AH3 Skins

[DubiousKB]

Could we please get a small asterisk or something on the skins list so that we know it's meant for AH3!?

Love the new skins, but can never remember the name... Please add some kind of simple identifier in the list so I know it's a bad-ass-skin for the latest and greatest engine. . .

Please.

[DubiousKB]

.....or we'll just continue to show crap skins that weren't meant for this engine on public platforms like youtube and the like... no skin off my teeth I guess... 

[popeye]

I just assume that the "super glossy" skins haven't been updated and use the other ones.

[100Coogn]

Couldn't the skins that are not meant for AHIII just be removed?

Coogan

[DubiousKB]

Just seems like such a small thing to do... I just watched a video where the spit16 looks like it's invisible.  It's not doing the game justice...

[Vraciu]

Just seems like such a small thing to do... I just watched a video where the spit16 looks like it's invisible.  It's not doing the game justice...

I sympathize but it's a touchy subject.   Also, it takes a lot of time to update skin and even more to put it into the game as an update.   Not enough hours on the clock.

[DubiousKB]

I sympathize but it's a touchy subject.   Also, it takes a lot of time to update skin and even more to put it into the game as an update.   Not enough hours on the clock.

I want those awesome skins to show off, but I shouldn't have to "research" which skins are AH3 and which ones are going to look silly....   Title the dang things with a prefix of AH3_ or something!

I know I'm being ignorant here, but it can't be that hard to differentiate between "old" skins, and the new sweet looking ones! 

[Greebo]

I think HTC are loathe to retire old skins because of all the aggravation they will get from players who have just lost their favourite one.

My preferred solution is for the game to be modified so that when it sees any skin that lacks specular and/or normal maps it uses a standardised set of lighting values for it, something a lot more realistic than the chrome plated effect it generates to at the moment.

[DubiousKB]

I think HTC are loathe to retire old skins because of all the aggravation they will get from players who have just lost their favourite one.

My preferred solution is for the game to be modified so that when it sees any skin that lacks specular and/or normal maps it uses a standardised set of lighting values for it, something a lot more realistic than the chrome plated effect it generates to at the moment.

... I'm trying to circumvent all that by simply differentiating them in the drop down list...  Am i missing something?  So the chooser has a clear indication if it's an "old" skin vs a "new" skin...

I don't want to get rid of any skins, just modify either the titles or some other visual indication that it's one of the skins our guys (like yourself) have worked on and got into the game.

Example Drop Down
AH3_Default_Skin
AH3_skin2 (by greebo)
AH3-Skin3 (by Vraciu)
Skin4 (By cybro)
SKin5 (By an awesome skinner)

Is this really that difficult? Again, i know i'm being ignorant, but I really don't understand why it's that challenging to ensure we can easily select the "best" skins for AH3...

[Devil 505]

The problem is that some skins made or updated in the last years of AH2 had files that survived the game conversion and look just as good as skins made in the AH3 era.

I have voiced my displeasure as seeing super chrome skins and even I still have skins to update to an adequate level.

I mentioned in other threads that the active skinners should have the ability to "vote out" skins that do not meet an acceptable standard and the original skinner is gone from the game - hense unable to update their own skins.

That would take the heat off HTC's back - especially Skuzzy's.

Now we have the adoption process for active skinners to re-do an existing skin from a past skinner, but those schemes may not interest any active skinner into adopting and instead the skinner will make a new scheme for the same plane instead.

For example: there are 5 open slots for the 109F. There are more than 5 new schemes I'd like to eventually skin for the 109F. Of the 9 old 109F skins which I could adopt,  there are not 5 which I want to adopt. Those remaining will forever look like crap unless somebody else adopts them.

[DubiousKB]

The problem is that some skins made or updated in the last years of AH2 had files that survived the game conversion and look just as good as skins made in the AH3 era.  [...]

Does that mean there's not a clear AH2 skin to an AH3 skin? Such that the older skins shouldn't be used in the new game engine? If there's some level of ambiguity or personal preference about it, then my simple solution does not apply. 

Again, I don't want any skin removed (at this point), just some way to tell that they are recently updated to take advantage of them...

  Why can't anything related to this game be easy?

Devil, when you name the skin (lets say going forward) do you have any control over adding a suffix or prefix to the skin name? Once again, i'm ignorant to the magical ways of our skinners!

(Heck I'd settle for highlighting the skins updated/created for AH3 in the drop down list)

<S> to skinners for their hard work; now help me show it off! 

[Greebo]

If you check out Skuzzy's new AH Skins Page you can find out which skins are going to have the shiny problem. Just click on any skin and it has a list of the included files.

There are up to five files in an AH3 skin:

The Diffuse Map is the painting of the skin surface and is not listed on the page because all AH skins have this file no matter how old they are.
The Normal Map simulates bumps and dips in the skin's surface. Later AH2 skins used a bump map to do this job and AH3 automatically converted these AH2 skins' bump maps into AH3 normal maps.
The Specular Map controls the strength of reflections from the sun. Later AH2 skins had this map too.   
The Environment Map   is new to AH3 and controls reflections from the surrounding environment.
The Power Map is new to AH3 and controls how focussed the reflections are.

Early skins only had the diffuse image file, with other lighting effects either controlled by text files or not at all. These are the skins that have the shininess issue with AH3. Later AH2 skins at least had the specular and bump maps and HTC did a good job of converting these to the AH3 file format. So what you are looking for in order to avoid shiny syndrome are skins on the page that at least have a normal and a specular map, the lack of other two maps does not matter. Also in general any skin that shows a screenshot is highly unlikely to have this issue. However the converse is not true, some skins without screenshots may not have the problem either.

BTW I went into this issue in more detail in this BBS thread and HT explained what the problem was.

[DubiousKB]

BTW I went into this issue in more detail in this BBS thread and HT explained what the problem was.

I'll check it out... Still seems overly complex to ensure the best skins are used in-game.

Thanks for the explanations skinner-heads! 

[bustr]

In the package of files that become the skin, where do you enter the description title that we see in the drop down list in the hanger? Or is that something Skuzzy does when he packages those files into the sin.res we download? I believe his question is to how possible is it to modify that to include a pre tag indicator for AH2. Or does it require more work to modify a single line in a file than it is worth? Or can Hitech make an interim modification to the list manager app for the name drop downs that would tag AH2 era skins until they are all retired?

[DubiousKB]

In the package of files that become the skin, where do you enter the description title that we see in the drop down list in the hanger? Or is that something Skuzzy does when he packages those files into the sin.res we download? I believe his question is to how possible is it to modify that to include a pre tag indicator for AH2. Or does it require more work to modify a single line in a file than it is worth? Or can Hitech make an interim modification to the list manager app for the name drop downs that would tag AH2 era skins until they are all retired?

Thank you for words!... This is what I was alluding to without properly explaining myself with respect to the skinning process... Thanks Bustr!!!!