Author Topic: Skin Pack (Read 553 times)

frosty · « **on:** April 10, 2007, 09:44:26 PM »

Where can I get a zip file with all the skins? As opposed to downloading them all individually, or waiting for them to load in the game. I figure there's got to be a zip file available somewhere...

ramzey · « **Reply #1 on:** April 12, 2007, 10:34:50 PM »

Krusty · « **Reply #2 on:** April 12, 2007, 11:28:52 PM »

You can no longer download a single, large, skin file with all skins.

I suspect (I don't know) that it's because every time they upgrade a new plane it's that much more work to recompile the 100+ MB file. It's much simpler to host each file individually (for HTC's part).

That being said, I'd just bite the bullet and download 'em all!

Or just enable skin downloads in the hangar whilst online, and give it time.

ramzey · « **Reply #3 on:** April 12, 2007, 11:31:17 PM »

it would be nice if we can download them via ftp (anonymous), all at once

Roscoroo · « **Reply #4 on:** April 13, 2007, 12:14:48 AM »

if your on Dial up there gonna be a pain ...

If your really nice (Kiss the ring) and all that ... I could put them up on my www for quick dl , I think there 230 mb's or so worth now total.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #5 on:** April 13, 2007, 05:54:39 AM »

The skin pack was broken apart for a couple of reasons. The single biggest factor is there is no way for any computer to be able to actually display all the skins without severe swapping.

Just that alone was reason enough to break them apart and allow people to pick and chose which skins they actually wanted.

AKDogg · « **Reply #6 on:** April 13, 2007, 08:07:41 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
The skin pack was broken apart for a couple of reasons. The single biggest factor is there is no way for any computer to be able to actually display all the skins without severe swapping.

Just that alone was reason enough to break them apart and allow people to pick and chose which skins they actually wanted.

U sure about that? I have all the skins DL'ed and I don't go below 55 fps when on deck in a large furball. Even in the FSO we had last month when we engaged about 30 bomber formations along with 40 plus fighters, I didn't drop below 50 fps.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #7 on:** April 13, 2007, 09:03:33 AM »

If all the skins were to be visible at one time, no computer could display them all without severe performance penalties.

Pay attention to the keywords. No computer can have enough memory to load all the skins into RAM and no video card can have enough RAM to display all the skins at one time. There is a good chance a computer could crash in trying to do so.

Puck · « **Reply #8 on:** April 13, 2007, 09:36:27 AM »

AH! So if you download all the skins and disable other aircraft skins (I really don't care what they looked like before they blew up) there would be no performance impact?

doc1kelley · « **Reply #9 on:** April 13, 2007, 09:47:57 AM »

I thought that would just apply if you only pre-loaded the skins? That is one thing I don't do. It would be nice to download a giant zip file with all the skins and then just pick them as needed.

All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1

Skuzzy · « **Reply #10 on:** April 13, 2007, 09:51:38 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Puck
AH! So if you download all the skins and disable other aircraft skins (I really don't care what they looked like before they blew up) there would be no performance impact?

Correct.

Quote

Originall posted by doc1kelley
I thought that would just apply if you only pre-loaded the skins? That is one thing I don't do. It would be nice to download a giant zip file with all the skins and then just pick them as needed.

It typically would, but if you play long enough non-stop, and run into enough planes with the various skins, then you could start seeing the effects of resource starvation.

frosty · « **Reply #11 on:** April 13, 2007, 10:04:11 AM »

Makes total sense. Thanks for the info/explanation.

Puck · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2007, 10:24:58 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy

It typically would, but if you play long enough non-stop, and run into enough planes with the various skins, then you could start seeing the effects of resource starvation.

Bingo. That is probably where my sudden stutters are coming from. The second or third massive furball over a field has just enough custom skins to cause problems. I'll turn other plane skins off and see what happens.

Thanks.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #13 on:** April 13, 2007, 10:33:26 AM »

And you can exacerbate the resource starvation effect when you run with anti-aliasing and hires textures. It really would not take too many skins to swamp a 512MB video card as each skin could consume up to 16MB of video RAM each, depending on the anti-alias level you have set.

Puck · « **Reply #14 on:** April 13, 2007, 10:40:02 AM »

THANK you. I think that problem is solved.

I'm still researching ways to tune an AMD 64 3400+ running XPPro for AH. That is, for all intents and purposes, the only thing that is ever run on that machine. Exceptions are Illustrator and Photoshop for skins. If you have any white papers tucked away they'd be appreciated.