An idea: Making USN NationName a level 1 decal

[+HomeFries 29]

While it makes perfect sense to keep the default NationName as a level 0 decal (i.e. taking its entries from NATIONS.INI), when it comes to the US Navy I would like to be able to have the name of the carrier on the side of the aircraft. Since USN Aircraft generally already have four decals on the fuselage (NationName, InsigniaFuseL, InsigniaFuseR, SQName), there is no room for an additonal decal for the aircraft carrier.

 

So how was I able to do this?

 

Quite simply, I took the USN decals.ini files and changed the NationName decal to level 1, then created a series of decals each pertaining to the squadron. In this case, I named the files Navy.tga and Navyxxx.tga where xxx is the entry number in squadronlist.ini.

 

MeshName=fuselage_rear
DecalLevel=1
DecalFacing=RIGHT
FilenameFormat=A6SP1979\NAVY
Position=-5.92,0.55
Scale=1.1
DecalMaxLOD=2

 

This can be done for any USN aircraft; the supercarriers have been done. All you need to do to make this work for another squadron is find the appropriate TGA and rename it to the number of the squadron in SquadronList.ini.

 

There is one potential downside to this workaround: since it is a workaround, this only works for USN squadrons. If you select a USN aircraft with this tweak and select a different nation, you will still get "NAVY" on the fuselage. There are two ways to address this:

• Since most USN aircraft are also flown by the USMC, just put the USMC aircraft entry first in the aircraft.ini file. Then when you select a different nation, you can still use the level 0 NationName in the USMC decals.ini.
  
• This can work for absolutely everybody so long as every entry in the squadronlist.ini has a level 1 decal. In other words, for non-USN squadrons you would need to duplicate the corresponding NationName decal as a level 1. As you can imagine, this could get unwieldy rather quickly, especially if you want to allow for different carriers over different periods of time (e.g. the picture above is 1979; for 1976 VA-52 was on the Coral Sea).
  

I realize that this isn't rocket science, but I figured it was worth bringing up as a brainstorming/discussion point.

Edited August 21, 2012 by HomeFries

[+daddyairplanes 10,135]

yours is an interesting idea at the moment but i think to easily affected by future patches. the only thing i can think of is that it would no longer be a part of the nationname grouping but rather purely tied in to the appropriate skin (NAVYxxx for USNGrey, USMCxxx for USMCGrey etc). no reason that shouldnt work, have it going on one of my skins with the insignia(though named star) to make a couple of squadrons insignia smaller as IRL.

[+HomeFries 29]

You don't need to tie to the skin; you could have a global entry (though it makes sense to tie it to a timeframe). If you take a look at my example above, you'll see that the files are called NAVYxxx.tga, and are located in Decals\A6SP1979. This is only because it is for the superpack; this could just as easily read Nationxxx.tga and be located in Decals\1979. You can also add USMC et al to the same naming convention since it is level 1; you don't have to worry about overlap.

 

For my experiment, I actually created entries for the USMC squadrons by just duplicating NationName004.tga ("MARINES") to the appropriate NAVYxxx.tga entries. This could actually be useful for USMC squadrons that deployed with carrier air wings; they would need a separate skin anyway to allow for USN modexes, so the default USMC skins with the 2 digit numbers could still use NationName.

 

EDIT: As far as patches go, they will be affected only if the decals.ini file is patched. With the exception of the F-14, this sort of patching appears to have stabilized.

Edited August 21, 2012 by HomeFries

[+daddyairplanes 10,135]

looks good for A-6 and prob Hornet as i think they had most of their carrier names near the service name. Phantoms and i believe Tomcats are a bit more problematic as they can be all over the airframe. i've got Forrestal on the tail, on the spine, back by the NAVY etc. Toms had the same variations esp earlier on. so for it to work it would have to be one huge decal and alot of testing to verify location on skin. that or place it above the NAVY anyhow and suffer the wrath of the rivetcounters........

[+Gunrunner 314]

Wait, does the 4 decals limit still apply ? I thought it went away some time ago...

[+Dels 619]

Wait, does the 4 decals limit still apply ?

 

I assumed so that why I did this with my KC-130's.

 

Dels

[+HomeFries 29]

looks good for A-6 and prob Hornet as i think they had most of their carrier names near the service name. Phantoms and i believe Tomcats are a bit more problematic as they can be all over the airframe. i've got Forrestal on the tail, on the spine, back by the NAVY etc. Toms had the same variations esp earlier on. so for it to work it would have to be one huge decal and alot of testing to verify location on skin. that or place it above the NAVY anyhow and suffer the wrath of the rivetcounters........

Can't suffer the wrath of the rivetcounters! That's a good point in that you are obviously limited to the immediate area of the decal; huge decals wouldn't be worth the payoff IMHO.

 

Of course, if the CV/CVW names are all over the place, then you may not have to sweat the 4 decal limit. I started this because there are already 4 decals on the rear fuselage of the A-6/EA-6B. If it exists on another mesh, then we might be in business with the CV/CVW alone as a level 1, and without having to mess with NationName.