Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Vraciu on December 14, 2016, 04:31:09 PM
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My spec file is being washed out. I know Skuzzy was talking about artificial lighting effects and not using them. What do I need to do to correct these issues, i.e. what controls this? See attached.
Some items that should be black/flat look gray. Others that should be semi-gloss are overpoweringly reflective.
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Hey V,
Have you read Greebo's tutorial sticked at the top of the forum? The effect you refer to is controlled by the Specular map file (ie, P51D_S.bmp).
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Hey V,
Have you read Greebo's tutorial sticked at the top of the forum? The effect you refer to is controlled by the Specular map file (ie, P51D_S.bmp).
Yes. But...
What has changed? I realize the skins now seem to reflect a LOT MORE light in AH3 vs AH2. So what do I need to adjust? Do I need to darken areas of the _S file or tweak something else?
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Darkening the areas of the S map is one way. As I recall on the P-51D I went in and darkened the actual texture of the metal in the primary bmp. Its a balance between the two and you'll have to experiment to get what looks right to your skinner's eye...
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In order to get the effects like specularity to work correctly in AH III you first need to have a normal map. This can be made from the old bump map. First rename your p51d_b working file file p51d_n. Then open it, increase the colour depth to 8-bits per channel, save and then save as a bmp. Then convert this bmp to a normal map using one of the programs listed in my tutorial. Once you have the normal map bmp in your skin folder, the other effects bmps should start working.
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Like Greebo said, the normal map is the key to it all.
I am going to take the admin page down for a bit, until I can resolve why the file checker is not correctly identifying the bit count and type of the bitmap.
I have a couple of other things I want to get done as well.
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Okay. Thanks all. Will start on this shortly. I have a feeling I will be in for a bit of a learning curve...
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So, after much hair pulling and options checking/uncheckimg I decided to try the default skin in-game (I still can't get my skin viewer to work which is maddening, but now Win7 Update is stuck in perpetuity checking for updates--UGH!). The same issues with my skin show up on the default.
Basically things that should be black while in sun shadows look gray, almost white (markings, tires, etc.).
Is this a setting issue on my end?
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Just curious, V, but what is your gamma setting in the game. Might be helpful to set your graphics setting to "default" so we can compare.
I'd be willing to look at it and take a comparison screenshot of the same skin on my end - just tell me what terrain, field, time of day setting, and runway spawn direction.
EDIT: Just realized this makes no sense if you are talking about a skin you are currently working on - I had the impression you were talking about a P-51D skin of yours currently in game...
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Just curious, V, but what is your gamma setting in the game. Might be helpful to set your graphics setting to "default" so we can compare.
I'd be willing to look at it and take a comparison screenshot of the same skin on my end - just tell me what terrain, field, time of day setting, and runway spawn direction.
EDIT: Just realized this makes no sense if you are talking about a skin you are currently working on - I had the impression you were talking about a P-51D skin of yours currently in game...
No, you're right. You are making sense. It happens with the default P-51 skin also. Gamma crossed my mind but...in AH2 my setting didn't cause this effect so I haven't investigated. Standby let me try it.
Edit In: Same issue. PM otw so you can try my skin offline and see what it looks like.
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I had Gamma at 1.5 and moved it down to 1.0 with no noticeable effect.
Here are some screenshots. The default has the same problem as my custom skins do. I noticed the control tower equipment on the desk does the same thing. I must have something totally screwed up somewhere.
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A couple more...
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Here's what it looks like on my machine. Greebo's CraterMA terrain, A55, 10:00 am, SW runway spawn:
(http://i.imgur.com/mBpvYk0.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/afQSv9T.jpg)
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Looks way better than mine.
I believe before my reinstall it looked like that so something has gone awry. (Man I need to tone down that yellow!)
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Oboe, on the down sun side (in shadow) do the black markings look flat black or do they turn gray?
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It's the POST LIGHTING. When I enable it then things turn gray in the shadows.
So now what? This is a strange effect.
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Dunno why but I just lost the response I thought had posted OK.
In a nutshell, try playing with Specularity and see if that affects the shadow side. I'd worry more about how it looks in the sun, because that's what will show in screenshots, etc. But you do have to balance it because of the dark when the sun goes down, or when clouds come overhead and remove that bright, direct lighting.
Not sure what most people play with as far as settings go.
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Here's some input.
At least in AH2 we could control Bumped vs non-Bumped to mitigate some of this stuff. Darn...
Post lighting is not something that can be controlled by the skinner. You just have to make a decision whether to edit your skins so they look how you want with it turned on or off. Unfortunately its not possible to make your skin look the same for every player's settings, its always a compromise.
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I noticed the same problem Vraciu refers to in one of the skins I'm working on, and did a little experimenting to see if I could determine the cause.
