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Posted (edited)

I'd like to introduce Livery Link, a desktop application for managing custom liveries.

I've been working on this for a few months now and although it's still incomplete, there are a few people using it and I think it's in a state where I'm happy to share with the wider community.

The primary function is to make it trivial to install liveries (see the video below). In addition to this, it can also automatically share liveries with other people.

So far, I loved building this, I really hope you enjoy it!

For those interest in the server, I've created a Server Functionality Poll to get a feel for the kind of features people would like to see added.

Download

Visit https://github.com/Camble/LiveryLink for more information click the download button for the latest version.

User Files link: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3339586/

 

Livery Link v0.17.0

 

See it in use:

 

Key Features

  • Paste in a User Files URL to automatically install a livery
  • The Livery Browser displays your installed liveries with nice thumbnails
  • Plenty of options in case you don't like a specific feature
  • Automatically share and download liveries (with other users of Livery Link)

Installation

No installation required, extract anywhere* you like and run.

* don't put it in the DCS or Saved Games folder

 

FAQs

Q. How does Livery Sharing work?
A. In order to share liveries to other players, they must also have Livery Link, and the server you are flying on must be running Livery Link Server.

Q. How do I enable livery sharing?
A. Simply install liveries with Livery Link, and use those liveries on a Livery Link enabled server.

Q. How do I send liveries to people?
A. If you're sporting a livery that was installed with Livery Link, it will be shared automatically as soon as you take off.

Q. How do I receive other people's liveries?
A. If connected to a Livery Link server and a player shares a custom livery, Livery Link will download and install it automatically.

Q. What if I don't want to share liveries?
A. This feature can be disabled, or tweaked to your liking.

Edited by Camble
  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
Posted (edited)
On 3/22/2024 at 5:52 PM, Rob Mason said:

Sorry to be a Debby Downer but the first F-16C skin it installed it placed it in the F-15E folder!!!

I'll check it out. Do you have the user files URL?

Was it this?

Edited by Camble
Posted

Oh yeah it was, what's he done put the wrong Plane in the description file!!! Is it for a Viper or a Mudhen? Bit weird, oh well not your fault then Camble i do apologise, i'll give it another go in that case lol

  • Like 2
Posted

Must just be a typo. I've never encountered that issue until now, but that's just the way it is when working with manual submissions. A future version will have to infer the aircraft type by the file's contents (so we can make use of other hosts like Google drive), but for now we're reliant on which category people upload their liveries to!

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Found and resolved an issue with detecting when DCS was running, if you run DCS as an administrator. Not sure how many people this will affect, but next update fixes this.

Probably won't bump this thread on every single new version, just if it feels appropriate. Livery Link automatically updates anyway.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Accidentally introduced a bug into v0.14.4 which meant you'd aways get a "Livery not found" error. This has been fixed in v0.14.5

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

It's nice to see the number of downloads increase! I'd just like to encourage anyone running into difficulties to give me a shout, either on here, through a Github issue or directly Discord. I'm still actively working on Livery Link and any bugs reported will only help to improve the tool. Thanks!

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

If you've just bought the F4 Phantom and can't slot in, try removing the Livery Link mod from the Tools menu.

It seems Heatblur have bundled a custom lua51.dll with the module, looks like it's for Jester. Livery Link uses this as well, but they seem to be conflicting. I'm working on a fix.

Edited by Camble
  • Like 1
Posted
8 hours ago, Neon said:

Hey, how does one use or find the Livery Server you were talking about in the post?

Hey, I haven't released the server app yet. Once I'm happy with everything and go to 1.0, I'll release it separately. There is a pre-release version available on my Patreon.

I'm currently running it on my DCS server, so it's possible to see the share functionality working. Just search my name in the DCS server list.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

I've been working on improving the UI lately.

  • Window is now fully scalable, content will fit to window size
  • Added option to disable "group by aircraft" to display all liveries in a flat collection

image.png image.png

Edited by Camble
  • Like 1
Posted

Does this allow me to take a aircraft or pilot, and add my own color or pattern in and it will populate in game. Like livery changing made easy? Or is this just sharing and managing existing liveries?

Posted

@TFS Just managing and sharing. Existing liveries won't be picked up (I'm working on an import feature), so you'd need to install them using Livery Link.

  • Like 2
Posted
19 minutes ago, Camble said:

@TFS Just managing and sharing. Existing liveries won't be picked up (I'm working on an import feature), so you'd need to install them using Livery Link.

Thank you for your response. 

Posted

Known issue with 0.18.0: "The value cannot be null" error when installing liveries.

Workaround is to go into the options and enable "Also install liveries for compatible modules".

This will be fixed in the next update.

  • Thanks 1
  • 1 month later...
Posted

For anyone having issues installing from local files on disk, please do get in touch. It's almost impossible to know what's wrong with a livery when it can't be downloaded from user files and tested.

  • Thanks 1
  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, TheSkipjack95 said:

It just wont launch for me. I extract the zip, click to launch and tell windows to let the program run, but the window never appears.

Do you have .NET 8 installed? If not, you should be prompted to install it, but there's a possibility it didn't.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-desktop-8.0.10-windows-x64-installer

Edited by Camble
  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

So I'm fairly happy with how development is going and I think I'd like to release the server in the not too distant future. I may add a UI, as it's just a console application at the moment, but the sharing functionality is there. If any server hosts would like to test or try it out, feel free to contact me either through the forum or on Discord. It would be great to get your feedback and insight.

image.png

Edited by Camble
  • Like 2
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I've been waiting for someone to develop an app exactly like this one for YEARS now, and have been very surprised that no one was doing it.  So to come across this now (as I'd taken a break from DCS the past few months) absolutely made my day!  This is phenomenal, THANK YOU for creating and sharing this.  Two questions so far:

1. Are you planning to add a way to delete skins?  

2. I can't get any of Foxtrot1's recent skins to install; when I do the 'install from file' option, I get the error 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object'.  Seems he always includes a zip within a zip, so downloading directly from the URL doesn't find the right files.  But even when trying to install from the downloaded zip-within-the-zip, I get above error.  His skins do include a description.lua, so I'm not sure what else the tool is looking for and can't find, any idea?

Even with above issues, I am absolutely loving this - thank you, again.

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