sandbagger

Actually, although we all 'dig into' the markings and aircraft detail before we skin, we rely heavily on 'Shredward'. Ted has a vast collection of WW1 data and it's him who sends us skinners what we need to create as authentic markings as is possible. Ted once skinned himself but is now our guru - without him we couldn't do what we do to the same level.

And did you notice the roundels

For example - aircraft manufacturer RAF (Royal Aircraft Factory) located their roundels further inboard than other manufacturers - the SE5's and the latest FE2b's show this well as well as some other British built aircraft. Also, different manufacturers had their own way of creating the serial numbers anbd locating them, on either the fin, rudder or fuselage. Franch manufacturers did similar - for example the Spad XIII was manufactured not just by SPAD, but also Kellner, Bleriot and Bernard. Each had their own version of camouflage and style for marking the serials on the rudder. As Shredward said, if you scan through the many allied skins in the skins folder (use Infanview), you see what we mean.

This desktop BMP is Phase 4 in developement and does not contain Phase 4 terrain or sky/clouds.

The last version of the FE2b was by OVS and has served us all well. We decided to update the FE2b inline with Phase 4 improvements. The enhanced skins will have more wing structural detail as well as detailing such as nacelle stitching/screws/bolts, wing joints, weathering, tyre manufacturer text etc. We hope this will bring the FE2b right up to the standard required for the Phase 4 release. The master texture file is close to completion so Pol may be posting some previews soon.

Hi all, I've just spent the day at the BMA annual competion at RAF Barkstone Heath, in Lincolnshire. Thought I'd share with you a few of the 'Dawn Patrol' aircraft. The members of the Dawn Patrol group are modlers who live in different areas of the UK, but who get together to show, in formation flying, their WW1 models. These are not small and are very detailed and they look great when in the air.

Hi all, Here's a few of the larger scale models at the BMA 2011 meeting.

BMA 2011 meeting - sooo - what's this one then?

And there was me thinking I'd stump you

The numbers I quoted are what I have, after skinning more SE5's for Phase 4. They will be available when Phase 4 is released. So for now you'll have to make do with your 48

Way to go UK - everything comes to those that wait :clapping:

Currently there are 217 SE5a (HS) ace skins, of which 17 are for No. 2 AFC Squadron. Also 130 SE5a (Viper) ace skins, of which 12 are for No. 2 AFC Squadron. Your skins folder probably doesn't match as there are many new skins to be added to aircraft types once Phase 4 is released.

If you refer to B'619 (E boomerang), I think you'll find its an OFF skin (No.2 AFC flown by G C Logan in 1917)

I've only recently changed from XP to Windows 7. When Windows 7 installs and despite you selecting a 64 bit install, it will create 2 Program folders - one Programs and the other Programs (x86). I believe one is for 64 bit and the other for 32 bit programs. I have my OFF installed onto the C drive and as I recall set to XP compatibilty and run as administrator. As to whether its running as 32 or 64 bit - I'm not sure but Windows 7 is a stable platform.

Lokks like a DH2 skin texture found its way onto a Bristol Scout??

Hi all, As Pol has released more screen shots from the developing Phase 4, I thought a few screenies of some of the updated or new Entente model/skin combinations wouldn't hurt. All of these aircraft have already been shown to some extent within the Phase 4 screen shots on the OFF web site The reason these are all shot looking upwards is that even we don't have the Phase 4 terrain beta yet

Hi Nbryant, Creating baseline texture templates does indeeed take a lot of time and effort. The OBD German aircraft skinners are worse off than me as I cover the Entente skins, which means I can in most cases create a single, multi-layered 'master texture' file, then create individual squadron skins from that file. The German aircraft skinners, for most aircraft, have to create individual skins for each particular skin they are creating (especially the colourful fighters). As to highlighting - it depends on what you are trying to achieve. For the most part, light coloured highlights (sun reflection etc) are handled by the in-game lighting and the specular (-s) texture file. I've found it's not really necessary to add light coloured highlights to a skin, especially as they do not move with the aircrafts attitude. A light highlight on the top of a wing may look OK when the aircraft is flying straight and level on a clear day, but would look weird on an overcast day or if the aircraft was for instance, upside down. The main shading we employ is occlusion, which is to give the impression of a blended joint area on the aircraft, rather than a clean and angular joint. A good example would be the joint between the wings and fuselage. Without occlusion, the joint areas look too clean and abrupt. In PSP 7, I add a layer at the top of the layer list and wherever there is a joint area, I spray a dark colour to the required shape, following the aerofoil shape over/under the wing on the fuselage and along the fuselage joint area. Then I gauson or motion blur and reduce the intensity enough to fade the effect down. In this way you get a faded and shaded area at the joints, which helps to blend the wing and fuselage together. If done well, it doesn't notice when the aircraft turns or banks etc, unlike light colour highlights. If you do this on your master PSP texture file, you can save to bitmap then convert to DDS. I've never worked directly of the specular file, treating it only as the base reflective file for the game lighting to use. As Pol mentioned, if you use the original DDS file as your base template, it will gradually corrupt. Always convert a DDS to bitmap and then save it as a PSP file (as the first layer). Then build all of your new layers on top of that first layer. You can see this particular effect on the skin screen shots in the 'Entente face lift' post. Hope this helps

Hi all, Polovski has given you a preview of the new terrain created by WM for P4 and also showed the upgraded model for the De-Havilland DH2 aircraft. I've recently finished re-skinning the Sopwith Tripes and now I'm working on the DH 2, with, for example, many more aces for No.24 Squadron. I'll post a few screen shots of the basic, generic DH 2 skin tonight (when I get home from my day job), just to give you a feel of how the final aircraft will look.

When a new or updated model is passed to the skinners, it comes with a base texture file created by the model maker, either WM or Polovski. We use that as a guide and build many layers over that texture file. In some cases the original texture is completly replaced by the skinners layers, but other times some of the modlers textures are retained. The leather straps are those created by WM on the DH2. Again on the Noop 28, the camouflage scheme was retained as it was spot on and couldn't be improved. Without the model makers base texture files, the work for the skinners would be a far more complex task. So due credit goes to Polovski and WM for not only creating the models, but for the base texture files also

As promised, here's a few shots of one of the basic DH 2 skins colour schemes (the late 1916 to 1917 PC 10 colour scheme). As a base skin it carries no squadron markings.

Well it shouldn't be in a Snipe anyway

Hi Gosd, The file you refer to is, I believe, one of those representing the different aircraft within OFF squads and is normally in the Aircraft folder. This folder is set as part of the configuration for OFF and is not like the skins folder, where you can add third party skins etc. Have you inadvertantly deleted or altered this particular file?

Hi all, As I skin aircraft for OBD, my skins folder has all current in-game skins, plus those extra allied skins I've worked and susequently tested in-game. Currently my OBD directory runs at 20.7 Gig with the skins folder at 12.8 Gig with 4,917 files, and that's without all of the latest German aircraft skins. Bring on Phase 4 eh

I actually purchased the two DVD boxed set from Jan awhile back - viewed on a PC is great, but on a large TV some of the shots get a bit pixilated (probably increased in size from the originals) - still a very good buy though.

As Pol said, thanks for the support. It makes the long hours worth it