Skins... can someone explain

[gnomechompsky]

I have spent quite a while browsing both this forum and RoF trying to understand how skins are supposed to work in this.  It is really not clear.  

 

Can someone provide a tutorial as to how this is supposed to be set up?

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Download the skin.
Copy it to XX:\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of XX\data\graphics\skins
Then start game and when choosing planes Camo skin Select custom upto and select your downloaded skin.
Done.

(they are locked out on some multiplayer severs due to server owners under a false impression that people cheat with them. )

[gnomechompsky]

Yeah okay thanks, I thought there was a way PWCG would select the skin automatically depending on your Sqn.

[PatrickAWlson]

PWCG is configured through multiple means to assign a skin to a plane.  It gets more complex that one might think.

First: is a squadron skin assigned for that squadron at that date.  If yes, assign that skin.

Second: Is this an ace with a particular skin available at this particular time.  If yes, assign that skin.

Third: Is this a squadron member with a particular skin assigned by the player.  If yes, assign that skin.

 

Finally, if the skin is not available (not installed usually) the skin still gets assigned but the game will revert to the default skin. 

[BMW801]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I successfully downloaded and implemented all of the skins available for PWCG for RoF and I love it.

What is the best source of available skins for PWCG for BoS, BoX, etc?

And by the way, many thanks again to Pat Wilson for his superb work.  I pretty much only use PWCG when I fly this sim.

[gnomechompsky]

PWCG is configured through multiple means to assign a skin to a plane. It gets more complex that one might think.

First: is a squadron skin assigned for that squadron at that date. If yes, assign that skin.

Second: Is this an ace with a particular skin available at this particular time. If yes, assign that skin.

Third: Is this a squadron member with a particular skin assigned by the player. If yes, assign that skin.

 

Finally, if the skin is not available (not installed usually) the skin still gets assigned but the game will revert to the default skin.

Thanks for the response. What isn't clear is though is configuring this. I downloaded a massive skin pack for 109s from another thread but it isn't obvious how to get it to work. Do I need to rename the skins? If so, to what?

[BMW801]

Where did you find those skin packs?

[PatrickAWlson]

First you have to answer the question: who do I want to assign the skin to?  The skins have to be configured in PWCG.  Different skin categories are assigned in different ways.

 

Squadron skins:

Those are configured in the SquadronInfo file.  Assigning a skin to a squadron will cause that skin to be used for every plane in that squadron.

 

Ace skins:

Ace skins are defined in each ace's file.  There are only one or two aces in PWCG BoX at the moment, so not much to do there.  If the ace's squadron has squadron skins assigned, the use of the squadron skin will be overridden by the ace's skin assignment.

 

Personal skins for your squadron

Personal skins can be assigned to yourself and your squadron mates.  Since these are purely user choice they are assigned within the campaign.  Use the skin management button on the campaign screen to access the skin management panel.  If your squadron has squadron skins assigned, the use of the squadron skin will be overridden by the personal skin assignment.

 

Personal skins for other squadrons

Then it gets more complicated.  Let's say that there are multiple personal skins for a squadron.  You really only want them to show up one time in a mission.  Those can be configured as personal skins associated with a squadron.  PWCG will look at those skins and MIGHT assign one to an AI pilot.  PWCG prefers to assign personal skins to better pilots, with lesser pilots getting generic squadron markings or sometimes factory markings.  .  Not sure what the state of skinning is in BoS, but those skins generally require a concerted effort to make n number of skins for a particular squadron.  In RoF we had people willing to do that, so it is entirely possible to see a flight of planes  each with squadron markings and individual markings.

 

Did I mention that it gets complicated

Edited May 2, 2017 by PatrickAWlson

[BMW801]

Thank you, sir!

You are truly a gentleman and a huge asset to this community.

[BMW801]

Sorry to be a bother, but when I downloaded PWCG for RoF there were the multiple skins packs that I also downloaded and installed.

On the PWCG for BoS download page, there are no skin packs to download.  Does this mean the indicated skins are already present in the BoS 2.1.2 download?

[gnomechompsky]

Skin packs for F4, G2 and A3 on this thread:

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/18377-skins-creation-and-czar-pwcg/

[gnomechompsky]

Unfortunately I am still struggling to get it to work.  

 

I have edited the squadroninfo file as below:

 

    Squadron

    {

        Name = "II./JG51";

        Nation = 201;

        Service = 20101;

        Id = 20112051;

        Skill = 80;

        Skins

        {

            Skin

            {

                Name = "bf109f4_jg51_03";

                Plane = "bf109f4";

                StartDate = 15/04/1942;

                EndDate = 31/09/1942;

            }

        }

 

 

 

Naturally the skin bf109f4_jg51_03.dds is available in the BoS data/graphics/skins folder.

 

I then started a new campaign as II./JG51 in 1 Aug 1942 and my plane still has the default skin selected.  I also selected "Squadron" in skin sets but also didn't make any difference.

Edited May 2, 2017 by gnomechompsky

[gnomechompsky]

Ok I have noticed that actually it does assign the correct skin to everyone else in the Sqn, but the player still has to select the skin on his own?

[BMW801]

Thank you for your help!