The problem is that black or very dark areas show up correctly in direct sunlight but in shadow show up as a dark grey with a little bit of shine to it. Here's an example using the P-38 nose gear:
(http://i.imgur.com/JjoGEXS.jpg)
Interestingly, initially I also had this effect on the sunlit side, but it went away when I changed the _E map to a pure black bitmap (x'000000'). It went away on the sunlit side only, however.
I continued to change the support files to pure black one by one and noticed any change - but nothing else made a difference. The screenshot above is made with _E, _S, and _P maps all pure black, and a completely blank _N map.
I'm wondering now if this is a limitation of the graphic engine? I don't seem able to affect how the shadow side is shown.
The screenshots were taken on CraterMA, A55, 10:00 am game time, at the SW runway spawn.
EDIT: This effect is not present in the default P-38J skin. I tried removing all my support files (_E, _S, _P, _N maps) and copied the _S and _N maps from the default skin folder - however my skin still has this effect.
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Who created the default skin and how is their creation method different from yours? Or are they using programs different than yours or the same programs but, choosing different file formats than yourself at key junctures? And if you know that person, can you allow them to take your skin project files and see what is different between how they create the project files versus your choices?
Or are the default skins reviewed by Waffle and further processing applied because of their singular importance as the game's default skins?
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The default '38J skin was one of Fester's which got promoted to the AH3 default skin. It was created before AH3 so its been through the AH2 to AH3 skin conversion process. Dunno if Fester is around anymore.
I'll see if I can get a better picture - when I switch to my 13.3 laptop I can't even see the detail of what I'm referring to in the picture above...
Don't know the extent of Waffle's involvement with the default skins...
EDIT: As another experiment, I went in to the default skin and grabbed the entire wheel rim and overlaid it in my skin. I deleted all my support maps so I was using only the default _N and _S maps. The problem disappeared. Then I made my own _N map and checked it out, problem is still gone. So its something of a head scratcher.
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Depending on the .xxx type of the file in question. You can probably find free on the Internet applications that will analyze the file and come back with a very lengthy read out of it's composition. Then compare read outs. I had to do that to figure out why a Photo Shop 32bit alpha file worked during the closed alpha as a gunsight mask versus a Paint.Net 32bit alpha plugin generated file.
I'm amazed at the small nuances of internal structure differences between art files that can be created while the output is the same .xxx extension.
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I noticed the same problem Vraciu refers to in one of the skins I'm working on, and did a little experimenting to see if I could determine the cause.
The problem is that black or very dark areas show up correctly in direct sunlight but in shadow show up as a dark grey with a little bit of shine to it. Here's an example using the P-38 nose gear:
(http://i.imgur.com/JjoGEXS.jpg)
Interestingly, initially I also had this effect on the sunlit side, but it went away when I changed the _E map to a pure black bitmap (x'000000'). It went away on the sunlit side only, however.
I continued to change the support files to pure black one by one and noticed any change - but nothing else made a difference. The screenshot above is made with _E, _S, and _P maps all pure black, and a completely blank _N map.
I'm wondering now if this is a limitation of the graphic engine? I don't seem able to affect how the shadow side is shown.
The screenshots were taken on CraterMA, A55, 10:00 am game time, at the SW runway spawn.
EDIT: This effect is not present in the default P-38J skin. I tried removing all my support files (_E, _S, _P, _N maps) and copied the _S and _N maps from the default skin folder - however my skin still has this effect.
Glad it's not just me. Well, sorta. Lol
The default Pony (the excellent OD/NMF by Cactus) suffers due to the same phenomenon. It is just odd... Looks out of our control. Skuzzy? Any thoughts?
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I think I've noticed it now in the default P-38 too. Shows up but its more subtle. I might play around more to try to find out if I can influence it somehow but not going to worry about it too much.
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I'm seeing the same thing on the skins I'm working on too, V.
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I'm seeing the same thing on the skins I'm working on too, V.
Thank you.
Maybe there's a fix. Hoping Oboe stumbles on something--or Skuzzy tweaks the effects. It really looks bad on my 52nd FG/4th FS skin because of the black contrast on NMF and bright yellow. I haven't dared look at the Checkertail yet.
(I still can't use the skin viewer so progress on my end is super slow.)
:cheers: :salute
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Quite honestly, the slight graying out of black areas is the least of my concerns with the new engine.
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Quite honestly, the slight graying out of black areas is the least of my concerns with the new engine.
It is driving me barking mad... :bhead
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On the default map with default lighting even reds have a gray hue with post lighting enabled. This is on my end.
Is ANYONE getting that?
I wonder if I have a driver issue.
If anyone is willing to try my 52FG/4FS P-51D under these conditions and let me know what it looks like I would be grateful.
(When I start the engine the smoke coming out of the exhaust makes the colors look right as it blows past. Maybe this card hates my computer.)