Kazanīs rework skins

[Devil 505]

The marking look better, but still can be improved.

The white and Sky should be made much darker.
The blue and red should be made darker and duller.

Also, I think you should fine tune your normal map settings. The panel lines and cowl fasteners are very deep. Looks like an 1/72 Airfix model.

[Vraciu]

The marking look better, but still can be improved.

The white and Sky should be made much darker.
The blue and red should be made darker and duller.

Also, I think you should fine tune your normal map settings. The panel lines and cowl fasteners are very deep. Looks like an 1/72 Airfix model.

Yikes.   I missed the normal map the first time through but I see it now.   Yes, the lines are too deep.

[Greebo]

I couldn't convert my BMP file to 32 bit 

Converting the AH3 diffuse and normal maps to 32 bit can be a bit of a pain. I have described how to do it in this post in the stickied "AH 3 Skin File Format Guide" thread. Essentially it involves converting and saving the files using Gimp. The problem is that the latest version of Gimp causes an error that causes AH to read the file incorrectly. This can be got round by re-saving the 32-bit file with MS Paint which uses the same sort of bmp header format as AH3. Alternatively if you can find the old version Gimp 2.6 this will save the file correctly without having to re-save with MS Paint.

The lighting in AH3 seems to do odd things to very light and very dark colours on skins. So to get round this skinners have been moving all their dark and pale colours towards the middle of the colour range. For instance in AH2 my standard white was 220/220/220 RGB and in AH3 it is 180/180/180 RGB. This stops it giving off an overpowering white solar reflection in the game. Other very light colours like RAF Sky and NMF finish have also been darkened up for the same reason. My blacks and other dark colours have gone the other way. Apart from adding AH3 lighting effects the main thing I do in my skin updates is change to the new palette of colours. I can post a list of my AH3 colour choices if it helps.

[Kazan_HB]

That wouldn’t be from you.
 I found that Pixelformer, it’s easy. Import your file and export as BMP 32bit. http://www.qualibyte.com/pixelformer/download.html
I did that today:

[oboe]

Kazan, the improvements you've made to this skin since first post are dramatic.

I have one suggestion for you, regarding paint chips - if your paint chip layer is above the panel line layer, the panel lines won't show through the chips.  This appears to be happening - see the large chip below the cockpit on the left side, just behind the black cross kill marks.  It appears to sit on top of the panel line, and blocks out the line directly beneath it.

Since panel lines are really nothing more than the shadows of the gaps between panel sections, they should be very near the top in layer order.   The panel line should be visible through the chip, just as it is visible through the "RF" and "D" painted on the side of the fuselage.

I've also taken to spreading the paint wear/chipping faintly along the panel line near large chips, to represent wear along the panel's edge.  It softens the sudden appearance of a large chipped area.

Looking very good!

[Kazan_HB]

Maybe i should put lines layer to specular map?
Sound good..
thx

[oboe]

Maybe i should put lines layer to specular map?
Sound good..
thx

Absolutely put the panel lines into the specular map.  Crank them up to full 100% black.   It just means they won't shine at all, which of course makes sense for panel line gaps.

<S>

[Kazan_HB]

Specular mapping for fine lines detail, is good alternative ( or for rivets).
<S>

[oboe]

Just to be clear, it's not one or the other - you put the layers in both files - the diffuse AND the Specular (and actually the Power and Environment too).   The Specular, Power, and Environment files are basically grey-scale copies of the diffuse file.   

[Vraciu]

That wouldn’t be from you.
 I found that Pixelformer, it’s easy. Import your file and export as BMP 32bit. http://www.qualibyte.com/pixelformer/download.html
I did that today:

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

This fixed your normal map issue.   Now it really looks slick. 

[Devil 505]

Nice improvement.

Oboe is right about how to do panel lines and rivets with the diffuse and specular maps.

Really, the only map you might not want rivet detail is on the Normal map. It can't properly render a singular 1X1 pixel at a shallow depth.

What I do is have panel lines and larger fasteners (3x3 pixels) on all file types and small rivet detail on only the diffuse and specular maps.

[Greebo]

Its looking good Kazan, nice job.

[Kazan_HB]

[lyric1]

 

[Kazan_HB]

thx