Nieuport 28 rudder flash issue

[33LIMA 972]

Anybody know how to get the N.28 fin/rudder flashes for Deutschmark's Rickenbacker and Campbell skins to show in the right order, white-blue-red (in First Eagles 2)? I gather the French-style red-white-blue was also used on US machines but the download page screenies show these skins both have the distinctive US order, and they don't display this way on my install.

 

Strangely, the .tga files for these two skins AND the default A Team 'Frenchcamo1' textures all appear to show the US-style flashes - but they all show up red-white-blue on my N28s, in-game. I created the necessary Decals folder for my FE2 install to get the other markings in the US N.28s to display right, but the tails are stubbornly sticking to the French-style flashes.

 

The fact that the FIN shows up white in the US skins makes me think there's some leftover or setting somewhere that's overwriting the correct flashes but darned if I can find out what it is.

Edited April 21, 2013 by 33LIMA

[Wrench 9,801]

rewrite the decals ini, adding one at a time?

 

white usually means too many decals on the mesh, or defective tgas (alpha channel issues)

[33LIMA 972]

Thanks Wrench!

 

I was looking at the decal.ini for the Rickenbacker skin (cut & pasted below, shortened to save space) and the only odd thing seemed to be that nearly all the decals are pathed to a named file in a Decals subfolder (eg FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/Insignia), EXCEPT for two for the rudder (decals 011 and 012). Their 'filenameformat' has NO path, and a name ('tail') which does not exist anywhere in the N28 folder. All three skins have a 'tailD.tga' (which appears to be the camouflaged tail end of the fuselage with an irregular white area.

 

I'll try replacing 'FilenameFormat=Tail' with 'FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/TailD', but it's strange that Deutschmark's d/l screenie (taken in FE1, presumably) shows the correct US tailflash without any such tweak; this makes me think the underlying problem must be one of those things you need to do differently for a second-gen sim.

 

[DefaultAnimationTime]

Animation01=0.5

Animation02=0.5

 

[Decal001]

MeshName=Wing Upper Outer L

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=TOP

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/Insignia

Position=-3.1,-0.31

Scale=1.27

DecalMaxLOD=3

 

[Decal002]

MeshName=Wing Upper Middle L

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=TOP

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/Insignia

Position=-3.1,-0.31

Scale=1.27

DecalMaxLOD=3

.........

[Decal011]

MeshName=Rudder

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=Tail

Position=-4.76,0.53

Scale=0.6

DecalMaxLOD=3

Reverse=TRUE

 

[Decal012]

MeshName=Rudder

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=LEFT

FilenameFormat=Tail

Position=-4.76,0.53

Scale=0.6

DecalMaxLOD=3

 

[Decal013]

MeshName=Wing Upper Inner L

DecalLevel=2

DecalFacing=TOP

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/NUMB001

Position=-1.4,-0.3

Scale=1.2

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal014]

MeshName=Wing Upper Middle L

DecalLevel=2

DecalFacing=TOP

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/NUMB001

Position=-1.4,-0.3

Scale=1.2

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal015]

MeshName=Wing Upper Inner R

DecalLevel=3

DecalFacing=TOP

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/POST

Position=1.23,-0.32

Scale=1.0

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal016]

MeshName=Wing Upper Middle R

DecalLevel=3

DecalFacing=TOP

FilenameFormat=

Position=1.23,-0.32

Scale=1.3

DecalMaxLOD=2

.......

[Decal017]

MeshName=Fuselage P

DecalLevel=1

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/HAT001

Position=-1.5,0.0

Scale=1.50

DecalMaxLOD=2

Reverse=TRUE

 

[Decal018]

MeshName=Fuselage P

DecalLevel=1

DecalFacing=LEFT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/HAT001

Position=-1.5,0.0

Scale=1.50

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal019]

MeshName=Fuselage P

DecalLevel=2

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/NUMB001

Position=-2.4,0.03

Scale=0.4

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal020]

MeshName=Tail

DecalLevel=2

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/NUMB001

Position=-2.4,0.03

Scale=0.4

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal021]

MeshName=Fuselage P

DecalLevel=2

DecalFacing=LEFT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/NUMB001

Position=-2.4,0.03

Scale=0.4

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal022]

MeshName=Tail

DecalLevel=2

DecalFacing=LEFT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/NUMB001

Position=-2.4,0.03

Scale=0.4

DecalMaxLOD=2

 

[Decal023]

MeshName=Tail

DecalLevel=1

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/HAT001

Position=-1.5,0.0

Scale=1.50

DecalMaxLOD=2

Reverse=TRUE

 

[Decal024]

MeshName=Tail

DecalLevel=1

DecalFacing=LEFT

FilenameFormat=N28/Rickenbacker/N/HAT001

Position=-1.5,0.0

Scale=1.50

DecalMaxLOD=2

........

 

Well, that worked!

[Hansa 12]

I did a photorealistic texture for the N28, i think i didn't added it to my photorealistic pack.

Here you can download it (You must click over "Click here to start download from sendspace")

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7vsano

[+ojcar 157]

Err...It's not only a Nieuport 28 problema. Try the SPAD or the Salmson and see...

[Wrench 9,801]

remember, Level=1 are 'squadron marking' decals (meaing: that squadron MUST be listed in the game's squadronlist.ini). Or, if not, can be changed to Level=0 for single skin usage.

There's always my 'fake SqTail.tga" we use in SF2, that'll activate the squdron display on the loadout screen

 

ever since the 08 patch for 1stGen, and all '2' series, you need teh full pathway for decals AND the MaxDecalLod= line, too.

[33LIMA 972]

I did a photorealistic texture for the N28, i think i didn't added it to my photorealistic pack.

Here you can download it (You must click over "Click here to start download from sendspace")

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7vsano

 

Got it - thanks Hansa! I seem to recall someone was working on a set of N.28 USAS skins but i can find no sign of it now - was that you?

 

Re US SPADs and Salmsons, they all seem to have used red-white-blue flashes. In fact the Nieuport 28 seems to be the only plane which commonly carried a white-blue-red rudder flash, and even then, US Nieuport 28s are often portrayed with red-white-blue flashes (not the blue-white-red the French commonly used) although original photos showing rudder flashes do not seem common. On the Aerodrome, I see Dan San Abbott reported that 'The Nieuport 28c1 aircraft were delivered with French rudder stripes and were repainted in the American colors, from the rudder post, white, blue and red. When the rudders were over painted the data was covered up and not re-painted'. Why this was apparently not also done with SPADs and Salmsons, I have no idea, but I suspect the practice may have died out, perhaps because they decided that they had better things to do, or that a central white stripe was a useful allied recognition feature.

Edited April 22, 2013 by 33LIMA

[33LIMA 972]

I did a photorealistic texture for the N28, i think i didn't added it to my photorealistic pack.

Here you can download it (You must click over "Click here to start download from sendspace")

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7vsano

 

Got your n.28 skin and it looks great - still had to edit decals.ini, changing the rudder decal from 'tail' to tailD', to get the white-blue-red rudder flash (and I then got a green fin rather than white).

Edited April 22, 2013 by 33LIMA