Custom Personal skins for MP

[BOO]

5 hours ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

But Its full of (Swastikas), they have not been censored yet and its driving me away to look elsewhere.

 

So would you BOO can suggest another forum without these "swastikas", I'm sick of em!

It ain burger king mate - take what's offered or learn to do it yourself

[Legioneod]

3 hours ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

Well I'd wish it was subway, also when I took a hard long look at these "do yourself" post that you suggested, well hell its not even simple you believe a person (I'll bet theirs other) like me that fails on M.S.paint and Bimp to "do yourself" on these skin.  Well BOO you should of been my teacher in high school, but wait I'd graduated but by not doing painting in programming but drawing in real life pencil and paper; yeah I art but hell it ain't perfect but that what I'm good at in life and its what I can do that is at least as these over-time consuming to learn the (NOT So Simple) painting programming that require me to spend years of my life to actually "doing yourself".  After talking facts and looking at these "so-call tutorials" I will say NO Thank You!  Its already enough to learn that I'm trying master drawing a animal leg as it is.

It takes at most a few hours to learn the basic functions in order to make a good skin, you could always spend more time and get even better detail but a decent skin doesn't take long.

[BOO]

Years? For what you want to do it would take a few minutes to a couple of hours tops. The steps below look involved but realy are not - once you've done it a few times and have a prepared template it should be the work of 2 minutes. 

 

Get the things you need

 

Download Gimp

Install a plug in that allows gimp to work with DDS files like this one https://code.google.com/archive/p/gimp-dds/

Download the official template for the aircraft(s) you want. 

Download the skin the skin you want to work with. (there are 2K and 4K versions so chose the one you want)

 

Prepare the Template

 

Open Gimp and in the "windows" header along the top click "dockable Dialogues" and select "brushes", Layers" and "Channels"

Now go to File, then click open and navigate to the template (its esier if you've put it on your desk top) and click on it

Click "convert" when prompted. 

Now turnoff all the layers by clicking the eye icon next to them in the "layers window". You will see braches in things like weathering - turning off the eye at the top of these branches will also turn off anything in them (for speed) - you can also collapse the braches for neatness.

 

Prepare the skin you want to amend

 

Now go back to "file" and click "open" again - this time navigate to the skin you want to alter. 

When prompted untick "import mip maps" and proceed.

Now you will see a faded image in a new window. You will need to right click on the image in the "layers" window for and click "duplicate" layer. The active windows will always be associated with the last main window you clicked on. Now repeat Duplicate layers another two of three times. 

The image still wont be fully opaque so, for ease right clck on the top layer and select "merge Down" - keep doing for the other layers until you are back to kust one item again.

Repeat the "duplicate layer" with this new strong layer a few more times until it appears totally solid (no grey checkerboard is showing).

Repeat the merge layers down process again until you have only one layer. 

 

Import the skin to the main template

 

right click on the skin layer you have created and and click on "layer to image size"  - ive found this helps with the alignment of layers dragged over to other projects.

Now left click on the layer in the layer window and drag it into the MAIN WINDOW of the skin template project you opened first of all (the one with all the layers you switched off.

Ideally you want you skin at the bottom so just left click it and drag you point down to the bottom of the layers window. 

 

Edit the skin

 

Click on the layer in the layer window

Ensure that the area you want to work in is active - you can do this by pressing "R" on the keyboard and dragging a rectangle out around the area you want.

Now select the colour of the paint you want to use to overpaint the swastika with - to do this press "O" on the keyboard then move the dropper that appears to the paint colour you want and left click

Now select a paint tool by pressing either A for airbrush or P for paintbrush. In the Brushes window you will see a number of shapes and an bar for "spacing". Select one of the round soft edged shapes and lower the spacing amount if you want (you will see a dotted outline on the icon in the main window that will show you the size of the brush)

Overpaint the area you want and repeat the colour picking and painting with other colours as you wish.

If you make a mistake just press ctrl and z to undo your last action

 

Prepare the skin for export

 

Now you can prepare your skin for export

Rick click on the layer and click on "merge Visible layers" in the pop up window select "clipped to bottom layer" - this step isn't probably necessary with just one atcie layer but is here just for completeness.

Next Right click on the layer in the layer window and then select "Add layer Mask"

In the window that pops up selected the bottom option  "channel" and make sure that "Alpha1" is selected in the box below - now you will see the image becomes semi transparent and the grey checkerboard  appears. your skin is now ready for export.

