Custom Aircraft Skin Preview Image- How to?

[WarmWombat]

There are some excellent aircraft skins being produced. When selecting these in the mission planning screen however, it only shows the name of the skin but there is no preview image similar to the ones that ship with the game. Has anyone figured out how to make these left-hand preview images work? 

[actionhank]

4 hours ago, WarmWombat said:

There are some excellent aircraft skins being produced. When selecting these in the mission planning screen however, it only shows the name of the skin but there is no preview image similar to the ones that ship with the game. Has anyone figured out how to make these left-hand preview images work? 

I've asked about this elsewhere but I think the thread got buried.

@LukeFF Is there any way for people to create skins that have an included thumbnail, maybe inside of a single folder to help with keeping the skins organized and just improving the way they show up in game? It would be a great addition for skin creators and just help generally with organizing things once you start getting a handful of skins per plane, especially since we've got 2 texture files now per plane.

[Husar]

@LukeFF how to add custom preview to the skin ?

[Stonehouse]

Custom helmet liveries previews too.

[LukeFF]

At the moment, there is no way to add previews for aircraft skins, but there is for helmets.

For example, if the main texture is data\graphics\Skins\Pilot_1950_USAFprop\SomeNewHelmet#1.dds, the preview should be data\NSData\Assets\BotSkins\Pilot_1950_USAFprop\SomeNewHelmet#1.dds.  

[IceniQueen]

Are there any new Helmet Skins? Not seen any

 

[E69_julian57]

Hello @LukeFF
I can’t see those folders...?
Assets\BotSkins\   I can only see the UserData folder
Do I need to create them?

Edited October 19 by E69_julian57

[E69_julian57]

@IceniQueen

You have to paint them like aeroplane skins.
and the image should be visible when you select it; they’re customised.

Edited October 19 by E69_julian57

[LukeFF]

4 hours ago, E69_julian57 said:

Hello @LukeFF
I can’t see those folders...?
Assets\BotSkins\   I can only see the UserData folder
Do I need to create them?

Most likely, but I'm not sure. @DetCord might be able to help you out with this.

[Stonehouse]

14 hours ago, LukeFF said:

At the moment, there is no way to add previews for aircraft skins, but there is for helmets.

For example, if the main texture is data\graphics\Skins\Pilot_1950_USAFprop\SomeNewHelmet#1.dds, the preview should be data\NSData\Assets\BotSkins\Pilot_1950_USAFprop\SomeNewHelmet#1.dds.  

Is there any requirement for size, compression etc? eg 1024x1024 etc

Edited October 20 by Stonehouse

[LukeFF]

Helmet skins are currently 1024x1024 DXT5. As for previews. for helmets they are 256x256 DXT5 (you can also use BC7 for better quality). One important note about previews: they must be saved with premultiplied alpha (also called "pre-modulate color" in some tools); otherwise, the transparent background will look wrong.

Plane skin previews are 1024x512 with the same requirements.

[Panthercules]

18 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Plane skin previews are 1024x512 with the same requirements.

So it sounds like it is possible to create skin previews for the planes - is that right?  Where should they go in the folder structure in order to be seen in the game?

[gabuzomeu]

I tried the helmet trick and it worked.

I tried putting a similar dds of the size mentioned by lukeFF in nsdat\assets\worldobjects\planes\f84e\skins (found thanks to ungtp past extract) , named the same as my f84 skin: does not work 

If I give it the name of a game skin (which I got from a past unGTP extract), the skin thumbnail in game shows empty, so it does seem to be the correct place.

 

[Panthercules]

Yeah - I had no luck either.  Also, it would be interesting to know where the text in the preview picture screen comes from - e.g., is it already part of the preview picture or is it set forth in some associated text file somewhere.

[gabuzomeu]

the txt files in the gtp were not legible...

[LukeFF]

6 hours ago, Panthercules said:

So it sounds like it is possible to create skin previews for the planes - is that right?  Where should they go in the folder structure in order to be seen in the game?

Aircraft skin previews are not working at this time.

[Panthercules]

20 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Aircraft skin previews are not working at this time.

Thanks for the info.  Not a huge issue at this point given what else needs attention, but hopefully this is something they can get working sometime soon.

[LukeFF]

4 hours ago, Panthercules said:

Thanks for the info.  Not a huge issue at this point given what else needs attention, but hopefully this is something they can get working sometime soon.

Yes, most likely it will come.