Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Vraciu on February 16, 2019, 03:00:20 PM
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This is the Mustang IV (P-51D) of Pilot Officer John Mallandaine, 442nd FS, RCAF. Originally skinned by Kev367th I have updated it with AH3 Spec Maps to get rid of the "Super Shine" (tm) gloss effect.
I was able to preserve his nametag on the skin so he will maintain full credit. I'll try to fix the name on the other skins of his that I updated at a later time once they go orphaned again.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=396201.0;attach=31308)
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:aok
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It looks so much better with the proper lighting effects Vraciu, but how were you able to preserve his nametag on it?
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It looks so much better with the proper lighting effects Vraciu, but how were you able to preserve his nametag on it?
His callsign was available so I took it on my secondary account. Once I get the skins converted I will change back to something else and he will be able to reclaim it if he wishes.
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You submitting it? looks great man. :salute
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You submitting it? looks great man. :salute
Thanks. Yes it will be submitted. Technically I am updating it with Spec Maps using the original art so I can’t take any credit for how good it looks—that’s all on Kev. I considered a few minor tweaks to it but decided to leave it alone and just make it look correct in the game.
I just realized, however, that it will still have the default Normal Map. I need to fix that.
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His callsign was available so I took it on my secondary account. Once I get the skins converted I will change back to something else and he will be able to reclaim it if he wishes.
How is that possible? Isn't the skin associated with Kev's account, regardless of in game name.
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How is that possible? Isn't the skin associated with Kev's account, regardless of in game name.
Anyone can take any available callsign. I don’t know what causes them to time out and become available.
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Nice one V
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How is that possible? Isn't the skin associated with Kev's account, regardless of in game name.
For security reasons, I use the game name and not the account login as the information is stored on a server with a public IP address.
I do not approve this method being used like it is. It is an abuse of the system. One of which I will correct soon.
Let me put this another way. If we had wanted to allow skinners to do this, we would have told them to and not spent an untold amount of time and energy putting together the adoption system.
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For security reasons, I use the game name and not the account login as the information is stored on a server with a public IP address.
I do not approve this method being used like it is. It is an abuse of the system. One of which I will correct soon.
Let me put this another way. If we had wanted to allow skinners to do this, we would have told them to and not spent an untold amount of time and energy putting together the adoption system.
Abuse of the system? That’s a tad harsh, Skuzzy, don’t ya’ think?. It’s giving credit where credit is due, nothing more.
And to be honest, it wouldn’t even be necessary if you were able to derive a method to modify the default spec map values to something that would maintain the viability of orphaned skins like this one. There is little to nothing I could do to the skin to improve it even if I redid the entire Diffuse from scratch—and I hate taking credit for his work. (I’ve already gotten profanity-laden hate mail in PMs from a certain person for adopting and completely redrawing some of his stuff.)
-> For a redraw the adoption system works great.
-> For minor tweaks it creates ethical issues that result in skins languishing in a substandard state because people feel uncomfortable taking credit for someone else’s work.
I fixed the spec maps. That’s it. So I saw no reason to put my name on it when this option is available.
(Some days you just can’t win, I guess.)
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For security reasons, I use the game name and not the account login as the information is stored on a server with a public IP address.
I do not approve this method being used like it is. It is an abuse of the system. One of which I will correct soon.
Let me put this another way. If we had wanted to allow skinners to do this, we would have told them to and not spent an untold amount of time and energy putting together the adoption system.
To be fair, I was also overthinking the problem. I forgot that Kev's skins were available for adoption. I thought this was a case if creating an account to grab a skin from an inactive player with a current account.
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To be fair, I was also overthinking the problem. I forgot that Kev's skins were available for adoption. I thought this was a case if creating an account to grab a skin from an inactive player with a current account.
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. :uhoh
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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.
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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.
Thanks man. It’s a great skin. I couldn’t do any better than what is already there on this one.
I have three Mustangs under modification. When that happens they drop off the download page. I don’t think the default is displayed.
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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.
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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. :uhoh
Yeah, I get it. Sorry for assuming the worst case scenario.
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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.
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Yeah, I get it. Sorry for assuming the worst case scenario.
I never took anything you said the wrong way. No sweat.
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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.
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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. :salute
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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.
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Thanks. I just let it go. Wasn’t worth the drama. :salute
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.
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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.
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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.
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If you see a skin that looks bad in the game, then let me know which ones.
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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.
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That does not help me.
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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.
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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
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Well, I did some more work on it.
- Updated the wheels to a more accurate version.
- Added a gap between the spinner and the cowling.
- Gave the prop the 3D treatment.
- Changed the flap gap to NMF.
- Dumped all the default maps.
It's a really nice skin. Consider this a restoration not a redo. I still need to tweak some things but it is good to go for now.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=396201.0;attach=31329)
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Well............ YEAH!!!
Saaaweet.
I mean for a pony and all... you know...
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Well............ YEAH!!!
Saaaweet.
I mean for a pony and all... you know...
Lol
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<snip>
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.
It was what I thought it was. They will now list correctly.
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That's a great fix, Skuzzy.