Another problem with decals not showing up

[kblomkvist]

Hi! I finally started to rework the F-35B skin and I started to experience a strange problem with the decals. 

Look at the first picture. As you surely know, there should be the "VMFA-121" label on the side of the fuselage, the "MARINES" label on the side of the fuselage just below the horizontal stabs, and a serial number next to the "MARINES" label. For reasons unknown, they're not showing up.

Here's the folder structure and contents:

And here's the decals.ini:

Quote

[Decal001]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Eject
Position=4.2,0.5
Scale=0.22
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal002]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Eject
Position=4.2,0.5
Scale=0.22
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal003]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\F35B_rescue coution_L
Position=3.85,0.26
Rotation=10.0
Scale=0.65
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal004]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\F35B_rescue coution_R
Position=4.6,0.13
Scale=0.4
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal005]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\fan_intake
Position=2.6,0.75
Scale=1.0
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal006]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\fan_intake
Position=2.6,0.75
Scale=1.0
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal007]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\refuel
Position=5.37,0.35
Scale=2.1
DecalMaxLOD=2
Rotation=-2

[Decal008]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\F-35B_No
Position=5.95,0.28
Scale=0.8
DecalMaxLOD=2
Rotation=5

[Decal009]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\F-35B_No
Position=5.95,0.28
Scale=0.8
DecalMaxLOD=2
Rotation=-5

[Decal010]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\buno
Position=-5.7,0.02
Scale=0.6
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal011]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\buno
Position=-5.7,0.02
Scale=0.6
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal012]
MeshName=CanopyFrame
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Canopy
Position=5.3,0.55
Scale=0.6
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal013]
MeshName=CanopyFrame
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Canopy
Position=5.3,0.55
Scale=0.6
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal014]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\marines
Position=-4.85,-0.05
Scale=1
DecalMaxLOD=4
Rotation=-11

[Decal015]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=0
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\marines
Position=-4.85,-0.05
Scale=1
DecalMaxLOD=4
Rotation=11

[Decal016]
MeshName=LeftVerticalStab
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Ltail
Position=-5.47,1.54
Scale=3.17
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal017]
MeshName=LRudder
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Ltail
Position=-5.47,1.54
Scale=3.17
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal018]
MeshName=RightVerticalStab
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Rtail
Position=-5.47,1.54
Scale=3.17
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal019]
MeshName=RRudder
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\Rtail
Position=-5.47,1.54
Scale=3.17
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal020]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=1
DecalFacing=LEFT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\VMFA
Position=0.61,-0.19
Scale=0.8
DecalMaxLOD=2

[Decal021]
MeshName=Fuselage
DecalLevel=1
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=F-35B\VMFA121\VMFA
Position=0.61,-0.19
Scale=0.8
DecalMaxLOD=2

DOes anyone have an idea what's wrong here? I wondered whether there's a problem with the "Fuselage" mesh but the other decals on this mesh are showing up correctly (like the ejection warnings etc.). I even reinstalled the aircraft itself and still no joy. Maybe the .tga files are somehow corrupt but I have no idea why. The strangest thing is that the MARINES and serial number decals were working at some point.

BTW, the skin itself is still WIP, some RAM coatings need serious adjustments.

Edited September 5, 2019 by kblomkvist

[JosefK]

PTI, but thanks for upgrading the F-35B.  Hope for a JASDF version too plz!

[+Wrench]

remember, no more than 4 per mesh

[+daddyairplanes]

indeed. if you have a lot to put on there, make a bigger tga with the bulk of what you are displaying in the same image. you can position it fairly close to center, and make fine tune adjustments within the space of the tga itself. if there is overlapping meshes (one decal goes on fuselage and forwardFuselage) the same position will work for both meshes

mytai did this on his Phantoms, and i do it on most of my jumbo projects.

[+russouk2004]

8 minutes ago, daddyairplanes said:

indeed. if you have a lot to put on there, make a bigger tga with the bulk of what you are displaying in the same image. you can position it fairly close to center, and make fine tune adjustments within the space of the tga itself. if there is overlapping meshes (one decal goes on fuselage and forwardFuselage) the same position will work for both meshes

mytai did this on his Phantoms, and i do it on most of my jumbo projects.

Indeed on my F4 aggressors I had to make the WA and badge one as tail had 8 decs...ended up with just 4

[kblomkvist]

Okay, that's something I didn't know. I guess I'll just paint some of these decals (like the VMFA) on the skin. 

[kblomkvist]

7 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

indeed. if you have a lot to put on there, make a bigger tga with the bulk of what you are displaying in the same image. you can position it fairly close to center, and make fine tune adjustments within the space of the tga itself. if there is overlapping meshes (one decal goes on fuselage and forwardFuselage) the same position will work for both meshes

mytai did this on his Phantoms, and i do it on most of my jumbo projects.

That's what I do already, the tail is just one large tga with all the emblems and numbers.

[+daddyairplanes]

5 hours ago, kblomkvist said:

That's what I do already, the tail is just one large tga with all the emblems and numbers.

as im looking tail should be fine. me thinks its all them individual decals on the fuselage that are gettin the attention of the two Kevins......

if it were mine, i'd put everything that stays the same with the unit (insignia, unit name, safety markings) as one tga, the Buno as another, and nose number as another. that keeps you at 3. also, still make the big one thats the same a level 2 decal (serial numbers). that way if you have say a CAG bird with full color insignia you just have MAIN.tga then MAIN000.tga as the cag bird

[+Wrench]

I'd just paint the warnings onto the skin; maybe even insignias as well. That removes a shitload of extra junk. As an example, look at the F-4 skins based off Sundowner's templates; all the warnings and stuff are painted on

[+russouk2004]

1 hour ago, Wrench said:

I'd just paint the warnings onto the skin; maybe even insignias as well. That removes a shitload of extra junk. As an example, look at the F-4 skins based off Sundowner's templates; all the warnings and stuff are painted on

Exactly...I always paint common items such as Warning signs and ejection seat triangles and arrows etc.

[kblomkvist]

5 hours ago, Wrench said:

I'd just paint the warnings onto the skin; maybe even insignias as well. That removes a shitload of extra junk. As an example, look at the F-4 skins based off Sundowner's templates; all the warnings and stuff are painted on

That's an obvious thing to do but quite hard with this aircraft if one wants it to look good. Unfortunately, the warnings and generally everything around the canopy are a real PITA with the F-35 model available here. It has a... erm... not that great texture mapping and the space to put them around the canopy is really narrow. This causes some serious bleeding and blurring or other deformation of the markings so that's why I wanted to use decals. Same with the "marines" label at the back, if you paint it on the skin, it's somehow distorted. Imagine that I wanted to add the "door" under which a refueling probe is hidden on the right side of the aircraft, below the canopy and I had to make it as a decal too. It was impossible to add it on the skin because I had too little space to draw it. You just have a tiny patch of space on your template which is then stretched over a bigger surface of the model and the effect is obvious: bleeding and deformation. Maybe I'll try with the one-helluva-big-tga idea for the whole nose and canopy area. And of course, thank you all for your support, it's priceless to have the advice from the more experienced ones. 

Edited September 6, 2019 by kblomkvist

[+yakarov79]

Some months ago i was thinking about reworking F-35 also. Stopped after few atempts on skin and decals. Uv mapping is your enemy here.

Guess I will wait for new F-35B. 

[+russouk2004]

im sure it will be sorted....slightly OT...does unit only show in loadout screen if more than one squadron ?....seems to be...