Question about 2K P-47 Template

[DarkWolf29]

I downloaded the public 2K P-47 template but am having some issues creating a skin that matches the Official skins with it. With the Spitfire IX it was easy, right out of the box the template could output a skin that looked just like the official default skin. With the P-47 I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or maybe its just a matter of manipulating the layers.

 

To illustrate, the stock skin looks like this :

 

 

But my attempt with the unaltered template look like this :

 

 

Mine seems lighter in the hangar, but then darker in a mission. I'm wondering is this a modified version of the template or is it just a matter of my needing to set the opacity of the various layers correctly? Or maybe there is some extra step needed when making bare metal skins?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

DW

[Raptorattacker]

Have you tried manipulating the Alpha layer? THAT will affect the 'shade' and reflectiveness quite considerably.

[bad_grant]

I have the same issue. I know the Aplha template is included but have no idea how to use it.

[DarkWolf29]

Yeah I wondered if it had something to do with the Alpha channel. Does that have to be modified for each skin for a bare metal aircraft? I didn't mess with it for Spitfire IX skins, is that because the whole fuselage is a painted surface so its uniform anyways?

 

DW

[DarkWolf29]

Yeah it was the alpha channel. After messing around a bit extracting the official skins from the game files so I could compare their alpha layers I able to tweak the template one to mimic it. Got it very close, though the underside is still a little darker when viewed at an oblique angle, its in the ball park.

 

DW

[Raptorattacker]

On 1/21/2019 at 1:00 AM, DarkWolf29 said:

Yeah it was the alpha channel.

Glad to hear you got your head round it. It's really a case of try it, put it on, look at it and if it doesn't look right then just 'rinse and repeat' until you're satisfied. It's really difficult to explain because a lot of it comes down to taste as much as anything. Another thing is NOT to take the view in the hangar as any sort of an indication either as the lighting in there is completely different to what it is in - game or even in the viewer. The only real indication is actually in - game really.

[DarkWolf29]

I know what you mean, especially the bare metal aircraft. They look so blah in the hangar but great in game.

 

DW

[DetCord12B]

On 1/17/2019 at 3:37 AM, Raptorattacker said:

Have you tried manipulating the Alpha layer? THAT will affect the 'shade' and reflectiveness quite considerably.

 

I hate this more than anything. I understand it's a must do here and all but anywhere else you'd never, ever in the slightest, touch the alpha map.

 

I've been doing community and professional textures for FSX/P3D for almost seven years now and editing the alpha is always a no go as spec-maps are always provided. However, the developers neither have nor use them in IL-2. We're just really lucky @ICDP goes out of his way to provide these materials for his templates to begin with.

[Raptorattacker]

6 hours ago, DetCord12B said:

I hate this more than anything.

Weird that because I actually LIKE doing the Alphas. I've been skinning for about 3461/2  years (joke!) and had a massively long career of it in WT (shhhh!!!) and I have always manipulated the Alphas. It's a great way to enhance stuff and such. For instance, did you know that the markings on Luftwaffe units were slightly more 'glossy' so that they stood out more? THAT'S an Alpha tweak.