I think that yous skin does not convey what is metal or silver paint enough. That might be what is throwing off Skuzzy and Hitech. The other issue is that you have not baked in heavy enough detail because you insist on keeping an accurately clean finish on the puttied an painted wing surface. I understand your choice to do so, but it looks flat and boring. Look at the the AH3 default P-51D and look at how dirty and detailed the base skin is. These problems are compounded by the fact that the 3D model is old and has flat shapes.
I respect that opinion. OTOH, I think the otherwise mostly-excellent default is *WAY* overdone on detail in some spots. It looks lumpy and a tad fake on the bottom. I am aiming for somewhere in the middle ultimately, but I don't intend to go anywhere near as stark as the default. It doesn't look right. I've toyed with the notion of doing a copy and paste of the default and just steal the underside if that's what it takes to get approved, but that wouldn't really help because then I'd have to do the same for the spec map and I'd wind up with a lumpy skin--which is precisely what I do NOT want.
The skin shape is already lumpy and angular as it is. Adding tons of rivets and panel lines doesn't do anything to make the airplane look better. It actually looks worse. Gradients to the paneling may help, but if only if I can get the specularity right.
I've tried baked in detail before. It looks good on my diffuse map but horribly fake in the game. It doesn't work because I can't get the lighting effects to behave on the natural metal.
If the skinning team wants all the skins to look the same then Hitech should just have you, Greebo, and Cactus do them all. The rest of us will stick to the arenas. I get lots of compliments for the fact that I don't overdo the detail like most other Mustangs. My skins don't detract from AH3 and nobody is forced to use them. Variety in style is a good thing. If it isn't then we can just cut and paste the default with different colors or something...
(Ultimately I feel at times like I am being blacklisted. If that's the case then I would prefer to be told so I can quit wasting everyone's time. Then again, if that *WERE* the case, Skuzzy and Hitech wouldn't expend the effort to help me. In any event, this is just frustration talking, and I intend to keep trying any way. I've attempted the other method and got nowhere. I need to try this approach instead to see if it clicks.)
I'm taking a step by step approach to this. Working my way UP to the higher detail not down. I'd rather have too little than too much.
If I get the specular right then my eye can adjust around that better than trying the other way around. I've already tried it that way and it just doesn't work. I finally figured out the AH2 system and that approach worked well there. It doesn't translate here for me.
I *NEED* to know what the specular is supposed to be, otherwise I do everything multiple times to get the effect I want. I'm worn out with it.
I added a "Silver paint" area to the left wing of my metal 109 to illustrate the differences you should look to make between metal and silver paint.
Pure gray for the paint vs. blueish gray for metal. I erased the baked in panel shape highlight over the painted area, but kept the rivet and panel line highlights and lowlights unchanged. All other weathering remains unchanged as well.
The only change to any spec maps was to darken the painted panel on the _S map from RGB 158 to 102. You may want to lighten the same area on the _E and _P maps slightly as well.
Those are superb effects. Absolutely terrific.
Something like that is what I have in mind.
