replacing in career mode ai skins with custom skins

[kaizerhund4]

is there a good tutorial on how to put custom skins into the career campaign?

[Skycat1969]

I've been adding squadron-specific blanks to my Bodenplatte career over the last several weeks. At first the mod for it seemed overwhelmingly difficult to understand, but once I got a handle on how the skins are assigned I realized editing new skins in is mostly a tedious process of careful editing of some basic files.

 

First, go to this thread: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/42886-modmod-career-random-skins-wingers-by-squadron-is-possible/.  For simplicity's sake I suggest skipping the UI skins.tab stuff and concentrate on changing just the skins in the missions.

 

Enable Mods in your game's settings.

 

Go to your game's Data folder. Create folder named "scg" (no quotation marks). Inside the scg folder, create a subfolder named "Scripts" (no quotations marks). For the purposes of learning the process, also create a subfolder named "18" (no quotation marks). Download the example provided here: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=112211.

 

[It's important to note that the edits in the example require corresponding custom skins to be in your skins folders in order to work. Without them in place, the edited entries will show the default skin instead. You can activate some of MarcoPegase44's edits by installing the 365th Fighter Group P-47 Hellhawks skins found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8yrbr1dwsoer7qd/Hell Hawks Skins.zip?dl=0 ]

 

Now look in the example zip's scg folder. You'll notice that subfolder "18" has a file named "skins", and subfolder "Scripts" has a file named "18skins". Both of the text files will have to match when you edit. I found that the easiest way to do this is make all my edits on a second copy of 18skins; and then select all the text, copy it, and paste all the text from the edited version into both of the other text files (ie, the ones in scg).

 

But you'll probably want to start with a clean, default, up to date version of the skins text file. If so, download UnGTP to extract the default files. Unpack scg.gtp located in the game's Data folder using this tool. Find the default skins documents that correspond to the campaign you want to mod. (MarcoPegase44 explains which numbers go with each campaign, I think in the opening post's download.) You can also use the older version of the default Bodenplatte files provided by MarcoPegase44: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=80373. 

 

Returning to MarcoPegase44's mod, open up either the "skins" or "18skins" text file. The first squadron will look like this:

 

// Allied Player

[squadron=102003]
    [period]
        period="1944.09.28","1945.04.01"
        [skin]
            plane="LuaScripts\WorldObjects\Planes\TempestMkVs2.txt"
            skin=""
            name="No. 3 Squadron RAF"
            type=0 //0 - common, 1 - ace
            probweight=100
        [end]      
    [end]
[end]

 

This is the default entry. You want to change the squadron's default skin. You'll need a custom Tempest Mk.V skin. For this lesson, download this skin and put it in your "data\graphics\skins\TempestMkVs2" folder: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/54822-skin-4k-hawker-tempest-mk-v/ . (It isn't correct for No. 3 Squadron but the skin will work for our objective.) The skin should now appear in the game if you select it as a custom skin in Quick Missions, etc. Here's the edit you'll make for it to be a default skin in career mode:

 

// Allied Player

[squadron=102003]
    [period]
        period="1944.09.28","1945.04.01"
        [skin]
            plane="LuaScripts\WorldObjects\Planes\TempestMkVs2.txt"
            skin="tempestmkvs2\TempestMkVs2_486_Sqdn_SA_M_SHEDDAN.dds"
            name="No. 3 Squadron RAF"
            type=0 //0 - common, 1 - ace
            probweight=100
        [end]      
    [end]
[end]

Edited June 23, 2022 by Skycat1969

[kaizerhund4]

great thanks