In Regards to Custom Skin Making

[+Trotski 939]

Which is why  Bloody Modders have sunshine glowing from their bum holes , and us mere , and lowly skinners are cannon fodder , and dont get shiny accolades upon our miserable profile icons....just sayin'...I aint bitter.....nosir....not me hahahahahaha

 

[A48Racing 11]

  On 4/30/2020 at 11:28 PM, EricJ said:

TK intentionally locked the LODs due to piracy issues and the like from what I remember.

Oh, that makes sense then. How do you view them in LODViewer then? It doesn't like it when you try to just use the .ini, or maybe you just can't view them at all.

I hate to ask so many questions but I just don't know man!

[+Trotski 939]

Dont know, and also dont care , for to dabble in the skulduggery and black majiks of LODS is heresey , and all practioners of said majiks must be bowed down to and worshipped , or else they get pissed off and tell us off, and sent us to bed without any supper , because we are very naughty boys !!! ......True Story 

[+EricJ 4,352]

  On 4/30/2020 at 11:31 PM, A48Racing said:

Oh, that makes sense then. How do you view them in LODViewer then? It doesn't like it when you try to just use the .ini, or maybe you just can't view them at all.

I hate to ask so many questions but I just don't know man!

You'd have to ask JSF_Aggie on that as he did the skins for the F-4J and it's a stock bird.

[A48Racing 11]

Progress gentlemen! Progress!

[A48Racing 11]

I don't know how, but after downloading a skinpack for the F-4C, it LODViewer finally picked up my custom skin.

It ain't much but it's something.

[Spinners 16,283]

I think you're on your way! Well done.

[+Trotski 939]

Baby steps , dont expect it to all fall into place overnight ,  even some of us so called experienced skinners/ modders  run into road blocks and issues at times , the sim lay out and structure is pretty logical though , and 99.9 times out of 100 the mistake made will be of your own making, but stick with it and you will soon be wasting countless hours and days , bashing away at it , only to realise you spend more time modding/skinning , than actually flying the sim ......be warned !!  lol lol lol 

Edited May 1, 2020 by trotski00

[+mue 723]

  On 4/30/2020 at 11:31 PM, A48Racing said:

How do you view them in LODViewer then?

The LODViewer can read the LODs directly from the CAT files. For this you have to set the SF2 install directory and enable CAT file access under Settings->CAT File Access. If you open an aircraft.ini file with the LODViewer and it didn't find the lod file in the same directory then it tries to load the lod file from the CAT files.

[A48Racing 11]

@mue I actually noticed that when I was fiddling around. Then I was able to view the F-4 above.

Also made this! This is just a camo repaint of the F-100G mod because I thought a plane like this would be more suited for merc work.

Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!

[A48Racing 11]

Noticed another thing, from what I can gather, when you make a "custom" skin directory, you have to fly with the custom skin set before LODViewer will see it.

I know this is probably all old news to y'all though.

[+yakarov79 11,511]

I think you just need to launch the game...for all ini entry to be updated.. Quit program and LOD viewer will see all skin sets.

[+daddyairplanes 10,976]

that is correct. have to remind myself often when adding a new skin, or doing work on my desktop, then transferring to my laptop (which is actually the stronger one)

any jpg and tga changes, and ini edits (like positions) will adjust without restarting the game, so long as you've started at least once and that skin (and associated tga) are now recognized in LODviewer