Decal help

[MadJeff]

This is for all you skinners out there. We got an email today from Rollan asking about a decal problem he's fighting, so I thought I would post it here.

Need some help trying to do decals for the F-4s (fighter interceptor squadron).  I've read the tutorial a dozen times but the result I get is that when the decal appears on the aircraft, part of the plane turns white, like the camo job was erased.  Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong? Do decals need to be a TGA file?

 

-Rollan

Any ideas?

[+Tiwaz]

Ok, decals need to be 32 bit tga files ,and the palette that they are painted needs to be square. I always start with a transpaerent background or I add a new layer and paint on it. hope some of this helps .

[striker01]

Hi,

 

I think you helped me with a prob. I obviously save my decals at 24-bit. But I´ve got another question.

 

Usually when you have selected a plane with a specific No. your AI Wingmen will have the following numbers such as

 

Mig 17 No 10 will be followed by No11, 12, and so on.

 

Is it possible to change that somewhere to

 

My plane: No 10 next 14, next 18 and so on?

 

Every fourth should be shown.

 

 

Thanks in advance for reply

 

Striker01

[column5]

Is it possible to change that somewhere to

 

My plane: No 10 next 14, next 18 and so on?

 

Every fourth should be shown.

 

Try editing numbers.lst for the skin in question and include only the list of numbers you want.

[striker01]

Hi column5,

 

thanks so far. Do I have to create also every single number (example for GAF A/C 38+01) as a .tga file? And must I put every single number put into the decal.ini?

 

regards

 

Striker01

[striker01]

Ups,

 

I thought I got it due to my error saved a decal in tga 24-bit but after I saved in 32 bit it even did not work. So what I tried was to prepare a 70x70 pixel photoshop5 file, put in a jpg file an repainted it and then save it as a tga file. I put that into Marc´s Germany1 skin with some other decals and renamed the respective line in the ini. file but I can´t see it. All other decals I can see.

 

Did I something wrong (obviously) when I saved the file?

 

Regards

 

Striker01

[+Tiwaz]

Ok where are you saving the file to? have you created a custom decal folder for the skin? or are yopu using the default location? does the filename format line correspond with where the decal was placed?

 

Check those and let us know.

[striker01]

Hi Tiwaz,

 

thanks for reply.

 

1. I created a file named Jabog36.tga

2. I moved this file to the to the germany1 folder and there to the decals file, where all othe decals are stowed.

3. I added to the Decals.ini the respective lines.

 

When I do that with the jabo72.tga from grab´s USAFMTL´s F-4F (1972) skin it works. When I use my tga file it doesn´t.

 

The same appears when I try to change the decal in the F-4F (1972) skin.

 

Due to I´m sitting in the office now I can´t send you the example but I will do tonight when I am home.

 

Kind regards

 

Striker01

[Guest capun]

Striker

The Insignia (Squadron badges) TGA files need to be in the Objects/Aircraft directory and not in the particular plane subdirectory.

It is just another quirk on the file tree search in the engine.

See if it works

[RedRyder]

Hi Striker!

 

If you're using Photoshop 5 it won't work. I tried for a week. I purchased PaintShopPro 7 for $90 and now I can make 32 bit .tga decals. You can download a trial version that I think should be good for 30 days.

 

Red

[striker01]

Thanks RedRyder,

 

I will check that out.

 

Regards

 

Striker01