Chrome P-47s...

[JeepinAZ]

I started doing skins a few months ago by doing a P-47D-40. So after looking at other people's aircraft skins, I was starting to get a bit miffed & starting to wonder why I couldn't get my skins to look as non-glossy as theirs. I've been doing some D-25 skins recently & noticed that I don't get the "super sheen" on the D-25 like I do the D-40. My files are built exactly the same (I used the D-40 template I created to build the D-25 & my files folders have the same files in them (.txt for description & the .bmp for the skin) yet two totally opposite reactions when viewed in game:

D-40:


D-25:


How the heck do I fix this?

JeepinAZ

[Fencer51]

The default P-47 D25 is OD in color.  The Default P-47 D40 is aluminum.
The reflectivity is set up in the D40 base material file.  I had to adjust that for the 404th FG D40 I did as it is OD.

[Greebo]

To add to Fencer's reply, in all the newer skins a file called material.txt is added to the skin folder along with the bmp when you save the skin from the game. When you open this file it will look something like this:

0.359,0.359,0.359,Ambient
0.759,0.759,0.759,Diffuse
0.000,0.000,0.000,Emissive
0.122,0.122,0.122,Specular
15.000,Power

The key line here is the one ending in specular. This controls how shiny the skin appears. The above file has a low figure and will give a matt appearance, fine for an OD skin. The one below has a much higher specularity and would look good on a bare metal skin.

0.302,0.302,0.302,Ambient
0.439,0.439,0.439,Diffuse
0.000,0.000,0.000,Emissive
0.756,0.715,0.650,Specular
8.200,Power

If you don't add a material file to a P-47 skin it will revert to whatever settings the default skin uses. There is a materials button in the skin viewer which lets you play around with these settings.