Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: FTJR on April 21, 2007, 12:08:00 PM

Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: FTJR on April 21, 2007, 12:08:00 PM
I've just re installed the skin viewer, I navigate to the skin folder and select a particular plane, it say's no viewable information.

I cant even see the downloaded skins.

I have the p51d_1 name on the folder.

Any suggestions?

I did a search on the topic, but couldn't find a satisfactory answer.

Thanks In Advance.

JR.

Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Greebo on April 21, 2007, 01:23:41 PM
Not sure if I'm reading your problem right, but if I am the following may help. Open the viewer and hit the browse button. In the AH directory there should be a file called stdshape.res. Click on it, hit the open button and you should then be able to see all the default game skins.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Kev367th on April 21, 2007, 02:40:50 PM
BE AWARE

The skin viewer hasn't been updated again.
So the next time you go to play AH2 it will do a cache rebuild.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Greebo on April 21, 2007, 04:33:51 PM
WRT to the cache rebuild issue, what I do is install a 2nd copy of AH just for skinning and put the skin viewer and my skins there. You can also set that version of AH to 1024 textures for viewing offline. Only drawback is the HDD space it takes up, luckily I've got plenty to spare.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: FTJR on April 21, 2007, 09:15:33 PM
Thank you both for the replies.

I can now see the default skins (Yipee). Also Greebo I saw you post in another part of the forum about a second copy due to the Caching problem and have done the same.

Now to get the under  (re)construction skins to show.


Cheers Guys.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: FTJR on April 22, 2007, 09:10:36 AM
can I just confirm the naming requirements

I have:

C:\ *\*\aces High II\skins\p51d_20

in that folder I have the bmp 1024 x 1024 @ 256 colour.

Anything else I should have? I cant get the skins to show (other than default)

Thanks again.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Greebo on April 22, 2007, 10:55:58 AM
I'm not sure if the game can cope with 20 skins of one type, you might need to reduce it to p51d_15 or less. The only other file you need in the skin directory is a text file, called p51d.txt in this case. This will contain a brief description of the skin, i.e. "123FS/45FG by FTJR".

You might also have a material.txt file if you want to alter the material properties of the skin, but it isn't essential.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: FTJR on April 22, 2007, 12:30:58 PM
Hmmm,

renamed it to _6, it has the p51d.txt file. Still wont show.


bit of a bugger.

When I browse to the _6 folder with the skin viewer, I double click the folder, what should I see?

I see... open plane (resource)

look in :   p51_6

File name: Blank
Files of type: plane (*.res)


TIA
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Greebo on April 22, 2007, 01:34:48 PM
The way its supposed to work is like this: Click on the top drop down box and you should see a list of all the game shapes. Select P51D. On the lower drop down box there should be a list of all your skin directories for that plane; p51d_1, p51d_2 etc. Select p51d_6 and your skin should appear.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Kermit de frog on April 22, 2007, 02:05:02 PM
What I do is make a folder called p51d_1 and always select the first custom skin in the list of P51s.  I know it will say something else, but once you select it, you will see YOUR skin.  It's weird, but it works for me.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Fencer51 on April 22, 2007, 02:49:11 PM
If you put a (planeID).txt file in the folder, and include "357FG/362FS by ME" for example you can find it better.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: FTJR on April 23, 2007, 04:48:16 AM
Theres the rub, when I select the p51d, and then the drop down box. There are no other directories listed. Though they exist and I can select them off line, including my own.

Have to resort to the long way in doing it.


Thanks all for the patience and help.

JR.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Krusty on April 23, 2007, 09:30:39 AM
The skin viewer's rather old, and I haven't used it in ages. Does it have the underscore built in? Whatever you have, try the other format, see if it works in the skin viewer.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Greebo on April 23, 2007, 09:55:53 AM
Do you have just the one skin directory at the moment? If so, try making a copy of it and renaming it to a different number, i.e. p51d_1 and p51d_2. Had a weird problem once where the viewer would not see the last skin directory in the list.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: Krusty on April 23, 2007, 10:00:46 AM
That's brought up a memory for me.

I've had problems using certain numbers. In the C205, for example, there's the default, and there's 2 skins already in-game. I couldn't just choose C205_15, because it didn't like that.

I've noticed this in the 190s as well.

You can only go 1 number higher than the number of skins already in the game. If you have a plane with 2 skins already, you need to make yours "_3". If you have one with 2 skins already and already have 2 skins in progress using _3 and _4, you need to make your next one _5.

The P51s are full, though, all 15 skins are in there. I don't think it should be a problem with this plane.
Title: Skin Viewer Help <again>
Post by: FTJR on April 24, 2007, 04:55:26 AM
Well, after taking 48's off and away from it. I looked at Greebo's and Krusty's replies. Fired up the skin viewer, and you guessed it. It worked.

Not going to ask why, but say thank god.


Gents thanks again.


JR