P/O John Mallandaine - P-51D "Edmonton Special" (Y2@B) - 442FS/RCAF - Spec Maps

[Skuzzy]

You make a change to a skin, then that skin becomes your responsibility.  It is no longer the original art, from the original skinner, who is no longer here to address changes they may not agree with.

If you get hate mail from someone, then let me know who it is and we will take care of it.

Its a real improvement Vraciu, nice job.  Too bad about the hate mail, but honestly if they've been out of the game long enough that their skins are orphaned well, that's the breaks.       

I don't see this skin on the skin downloads page though?   In fact I only see 28 P-51Ds listed - isn't the skin limit 32, and I thought the '51Ds were all full up?   Did a few P-51D skins get removed?   I don't have access to the skinners admin site anymore so I can't check it from that source.

They should all be shown.  I'll check into that.  A submitted skin is not an approved one, so the current skins should show.  I may have dropped the additional status check from the skins page which is causing the update submissions to hide them.

[Devil 505]

I have had numerous players ask me to fix this one because the default maps ruined it.   I thought I would get an attaboy for trying.   

Yeah, I get it. Sorry for assuming the worst case scenario.

[Devil 505]

You make a change to a skin, then that skin becomes your responsibility.  It is no longer the original art, from the original skinner, who is no longer here to address changes they may not agree with.

By that same logic, the a majority of the skins as they are right now are not the work of the original skinner because you(HTC) added spec and normal maps. In almost all cases this results in the skin looking much worse than when originally created. So yeah, V should be commended for trying to fix your(HTC's) problem while still trying to retain the original Diffuse map because the original skinner did quality work and should still be given credit for it.

If a pigeon crapped on Michelangelo's David, you don't need to carve a new statue. Just clean up the crap and be done with it.

[Vraciu]

Yeah, I get it. Sorry for assuming the worst case scenario.

I never took anything you said the wrong way. No sweat. 

[Skuzzy]

We did not add any maps to any skin.  We provide a default map where there is none as our only other choice would have been to remove all the skins from the game when we went to AH3.

Now, if a player in the game wants to address something about a skin, they cannot reach the skinner as they have no idea who made the change, if we just allow anyone to change any skin without assessing who is responsible.

[Vraciu]

If you get hate mail from someone, then let me know who it is and we will take care of it.

Thanks.  I just let it go.  Wasn’t worth the drama.   

[Vraciu]

By that same logic, the a majority of the skins as they are right now are not the work of the original skinner because you(HTC) added spec and normal maps. In almost all cases this results in the skin looking much worse than when originally created. So yeah, V should be commended for trying to fix your(HTC's) problem while still trying to retain the original Diffuse map because the original skinner did quality work and should still be given credit for it.

If a pigeon crapped on Michelangelo's David, you don't need to carve a new statue. Just clean up the crap and be done with it.

That’s kinda’ how I saw it with this one.    It just needed to be optimized for the graphics engine.   That was an easy fix. 

[Skuzzy]

Thanks.  I just let it go.  Wasn’t worth the drama.   

You cited that as one reason motivating you to circumvent the adoption process.  So, you really did not let it go.  I want to know who it was.

[Vraciu]

You cited that as one reason motivating you to circumvent the adoption process.  So, you really did not let it go.  I want to know who it was.

I wasn’t circumventing it since you will have my login info. 

Let me think it over.    I’m not wanting to rat on someone who may have just been having a bad day. 

[Devil 505]

We did not add any maps to any skin.  We provide a default map where there is none as our only other choice would have been to remove all the skins from the game when we went to AH3.

But the result is the same. An AH2 skin made without spec or bump maps now appears with the bumps from the default normal map and a shine not intended by the skinner since he originally used the text method.

It does not matter how necessary the changes were because of the change to AH3, those skins became worse because of them.

[Skuzzy]

If you see a skin that looks bad in the game, then let me know which ones.

[Devil 505]

It would be easier to list the skins which don't look bad.

That's no joke. And I'm basing that strictly on the AH3 conversion not the quality of the skinner's original work.

[Skuzzy]

That does not help me.

[Devil 505]

That does not help me.

There are over 1200 skins in this game. If you want me to spend all the time necessary to list all of the ones that shine when they should not shine, I expect you to find a method to fix them easily.

Expect more than 700 skins on that list.

I'll give you a place to start - Every TA-152 skin is bad.

[Lazerr]

It would be easier to list the skins which don't look bad.

That's no joke. And I'm basing that strictly on the AH3 conversion not the quality of the skinner's original work.

  the majority of the skins belonging to old models