Author Topic: Skins Masterlist Skuzzy (Read 623 times)

Jester · « **on:** November 10, 2005, 01:21:11 AM »

Hey Skuzzy,

How about posting a "AH SKINS MASTER LIST" Sticky of all the skins that have "Officially" been accepted by HTC for aircraft?

Might help others that are looking to do skins see what has been done and what needs to be done. It could be updated time to time as needed.

Just a suggestion.

S!

Skuzzy · « **Reply #1 on:** November 10, 2005, 07:12:48 AM »

I would really like to do that, and also show what is in the queue as well. Right now the pre-preview stage takes the most time for the skins for me.

The skins submissions are very inconsistent in terms of how they are bundled. Some do not have an 'info.txt' file, others have it, but not all the information is in it, others are missing the 'plane.txt' fil, while others have upper case lettering for the bitmaps (I have to convert them to lower case). I easily spend most of my time putting together all the files with the right information in them. So to improve the efficiency of my time, I wait until I have a batch to do.

I might be able to automate the post a bit, but I am not sure what impact it might have on the time it takes to get the skins done. I really do not want to slow that process down anymore than I have to. People put a lot of effort in thier skins and I really wish I could find a way to get them done in a more timely manner.

MachNix · « **Reply #2 on:** November 10, 2005, 11:59:36 AM »

Skuzzy,
I would like to add my encouragement for such a list. The list does not have to be "pretty." If you use a Sticky as Jester suggested, maybe the Sticky could just have a link to a .txt file that holds the list and could be updated occasionally. Perhaps there is an HTC internal document used to manage skins that would also work in the Sticky. Having a blurb about the unit's/aircraft's history with thumbnail links to screen shots might be nice on the web site to help "sell" AH, but would be a lot of work and more than we need. Knowing the aircraft type and AF/FG/FS would be all the information required for our purposes.

Krusty · « **Reply #3 on:** November 10, 2005, 12:02:47 PM »

Also, in certain circumstances, it would be nice to know not only the plane unit and designation, but if it's a famous pilot. Example: "109F4 JG27 1942 (Marseille)" <-- something like that.

oboe · « **Reply #4 on:** November 10, 2005, 12:55:54 PM »

In a perfect world, here's the way I think it should work:

Instead of emailing our skins to HTC, we post them to a website, just like we do now with http://www.ah-skins.com. I like the way lucull's site allows comments from the skinner, and has a nice thumbnail pic to show what the skin is. Skuzzy could then download them from the site, and set a 'Skin Status' flag saying "Under Review" and fill in the skin's reference number. When the skin is accepted or declined, he could set the flag to indicate the appropriate status. Finally, when the skin has been put into the download queue, he could set the flag to indicate that. That would eliminate the need for alot of emails between HTC and the skinners.

The site should searchable by plane model (as ah-skins is now) but also by skinner, and by the values of the flag indicator (e.g., we could do searches that show all the skins for P-51Ds currently accepted or under review by HTC). Skuzzy could find all the skins he needs to review by doing a search on "New Submit" for the skin status indicator.

I know there have been alot of 51Ds submitted but I couldn't tell you what they all are, and using the 'under construction' thread can be tedious. With a site similar to lucull's ah-skins.com, you could get a list with pics of all the skins you're interested in pretty easily.

Anyway that's the way I'd design it. I know Skuzzy has talked about redoing the skin submit procedures to get away from email, but I think HTC's plate is pretty full right now.

Kev367th · « **Reply #5 on:** November 10, 2005, 01:40:29 PM »

Could also have seperate downloads for the default skins, with everything that is required, eg info.txt etc (in the correct format), instead of getting them from the game.
Hopefully that would cut down a lot of his work.

Jester · « **Reply #6 on:** November 10, 2005, 03:04:55 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
Also, in certain circumstances, it would be nice to know not only the plane unit and designation, but if it's a famous pilot. Example: "109F4 JG27 1942 (Marseille)" <-- something like that.

Hey Skuzzy,

What I was suggesting wasn't NEAR as technical as you were discribing but something very basic as Krusty described above. Just a simple list of each aircraft or vehicle with a basic discription to let everyone know what has been done and is "OFFICIALLY" ready and available for download to the general public. No links, major histories, etc. Just a basic list.

NO SKINS would be posted on the list till they were 100% ready to go in the game.

Could be very simple as stated above by Krusty. The A/C, general date, squadron or group, any famous pilot connected to the a/c or an a/c number.

EXAMPLE:

BF-109F-4
1942 JG-27 Pilot: Marseille A/C #: Yellow 14
1943 JG-3 Pilot: generic A/C #: Red 11

S!

Raptor · « **Reply #7 on:** November 12, 2005, 03:48:22 PM »

Someone could save skuzzy the work, download the entire skin pack and just go down the list and write down what skins each plane has.

Jester · « **Reply #8 on:** November 12, 2005, 04:36:39 PM »

If I could figure out hoy to make the AHII SKIN VIEWER work I would be glad to - but I am sure I will have to have some input from the folks that made each skin so the list is correct.

Raptor · « **Reply #9 on:** November 12, 2005, 04:39:53 PM »

the skin viewer cannot view the online skins, only skins you either download from AH-Skins or make yourself.