 

Export the Skin

 

Go to file then click on "export as"

Type in the name of the skin you will know it as and make sure you end the name with  .dds. This will prompt gimp to work in dds export mode. 

Click "export" and in the box that appears select "BC3/DXT5" in the compression level dropdown and "Generate Mipmaps" in the mipmaps box

In the "Advanced" section select "Box" in the Filter

Click OK to complete the export

 

Save the template for later use

 

FINALLY - go back to your main project template and undo the Marge visible layers and add layer mask actions (press Ctrl Z twice) and save it. 

 

 

This is  a basic guide -  it will destroy any weathering around the area you have painted but you can always but this back in by switching on the layers affected and copying them in but I wont cover that here.  Careful work with the airbrush option and a small pattern should see you right though. You could replace the swastika with the default version if its in the template or even create a new layer on which to paint instead of directly onto the original skin. Whatever you do, if you publish it, credit the original artist. 

 

Cheers

 

BOO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BOO]

2 minutes ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

I'd tried downloading gimp but all I got was rar. files to extract and extract....  How and why does it download like this Pfff, I'll try many ways to download this thing.

 

There a better way to download gimp.

get 7zip https://www.7-zip.org/download.html and extract the .rar using that. Choose the version (32 or 64bit) for your system

[BOO]

1 minute ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

I just downloaded Gimp...  Does it need some some thing to work with DDS or will this work?  I'd just need to installed it first before do trying the all suggestions.

Please read the guide I spent an hour doing for you. second line of the instructions. 

[Wolfram-Harms]

Damn, poor BOO, you have started something there... Mmuahahahahaaa!!!

 

[Wolfram-Harms]

Well, you can trust BOO at least - he spent a lot of time already to help you.

[BOO]

41 minutes ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

I'd reached fifth line of the instruction, Alpha1 is not showing up in the Layer Masks.  I'll get it working, but is there a way around though.

What template are you using? - provide the link - if its created by a third party if may be called something else. Either way, its usually the single layer that is contained within the Channels window. 

[BOO]

1 minute ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

None; putting bluntly.  I just open up the skin with the gimp from the files shown checker-grey-scales double-layer and merged em to edit; finished edit and now I'm stuck with no Alpha1..

So you are STILL not bothering to follow the instructions (forgive me but from what you describe here its sounds that way) - The skin is NOT a template - its an image. You need a template to import the skin into. No template, no alpha. The instructions I provided you are ABC - if you cant be bothered and want to go ABZ I cant help you. 

[BOO]

This has gone way off the intended subject of the thread but here are the templates

I will ask a moderator to perhaps move this mornings posts to another thread and clean them up since people will be coming here for skins not skinning advice. 

[Wolfram-Harms]

1 hour ago, Junjun_Nikurasu said:

OK WOLFRAM-HARMS I refuse to bug BOO, so do YOU know what the hell is a template!?

 

A skin template is a file with the whole skin work for one aircraft skin; with many LAYERS, and with the ALPHA CHANNEL (for the lighting).

It is a complex thing to work out at the beginning. Only later, after spending a lot of time with this field, you will learn more and more

how to work with such templates, and how to save them as a correct-for-the-sim DDS file.

 

So, if you don't give up, you may find a rewarding field for a "skinning hobby".

 

Here is how the new RaFiGer skin template for the Bf 109 G-6 looks in PHOTOSHOP (click on image to enlarge):

 

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Wolfram-Harms

[Wolfram-Harms]

Hey, hey - nobody should be easily named an "idiot" - and you shouldn't call yourself one for a start.

Skinning sure IS a difficult terrain, and if you want to learn it, you will have to read several good posts

or watch many good tutorials. It is a process. BOO cannot write it all up for you, I'm afraid.

Hope we got you started.

[klebor]

This kind of different, fancy, unrealistic, colorfull custom skins would be a cancer in MP ranked servers. On the other hand there is no decal system in the game. Any decal system. 

Ideally there should be predefined default skin for every plane for each map/season with some basic decal. But there are some technical difficulties.

[Gamington]

I kinda want to make my own personal skin, maybee join a sqaud hopefully really soon and add like a sqaud logo or something on it.

