Photo on the instrument panel?

[RedKestrel]

14 hours ago, =KG76=flyus747 said:

Babushka's shopping list?? That goes on your monitor!

Massage Oil? Whiskey? Sounds like that Babushka is planning a hell of a friday night!
 

[Wanderfalke]

 

[Cpt_Siddy]

Why do you have picture of Scrafi in your cockpit? 

 

 

[Skywarp]

Worked sucessfullly :D

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by 9./JG54_Skywarp

[40plus]

Fark, epic fail for me. The picture just shows up as a black image in game. must have borked the file format somehow. . . . . computers are hard

[Blitzen]

On 9/30/2019 at 2:49 PM, Fern said:

It was in the PS at the very end of the dev diary for the update.

 

P.S.

To add a custom photo to your airplane or tank cockpit you should replace existing default DDS image by another one in:

<game_folder>\data\graphics\planes\<airplane_folder>\textures\custom_photo.dds

or

<game_folder>\data\graphics\vehicles\<_tank_folder>\textures\custom_photo.dds

DDS image should be 1024x1024 in DXT5 ARGB 8bpp with mip-maps

Can I do this using photoshop? I’d love to had 1940’s actresses to my cockpit...?!

[6./ZG26_Custard]

Sorry gents, should have this posted in here. A photo template that maybe useful for some of you. 

[Dallas88B]

Thanks to @GiftZahnsSteigern and @Diamondaxe for the earlier posts which helped me enormously.

It creates the necessary images in Direct Draw Surface (DDS) format and does so without using a template and without having the right hand side of the photo cut off when it put in game and without needing to install a DDS plugin. 

 

These instructions work on my Windows 10 64 bit PC with the current version of GIMP 2.10.12 . (DDS support is built-in in Gimp 2.10.xx). The approach I describe here uses GIMP. Its not necessarily the best way to do it but it worked OK for me. 

I am using game applications purchased direct from IL2 not from Steam. This will work for Steam users too, but the path to the game folder will be slightly different as I am sure most Steam users realize.

I have tried to make the instructions clear for someone with little or no image manipulation or skinning experience (like me) so they are a bit verbose. Sorry.

 

1.    Get GIMP 2 https://www.gimp.org/ . Its free.
2.    Install GIMP - click on the download and follow the prompts
3.    Start GIMP and use GIMP to open the photo you plan to use.  (I used a .jpg file but pretty much any typical graphics file appears to be ok)
4.    Most photos these days are rectangular. I needed to crop the photo so that the subject is suitably shown. To do this use the crop button is in the second row of little icons on the top left side of the GIMP application and click and drag a square shape on the photo image...... The crop dimensions need to be square - when you click and drag the crop rectangle the dimensions are displayed in the bottom task bar of the application eg: "Crop to X by Y" . Make sure X&Y are equal. 
5.    Now, in the GIMP menu at the top of the screen choose "Image" then "Scale Image". 
6.    In the dialog box which pops up choose 1024X1024 (image size by Pixel) and 300 X 300 pixels per inch resolution and select "Cubic Interpolation"
7.    The image will (depending on the original image you started with) now appear smaller - choose "View" in the GIMP menu at the top of the screen then choose "Zoom" then select "1:1 100%"

 

Its helpful to know that the photo is effectively a canvas with the image sitting on top the canvas. There can be one or more layers (like transparent plastic sheets) above or below your original photo image. When you "look thru this stack of layers you see a consolidated image - imagine looking thru several sheets of plastic each sheet with some writing on it.

 

Now, since the game will seem to 'cut off" the right hand side of the photo the photo image needs to be suitably positioned to the left of the canvas and the canvas needs to be 'protected' so that the unused section of the canvas is not removed when we use GIMP to create the DDS file that the game needs. Then, later when the game 'cuts off' the right hand edge of the photo it doesn't crop the image itself.

