Skinners/HTC comments please

[Kev367th]

A few suggestions that maybe HTC could implement -

1) By default skins should be non-specular (shiny).
2) Go back to the old 2 files for skins.
Noticed with the B24 now that we are working with 1 file only it is effectively reducing the detail by half.
Would suggest we keep the 'old' method of 1 file for wings, other for everything else.
This will allow us to keep the level of detail we current experience with the older models.

Anything else people can think of?

[rogerdee]

also can we have the art work easierr to remove on  some of the skins.

[Superfly]

We had to go to one exterior texture because using the old method made us go over the texture limit.
We eventually are planning to implement a shiney/not shiney flag for skinners somehow.

[Kev367th]

Texture limit?
Could you exapnd a little please if you have time.

Tkx

[oboe]

1)  I would like to know the next couple of planes scheduled for renovation/rework.   I don't want to spend alot of time doing a skin only to learn later that the skin will shortly be made obsolete.

2) This is a small item, but in the skin selection dropdown, I'd like to see FG/FS information for the default skins as well - since we have it for all the other skins we should have it for the defaults.

[Karnak]

Oboe,

Pyro said the P-38 was going to be renovated in v2.02.

[Dux]

Originally posted by SUPERFLY
We had to go to one exterior texture because using the old method made us go over the texture limit.
We eventually are planning to implement a shiney/not shiney flag for skinners somehow.

Superfly, do I understand it correctly that the flag will mean "shiny on" and "shiny off" for the entire model? Most of the shiny planes have many areas that are not... any chance we could use that never-used bump channel as a specularity channel?

[Waffle]

Superfly -
If we have a "texture limit" and since it's been reduced, will some of the other things, such as gauge bezels, ammo counter frames, beacons, and such be able to be changed if doing an interior reskin?

I would love to see a specularity layer if possible - would look nice on those p51bs - with the OD and natural metal..as well as opening all sorts of paint svhemes that would look nice.

[Easyscor]

Originally posted by SUPERFLY
We had to go to one exterior texture because using the old method made us go over the texture limit.
We eventually are planning to implement a shiney/not shiney flag for skinners somehow.

OK, I'm going to demonstrate my ignorance here but I hate to see the level of detail go down.

You could maintain the texture count, keep the current memory size, and almost keep the level of detail by changing the size of the bit map to 2048 x 1024.  If the purpose of going to the smaller skins isn’t to increase the game performance by reducing memory requirements, then wouldn’t that have all of the same advantages?

I just hate to see the level of detail drop to 25% of current values because I don't think the B-24 looks good at this level of detail.  You did a great job considering the handicap.  I believe it's going to be very limiting going forward.

[oboe]

Originally posted by Karnak
Oboe,

Pyro said the P-38 was going to be renovated in v2.02.

My bad, yep I mean the one AFTER the P-38.   I know about that one, and am excited to see a new model coming out for it.  I was working on a few '38 skins and sent them in 'as is' when I heard they would be obsolete with the next version.   If they get into the game for a while great, if not, fine, but in any case I'd like to avoid skinning the next plane to be reworked until after its been completed.

[SELECTOR]

i would like voids available..

[Superfly]

Texture limit:
In other words, the amount of memory required to be used on the video card was being exceeded for our minimum system requirements.  Making a bigger texture than 1024x1024 would most likely break it as well.  You have to consider older vid cards/systems.

Upcoming remodels:
I have no idea what will be the next remodeled planes.  This is something Pyro decides, and it is usually just after we have released a new version.  It's one of those things where I don't know until we get there.  I'm not scheduled to do a revamp of a model for this version right now.  I am currently doing FX work with Sudz, and Nate is working on the P38.

Shiney/Unshiney:
We still haven't come up with an absolute method for this yet.  It will be set to a specific material on the plane which can be changed.  I'm not sure if we're going to allow more than one material to be changed.  All this has yet to be determined.

[Dux]

Thanks for the update, Superfly.

[Kev367th]

texture size and numbers limit-
OK the reason makes sense, but the logic escapes me.

You take a huge leap forward by enabling user skins, then a step back by effectively halfing the size and therefore the detail.

Therefore as planes are remodelled the quality should still be there but the details can be nowhere near what we currently have/expect.

Sure you have to support older cards but there is an option to disable skins in AH2 or use lower skin resolutions.
Could maybe specify on the website minimum specs for skin enabled/disabled.
I am surprised that the minimum requirements for AH2 is not that different from AH1 considering the huge differences. Does anyone out there actually still use a 32mb vid card for gaming?
I would guess the minimum used is now probably 64mb. I haven't seen a gaming card with 32mb on it for a long time.

I am sure most of us skinners prefer the 'old' 2 file skin layout as it allows us to go to town on the little things, things that will be missing from the 'new' layout due to its limited area.

I would ask that you revisit the number of files or the bmp size and allow us to continue to provide you with high quality detailed skins.

Seems strange that in 2.02 we'll be getting all the lovely eye candy but you reduce the amount of detail possible in the new models by half.

Below is a comparison, not hard to work out which one is on half the area.



Thanks for your time.

[Easyscor]

Well, I use one of those 32 meg gForce cards and I still want the larger file sizes so I can make decent looking skins.  I'm probably one of the few skiners still runing at 128 texture size.    Just because I can't see all the detail in-game right now doesn't mean I won't eventually get around to upgrading my video card and I'd like to see all the nice work and details when I do.  Otherwise, why bother upgrading my card.

But that's just me and my request.