DukeIronHand

This is not a skinning question, per se, so I thought I will post this question here. Using my newly found "expertise" with Paint.net I have been attempting to modify the tactical_display.dds - this file, as expected, controls the TAC screen. I have been using Paint.net to try and remove the "clock" numbers and the corresponding black hash marks next to them. The tactical_display.dds is, apparently considered a layer by Paint.net and is in DXT3 format. Anyway when I try and remove the numbers via "cutting" or "erasing" and then re-saving I get the "number shadows" or the holes I cut or erased in the layer showing the numbers still in-game. Experimenting I tried to put another layer on top but, if this will work, I lack the knowledge to carry through. Could any graphics pros give me a steer?

Waiting is the hardest part! I am ready with credit card in hand.

I have a fairly good handle on layers (fairly!) but am, of course, still learning. About halfway through I figured out layers and used them a lot. The red stripes on the upper wind, for example, were recolored with a layer. One thing that would speed me up mightily would be the ability to connect two points together in a multiple straight lines. Using the lasso or free form tool I had to "redo" a lot because of a minor drawing errors since you can't, I think, modify the selected shape once you draw it. But anyways thank you both. And thanks to BulletHead who explained layers to me in another thread. Yes carrick58 I am still picking through it too, perhaps if I read the manual(!) things would be smoother. But its pretty intuitive - at least for the basic stuff.

My first modified skin. Quite rough and nothing fancy. Still working on minor details but this basically will be it. Original skin by OBD/OvS, then a (major) modification by Alb skinner extraordinaire Olham as a favor to me. Minor modification by myself. Using Paint.net (without reading instructions of course) and just experimenting I cleaned up the white tail and iron crosses, added a red stripe before the tail, the red to the upper wing, removal of numbers, etc. The wheels need recolor as do the upper wing stripes that did not come out quite the color I wanted. The major point of this post is to thank Olham and RAF_Louvert for the ideas, inspiration, motivation, and the Paint.net program. Anyway a salute to the skinners! What a time investment skinning is and this is hardly a major re-do nor work of art! I would assume as I learn the program it will be much faster. Edit: Forgot the other point of the post. If a graphics noob such as myself can work with skins, rough though it is, anyone can! Give it a try!

Pass the salt please...

Snobbery? If take one of your paint jobs that took you hours and hours - and change just the wheel color - then post it for d/l as "Duke's Greatest Skin", with no mention of you then you wouldn't mind? Granted that may be a extreme example but anyone's work should be recognized...the value of the work is "in the eyes of the downloader" so to speak. Recognizing someones efforts isn't "snobbery". Guess I sound kinda preachy! Well, it is Sunday.

Hmmmmmm

Excellent. Thank you again!

That is pretty much what I thought. Thanks BH.

Very insightful and well thought Herr Olham...I am guessing you are exactly right.

Nice comparison photos, hell, nice pictures in general. You certainly are a valuable source of info and knowledge. Most impressive. Keep up the good work!

You sir, get a gold star, in fact have two! Seriously though thanks for the picture and the answer JFM. I have never seen the entire photo before as you have posted it, mostly the ones I have seen cut off just at the key. It is an Alb I presume? The camera angle makes the front of the cockpit area look awful high. And a red nose? I have wondered for a long, long time as it has, to me, kind of crescent wrench look to it. And, of course, RAF_Louvert is right...again! How are you at picking lottery numbers RAF_Louvert?

Well damnit...spent an hour looking with various searches. Saw a lot of cool pictures so it wasn't wasted but I could not find the complete photo. Sorry for wasting your time gentleman. Hopefully I'll solve the mystery before I croak!

Ok...sorry for the harsh language earlier internet. Did find the wife's birthday present. Apparently just typing WW1 in a search covers a lot of ground! Back to searching!

Thanks for the thoughts. I was never aware of a "key" for the Alb. Could be but it certainly does not appear to be a jam hammer. Let me try again to find the complete photo - I thought the darn internet had everything!!

Let me start by apologizing for the photo. I did two Google image searches and could not find one that showed the "item" I would like I.D.'ed I have the complete picture in a dozen books at home so I am hoping folks here have it also. This has bugged me for a couple of decades (literally) so I am hot for an answer. Now that I know how to post pics here... Attached is a famous photo of MvR sitting in a cockpit of a (presumed) Alb D-series aircraft. At the end of the chain that is coming out of the cockpit is a small object that I have always presumed to be a wrench - or spanner for our British friends. 1)Is it, in fact, a wrench? 2)If a wrench what was it used for? 3)If not a wrench what the heck is it and what was it used for? Thanks in advance.

Questions about the photograph reported to be "Billy Bishop." 1) Anyone else think it does not look like Billy Bishop at all? 2) I am not a real uniform expert but is not that an American uniform the man is wearing? Unless someone else thinks this is "Billy Bishop" I am going to guess its an American named Bishop and someone made a incorrect leap. Edit: Ahh...my first posting of an image here and it worked! Yep...gonna be a good weekend.

Nice find Olham. Once I get a drink on RAF_Louvert "4,000th post tab" I will watch them and guzzle. Hmmmm...what to order?

4,000 posts! And and open tab! Oh its gonna be a good weekend... On a serious note, based on my own experience, all your posts have been helpful, useful, or informative so its not 4,000 fluff posts. Now that I have said that remember you are being humble!

Yes it does exactly. I have spent many a moment goofing with graphics settings trying to make them go away when they appear. I will have to pay more attention when I do get them (i.e., the circumstances at the moment) because sometimes they are there and sometimes not.

"...I will start to see those telltale lines in the trees down at ground level," RAF_Louvert - what is meant by the above? Edit: Geesh...spelling...I gotta get glasses

I did a search on "Track Air" and found nothing so like Olham I will assume you mean TrackIR. I will echo his comments - to me its as important to flight simming as a joystick. Once you try it you will wonder WTH you've been doing all this time without it! Size wise the camera (that you place on your monitor) is about 1/4 the size of a cell phone - its nothing. Then the thing you stick on your head - nothing again. Run, don't walk, and get one.

A quick question about Skinning Etiquette though I am very far from showing off anything but my mind tends to wander. If I take a Olham skin for example, as he is the most prolific skinner with the Alb series, and then modify it to whatever extent, should permission from the author (Olham in this example) be sought prior to, lets say, posting a screenshot of it in a "Combat Report" in the "Stories from the Front" thread in the General Discussion Forum? Or is just a verbal acknowledgement of it being Olhams's (and OvS) original skin in the post adequate? 5 years from now, when I am skilled enough to do and complete re-skin, would a verbal acknowledgement to OvS (or the other OFF skinners) be sufficient? Do all the original OFF skins display the authors name? I know I have seen OvS several times but never studied all the skins in detail.

Another thought on layers. 1) If I am doing a skin job (sounds kind of pornographic!) and end up with, lets say 10 layers, can these be "deleted" individually latter? Even after I save it? 2) If I d/l one of your skins for example (lets say it has 50 layers) can I go through and see these layers individually on whatever paint program I am using? If, perchance, one of your layers really bothers me (just for this example) could I delete layers off a skin made by you in a presumably different paint program? EDIT: Just found Gous's outstanding skinning tutorial - layers are the key to skinning it looks like!

Well, goofed around again and found (and successfully figured out!) the "Color Picker" tool so I guess that takes care of Question #2. EDIT: Thanks BH - we were posting at the same time! 50-60 layers?!? Guess that's why you stuff look so good. The above info has been very valuble.