Skinning World War I Planes

[Nr_RaVeN]

No Joy.  Even with the step by step I cant seem to manage it

I'm feeling very stupid and frustrated at this point ....

Working in Photo shop eliments

"1) Create your two textures for your skin."
RGRT, did It

"2) Save them down as 8 bit indexed bitmaps."
RGR ,I compress To a 1 meg bmp, like all skins

"3) Edit the bitmaps and find a 4 pixel area not used in the texture and make it the color of the damage mask."
I take that to mean, edit=open the bmp.. put a 4 pix 255 0 255 dot on the a blank section of the texture ie the grey back ground.
I placed the 255 0 255 4 pix dot on the compressed BMP. in order to see it as pink, I needed to change the BMP to RGB for it to show pink. If it stays a BMP 255 0 255 shows white greyish.

"4) Save it."

Did That

"5) Now, load the bitmaps and copy them to a new 32 bit file

Load? I select all on the bmp, copy it, and opened a new 1024x1024 rgb and pasted it.

"6) Lay the damage mask on top of that texture as a new layer."

Did, that gives, me two layers mask and Clean BMP

"7) Flatten and convert the texture to a bitmap."

flattened it and compressed it to 8bit 1 meg file

"What I missed was the text files containing the index value of the mask color from the bitmap."
isn't the index value of the mask 255 0 255?

"It will vary.  No way to prevent that from happening."
After I did all the steps the mask always remained 255 0 255 when I selected it with the eye dropper tool.

"You have to get the index value, from the bitmap, where the mask color is stored."Not sure what that means, I thought when I selected with eye dropper I got that info.. I'm using photo shop elements

"Once you have that value, you will have to edit the corresponding text files and change it."

There are only 3 numbers in that tex file  in the default txt for a D7
If  the index value is 255 0 255 would I just use 255 i tried it every witch way from sunday...

I did this on both  the damaged and undamaged files  I also tried it on only the file for the damage mask as well as only the undamaged file. 5 hrs trying to figure this out, even with instructions given.  It cant be that hard.
Seems easy, I don't understand the problem. I never see the value of that pink dot change.
I think I'm missing the boat on the instructions sorry to be on the short bus here, but I'm clueless, not to Strong on the transparency stuff.
were did I screw it up?
RaVe

[Krusty]

When you save the file as 8-bit it indexes those colors. On the color palette every color is given an index, like an array of numbers, only instead of numbers it's an array of color values.

The value you put in the .txt file is not the RGB colors, but rather their position in that color array.

So when you use the eyedropper on your 8-bit image, it should tell you under the info page RGB and index. That index is what you put in the text file.

It will be a number anywhere from 0 to 255, since you have 256 colors. It can change any time you re-save the file, especially if you change or add any colors.





The only real problem I see with flattening the clean layer, creating a new file, and reimporting the damage layer, is that you're adding new colors with the damage layer! You still have to down-sample them when saving as 8-bit.

It's not an insurmountable task, but still something that (once in a blue moon?) might color shift the pink areas.

[Skuzzy]

When you save the file as 8-bit it indexes those colors. On the color palette every color is given an index, like an array of numbers, only instead of numbers it's an array of color values.

The value you put in the .txt file is not the RGB colors, but rather their position in that color array.

So when you use the eyedropper on your 8-bit image, it should tell you under the info page RGB and index. That index is what you put in the text file.

It will be a number anywhere from 0 to 255, since you have 256 colors. It can change any time you re-save the file, especially if you change or add any colors.





The only real problem I see with flattening the clean layer, creating a new file, and reimporting the damage layer, is that you're adding new colors with the damage layer! You still have to down-sample them when saving as 8-bit.

It's not an insurmountable task, but still something that (once in a blue moon?) might color shift the pink areas.

Krusty, that is why you add the damage mask color directly into your base skin.  This way when you flatten it down and save it as a bitmap, the color for the damage mask is already in the index.  Then when you lay the dmage mask over the skin it will not be a new color being added.

If you look at the damage mask and see other colors not in your skin, just insert the colors into the base skin textures.

Raven, Krusty is correct about the "255,0,255".  That is the RGB values.  The index in the bitmap is where that color is located.

[Nr_RaVeN]

 Thanks Krusty I found the index page under windows in photoshop elements thanks for pointing me to it..

Thanks Skuzzy ...Just to be sure, and sorry to be a Big PITA...

Lets see if I have it now, As I think I'm overcomplicating a simple process .

1. I compress all my original layers to 8 bmp.

2. Then I open that compressed Bmp.

3. I change mode from index to RGB and put a 4 pix dot of 255 0 255 in a blank spot.(OR DO I PUT THE 4 PIX DOT WIEL ITS IN INDEX MODE)

4.I re-compress to a 8 bmp index again

5. reopen the 8bmp change mode to rgb? i think..?, ad the damage mask as a new layer then re compress to 8bmp
(AGAIN NOT SURE IF I LEAVE THE REOPEND LAYER AS INDEX AND AD THE png DAMAGE MASK OR CHANGE MODE TO RGB AND AD THE MASK)

6. Then re open it again put the eye dropper on the dot and go to the index page under "window" in eliments, to see the index value

7. place that value in the apropreate txt file. in the default folder.. (or do I place the text file in my New skin folder as I would a material file..?)

Correct me is I'm wrong ..... this only done for the damage mask BMP's ?  the case of a D7 the D71D.bmp D72D.bmp ..
don't do it for  D71.bmp or D72.bmp

Thanks Rave

[Krusty]

Krusty, that is why you add the damage mask color directly into your base skin.  This way when you flatten it down and save it as a bitmap, the color for the damage mask is already in the index.  Then when you lay the dmage mask over the skin it will not be a new color being added.

True. I brought it up just as a cautionary note because the damage mask isn't just a single color. It's got the browns and the shades for all the wood ribs showing through. All of these need to be reoganized/downsampled into the final file. Unless you devote a square area for all of them like you did for the pink color.

I suppose putting a chunk of the wood pattern onto your "undamaged" skin -- like putting a patch of the pink color -- before merging with the damage layer should remove that issue, for the most part.

[Nr_RaVeN]

Anybody going to confirm? 

[zmeg]

    There is a much easier way to do this and you don't have to add dots to the originals or edit the alpha text. When you convert to indexed color there is an option to "force" custom colors. Just force 255,0,255 in the 0 position on the color map. After that you can overlay the damage mask without any additional steps.

[Nr_RaVeN]

Thanks Guys, Got It.
With greebos input as well as Skuzzy and krusty
Had to locate the "info" page in my old eliments program. After Krusty pointed me to look for the info page, I could find the index value to plug in.
Then all fell into place per Skuzzys instructions.

 
Thanks to all involved
  RaVe

[Yeager]

I DO look forward to seeing WW1 skins.  Skins have always added another layer of interest/attraction/fascination to the game.

The only other thing I could add would be "Please release some new WW1 skins soon".

[PropHawk]

I'll get on it. Anyone want an all scarlet triplane?