Issue with B25D DDS file not displaying

[IckyATLAS]

The B25D is an AI only plane that I use in my Kuban campaign. I would like it to be with Soviet Read Army skin and not with either RAF or USAF skins which are the only ones available.

I started with the B25D Photoshop file that is in Jason's post where all the public files are.

I modified it to my liking and saved it as a DDS file. I used the Nvidia DDS Texture Plug-In facility for Photoshop. I am using Photoshop Elements 2019 on Win10.

Then I stored the DDS file in the data/graphics/skins/B25D directory. All the Plane directories are there but I saw no B25D directory.

So I created one named B25D and stored the DDS file in it.

Then I launched IL2 and went to quick mission where I choose the B25D and unfortunately under Custom there was nothing. It does work with other plane custom skins  though. But those are skins downloaded from the forum and surely made by professionals compared with the newbie that I am in this field.

 

So here three questions:

1) can custom skins be used for AI only planes?

2) When saving the file as DDS I have a dialog box from the Nvidia Texture DDS plug-in with various parameters to set. Are there some parameters that have to be set so that the DDS file is recognized. I just saved with the default values that were set by the application but maybe these are not correct.

3) I have not used the ALPHA Channel file. I do not want to modify it as the visual result of the default version is ok for me. In that case do I have anyway to store also the ALPHA Channel file in the B25D directory.

 

My gratitude to anyone that can help me solve this issue.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chief_Mouser]

I have a skin folder named B25DRAF, and within that is a B25D_VVS.dds skin. I suspect that it might be something I've downloaded, but perhaps B25DRAF is the correct folder name? Also, I've never managed to successfully create a .dds file with Photoshop as I can't get the plug-in to work, so I use a combination of Photoshop and GIMP.  I work in Photoshop then open the .psd file in GIMP, flatten the image, enable the Alpha then Export it as a .dds file. Trying to Save it directly as .dds  doesn't work.

This probably opens up more cans of worms than you were hoping for, but maybe something is of use. Cheers.

[szelljr]

9 minutes ago, 216th_Cat said:

I have a skin folder named B25DRAF, and within that is a B25D_VVS.dds skin. I suspect that it might be something I've downloaded, but perhaps B25DRAF is the correct folder name? Also, I've never managed to successfully create a .dds file with Photoshop as I can't get the plug-in to work, so I use a combination of Photoshop and GIMP.  I work in Photoshop then open the .psd file in GIMP, flatten the image, enable the Alpha then Export it as a .dds file. Trying to Save it directly as .dds  doesn't work.

This probably opens up more cans of worms than you were hoping for, but maybe something is of use. Cheers.

"perhaps B25DRAF is the correct folder name?"----- Yes. yes.yes.

 

"2) When saving the file as DDS I have a dialog box from the Nvidia Texture DDS plug-in with various parameters to set. Are there some parameters that have to be set so that the DDS file is recognized. I just saved with the default values that were set by the application but maybe these are not correct."

I use this:

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by szelljr

[IckyATLAS]

Thanks for the Info I will give it a try.

You were both right. It has solved my problem. 

The directory is B25DRAF (Why have it simple if you can have it complicated) ?

 

My default format was completely different, and when switched to a format DXT5 compatible it worked.

Thanks again.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by IckyATLAS