Squadron Logos - Career

[Scottvdken]

Any way to get Emblems to appear on aircraft? If not, does anyone know where the preview image for the squadrons is stored? The one that shows in the Unit HQ area. If it's accessible I can just pull the emblem from that and add it to my skin. I've searched the skins subforums but there is not a lot of love given to the I to III generations of LW Squadrons.

 

EDIT: Hmm, stumbled on Devblog #166 which seems to indicate Squadron emblems are a thing. I'm starting in the beginning of BoM, do I just need to progress further?

Edited March 24, 2018 by Scottvdken

[ShamrockOneFive]

They don't appear on aircraft right now. Any emblems you see on an aircraft come from the skin itself. Right now the IL-2 series doesn't have a decal system like the old IL-2 had or like you see in a game like War Thunder. It's something that the devs have said they might be able to do later on. Its just not a feature yet.

[Scottvdken]

Ok thanks. Does anyone know where the emblems used in game would be stored? I perused through the data files but I don't see them anywhere.

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

This would be awesome.

[falle96]

With luck, it'll come down the development pipeline in near-future patches. Having the system that RoF had would be excellent.

[BlackHellHound1]

On 25/03/2018 at 12:05 AM, Scottvdken said:

Does anyone know where the emblems used in game would be stored? I perused through the data files but I don't see them anywhere.

 

They are not stored in a separate file. Currently, all skins for all planes have their numbers and emblems directly integrated into the skins.

 

BlackHellHound1

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by BlackHellHound1

[falle96]

I wonder what you would do to divorce the two so that they could be overlaid. Maybe a layer or two decided by squadron/flight number?

 

I don't know really anything about game development, so I have no doubt that this is a far more difficult task than what I'm thinking.

[ATAG_Flare]

Having a system for squadron emblems and, more importantly, markings and ID numbers, like old IL2 and CloD, would be fantastic. It's a bit boring with every plane just having a generic skin.

[ShamrockOneFive]

Probably some sort of texture compositing. They already do have multiple layers going on with the bump map and textures separated. What they would need to do is build a system to handle the different generic variations of numbers and the occasional squadron patch. Some air forces are consistent and others are grossly inconsistent so any system they build would be very good but not capable of handling all variations.

 

The RAF would be by far the easiest and even then there were the odd rule breakers and modifications for convenience.

[LukeFF]

9 hours ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

Some air forces are consistent and others are grossly inconsistent so any system they build would be very good but not capable of handling all variations.

 

The Soviet air forces are a prime example of that. Still, it would be nice to have a basic aircraft numbering system in place. 

Edited March 26, 2018 by LukeFF

[Finkeren]

Wow... This career mode has really highlighted, just how much people miss the decal system of '46.

 

This is like the tenth thread along these lines.

[CIA_Yankee_]

4 minutes ago, Finkeren said:

Wow... This career mode has really highlighted, just how much people miss the decal system of '46.

 

This is like the tenth thread along these lines.

 

Aye, but given the nature of the mode, it lends itself to decals very well. For example, when another flight shows up it'd be great to be able to tell which squadron they come from (or regiment).

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

I really support this as well.

[ShamrockOneFive]

15 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

The Soviet air forces are a prime example of that. Still, it would be nice to have a basic aircraft numbering system in place. 

 

Couldn't agree more. But I'm sure once they do we'll hear that not every variation is represented and they would be right It'd be impossible for the devs to handle everything with a system that didn't take ages to build.

 

If they can put some letters and numbers on in the appropriate places I'd be blown away. Anything else is gravy.

[seafireliv]

The decal thing was excellent. Surprised it wasn`t considered here. The original IL2 really did some amazing things, even allowing you to stick pinups on your aircraft and  put your face on the pilot model. And it wasn`t hard to do.

[ShamrockOneFive]

1 minute ago, seafireliv said:

The decal thing was excellent. Surprised it wasn`t considered here. The original IL2 really did some amazing things, even allowing you to stick pinups on your aircraft and  put your face on the pilot model. And it wasn`t hard to do.

 

On the other hand.... it generally looked terrible though they were eventually at least add shading to them so they wouldn't look completely fake. Any new system would have to up the ante considerably.

[seafireliv]

3 minutes ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

 

On the other hand.... it generally looked terrible though they were eventually at least add shading to them so they wouldn't look completely fake. Any new system would have to up the ante considerably.

No it didn`t. You`re thinking present day to 10 years ago. It looked great and was worth it to have those things especially for a 10 year old game.

