Decal ini Definitions

[Wrench 9,845]

There was a question on the boards, as to exactly WHAT all these line mean in the decals.ini. I hope this little description helps.

 

In the decals ini, you'll see a listing such as below, taken from the stock F-4E Phantom II:

 

[Decal001]

MeshName=fuselage_P

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=Insignia

Position=-1.203,-0.124

Rotation=0.0

Scale=0.85

DecalMaxLOD=3

 

 

MeshName= the part of the aircraft lod (or 3d mesh) you want the decal to appear on. ie: LeftWing, InnerWing, fuselage, nose, verttail, etc. As defined (if included) in the OUT file. NOTE: not all aircraft & model builders use the same naming conventions for their mesh names!!! Without the OUT file, you'll need to use a hex editor to search for the "usual suspects", looking for mesh names as defined in the aircraft's data ini.

 

DecalLevel= at what "level" a marking will appear

 

Level=0: national markings, appears ALL the time

Level=1: individual squadron marking, only for THAT particular unit/squadron

Level=2: individual aircaft serial/modex/ID numbers. Also for individual nose arts, etc

Level=3: killmarkings

 

DecalFacing= which direction the "top" of the decal points. IE: right, left, top, bottom (ie: USAF star on TOP of left wing, "NationName" (USAF) on BOTTOM of left wing)

 

Rotation= number of degrees off center or 0; Example used to angle national marking to fit wing sweep, etc. Uses both positive and negative numbers. NOTE: the positive numbers do NOT require the plus (+) sign. Only negative uses the minus (-) sign.

 

Scale= Physical size of the decal with respect to the size of the aircraft. Larger aircraft like bombers will most likely use a larger scale, smaller aircraft like fighters a smaller scale. NOTE: there is no set ruling as to units of measurement that I've ever discovered. For locating purposes, I always start with a 1.0 or 1.5 size, base on a 128x128 pixel decal, and adjust up or down accordingly.

 

MaxDecalLod= how "far off" in distance the decal will be visible, usually linked to multi-lod aircraft models. The average seems to be MaxDecalLod=3

 

There's TK's decals turorial over in the downloads section, look in the Utilities & Tools Thread. It's several years old, but the basics are all the same. Reccomened reading!

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...mp;showfile=345

 

Be advised, it says "don't go over 4 decals per mesh". I've found that 3 is the max number that is usable before the LOD becomes transparent (ie: the aircraft disappears)

 

Locating the exact coordinates is a matter of trial and error, and educated guesswork. For wings, I use the location of the wingtip ID lights, and come "in" approx 1 meter. Fuselage/Nose I use the location of the pilot. After that, it's just a matter of even MORE trial and error dailing in the exact location.

Meaning, given a know lenght of an aircraft; say for example, 10 meters, the tail light is at -9.50 meters aft, you'd place the fuselage national insigina at approx -7.5 or -8.0, and see where it shows up.

 

Wrench

kevin stein