[Voyager]

Cross posting: 

 

 

 

Personal Fictional Skin, "Sweetie y Raton" for the P-47D-28. Technically three skins, plus four variants without the nose art, if other people want something like them:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a78e2sm7m3q54lq/P-47D-28_4k Sweetie y Raton.7z?dl=0

 

[KuhlRick]

Hey everybody,

 

Back in Dec 14 Winger shared some really nice skins but unfortunately the link is down. I contacted them, and they said the skins were lost in a system crash. Did anyone by chance download these, and would you be able to help Winger (and me) out by reposting them?

 

They were German planes with a design on the wings and side of the aircraft for the Stuka, 109 and 190.

 

Found on This Page

Original Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/392h0gcducq9xqe/AAAz--iRrmzfZL1EFLxJWLG5a?dl=0

[SE.VH_Boemundo]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hve2fkkz2hmrvlx/BLW_B110E2_TL.dds?dl=0

 

My personal skin: =BLW=Tales

 

 

Why devs do not develop a tool so the servers hosts skins and download/upload them automatically to incoming users?

[Pict]

On 5/13/2020 at 9:16 AM, SixGuns said:

 

Any chance a skinner out here could make this similar "Starsky&Hutch" skin for yak-7b please? Thank you

 

 

Something along these lines? It's a quick job to get the basic layout so it's not finished just yet.

 

The TV car base red color was Ford 2B Bright Red and I used the hex values from this site https://encycolorpedia.com/bf1e1a to get it as accurate as possible.

 

The white stripe is also a Ford color, but should have a black pinstripe outline which I'll add when the white is finalized.

 

Do you want it red underneath too, clean or weathered?

Would you like anything else added, Stars, Crosses, Stars n bars, personal logo or whatever?

 

 

Update;

 

A bit more tweaking of the stripe to get the sharp point and the black outline. I made the underneath red and the spinner white to break up all the red.

 

 

Not much left to do, minor tweak to the stripe alignment where it crosses over the top. It's pretty much a matt finish which you may or may not prefer, but as far as I know only a few aircraft support a shiny finish and that was even toned down in the last patch. Might be able to tweak it, need to look into the possibilities for that though.

 

Update 2;

 

White stripe as good as I can make it, pitot tube & radio mast now red. Made the underside white, same white as the stripe just more weathered, which I think is better than all red?

 

 

Threw your personal logo as roundels underneath for a quick test  

 

 

That's it for now, I think. Let me know how you want it configured and I'll pm you a link to download the skin.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Pict

[Trooper117]

''Starkers and Crutch!''... all it's missing is some fat little actor sliding across the engine cover!

[Pict]

On 5/28/2020 at 4:59 PM, Trooper117 said:

all it's missing is some fat little actor sliding across the engine cover!

 

At least he could hop onto the hood. Frank Canon who was on TV around the same time would have needed a fork truck to get up there and a tow truck for the slide 

 

Canon was massive, so was his car, whatever make it was?

[Rhan_N_Singh]

On 5/27/2020 at 2:13 PM, Pict said:

 

Something along these lines? It's a quick job to get the basic layout so it's not finished just yet.

 

The TV car base red color was Ford 2B Bright Red and I used the hex values from this site https://encycolorpedia.com/bf1e1a to get it as accurate as possible.

 

The white stripe is also a Ford color, but should have a black pinstripe outline which I'll add when the white is finalized.

 

Do you want it red underneath too, clean or weathered?

Would you like anything else added, Stars, Crosses, Stars n bars, personal logo or whatever?

 

 

Update;

 

A bit more tweaking of the stripe to get the sharp point and the black outline. I made the underneath red and the spinner white to break up all the red.

 

 

Not much left to do, minor tweak to the stripe alignment where it crosses over the top. It's pretty much a matt finish which you may or may not prefer, but as far as I know only a few aircraft support a shiny finish and that was even toned down in the last patch. Might be able to tweak it, need to look into the possibilities for that though.

 

Update 2;

 

White stripe as good as I can make it, pitot tube & radio mast now red. Made the underside white, same white as the stripe just more weathered, which I think is better than all red?

 

 

Threw your personal logo as roundels underneath for a quick test  

 

 

That's it for now, I think. Let me know how you want it configured and I'll pm you a link to download the skin.

I love it!   Where can I get me one of those?   

 

And why is that, that particular paint scheme still works so well on anything?    I mean the show... is rather laughable now, the plots were cliche, the acting was weak, and the car was crap.  But I for some reason I still like it.  And I loved the Stiller Wilson movie. Must be getting senile and nostalgic in my old age.  

 

All I know is that red 'n white always look good.

