desired for Canadian-country selectable also?

Edited February 21, 2009 by CrazyD

[Deadman]

I don't have BS but if the model is a LOM you should be able to have 100 skin files

[CrazyD]

I'll be honest Deadman - I don't know anything about "LOM, only that it was mentioned that there were technically only 5 skins slots avail, and that Modman got around that limitation. I also have Lomac, and whenever skins were added, then one of the original 5 were replaced. When the Sim-Mod A-10 came out, all of a sudden there were more than 5, and my understanding was that someone figured out how to get around the 5 skin limit by increasing the file number by .1. Thus ends my knowledge of that aspect of skinning with Eagle Dynamics (which isn't much, I'll admit)

[Deadman]

The 5 skin limitation is with the old CMD models, LOM models have skin files and can have some where around 100 skins how many diffrent skins can fly on line at one time well that has not been tested as far as i know. Check the A-10 read me that high way wrote and Cosmonaut's Tutorial on Cdds it has a section on expanding the skin slots and adding clsid numbers with EDs tool CDDS Tutorial Version 3.

It should give you a back ground on the system used in FC and may still apply to BS

Edited February 21, 2009 by Deadman

[crazyeddie]

I have learned something new as well, interesting thread.