xxx_Loading - pictures

[stingray77]

After a little research in the KB, I found that loading-pictures (the one on the screen, as long as the game takes loading with the %-bar at the bottom) can easily be added/customized by adding a (i.e.) F-104_Loading.bmp and designating the loading-screen to that picture.

I found some nice pics on the Internet, resized them to 1024x768 pixel and off it went. The pics only appear a bit stretched - so would more than 768 in height might be of benefit?

Then (after thinking again) shouldn't (much smaller) .jpg's work just as well as the large -bmp's do?

 

Anyone with more knowledge than me?

 

Then I figured that with the SF2V Expansion Pack several planes have a designation for a custom loading.jpg (.jpg!), but there just is no picture in the aircraft-file... Interesting......

[Guest Raden]

After a little research in the KB, I found that loading-pictures (the one on the screen, as long as the game takes loading with the %-bar at the bottom) can easily be added/customized by adding a (i.e.) F-104_Loading.bmp and designating the loading-screen to that picture.

I found some nice pics on the Internet, resized them to 1024x768 pixel and off it went. The pics only appear a bit stretched - so would more than 768 in height might be of benefit?

Then (after thinking again) shouldn't (much smaller) .jpg's work just as well as the large -bmp's do?

 

Anyone with more knowledge than me?

 

Then I figured that with the SF2V Expansion Pack several planes have a designation for a custom loading.jpg (.jpg!), but there just is no picture in the aircraft-file... Interesting......

 

My my; what is it called? 

 

Random "sharing of very same ideas" that occurred at the very same seconds/minutes/moment" thing, real-time between two/more individuals while they were thousands of kilometers apart?

 

I swear to God, and I mean it friends.  

Stingray, I have, last year, attempted to do just what u wrote down here re changing of dot bmp to jpg, with the main rationale/reason to SAFE space in our HDD. Bmps format are such greedy 'creature' that is  resource (bytes-wise!) hunger.

 

Someone senior has even raised same issue her.

 

I was just tempted to do it just minutes ago on my Loading, from bmp to jpg, yet, I canceled it since I recalled the result was far from satisfactory.

 

Namely, the format in jpg produced a tubby F-4E EAF! Yes, stretching one.

 

 

 

Yet, now I came with this much more 'no sweat' tweak to SCREEN SHOTS!

 

Here is the lines in FlightEngine Sub-Folder within the Main FLIGHT Folder in the WOx Structure.

 

All other aspects (except ScreenShot) in it have been deleted:

 

======>>>>>  

 

The MENU in pdf from TW even does not mention this.

 

From minutes ago, all my ScreenShots were all in dot jpg format, and it does save my meager, 80Gigs HDD.

 

Monday evening surprise in Jakarta for me. No more time-consuming, changing from the bmps- to jpgs pic. Enjoy. 

Edited February 8, 2010 by Raden

[Spinners]

AFAIK hangar screens need to be 1024 x 768 but loading screens can be anything up to (at least) 1650 x 1050.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Spinners

[Wrench]

You've always been able to customize hangar or loading screens (with 450+ under by belt, I SHOULD know)

 

there's 2 types of loading screens:

 

generic, that resides in the /Flight folder for say, a WW2 install that has nice pcitures or maps of the theatre in question or

aircraft specific, fer instance, you want to use Turdigan's painting "In Defense of the Reich" for you Me-262. YOu just put said Swallow_Loading.bmp into the Me-262's main folder, add the pointer line in the Me-262.ini (the main ini)

Thusly:

 

[AircraftData]

AircraftFullName=Me-262A Schwalbe

AircraftDataFile=Me-262A_data.ini

CockpitDataFile=Me-262A_cockpit.ini

HangarScreen=Schwalbe_Hangar.bmp

LoadoutImage=Me-262_loadout.bmp

LoadoutFile=Me-262A_loadout.ini

LoadingScreen=Schwalbe_Loading.bmp

 

nothing to it; been doing it since 2005. BTW, this 1st Gen style even works with NextGen series.

You CAN use larger sizes, but I've found 1024x768 works best

 

look in my sig, below. I AM The Hangar Screen King.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[stingray77]

Kevin (guess YOU are the very right person to address this to ) - still a few questions:

 

- can I put ALL my xy_Loading.bmp's (or .jpg's - seems to work as well, as Raden describes!?) into the /Flight-folder and the pic will be picked from there as soon as the "LoadingScreen=xy_Loading.bmp" has been designated in the aircraft .INI? Or do they NEED to be put into every aircraft's folder?

 

- any addt'l input about the picture's size? I found 1024x768 in the KB - but this results in a mildly widened view... Might 750 pixels in height be better?

 

Thanks again

[ezlead]

Stingray:

Wrench is definitely THE Screen Ace.

I also have over 100 different screens on my backup HD.

Many that I made myself.

I use them in many different types of installs. (WW2,Korea,WOE,WOV,etc.)

Loading screens go into each aircrafts individual folder.

You can name them whatever you like as long as you have it noted in the aircraft.ini file. (LoadingScreen="whatever".bmp or .jpg)

Here s F-4C.ini from SF2E for instance:

 

[AircraftData]

AircraftFullName=F-4C Phantom II

AircraftShortName=F-4

AircraftDataFile=F-4C_data.ini

LoadoutFile=F-4C_loadout.ini

UserList=F-4C_UserList.ini

CockpitDataFile=F-4C_cockpit.ini

LoadoutImage=F-4C_loadout.tga

HangarScreen=F-4C_hangar.JPG

LoadingScreen=F-4C_Loading.JPG (also can be .BMP)

AvionicsDLL=Avionics60.dll

AvionicsDataFilename=F-4C_avionics.ini

 

If your screen doesn't come up,something is wrong with it,and the game uses the default.

[Wrench]

right, just like ez said, loading screens for each particular aircraft go into each particular aircraft's folder, with the pointer line added to the main ini (as he's shown)

 

"generic" ones go into the /flight folder ... those would be what I call "thematic screens", like a ww2 PTO, Arab/Israeli, Iran/Iraq, Korea, etc, where a aircraft specific screen dosen't exist (or hasn't been made).

 

Unfortunately over at The Toolbox, those of you that have been around for a while, will notice that the very cool av-art painting screens have been taken down (taylor, trudigan, smith, et al). This was due to a possible copyright issue brought to my attention by av-artist Troy White. Said screen are still around; so if you want a particular one, i'll email it.

 

size wize, I've been using the standard. However, sometimes you want to actually go smaller, so the loading status bar isn't hidden in the artwork.

 

wrench

kevin stein