 

 Any chance of getting that on a 38 somehow?  Maybe...stripe on booms and the pod... and/or maybe stripe broken across booms?  hmmmm

 

for that matter... put that scheme on everything!  Yee haw! 

[=RS=rulezcz]

What if I follow exactly the ...excellent I must say ...tutorial above, but my slightly edited skin is too dark ? Darker than the original . And I only add say...insignia somewhere ? Thank you

 

Well now i look at it it is not even dark...it is completely different. It only looked too dark when there was no sun.

Edited June 27, 2021 by =RS=rulezcz

[[BSS]Super_Froggy]

I'm having issues with using custom skins in MP.

Here is what I have going:

-I create a server in IL-2

-Paint scheme NOT LOCKED

-In my game settings I made sure to tick the "show custom paint schemes"

-I have everybody paint schemes downloaded and placed in the appropriate plane folders in "\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\skins\whatever plane"

-My friends also have everybody's skins placed in the appropriate folders

 

They can ALL see my custom skins and theirs but no one else and I personally can only see mine. Theirs skins are the default ones...

 

I'm assuming the reason they can all see mine but nobody else is because I'm the host???? 

 

Am I missing a setting somewhere? 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks

Edited January 8, 2023 by [BSS]Super_Froggy
spelling

[BlackHellHound1]

On 1/8/2023 at 7:30 PM, [BSS]Super_Froggy said:

I'm having issues with using custom skins in MP.

Here is what I have going:

-I create a server in IL-2

-Paint scheme NOT LOCKED

-In my game settings I made sure to tick the "show custom paint schemes"

-I have everybody paint schemes downloaded and placed in the appropriate plane folders in "\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\skins\whatever plane"

-My friends also have everybody's skins placed in the appropriate folders

 

They can ALL see my custom skins and theirs but no one else and I personally can only see mine. Theirs skins are the default ones...

 

I'm assuming the reason they can all see mine but nobody else is because I'm the host???? 

 

Am I missing a setting somewhere? 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks

 

I suggest you take a look in another server. See if the situation is the same.

If it is, check if your filenames are matching theirs. It may be that yours are named different.

If the situation is different, then it has something to do with your server. Not something I can help with though.

 

BlackHellHound1

[E69_julian57]

Hello @[BSS]Super_Froggy
I think the problem you have is that when you create a dog or coop mission in MP, if you want to see your skin plus those of your teammates you have to edit the mission with the mission editor and put the skin of each aircraft.
If you all have the same skins you should be able to see each other.
I fly coop missions created by my group with custom skins and we all see each other's skins.
If you didn't use the editor and put a mission in the game you can't see each other's skins, only your skin.

I think that's how it works.
I hope I've clarified something for you.

PS: In dog missions I'm not sure if it works the same way.
If you all have the same skins you should be able to see each other without using the editor.

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Edited January 14, 2023 by E69_julian57

[[BSS]Super_Froggy]

17 hours ago, E69_julian57 said:

Hello @[BSS]Super_Froggy
I think the problem you have is that when you create a dog or coop mission in MP, if you want to see your skin plus those of your teammates you have to edit the mission with the mission editor and put the skin of each aircraft.
If you all have the same skins you should be able to see each other.
I fly coop missions created by my group with custom skins and we all see each other's skins.
If you didn't use the editor and put a mission in the game you can't see each other's skins, only your skin.

I think that's how it works.
I hope I've clarified something for you.

PS: In dog missions I'm not sure if it works the same way.
If you all have the same skins you should be able to see each other without using the editor.

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

I've been using PWCG and easy mission generator. I might have to give it a try a use the IL-2 mission editor see if it works that way. I'm creating a co-op server within IL-2 I don't run a separate one. I'll give it a try and see if that fixes the skin issue because at the moment they can only see my skin only. We made sure to all have everybody's skins installed.

 

[111fritznack]

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/vQjQBzi

 

Hi all;

 

  Probably i will make my personal skin too, where is the templates or void section can someone point it out please. These skins are personal indeed Im not downloading them anyway. It tastes personal so bye downloads. Someone advice me if it needs further process to incorporate personal skins for multiplayer or not. What the hell this will make a cruel discipline making one do you agree? I want to make spits, hurris,fw190,P-51D, 109s what do ya think? and rate them 1-10. There should be on this page. Im a starter at DDS file what a shame.

Spoiler

Im a starter at DDS file what a shame

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by 111fritznack
add

[54th_Hashashin]

[Trooper117]

Can't hide in that thing... instant death!