Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 07:47:57 AM

Title: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 07:47:57 AM
Hey all.

The option to see other peoples airplane skins... Aint it a big advantage to use the setting "Disable other peoples custom skins" over having it enabled? i mean the default skin of the P-51D is silver, if you turn of custom skins for other planes it will always be sliver, if you enable custom skins on other planes a P-51D could be dark brown and much harder to spot in a knife fight.

Imo it should be an arena setting. On/Off.

And while we are on the same topic, what is to stop people from making pink skins and replacing them over the default skins, are there an integrity check of the skins? since they are client side, i suppose there are people out there doing this.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: icepac on February 23, 2013, 08:07:37 AM
(http://www.damir.co.uk/images/aviation/riat-2000/spitfire-pink-takeoff.jpg)
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2013, 08:14:09 AM
i mean the default skin of the P-51D is silver, if you turn of custom skins for other planes it will always be sliver, if you enable custom skins on other planes a P-51D could be dark brown and much harder to spot in a knife fight.

I could only see that making a difference in AvA with enemy icons off and some specific lighting settings. In the MA I found it to make no difference at all.

Imo it should be an arena setting. On/Off.

If so, there would be no other choice for AH than to have it OFF, or a lot of players would run into severe resource issues.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 08:29:39 AM
I could only see that making a difference in AvA with enemy icons off and some specific lighting settings. In the MA I found it to make no difference at all.


Its not about Icons, its when your at 3-600 range out, and if the aircraft blends in with the ground/sky or not.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2013, 08:58:33 AM
Its not about Icons, its when your at 3-600 range out, and if the aircraft blends in with the ground/sky or not.


I had never ever any plane in the main arena with any skin "blending" with the sky/ground in such a way that it would had made any impact on the fight.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Triton28 on February 23, 2013, 09:00:05 AM
Its not about Icons, its when your at 3-600 range out, and if the aircraft blends in with the ground/sky or not.

Some of the very dark planes blend into the background when the arena lighting is near dusk.

I would say it's cost me a few kills at least.   :frown:
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Acidrain on February 23, 2013, 09:13:43 AM
And while we are on the same topic, what is to stop people from making pink skins and replacing them over the default skins, are there an integrity check of the skins? since they are client side, i suppose there are people out there doing this.
of course there are...I myself fly all my planes with the skin of a cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey...pew pew

GHLQTAL!!!!
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 09:35:43 AM

I had never ever any plane in the main arena with any skin "blending" with the sky/ground in such a way that it would had made any impact on the fight.

Thats bull imo, in that case your turning your gamma up instead. A dark brownish plane blends into the ground better then a Silver painted one.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2013, 09:38:30 AM
Thats bull imo, in that case your turning your gamma up instead. A dark brownish plane blends into the ground better then a Silver painted one.


Of course it blends in 'better', but still not good enough to make any difference in a fight at 3-600 range. Without icons I would have trouble to spot it in the first place under the right circumstances, but as we do have them, initial spotting is not an issue. After that, the skin doesn't matter to me.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: The Fugitive on February 23, 2013, 09:43:35 AM
Hey all.

The option to see other peoples airplane skins... Aint it a big advantage to use the setting "Disable other peoples custom skins" over having it enabled? i mean the default skin of the P-51D is silver, if you turn of custom skins for other planes it will always be sliver, if you enable custom skins on other planes a P-51D could be dark brown and much harder to spot in a knife fight.

Imo it should be an arena setting. On/Off.

And while we are on the same topic, what is to stop people from making pink skins and replacing them over the default skins, are there an integrity check of the skins? since they are client side, i suppose there are people out there doing this.

It is a setting making the option available for those who have weaker computers. With out being able to turn off the extra skins, reflections, anti-allison, and other eye candy a good number of people wouldn't be able to play the game and so cancel..... not good for business.

The skins are not "replaceable". they must be approved by HTC and then are added to the game.


Of course it blends in 'better', but still not good enough to make any difference in a fight at 3-600 range. Without icons I would have trouble to spot it in the first place under the right circumstances, but as we do have them, initial spotting is not an issue. After that, the skin doesn't matter to me.



Thats because your chasing Buffs at 30K all the time!  :neener:
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 09:45:55 AM

The skins are not "replaceable". they must be approved by HTC and then are added to the game.


Each plane has its own skin file on your PC, its even dowloading em one by one as we speak on my game client, whats stopping anyone from renaming/replacing these with their own?
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: BaldEagl on February 23, 2013, 09:49:27 AM
I've only ever DL'd three custom skins, all for scenarios. 

At first I didn't do it due the frame rate issues on my old computer.  It's just more that the computer has to deal with.  Now I don't do it because I dont need all that extra stuff cluttering up my HD.

If your suggestion is to force everone to enable other peoples skins I have an alternate suggestion; get rid of them entirely.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: The Fugitive on February 23, 2013, 09:50:00 AM
Well I suppose it's possible, seeing it IS a computer, but there isn't any easy way to do it. Second, HTC has a number of programs running to catch all kinds of .... shall we say "adjustments" to the files that flow back and forth through the servers to the clients. "Adjusting" a file gets you banned for life. Making a skin so it stands out better worth it?
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: blazer65 on February 23, 2013, 09:53:39 AM
This is the best part about flying a SpitV.....that sexy all black skin is so very very sneaky.........did someone say jungle fever??    :lol
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2013, 09:55:14 AM
Thats because your chasing Buffs at 30K all the time!  :neener:


 :lol


But honestly, yesterday it was in fact the first time in the current tour I did that. Believe it or not!  :D

(Just couldn't resist that yummy Rook B-29 raid, and it paid. Only need one more 29 skalp to have 100 of them  :devil)
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Greebo on February 23, 2013, 10:18:20 AM
Each plane has its own skin file on your PC, its even dowloading em one by one as we speak on my game client, whats stopping anyone from renaming/replacing these with their own?

