Author Topic: Help with P40 Skin (Read 510 times)

GlacierGirl · « **on:** February 03, 2006, 09:32:08 PM »

Im working on a P40E skin, it has a giant red parrot on the nose. the problem is, on the default skin, there is a section of the nose,(on the front left) that is realy big so that the snake and arazona can fit on it, i finished the parrot on the side of the fuselage but that section where the snake is keeps covering up a majority of the parrot. so i started going back and forth from the game to the editing program making minute ajustments to the larger section so that it matches the rest of the nose art. but when its put together the pixel sizes are different, and the fuselage is very pixely too. how do i make this work. is there a way i can remove the section so it doesnt cover the rest of it up. i was also wondering if there is a way i can post my progress on here so that you guys can see with more detail what im talking about. thank you

Bullethead · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2006, 09:54:01 PM »

I've always shied away from the P40E because I foresaw this problem with the stock nose art. However, some folks here have done skins successfully, so I'll defer to them on how they got around it. I can, however, help with some of your other problems, or at least give you the bad news....

As to the different parts of the plane having different-sized pixels, that's an unfortunate fact of life, especially with the planes with skins and models held over from AH1 and not brought up to AH2 standards

. That includes the P40E and basically every other plane in the game except the P51s, P38s, P47s, 109s, spits, FWs, the Ki84, the B24, and maybe a few others I've forgotten. HTC is gradually redoing all the planes to the new format, which will make all skins done for the old versions obsolete. IIRC, the B17 is next on the list. Thus, almost all skinning work these days is being done on the AH2-format planes, so as not to have one's work destroyed in relatively short order.

To post your progress, you have to upload the pic to webspace somewhere. Then, you put a link to that in your message using special HTML-ish codes this forum accepts. Look up in the upper left corner of the screen when you're typing in a post, and you'll see a link that says "vB Codes [help]". Open that and you'll see instructions for posting images and doing lots of other cool things in posts.

Also, be sure to get the skin viewer tool. This enables you to see the skin on the 3D model with MUCH better control over your view of it than you get in the game, and it also loads much quicker. Plus, you can move the controls and gear to make sure you've got all their lines in the right place. I don't remember the link offhand, but you can search for it. The only problem with the viewer is that every time they patch AH2, it doesn't work with the new version, and you have to wait a week or so before they release the next viewer version.

Krusty · « **Reply #2 on:** February 04, 2006, 01:23:22 AM »

You have to use an alpha channel, if I recall. The older skins used these, including the old (pre-2.6) 109E4. You have to pick a color, and then cover the area with that solid color. Then find the index of that color when you save the file to indexed BMP, and inside a text file list just that number (the index).

If the default file is "p40e.bmp", the text file would be named "p40e_a.txt" and have nothing in it except a number, no spaces no hard returns. The number corresponds to the index of your "masked color".

EDIT: I mean you'd mask off the nose art part, so that it was invisible. Then the normal sides would show through.

GlacierGirl · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2006, 11:56:38 AM »

i downloaded one of festers p40 skins from the website and the section im talking about is hot pink on his so i opened up mine and his in adobe and copied the color from his and put it on mine, and then copied the text thingie with the number and put it in my folder but it just doesnt seem to work, How do you find an Index color in adobe? and what exactly is an Alpha channel. Ive been having my mom help me on the skin but she doesnt know either. sorry for bugging you guys to much, im a little computer illiterate

Krusty · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2006, 12:31:02 PM »

The index between two files will be different. The text files does not tell the color that is the mask, the color can be anything as long as it's not used anywhere else on the skin.

The text file tells the position of that color. The file can only hold 256 colors. They are saved into the file and each has a position. The text file with the number in it tells the game which position is the mask.

So when you save yours, it will be in a different position than when he saved his.

In photoshop, open the BMP file, and select the eyedropper. If you have a recent version (post PS 5.x) you can open the "Tool Options" window, whatever it's called, and put the eyedropper over the mask color. The tool window will tell you red, green, blue, and "I" -- I is Index. This should give you the number to put in the text file.

Note that every time you work on the file and re-save it as a BMP you need to do this, the order of the colors can change every time you save it. So do a bit of work, then preview it.

Sometimes if you only make minor changes you can get away with just saving it and previewing it, but if you add colors and such then it will probably re-compute the index when it saves the file.