Adventures in Green and Olive Drab

[Vraciu]

So, in a vain and likely fruitless attempt to figure out why I am seeing what I'm seeing I decided to do a screenshot comparison between a Mustang I'm working on (I've turned off some of my layers in order to focus on the color itself) and one of Devil's excellent P-40s.   I'll try this comparison with one of Greebo's Jugs later if this doesn't help me solve the riddle.

I have taken screen shots from the viewer as well as inside and outside the cockpit.  The external screenshots are darker for BOTH airplanes than what I'm actually seeing as I fly them around.   The shots from inside are much closer to the in-game experience, at least I think so.    Heck, maybe my eyes are screwed up.

I was looking at my green versus that of the trees and it is significantly lighter than they are when I am flying around, but when you see the screenshots they both look pretty dark.   It's a real head-scratcher.    I can't find any NVIDEA settings that I have enabled anywhere.

I sure hope someone can tell me what is going on with this.   I'm at a loss.

CLICK TO ENLARGE.

[Vraciu]

And here's one with a touch more shadow.



Devil shared this one as a good basis to model the color on.






Mine looks LIGHTER to me from inside the cockpit and the viewer.

[Devil 505]

Does the skin viewer use post lighting?

Turning off post lighting in game makes the game look brighter overall. Even for me, the skin viewer looks brighter than in game, and I use post lighting.

Add this to the list of reasons I never use the skin viewer.

[Vraciu]

Does the skin viewer use post lighting?

Turning off post lighting in game makes the game look brighter overall. Even for me, the skin viewer looks brighter than in game, and I use post lighting.

Add this to the list of reasons I never use the skin viewer.

I used to turn all that stuff off.   But that was how all my skins wound up with SuperShine (tm) so now I optimize my skins for everything on and test them that way as I work on them.   However, I fly the game with shadows and reflections disabled when I'm actually playing.

To me the skin viewer matches what I see in the cockpit but it is brighter than screenshots.

[Greebo]

If it helps my PC runs AH with all video settings at maximum and with post lighting on when checking skins and taking screenshots. I use the skin viewer while creating the skin files and then the offline game for final colour and lighting effect tweaking. No idea if the viewer uses post lighting though.

[Vraciu]

That does help confirm some of my settings.   I'm still fiddling with it all.   I'll have a new Mustang with a different shade of OD here shortly.   I'll be curious to see how it looks to all of you.

[Greebo]

There is an interesting page discussing US aircraft paint colours at the IPMS Stockholm site. Apparently WW2 olive drab paint wasn't very stable, altered in tone considerably with exposure to sunlight and also varied a fair bit from batch to batch depending on the manufacturer. In 1943 the US government also tried to get the USAAF and US Army to standardise on a single lighter shade of olive drab called ANA 613 but the USAAF resisted this and for the most part stuck with dark olive drab 41. This photo of olive drab C-47s lined up on a British airfield prior to D Day gives some idea of the level of variation.

[Vraciu]

Holy cow, Greebo, that sure puts it in perspective.   

Thanks a lot.

[Greebo]

I suspect those brown-toned C-47s are painted in ANA 613 and the green-toned ones in 41. The IPMS article states that Douglas were told to use ANA 613 on their late production A-20s and it would make sense for them to use the same paint for their C-47s as well. Also the green-toned aircraft look a bit older and tattier than the brown-toned ones.

As most other USAAF aircraft in 1944 were manufactured in NMF then the main use for olive drab would have been for anti-glare panels. The darker 41 shade would be better for this which is possibly why the USAAF were reluctant to switch.

[perdue3]

Those browns are definitely in 613.

[Vraciu]

Heh, I just realized the image appears mirrored.