Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Wraith on March 02, 2008, 01:33:52 PM

Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 02, 2008, 01:33:52 PM
Make a skin?  I'm sure i'm overlooking a sticky in here, but I can't seem to find the old directions I had.  I know there's a program that I can download on the internet, but I had my computer wiped clean so I was free of viruses, thus deleting the skin-creator program.  Can anybody help me?
Title: How do I...
Post by: rogerdee on March 02, 2008, 03:09:57 PM
you need a program like photoshop or paintshop or gimp,and always work with layers when building your skin.

at the top of this board under submiting skins i think it tells you how to get a skin in the folder ready to work on
Title: How do I...
Post by: Jack16 on March 02, 2008, 05:24:13 PM
You can try here: http://www.nakatomitower.com/skins/tutorial.html

Its skinning tutorials made by Krusty.
Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 02, 2008, 08:53:18 PM
Alright, I got up to exporting the default plane skins.   I can't find where to open it.  Help?
Title: How do I...
Post by: Krusty on March 03, 2008, 09:16:57 AM
The defaults are saved as 256-color bitmaps. This is where your editing software comes into play. You need to open these bitmaps in your graphics program, be it PSP, PS, Gimp, whatever.
Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 03, 2008, 02:15:12 PM
It says it can't open it because it's not an image.  I have GIMP, btw.  I went to File-Open-Spit8_7, and clicked Open, but nothing happened, just an error message.
Title: How do I...
Post by: Motherland on March 03, 2008, 02:53:21 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Wraith
It says it can't open it because it's not an image.  I have GIMP, btw.  I went to File-Open-Spit8_7, and clicked Open, but nothing happened, just an error message.

If you hit 'save default skin' a folder will appear. Look for the folder, not the .res files.
Title: How do I...
Post by: rogerdee on March 03, 2008, 02:59:04 PM
you should have saved a yellow folder that says spit8 or what ever.

you need to make another folder spit8_1 or what ever number you want,then copy the bitmap from the origional spit folder in to this one.
you should then be able to openthe spit8_1 folder and it should show the bitmap.
Title: How do I...
Post by: The Fugitive on March 03, 2008, 02:59:35 PM
Did you goto the link posted above? Did you read how to pull the "DEFAULT" (which is the only one you can edit) skin out? Once you went into the game and saved the defaualt skin that you want to work on did you ....

Go to the Aces High II directory. This is usually in your program files directory. Under HTC\Aces High II\skins you will now have a new directory. This will be the name of the plane you chose. For example, in the image above I chose the 109K-4. The directory I need to look for is named "109k4" inside this "skins" directory. It could be p47d25 or p40e or b17g or whatever you are looking for. It should be self evident.

When you open the folder with the name of the plane you want do, you will see all of these .bmp files, those are the ones you use.

You CAN NOT open any skin you want and edit it. So spit8_7 (which is the 7th skin for the spit8) can NOT be opened by the art program.

Print out the directions on Krusty's page in the link above, and follow them step by step. It will get you started.
Title: How do I...
Post by: moot on March 03, 2008, 04:27:00 PM
Fester had a pretty useful tutorial somewhere in here..
Here it is: http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164558
I dunno if there were others..
Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 03, 2008, 06:11:22 PM
Quote
Originally posted by The Fugitive



When you open the folder with the name of the plane you want do, you will see all of these .bmp files, those are the ones you use.

[/B]


That's just it, I can't open the files.
Title: How do I...
Post by: The Fugitive on March 03, 2008, 09:46:58 PM
answer the questions so we can tell where you went wrong.....

did you start the game a select the "save default skin" of the plane you want to work on?

we'll say your doing a spit 8, so after you save the default skin, close the game and using an art program "browse to C:\Program Files\HTC\Aces High II\skins

did you find a folder named spit8?

if you did browse inside that folder and you will find a bunch of .bmp files.

did you find a spit8.bmp file?

if you did open it with your art program.
Title: How do I...
Post by: Krusty on March 03, 2008, 11:03:01 PM
They are saved as 256-color bitmaps.

Anything can open those .bmp files.

What program are you using?
Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 04, 2008, 02:31:53 PM
Quote
Originally posted by The Fugitive
answer the questions so we can tell where you went wrong.....

did you start the game a select the "save default skin" of the plane you want to work on?

we'll say your doing a spit 8, so after you save the default skin, close the game and using an art program "browse to C:\Program Files\HTC\Aces High II\skins

did you find a folder named spit8?

if you did browse inside that folder and you will find a bunch of .bmp files.

did you find a spit8.bmp file?

if you did open it with your art program.


Yes,yes,yes,couldn't, didn't, tried, but failed.

I have GIMP.
Title: How do I...
Post by: Krusty on March 04, 2008, 03:09:41 PM
Are you by any chance using Vista?

Vista does a lot of screwy things on OEM installs, such as saving screenshots in hidden locations. I wonder if it saves the skin files there as well...
Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 04, 2008, 06:01:20 PM
No.  I have XP.  I save the skins and they always save as Pictures.  I try to put them in my "skins" folder, but they always end up in Pictures in their own category.
Title: How do I...
Post by: Motherland on March 04, 2008, 07:05:48 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Wraith
No.  I have XP.  I save the skins and they always save as Pictures.  I try to put them in my "skins" folder, but they always end up in Pictures in their own category.

Save the skin as Spit81.bmp. It should be in folder C:\Program Files\HTC\Aces High II\Skins\Spit8 . Dont even look for it, just type that in in My Computer. Then rename the folder Spit8_8. Then put in a text file named spit8.txt that says MY SPIT 8 SKIN (or whatever you want to call it). Whatever skin you have on the .bmp will display offline in the hangar.

You're looking for...
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/AK_Comrade/skins-1.jpg)
Correct?
Title: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 04, 2008, 09:00:22 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Motherland
Save the skin as Spit81.bmp. It should be in folder C:\Program Files\HTC\Aces High II\Skins\Spit8 . Dont even look for it, just type that in in My Computer. Then rename the folder Spit8_8. Then put in a text file named spit8.txt that says MY SPIT 8 SKIN (or whatever you want to call it). Whatever skin you have on the .bmp will display offline in the hangar.

You're looking for...
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/AK_Comrade/skins-1.jpg)
Correct?


Ty, Motherland.  I got it now, I just need to create my monstrosity now...I'll post pics of it when i'm done.
Title: Re: How do I...
Post by: Wraith on March 06, 2008, 11:25:53 AM
Actually, I still need help.  I got everything done preceding making the skin, but I can't even pick a color in GIMP.  Anybody with GIMP, can you help me out?