I believe the approach taken was for two reasons: 1) anyone will be able to make their own skin now, absolutely anyone. (Did someone say "Hello Kitty"?) 2) The layer approach requires only the (very) compressed separate paint layer to be sent to the server during multiplayer as the weathering and panel lines are on all clients. (Compressing the markings, chipping and rivet/panel detail to the level currently applied to the paint layer would essentially destroy the skin.)

So it's all about players being able to use their own skins online with a minimum of lag. The planes are going to be limited in how good they can look, but we'll all be flying our own skins. yay

these cammo skins are around 150kb in size :D
i have to reduce qualitiy a lot to get this size from .psd to .jpg :D

anyone tryied a huger one already ? ...

I make textures now and then and I'm a high level photoshop users since several years back.
I've made skins for RoF, and once CloD gets patched up I'll start making skins for it as well..

And I think this makes sense from a technical perspective.
As previously pointed out:

- Now the rivets and panel lines will be the same, no matter what skin.
- Takes less bandwidth online, less memory.
- Weathering is based on rivets and panel lines.
- Damage model is based on panel lines.
- Consistency

But I don't see why they can't allow us to edit the panel lines bump map and the weathering, except for the issue with the damage model.

And having panel lines optional makes no sense. Models look more real with bump mapping, so it would make more sense to be able to edit the bump map instead.

Also I assume the weathering is connected to a specular map, which also makes sense technically..

IL-2 is an old game, it doesn't have specularity maps or normal maps..
The old way only using only texture maps is history..

And I think the reason people are annoyed is because the game is barely playable for most people and here you are complaining about something that doesn't affect gameplay or performance..

The weathering in the game is not bad on some planes.
It will be a lot easier for a lot of people to make skins that look decent in the game now........even artistically impaired like me.:lol:

Some are certainly better than others. The Spit looks okay but the spinner looks bad at high levels. The 109 exhaust looks very poor also.

I'm going to experiment with adding some "painted on" shading and highlights etc and see how it looks. Should be a fun diversion until performance gets sorted.

seiseki: You may be right and the panel line and weathering system as it is now has something for it.

But the 109 wings can hardly stay that way. They look like from EAW in 1999 and not like a step forward. If blockyness of the camo layer is okay for the Multiplayers, fine for them. I for myself want good historical quality at least in my single player game. Have a look at RoF. Make this awful compression an option please, 1C !




PS: Not sure if specular maps are used for surface gloss. But it would be nice if one could edit them for more shiny or more matt aircraft.

My 2 cent worth, I dont think the exhaust stains should be modeled in the weathering as surely the ground maintenence blokes gave em a tub every now and then, I like tattered looking aircraft but the dark black stain just dont do it for me :( Cant wait for the skinners to improve on it, hint hint ;) start with the 109 please :)

How does one select a custom skin anyway? In QMB/FMB, neither seems possible. QMB has no options to speak of and FMB only shows Default in the drop down list. :confused:

Surely there must be some features that work out of the box.

wrong directonary ??

you have to use this one:
C:\Users\Username\Documents\1C SoftClub\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\PaintSchemes

Eye-candy =/= realism.

Most of the flashiest uber-cool pimp-my-'Stang skins in Il-2 could be easily called unrealistic if compared with pictures.

If you have a game that looks absolutely real, and the panel lines are modeled realistically, there's not a single reason to bother about that, is there?

Yes, warbirds sometimes don't look as awesome, as flash or as whatever as seen in game with (brilliantly done, by the way) community-made skins.

Maybe I am indeed talking shite, but one thing to keep in mind is that, no matter what, Cliffs of Dover brings a completely different, new approach - and that's worth for skinning, flying, et cetera. Instead of applying classic Il-2-approved techniques, I'd say it's more interesting to fiddle with what Cliffs of Dover has to offer.

We're talking about a way more dyinamic and complex simulator here, after all, and I'm sure the developers did keep skinning and skinners in mind during the making of this sim, as mentioned in many interviews and posts.

Just my 2p, anyway...