Author Topic: How to view in-progress skins (Read 397 times)

Xasthur · « **on:** June 12, 2007, 05:50:28 PM »

Forgive my ignorance, I'm working on a skin and I'm totally unsure of how to actually make the skin viewable in the Skin Viewer.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Cheers

- Arch

Jack16 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 12, 2007, 10:05:47 PM »

well once your skin is saved, whether done or not, and you can choose it from the skin drop down box in the game, then all you need to do is open up the skin viewer pick the plane you made your skin for then choose your skin.

pm me if any questions

Krusty · « **Reply #2 on:** June 12, 2007, 10:56:40 PM »

See the sticky post by Skuzzy. It has a link in it. That page describes many things, including how to get the skin to show up in-game.

If it shows up in-game, it will show up in the skin viewer.

Xasthur · « **Reply #3 on:** June 12, 2007, 11:30:37 PM »

I've managed to get the description to show in the Drop-down bar in-game in offline mode, but it just goes directly to the Defualt skin.

I've tried naming the folder with the .BMP i've altered in it to the same as one already in game and this effectively makes everything except the pilot and the drop tank.

I read something somewhere about a 'Bright' plug in? I've downloaded but do not know how to use it.

I also read Pyro's instructions and what's this about an Alpha layer? I've not heard anyone else mention this.

Greebo · « **Reply #4 on:** June 13, 2007, 03:31:58 AM »

Bright is a tool that converts 24 bit bmps (16 million colours) down to 8 bit (256 colours). Your graphics program can do this, but Bright does a much better job of it. This is necessary because AH can only see 256 colour bmps. They take up a lot less video memory. I'm guessing your skins are not 256 colour and that's why nothing is working.

To use Bright, move your skin's bmp to the Bright folder and double click on bright batch file. You should see an MS DOS window open as it runs through the process. Once it is done move the bmp file back to your skin folder. I put a shortcut to the Bright folder in each skin folder and another shortcut to any skin I'm working on in the Bright folder.

To use the skin viewer, select the plane you want in the top drop down box. The lower drop down box should have the individual skins of that type in it i.e. spit8_2, spit8_3 etc. Select one and it should appear.

Xasthur · « **Reply #5 on:** June 13, 2007, 05:38:58 AM »

Thank you gents.

Greebo, that was it. I just needed export the .BMP through the Bright plug in.

Worked like a charm

Krusty · « **Reply #6 on:** June 13, 2007, 12:37:31 PM »

A note on bright:

I keep it. I use it. I don't rely on it 100%. I will often work on a skin, then use my program (PS 5.1) to save as 8-bit. Then I will also (separately) export with bright.

I'll go and view the bitmap itself using windows image preview or MS paint, and visually inspect it. Sometimes the color gradiation in bright is worse than in photoshop, and sometimes vice versa. Once I see which one looks best I'll use that for the rest of this skin.

Some of my early 190A5s actually looked worse with bright. Then again, most of my recent skins look better with bright. It all depends.