The game will only allow officially sanctioned skins to be used online. When skinners submit their skins for approval they submit them as standard bmp files that any graphics program can work with. If HTC approve the skin they convert it to a proprietary HTC "res" format which graphics editing programs can't work with and this is what players download. Renaming a bmp file as a res file and putting it in the skins folder simply won't work.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: R 105 on February 23, 2013, 10:22:15 AM
 Skins make no difference to me at all since I have them turned off along with anything else I can turn off just to keep my frame rate it the teens.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Triton28 on February 23, 2013, 10:28:52 AM
Maybe I need to play with the gamma.  It's not a lot, but planes disappearing completely except for icon does happen to me.  Usually it's that exact moment he does a roll or some other maneuver and I can't spot it in time.   :mad:

Perhaps this is an excuse for a some insanely large monitor..   :rock
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 10:39:15 AM
Maybe I need to play with the gamma.  It's not a lot, but planes disappearing completely except for icon does happen to me.  Usually it's that exact moment he does a roll or some other maneuver and I can't spot it in time.   :mad:

Perhaps this is an excuse for a some insanely large monitor..   :rock

This happens to me too, and i got a 24inch 1920 HD monitor. But im gonna turn off custom skins and up the Gamma.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Halo46 on February 23, 2013, 10:43:53 AM
Hey all.

The option to see other peoples airplane skins... Aint it a big advantage to use the setting "Disable other peoples custom skins" over having it enabled? i mean the default skin of the P-51D is silver, if you turn of custom skins for other planes it will always be sliver, if you enable custom skins on other planes a P-51D could be dark brown and much harder to spot in a knife fight.

Imo it should be an arena setting. On/Off.

And while we are on the same topic, what is to stop people from making pink skins and replacing them over the default skins, are there an integrity check of the skins? since they are client side, i suppose there are people out there doing this.

Is this a wish or a whine? You have the option, use it and don't worry what everyone else does. Jeez.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 23, 2013, 10:50:03 AM
Is this a wish or a whine? You have the option, use it and don't worry what everyone else does. Jeez.

Its a discussion. None of the above, i dont want to be gimping myself while playing the game, therefore i started the thread to see whats best to use and the implication of it.

Alltough, i just played around with my monitor settings, i changed the settings from "Standard" to "Game" and the colors just became more vivid. Will let you know if it improves the ground blending issue or not, i suspect it will.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Gixer on February 23, 2013, 04:46:49 PM
Skins make no difference to me at all since I have them turned off along with anything else I can turn off just to keep my frame rate it the teens.

In the teens? How old is the computer? I'm running on a Lenovo E530 laptop and still maintain 50fps near max detail.


<S>...-Gixer
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: jeep00 on February 23, 2013, 05:50:43 PM
Had a heck of a time near 25 yesterday seeing the waves in the ocean itself at "dusk" and gixer could barely make out my f4u on the deck over that water. I assume it to be a gamma thing, but it was both of us struggling the same, and I have never had that issue in the past. Just could not get depth when looking down, had to use altimeter while dogfighting rather than visual from the cockpit. It was good to know I was equally difficult to see though.  :D
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Gixer on February 23, 2013, 06:29:37 PM
Hi Jeep, yes was extremely bad situation that fight due to sun location at the time vs a dark blue F4U over dark blue water and the ever present lack of visual depth over water given the poor water terrain graphics. I was only able to finally get a shot when I was able to get your F4U against the skyline.

Almost reminded me of the days during AH1 and the night fights.

Fun fight though <S>


<S>...-Gixer


Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Krusty on February 23, 2013, 10:50:23 PM
Maniac, go here to adjust your monitor settings:

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

Most of what you're griping about isn't even an issue. You can't substitute skins on your end. You don't get any benefit from flying with skins turned off. It is purely an icing-on-the-cake eye candy.

I love flying with enemy skins on, so that I can see if I'm up against a red Me163, or a black Bf110C, or to tell if my P-51 in my gunsights is green or silver, or just for general coolness factor.

I can run them without any performance issues. I enjoy that. It hasn't always been that way, though. When you need the extra performance, you'll be glad it's an option you can turn off.

Otherwise, look into your monitor settings. I once had an older CRT that was MILES off of normal, but I didn't know any better. Not until I replaced it did I know how far gone it was. Check out the link in the second line of this post. It really will help. Set up your monitor properly and see if that helps.
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: Maniac on February 24, 2013, 12:29:46 PM
Yep, things just got easier, ive been using hard mode the entire tour haha, it was the monitor setting.

 :aok
Title: Re: To fly with other peoples custom skins enabled or not.
Post by: icepac on February 25, 2013, 07:45:19 AM
Regardless of the skin, it seems every plane in aces high has some sort of reflector.

When you land away from a field and use F5 to zoom out, you can always see a "reflection" of something.