Tail decals

[Heck 496]

For example: The USN Grey default scheme in WOV has a number of tail decal choices for a certain aircraft, say the A7. There are twenty, or so, different A7 tail decals, but the decal ini only states: A7TailL, or A7TailR without specifying the number of the A7Tail decal to be chosen, such as A7TailL114.TGA. Does anyone know what file in the structure tells the program which number to chose? And is this file in any way accessable, or changeable? Just curious, because it would make adding decals to the existing schemes easier, without having to add a whole separate skin folder, if we could tell the program to add a new line, such as A7FusL114.TGA. Is there any way to do this? Or is it locked into a file we can't access? Thanks.

Edited August 22, 2006 by Heck

[Guest capun]

Heck

 

Look in the download section, there is a pack of utilities/documents from ThirdWire uploaded by me, but I think during the move it is attributed to "Guest"

 

There is decal tutorial from TK, it explains how to set the decal ini and what you need to do a decal.

 

Basically the game looks for a numbers.lst and matches the number to a decal.

 

For example the numbers.lst may say

 

X1

X2

X3

 

Now you decal ini may call for A7TailNum

 

if you select X2 in the loadout drop down menu, the A7TailNum001 is selected. Rememeber that they start A7TailNum000

 

 

 

and so on.

[Heck 496]

Heck

 

Look in the download section, there is a pack of utilities/documents from ThirdWire uploaded by me, but I think during the move it is attributed to "Guest"

 

There is decal tutorial from TK, it explains how to set the decal ini and what you need to do a decal.

 

Basically the game looks for a numbers.lst and matches the number to a decal.

 

For example the numbers.lst may say

 

X1

X2

X3

 

Now you decal ini may call for A7TailNum

 

if you select X2 in the loadout drop down menu, the A7TailNum001 is selected. Rememeber that they start A7TailNum000

and so on.

 

Thanks, Capun! I'll check it out.

[Jarink 1]

This also depends on the DecalLevel= line in the Decals.ini file.

 

DecalLevel=0 -–> Nation ID

DecalLevel=1 -–> Squadron ID

DecalLevel=2 -–> Aircraft Number

DecalLevel=3 -–> Kill Number

 

So, if you want to be able to display the national insignia on a surface, you'd need an entry like this:

 

[Decalxxx]

MeshName=Nose

DecalLevel=0 <--Specifies this decal changes according to selected nation

FilenameFormat=Insignia <--Default name for national insignas.

DecalFacing=RIGHT

Position=4.707,-0.113

Rotation=0.0

Scale=1.7

DecalMaxLOD=4

 

 

The decals tutorial is in Word format as part of the SFP1_design package. It's really in-depth and very useful. A must-have for skinners!

Edited August 23, 2006 by Jarink

[Heck 496]

Thanks to all who've replied. Couldn't quite get the results I wanted, because of the four decals per mesh thing. Had to put my Golden Dragon on the mid fuselage mesh, as far forward as possible, so it's out of place, but it's there. Did manage to get the Barn Owls forward decal to the right place, however, but alas, couldn't give them that cute little barn owl face on the radome, again because of the four items per, limit. Trying to do stripes for Va-87 in almost the same position led to some really interesting stuff like disappearing fuselages and the program writing over the stripe with the dragon file if I made the stripe a different size decal. But I'm having fun playing with it, so thanks again.

[+streakeagle 865]

One way to get around the decals per mesh limit is to combine several smaller decals into one larger (sometimes massive!) one... especially if they are all a fixed image that doesn't change with the aircraft number. But you can even do this with tail numbers if you don't mind have a large number of decals of a substantial size. If you download my A-1 Skyraider package from avsim.com you will find the included MiG Killer skin is a good example of the single large decal solution. I started with MarcFighter's excellent skin and reworked it as best as I could to increase the accuracy of the details while overcoming mapping limitations of the A-1 Skyraider model.

 

Another work around is to paint some of the details onto the skin itself. This method is limited by the resolution of the skin and the distortion of the mapping. For instance, Sundowner makes very high resolution F-4 skins using few or no decals that are most impressive... however, the mapping does distort the national insignias.

[Heck 496]

One way to get around the decals per mesh limit is to combine several smaller decals into one larger (sometimes massive!) one... especially if they are all a fixed image that doesn't change with the aircraft number. But you can even do this with tail numbers if you don't mind have a large number of decals of a substantial size. If you download my A-1 Skyraider package from avsim.com you will find the included MiG Killer skin is a good example of the single large decal solution. I started with MarcFighter's excellent skin and reworked it as best as I could to increase the accuracy of the details while overcoming mapping limitations of the A-1 Skyraider model.

 

Another work around is to paint some of the details onto the skin itself. This method is limited by the resolution of the skin and the distortion of the mapping. For instance, Sundowner makes very high resolution F-4 skins using few or no decals that are most impressive... however, the mapping does distort the national insignias.

 

Thanks, Streakeagle. I'll check it out. Decaling is fun, but probably the toughest thing I've attempted so far. An artist, I'm not. I love to tinker, and armed with the information you guys have provided, I'll be experimenting for days. I have encountered the distortion you talk about, because I've been trying to repaint a silver P-47 with the checkerboard nose of the 78th fighter group. No luck getting that one to work, so far, but I'll keep plugging. It's for a fictional scheme for my brother called "Hitler's Nightmare" which he's eventually going to put on a sixty inch wingspan model, which I'll create a real decal for. It features a cartoon Hitler, and a Hippo holding a bomb. Should be a cool scheme once I get it put together in its final form. So far, my personal schemes have been painted on the bitmaps, but I've always wanted to try my hand at decals.

Edited August 24, 2006 by Heck