 

To do this we will first increase the canvas size; then create a new layer which is the same size as the new canvas size; fill that new layer with a color; merge the two layers together.... now you will have a rectangular canvas with a white strip on the right hand side. So...

a.    Choose Image then Canvas Size. In the dialog box the dimensions will be 1024 X 1024. Make the width 1500.  Lower down at the bottom of the dialog choose Fill With : White. Click resize.
b.    Choose Layer then New Layer. In the dialog box make Opacity : 100.  Click OK. This new layer will appear over the top of your image. 
c.    We will change the order of the layers so that this new layer is underneath. Do this by clicking on the white layer in the stack shown on the right hand side of the GIMP application and drag it down so its second on the list. Your picture image will now be on top and the white edge of the new layer will be protruding from the right hand side of that image.
d.    Now we want to just merge these two layers into one - choose " Image" then "merge visible layers". You will now see that there is now only one layer shown on the right hand side of the application.
e.    Now we will just scale this image to be square again (which is what the game needs). Choose Image then Scale Image and choose 1024X1024 (image size by Pixel) and 300 X 300 pixels per inch resolution and select "Cubic Interpolation"

 

Now export the file into a DDS format and the resultant file is ready to place into the game.

i.    Choose File then Export As. In the dialog box, in the column "places" choose Desktop.  Click on "Select file by type" and choose DDS image from the list. Take note of the File Name at the top of this dialog box. Now click on the EXPORT button. 
ii.    A new dialog comes up (the last one thankfully) - here choose Compression: BC3/DXT5,  Format : default, Save : Image / selected layer, Mipmaps : Generate mipmaps.  Click on trhe EXPORT button. 

 

The new DDS file will now be on your desktop. We just need to put the photo in the correct folder in the game and suitably name the file.

I.    Go to the folder 1C Game Studios\ IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\Planes and select the folder with the name of the plane your want the photo to display in. (if your intended plane was, by example, the Tempest your path would be ....   1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\Planes\TempestMkVs2\Textures
II.    Now open the Textures folder. In the Textures folder, rename the file "custom_photo" to "custom_photo_original". 
III.    Place your newly created file from the desktop into this Textures folder and rename it to "custom_photo" - this is the file that the game will now use. (Your PC may, depending how its configured show the file's suffix too ie: .dds - thus it will show " custom_photo.dds ")
IV.    As has been described by @GiftZahnsSteigern , just prior to spawning into IL2 with your chosen airplane, hit the airplane's setup button lower right corner. Click the new 3rd button "Pilot Stuff", and click the photo. Click Accept. (Note that the image icon in this menu is generic - it will not depict your new photo). 
V.    Now Start the game and the new cockpit photo will be displayed.

Edited October 4, 2019 by Dallas88B

[stanfc]

Do custom photos work in single player?  I do not see a 3rd tab for pilot stuff.

[Art-J]

Yes they do. The tab shows up in the briefing screen, after clicking "[your plane] setup" button (bottom right).

[stanfc]

I am still not seeing the extra tab on the briefing screen.  I click the setup button and it takes me to a screen that has an accept button on the right side of the screen.  On the left side of the screen at the top are three buttons with Main Menu>Missions>Briefing. If I click on the Briefing button it takes me back to the previous screen.  If I click the other two buttons I get a popup saying Finish mission? cancel or accept. I have tried it in missions and quick missions and still not joy.  Thanks for your help.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

42 minutes ago, stanfc said:

I am still not seeing the extra tab on the briefing screen

[stanfc]

The black square box with the three tabs does not appear on my plane settings screen. It makes me think my game installation is not complete. I am at version 4.002

[Fern]

Go into plane settings where you set armament and skins. It's the the third tab on the right

[Ghost666]

1 hour ago, stanfc said:

The black square box with the three tabs does not appear on my plane settings screen. It makes me think my game installation is not complete. I am at version 4.002

If you can't see the Black square box with the three tabs, look for the small gray square in the lower right of screen and click on it.

[stanfc]

Thank you I completely missed seeing that small gray square, clicked it and and the black box with tabs showed up. Thanks to everyone that helped me.

[Ghost666]

no problem 

[GenMarkof007]

S! All,

If anyone knows how to add multiple custom_photo.dds for a plane or tank?
Saw a post and the user had multiple photos in is tank selection?
Any help from the community or Jason, this would be great!

 

Cheers,
GenMarkof

[LukeFF]

47 minutes ago, JG1_GenMarkof said:

S! All,

If anyone knows how to add multiple custom_photo.dds for a plane or tank?
Saw a post and the user had multiple photos in is tank selection?
Any help from the community or Jason, this would be great!

 

Cheers,
GenMarkof

 

Not possible - you have to manually swap them in and out.