I doubt the original skins when first made were ever intended for players to use to make there own. It evolved to that and with that comes all the short comings of ease of use.
I'm going through that now because of choice. I HATE ponies
I imagine the new skins will have visable interior gear compartment skins so when the gear are down you can see inside.
The whole thing will come down to ease of use. A few things would greatly encourage skin creations by the players. With the right tools the skins that could be made would be staggering.
First is a good intuitive layout. This is an IL-2 skin layout. It's done with one 1024 canvas. The way it's setup is sweet.
Second would be a basic panel line PSD available for download. It wouldn't even have to be a PSD. A 1 to 1 jpg on a white background would be enough. Nothing fancy, but accurate. I've spent HOURS trying to get panel lines MATCH control surface pivot points. With a basic panel line templet, all those hours could be productive.
Third, a viewer. Put your skin in and you'd be able to rotate it at all angles without having to go ingame, takeoff, get some altitude to check your work......over and over and over again.
With those additions, more would give it a go. What's produced wouldn't be restricted to those with the gumption to work through the hoops to get to where they want to be.
I spent all morning adjusting, going ingame, taking off, changing the time of day, leveling to get some speed and then rolling the A/C so I could work out the "fudge" on the D25 insignia on the lower wing. Maybe twenty times. I'm still not done, I need to find where the fudge is on the templet so I can add panel lines and rivits.
I wanna fly this one now so I be doing the hoop jumping. But new skins have the opportunity to make the interface SO much easier.
It would be a great benifit to the game.
