Skinning Help Please

[Spectre]

Hello Everyone,

I'm have a some troubles with skinning he aircraft in my game. Key word here seems tro be "MY". I've painted a few skins now and they have turned out quite well. But I can't seem to see them when I pleace them into the appropriate folders. I'm using PSP 7.0. I'm working from layered templates. I reduce to the colors to 256 and save it a bmp. Now here is the strange thing. I have given these new skins to some of my online friends and they can see them without any issies what so ever in the game.

Does anyone have any idea where I am going wrong here. Please advise......

Spectre

[x4btr]

Which version of IL2 do you have? Have you applied any special modifications to this version of IL2?

The main problem is likely to be one of location. If you start with a skin which certainly can be seen by other players (e.g. that is is without doubt in 256 colour format), try to confirm that the folder in which you place this is exactly identical to the folder in which your on-line mates have done.

For example, if you skinned the P-51-D20 aircraft, then the folder would be:

[your drive letter][your path to IL2's folder] \PaintSchemes\Skins\P-51D-20NA

It must be the same as shown above, or the skin you made will not appear in the available selection list of the load-out screen.

[Spectre]

Thank you for the info... I appreciate the feedback. Here's a bit more info... I was messing around with it again last night, and found that if I merged my skin onto an existing skin, it would work in the game. The only catch is that the skin goes a little bit pixelated once when you merge them. Any ideas on that one??

THx in advance..

Spectre

[Serval]

Use the Bright program to convert the image to the right format.
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...ile-bright-35/

Place the skins in BMP format in the Bright folder and run the Bright.cmd file.
It's a DOS program, so you'll see a black box for a while.
After it's done move the files to the appropriate skin folder.

[Spectre]

Thx Serval... I'll give that a try. Can I use Bright on any saved BMP. DO I need to use "Gimp" or can I continue with my PSP files saved to BMP. ?

Thanks Again

[Barrakooda]

Doesnt matter what program you use to save the .bmp file, so keep using PSP, i use PhotoshopCS3 myself. As long as you save the .bmp file correctly you should be fine.

As x4btr has pointed out, make sure you are putting the file in the correct folder for aircraft. For example there a few spitfire skin folders, but if you do a skin for the MkVIII dont put it in the MkV folder as it wont work. Some skins can cover a few aircraft types some cant. Some have their quirky oddities.

[Spectre]

I really appreciate the feedback gents. I'm going to try out the Bright tomorrow night... I'll make sure that I put the file in the correct folders... I had painted a P-39N and had it in the "Q" folder...

I'm trying to paint a version of the model aircraft I have build.. such as...

Corsair, Wildcat, Hellcat, Airacobra, B-25, T-Bolts, Mustangs, Spits... Many more.... lol...

I'll post pics when I can get skin captures....

Thanks Again

Grant

[Serval]

Thx Serval... I'll give that a try. Can I use Bright on any saved BMP. DO I need to use "Gimp" or can I continue with my PSP files saved to BMP. ?

Thanks Again

Bright can handle some other formats. But then you need run run the Bright.exe yourself with the right parameters. Using a 24 bit BMP and running the .CMD is the easy way for people not familiar with DOS programs and/or file formats.