IL-2 Anti-glare Panels

[Aviar]

I have a question about anti-glare panels. I noticed that no matter what color I use, they really don't look right. Basically, they look 'shiny', not 'flat'.

Is this a limitation of the IL-2 graphics engine, or is there a technique to make these panels less 'shiny'?

BTW, I'm using Gimp.

Aviar

[Serval]

The brighter the color, the more shiny it will look in IL-2
As you might have seen in skins by other people, it is possible to make it less shiny.
This is done by making the color more noisy and adding "dirt" effects.

[Aviar]

At the moment, I'm working on a P-38 skin. There are 3 anti-glare panels (one on each engine and one on the nose). Even if I use a dark color like black, the panels are shiny. That's why I posted here to see if there was a way around this issue.

I can't say I totally understand the 'noisy' and 'dirt' references. Is it the same as 'weathering'? For instance, would I take a weathering layer and merge it with the anti-glare panels layer?

Aviar

[Serval]

Yes it's de weathering part.
If you look at skins of the well known skinners, you will see that not one pixel has exactly the same color. You'll see minor color differences. This breaks the shinyness a bit.

[Aviar]

I see. However, I already have two weathering layers on this skin and the anti-glare panels are still totally shiny. So.....I'm kind of stuck on what else I need to do.

I mean, is there a certain kind of weathering texture that is best for this issue? Is it really possible to get these panels to look 'flat' instead of 'glossy'? I can't really say I've seen that in other IL-2 skins. Maybe I haven't ever looked that close.

Aviar

[Serval]

Take a look at my Hurricane template. It contains a grey layer I often used to do it. Other people use other tricks.

It is not possible to make things really glossy or really flat in IL-2. You just can make some difference.
Look at my Y-29 P-51 skinpack, where I did my best to make things shiny and my Dutch (NEI) P-40's where I tried to get the dull look.
I guess that is about the best you can get. They can be found on http://www.1java.org using the appropriate filters (sorry no direct link possible there).

[Aviar]

I think I need to experiment and find the best weathering layer for the panels. Thanks for your help.

Aviar

[Goodwood]

I think I need to experiment and find the best weeathering layer for the panels. Thanks for your help.

Aviar

If you have the anti-glare panels as a separate layer, try the following: lock transparency, use the Noise filter at about 4 or 5, then Blur a couple of times, finally adding a Noise at about 0.5.

[Aviar]

I don't think Gimp has a noise filter.

Aviar

[adlabs6]

GIMP has 6 different noise filters to choose from. Look under the "Filter>Noise" pull down menu.