[ShamrockOneFive]

18 minutes ago, seafireliv said:

No it didn`t. You`re thinking present day to 10 years ago. It looked great and was worth it to have those things especially for a 10 year old game.

 

I loved a lot of things about the original IL-2 but by the time Forgotten Battles released the sheen had worn off and I knew things could look better. I even talked with Oleg about what they could do (especially given the miracles being pulled off with Mat Manager) but they weren't focused on that aspect very much. The markings worked and were passable but not ideal. Markings is where I start to "rivet count" a bit.

[Finkeren]

5 hours ago, seafireliv said:

The decal thing was excellent. Surprised it wasn`t considered here.

 

It has to do with the history of how this sim came to be.

 

Originally the sim and the Digital Nature engine was developed by a different company (Neoqb) on a shoestring budget as a WWI sim, that was to become Rise of Flight. That original development was focused on getting their detailed FM and DM to work to the point where corners had to be cut. Thus a proper decal system was never incorporated into the engine and wasn’t thought to be necessary for a WW1 sim, since only the British truly standardized markings and aircraft numbers (or in this case: letters). Since the engine was never built with a decal system in mind, this has proven to be something of a pain to implement, thoughthe devs have a clear desire to do so.

[sniperton]

20 hours ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

If they can put some letters and numbers on in the appropriate places I'd be blown away. Anything else is gravy.

 ^^This. Unless the mission designer assigns completely different skins to each aircraft, currently it's impossible to tell that the plane flying to your right is your squadron leader or your wingman. Even if you turn labels on, you only learn the pilot's name, not his role in the squad. At least this could and should be replaced with something more relevant such as 'Red 2' or 'Black 6' or whatever (as we used to have it in 1946).

Edited March 27, 2018 by sniperton

[migmadmarine]

Do kinda wish we had a system more like ROF at least, with the officially distributed community skin packs. 

 

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

Super necessary to organize the skins in Skin Packs like in ROF.

[falle96]

1 hour ago, PA_Spartan- said:

Super necessary to organize the skins in Skin Packs like in ROF.

Agreed, this is a must.

[JG27_Steini]

As a programmer, i can tell you that is not a big problem. We need 3 things: Personal emblems (custom, general), generic skin and markings. I think most work would be the new settings for markings.

[Feathered_IV]

Using the Mods-on mode a determined person could edit the Skins.cfg that is found inside the SCG.gtp package.  There is a config for each chapter of the campaign.  Inside the skins.cfg there is a list of each aircraft by unit and a generic skin listed for it.  The I-16 type 24 of the 27th IAP for example has its official squad skin listed as I16t24.dds (the same as every other I-16).  You could  conceivably create a squad skin for each unit and enter them here so they show in the campaign.  Individual aircraft numbers are still a problem however, but for Luftwaffe types in particular you could at least get some real variety happening.

[Wolfram-Harms]

Gents, you can find many unit emblems on the web. If you have a graphic program that allows this,

you can save them as PNG files with transparent background.

You then eliminate all background around the emblem, and save it.

After that you should be able to import it into a skin template, adjust the size, and ready...

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by Wolfram-Harms

[ShamrockOneFive]

18 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

Using the Mods-on mode a determined person could edit the Skins.cfg that is found inside the SCG.gtp package.  There is a config for each chapter of the campaign.  Inside the skins.cfg there is a list of each aircraft by unit and a generic skin listed for it.  The I-16 type 24 of the 27th IAP for example has its official squad skin listed as I16t24.dds (the same as every other I-16).  You could  conceivably create a squad skin for each unit and enter them here so they show in the campaign.  Individual aircraft numbers are still a problem however, but for Luftwaffe types in particular you could at least get some real variety happening.

 

Encouraging for future updates. Would love to see some squadron specific schemes even if its just generically representing the squad that would still be cool.

 

I would do that for my IL-2: 1946 campaigns. Every squad would have at least one "generic" skin to represent that unit. Particularly if they had some sort of unique scheme.

[PatrickAWlson]

On 3/26/2018 at 9:18 PM, ShamrockOneFive said:

 

On the other hand.... it generally looked terrible though they were eventually at least add shading to them so they wouldn't look completely fake. Any new system would have to up the ante considerably.

 

I think it can be done pretty well.  I find that 70-80% opacity generally does the trick.  That lets some of the underlying skin show through and eliminates the 2 dimensional look of a 100% opaque decal.  

 

Per the Russians, unit markings were based on the commander's decision and were not formalized.  So really you could do almost anything.  Most of the markings were red, black, or white and were relatively simple like a fuselage band, tail stripe, or painting the cowling.  Guards units would sometimes have the guards emblem on the tail.