CoD disappointing in skinning matters!

[cheruskerarmin]

THX for your replies.

Is there anyone amongst you who made skins for Il-2?

I and many others spent a lot of time making high quality skins for the IL-2 community. Fitting historical based campaigns with historical based skins of course is of interest for the single player only. There are many single players only i guess.
Behind all this work there's a lot of research work i think only those involved can imagine really. This is even fun for the bunch of mission builders and skinners, we enjoy the sim in this way too.
Creating each screw, each shadow and line all by ourselves was a real challenge - and looked far better than the most ugly default skins that
came with the game once.
The reason skins were more ugly when zooming in is the resolution of just 1024 x 1024 in the old sim. You couldn't get some details displaying well,
mapping with stretching and warping on some 3D models did their
cause too. This isn't a mistake of the skinner.


I think you all will see the ingame coded skin layers will again not look as well as high quality ones made by skinners. The game generated rivet/panel lines will i. e. always display on top of the skin file, you can't get i. e. selfmade paint chipping or weathering (i. e. exhaust smoke) on top of these then.
This reduces the possibilities of a realistic look.
Of course there are some mapping problems when making lines and rivets by yourself, these were
occuring in the old sim too. There are of course limits in anyway, not in skinning matters alone.

I'm not critizing the fact there is a game generated lines and rivets layer, but
i'm critizing it cannot be turned off optionally (thx major setback!). Why is this nonsense?
Why does it need ignorant or arrogant smelling replies?
They made it with the weathering layers too, can't be a big problem.

The fact it is wellknown for months now to be this way doesn't hinder me
to talk about it, and i can assure you there are many others who dislike this
too. The true reason behind this is to avoid or complicate modding - this is what i think.
I'm a non-modder and i'm quite sure it is just a matter of time when there are mods for CoD too.
The fixed rivets/panel lines will not prevent that.

[Buglord]

Hi cheruskerarmin (ive seen your work around ) , ive made over 150 historical skins for il2 plus many more for squads etc, & i was thinking of coming out of retirement to start skinning for COD but i have heard of this panel line problem & us skinners at ubizoo discussed this very problem a good while ago & they are also not happy , so im just going to wait till i have COD & see what i can do with it skinning wise.

[Il2Pongo]

How in hell would they implement the progressive weathering of aircraft over missions when someone can change the structure(rivets) of the aircraft...

Paint the thing. Thats your interest and your apparent expertise.
Paint goes on top of rivets.

Yes your hard earned expertise at making the rivet layers look good will not now be on display, your weathering will not be on display.

Want them to put in a rivet filter on top of the epilepsy filter to make a game just for you?

[Kikuchiyo]

Don't panels collapse now too? as in if a new skin shows panel lines that the game doesn't recognize you would end up with really weird mid/dual-panel collapses and what not?

[CharveL]

Yeah, like I want to see more bright red or landscape textured planes without panel lines & rivets to really give me that sense of immersion.

I think I would like to stick to the developer's method that at least puts proper panel lines over your Hello Kitty skin up there.

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by cheruskerarmin

THX for your replies.

Is there anyone amongst you who made skins for Il-2?

I and many others spent a lot of time making high quality skins for the IL-2 community. Fitting historical based campaigns with historical based skins of course is of interest for the single player only. There are many single players only i guess.
Behind all this work there's a lot of research work i think only those involved can imagine really. This is even fun for the bunch of mission builders and skinners, we enjoy the sim in this way too.
Creating each screw, each shadow and line all by ourselves was a real challenge - and looked far better than the most ugly default skins that
came with the game once.
The reason skins were more ugly when zooming in is the resolution of just 1024 x 1024 in the old sim. You couldn't get some details displaying well,
mapping with stretching and warping on some 3D models did their
cause too. This isn't a mistake of the skinner.


I think you all will see the ingame coded skin layers will again not look as well as high quality ones made by skinners. The game generated rivet/panel lines will i. e. always display on top of the skin file, you can't get i. e. selfmade paint chipping or weathering (i. e. exhaust smoke) on top of these then.
This reduces the possibilities of a realistic look.
Of course there are some mapping problems when making lines and rivets by yourself, these were
occuring in the old sim too. There are of course limits in anyway, not in skinning matters alone.

I'm not critizing the fact there is a game generated lines and rivets layer, but
i'm critizing it cannot be turned off optionally (thx major setback!). Why is this nonsense?
Why does it need ignorant or arrogant smelling replies?
They made it with the weathering layers too, can't be a big problem.

The fact it is wellknown for months now to be this way doesn't hinder me
to talk about it, and i can assure you there are many others who dislike this
too. The true reason behind this is to avoid or complicate modding - this is what i think.
I'm a non-modder and i'm quite sure it is just a matter of time when there are mods for CoD too.
The fixed rivets/panel lines will not prevent that.

Ok. I apologise for my earlier post. I've used many great skins made for il-2. In fact it was one of the joys of the game to be able to collect and choose between such a great collection of skins created by the community.

I had no idea of potential problems with the new system.

Having said that, I can still see the logic of having panel lines and rivets nailed down as part of the stucture of the aircraft. I really hope that with time and more familiarity with the new system you guys can create something really great for CoD too.

Respect.

[Sauf]

Originally Posted by kendo65

Having said that, I can still see the logic of having panel lines and rivets nailed down as part of the stucture of the aircraft.

What is this "logic" you talk of? Ahh just googled it:

"The study of the principles of reasoning, especially of the structure of propositions as distinguished from their content and of method and validity in deductive reasoning."

Bahh, it has no place on this forum! Leave your "logic" at the door please.

[winny]

Can someone explan the problem here to me?

You have a Mk1 Spitfire, you can paint it anyway you see fit.

Is this about people wanting to change the body work?

[CharveL]

The only real arrogance here cheruskerarmin is yours.

This is a simulator not WOP and you are more than welcome to paint up your 109 in any way that you see fit.

But it's still a 109 and once you start deciding the real panels and rivets should be repositioned your way and not historically then it becomes NOT a 109 and I could care less how good you think you are at it, it still won't be any more a 109 once you're through.

Meanwhile, we would have to put up with every Windows Paint hack out there like some gay disco.

How on earth can it not possibly be enough that you can paint it any way you wish just as if you were actually in a Duxford hangar in 1940 with free reign and millions of colours? You just don't get to redesign the plane with odd-shaped panels and odd sized rivets.

And I'm the arrogant one.

[ATAG_Doc]

Yep. Actually I cannot agree more. I think they wanted to limit the wild schemes people used.