What we need from the Encyclopedia for Skinning Going Forward

[Awacs_bandog]

I know this has been going back and forth for a while, So this is an attempt at due-diligence to collate what we need as Skinner's to continue working on ED products going forward with the new Encrypted Models.

First the Good: Having that refresh button in the Encyclopedia does help. We can gripe and moan but its better than the option we have had of kludging through the Mission Editor for the encrypted Heavy Metal/F-5 skins. 

But to the point of how what else we need to make this a comparable tool. The Pie in the Sky answer is "Oh just let MV2 open .EDCE files!" which, I will fully concede I have no idea if thats possible. There could be a very valid code reason this cannot happen and I will just accept this.

So the next best course of action is "Heres the tools we as skinners need"

* A Description Generator: This alone has been the biggest piece of heartburn for many of us working around .EDCE aircraft. We're trying to piece together what the Lua's look like, to Middling luck. (I'll tag in my B-52 Posts here as evidence later). We don't need a full ARG list, just the important ones (How to enable/disable borts, accouterments like the F-5 has, etc) Having that button ported over to the Encyclopedia would be night and day for proper skinning.
 

* Roughmet Visualization: I will be as bold to speak for other, more experienced, skinners that the addition of proper roughmets makes a night and day difference in working on Aircraft skins. Whether it be getting the proper metallic look on a bare metal MiG-21 or the gritty-ness of RAM coating, This is a crucial factor we need going forward in the Encyclopedia Skinning tools.

* Normal Map Visualization: Same with Roughmets, this can be a major boon to accurately modeling specific aircraft. Texac's F-16 work is a perfect case on why Normal's can bring a skin to the next level visually. 
nullExamples of two of my skins with the  standard vs the higher detailed Normals provided by Texac.

All three of these are current functionalities we have in ModelViewer2 that are sorely missed in the Encyclopedia. 

Finally: This is one that Currently almost exists in MV2 that has made a difference in the past, and thats UV Generation.
Some Templates have had, inadequate UV files, and having this functionality (through the Blender plug-in) has been another game changer in working on models in game, especially AI models where we don't have a dedicated Template to work with to start. I know many like Myself have 'homebrewed' our own files, EasyPeac3 is a great example what they were capable of doing for AI Models such as the E-3 and E-2 with such method.




Ultimately, as a Software Engineer myself I understand theres limitations that us as the Customers are wholly unaware of. And I hope the team at Eagle Dynamics can look at this post as more of a 'Guide Marker' on what we really need, instead of trying to parse 1000 angry voices on the forums.


Thank you for your consideration of this matter, and I invite others to contribute features that I may have forgotten.

Edited 23 hours ago by Awacs_bandog

[ienatom]

I would also add these things to the list, which are already implemented in MV:

• Base color visualization: without shading. I find it extremely useful to determine differences between different sheets and to refine details before having a look at the "live" version.
• Argument list: in order to change the different arguments. Some planes have different settings for different "attachments" (kinda like the different helmet versions on the 18) and bort numbers are something that I edit most of the times on a livery (their "box" is not that obvious so it needs a lot of trial and error before they are fully aligned and with the correct size).
• Environment/sun settings: this way we could have a look at the where and how the shadows hit the whole model rather than having the same exact sun position.
• Move/rotate ability: rotate the model in its axes. To be able to expose it to different light sources and have full control of the views mentioned before.

 

[Mach3DS]

Not just rotate.  But actually move the model off axis. Like you can with the MV.  This lets you get views of areas that are not centered in the FOV.  In addition,  currently with Shift+Mouse Click+Drag you can also rotate the model around it's own axis which is very helpful in conjunction with ALL the other aforementioned things. 

 

None of this matters at all, if all the textures are hidden/inaccessible and encrypted.  Encrypting the model is one thing.  Hiding all the textures and file paths via texture encryption negates all this effort anyway.  We don't know the names of files, can't use any files as a base to start from.  If you don't have the ability to create UV meshes, then you can't really even recreate textures from scratch.  SO  this whole thing is academic.  The model encryption was never the biggest issue.

[II.JG1_Vonrd]

I've been trying to think of something to add but y'all have already said it all better than I can. We just need to keep the squeaky wheel squeaking.

[thepod]

To whoever in the ED team reads this, we all only ask  that real, honest consideration is given to this topic and that a proper dialogue is opened. MV (and MV2) were created at some point in the past, exactly why i do not know. but they were created for a reason, and whether by intent or not MV2 is critical to making liveries. passionate and talented skinners produce work for free to enrich the player base and add value to the overall product. It saves ED time, and money. it saves 3rd parties time and money, again leading to a better product.

Comments about "we made skins before modelviewer" are not helpful. Ive seen many skins from that era nad they are nowhere near the level of quality achievable now. The F5 competion debacle proves this point, skins of the current expected standard require MV2, or access to the 3D model and a licence for Adobe Substance. 

We all appreciate the desire to protect IP but it is a sad fact that stolen 3d models are availabe within days of a launch and encryption hasnt changed that. We all enjoy and respect the product that ED provides or we wouldnt be so upset and without access to MV2 for any future encrypted modules, the whole game will stagnate and lose players.

ED, you may disagree with me or choose to dismiss my observations. But without high quality skins, mission and campaign makers will not continue because they can only make missions for skins that ED provide, forcing ED to use expensive dev hours to pump out nation, year, squadron and mission appropriate livieries. The nature of the player base is THAT WE ARE ALL NERDS. So are ED programemers! they wouldnt last programming such minute detail if they didnt have a love for it! The demand that the buttons in cockpit have "the right clicky noise" or the correct fuel burn rate for the altitude and temperature. The correct colour red for the squadron badge.   

Skins are not an afterthought, they are an integral part of the experience.  

Putting time into getting MV2 to load encrypted skins is a priority and ignoring that now will only lead to ED having to spend money downstream of the problem which wil lbe more expensive than fixing it now and allowing the huge free content community to flourish. 

Please ED, work with us and let us help you.

Fish