Author Topic: Snortin' Bull  (Read 873 times)

Offline Greebo

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Snortin' Bull
« on: March 28, 2016, 12:07:19 PM »
I decided to update one of my oldest skins to the latest AH III standards. This skin was originally submitted in 2005 and so it only has a basic skin bmp and a material text file to set its overall lighting levels. The updated skin has some improvements made to the basic skin as well as the addition of normal, specular, power and environmental maps.

This aircraft was the second of three P-47Ds flown by Captain James A. Mullins of the 507th FS, 404th FG. All three were named Snortin' Bull and shared the same distinctive nose art.

The first two screenshots are the new AH III skin with the third showing the existing AH II skin for comparison.






Offline lyric1

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2016, 12:14:34 PM »
 :aok

Offline DubiousKB

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2016, 01:30:53 PM »
Looks great!  :aok
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Offline Devil 505

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2016, 06:08:37 PM »
Beautiful.
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Offline FTJR

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2016, 08:39:03 PM »
 :aok
Bring the Beaufighter to Aces High
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Offline oboe

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2016, 03:05:25 PM »
Superb as usual Greebo.   Glad for the side by side - the new version looks so much better - seems to have more texture and grit somehow.

The cap on the propeller shaft - looks like shiny aluminum in the AH2 version but much darker in the new version.  I only mention it because I thought these were often left unpainted.

Do you submit AH3 standard skins now, or do you wait until its out of beta?

Offline Devil 505

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2016, 03:37:34 PM »
I noticed something else, Greebo.

The yellow border bear the tail is very stretched.
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Offline Greebo

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Re: Snortin' Bull
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2016, 05:13:31 PM »
The problem with the propeller hub is not that the colour is too dark but that its specularity is set too low. Thanks for pointing it out,  I'll correct that. One thing I have learnt to do on AH III bare metal skins is make the base aluminium colour darker since the combination of specular and environmental lighting can make it look too washed out otherwise.

The blurring of the yellow border on the second screenshot is something to do with how AH III displays the skin in the middle distance. The border on the skin itself is quite sharp at this point as you can see in the other screenshot. The anti-glare panel does extend a little too far down the fuselage towards the tail than is historically correct in order to overcome the banding across the top of the fuselage on this 2005-vintage AH II shape.

Around the time the new game goes live I imagine Skuzzy will convert all the existing AH II skins and update the skins submission page both to the new file format. I've got a number of other AH III-format new or updated skins waiting to be submitted when this happens; two Ki-43s, a TBM, a B-29, a Hurricane, a Panzer IV H and a Camel. I doubt I'll submit any more skins in the old AH II-format prior to this happening.