Flexability breads caos, or at least I think so. As a former Stock controller, I think of plane types as parts. In my world you would have

Spit 1 to 24 folders

And within each type folder a subs of each variant, or differnet skin

When you click on the Spit 1 folder, a list of descriptions of available planes should be displayed.

Simple text file of full details of each model is already available in the models readme

Select a plane from the list should show a screen of plane, and full readme

Click on the screen to select the file set

Your aircraft sets for senarios could be generated by a simple text file, storing all links for the planes for that setup

I know you store everything in seperate folders, so maybe you can think of a way to auto link models anf flight files.

Well, that wasn't so hard then?

I noticed the readme's seem to be missing from a lot of the set folders, but not all.

Now, you have a P51D and B, both very different.

I might add that this will be an organic process.

I think I would start with the existing planesets, converting them to this new system. Right off the bat that's a lot of planes.

Then, as I get comfortable with the process I can begin to import other planes, variants, skins and what-not.

While going though this myself I can begin to formulate a tutorial for general use so that other modders can add planes.

There will be stumbles and errors along the way but this is a great addition and we all need to fully embrace the advantages.

It comes to mind that some of you might have connections in other forums for other flight sims. You might want to spread the word once this upgrade is released. I don't think any other sim has this flexibility.

"Was the red truly that bright? just curious."

In a word, yep.

This chart is a bit fadded , but it shows that the colors were indeed very bright.

OK Tony.

Lets talk chalk and cheese then.

The fact you have two P51's listed, even though they are chalk and cheese, does not help much.

What you need is a search all plane set folders, for chalk or cheese, if you get my drift.

You only then need to display the selected type of plane, so the path info becomes irrelevant, just a scroll down list is all you need.

But, like with everything you need some rules.

If every folder containing a model is taged by P51D + File name [like 4th FG] it would be easy to search all folders, and list all available skins and models.

Doing a simple search of the 1.4 setup using Windows search I found these:
P51D 350th FS
P51D 487th FS 352ndFG
P51D 4th FG
P51D 82ndFs 78thFG
MS05 P51D 4th FG
P51D_01
P51D_02
P51D_def
Which leaves you about 100+ skins to add!

If these are the only P51D models in 1.4 then you only need to mod four folder name to fit.

Then you just need one set of flight files, in one folder to select the data files from, like you have now:
P51D_FMh you have 3 copies in the current file set.

Screenshots and readme files seem to be missing, in most of these folders, which is a bummer.

Still thinking this through, but you might need a type list, as a search criteria. FW190D. or Me109F are easy, but how do you shorten 140_GladiatorI_4SFTS_Iraq_01 into a common type name?

Hi Tony.

The user does not need to know where the file is, just the plane type [P51D for instance], list of files to select from, screenshot and readme info. As you select a type. Your program searches for the type selected, so it could be in any planes folder. Totally flexable.

Selecting the first of 4 planes, or MS sets to load into the game.

I guess when you are a knight of the sky, you brandish bright colors to draw attention to your self.

It's interesting to see the chip is labeled glossy. You do not see that from ground forces. ') maybe that is why fly guys got all the glory.

I really like your P38s.

Thanks Brit, the Little Friends weren't trying to hide from mid "43 on and, the bright colors made them less likely to be targeted by nervous gunners on the heavies they were escorting. A 109 and a Mustang look similar head on and the Jugs resembled 190s fron that angle too.

A good friends father said as much. He did 1 and a half tours in 17's before being shot down over Italy in '44. He never claimed to have hit anything and only hoped to have scared them as much they frightened him.

A few years ago I did a Mosquito unit, No.605 Squadron based on a ROTTON50 model. There was a bit of controvery at the time so I pulled it. I've been looking at unrealeased stuff and decided to put out a 1943 version (with red nightfighter codes) and the same unit as it was in '44 with sky markings.





But, the unit will only be in 24bit D3D format since it has issues with glide.

Nice

Indeed

I guess this is an example of the "bleed through" I have seen mentioned a few times? Quite a bizarre optical illusion - the outer wings look to be pointing straight up - bit like dazzle painting on ships it could have been worth trying to confuse the Luftwaffe pilots!

Pete

I assume from this you are making have made 24 bit BMP files.
That is all you need to do because all the exes from 1.28e onwards have been converted to use Glide3, which reads 512x512 BMP files
There is no longer any need to make an 8-bit version.

This may not fix the glide issue with this skin, but that is not the point I am making

Tony,

Don't we still need the dummy 8 bit TCP's any more?

Just BMP?

That saves loads of hassle, as I was just about to make a set of 8bit skin files for my FW 200. I made the batch file this morning!

PicPac is obsolete?

I think you need the dummy 8-bit TPCs, but Mike was making two versions of his skins. The 24-bit BMP versions and the 8-bit versions for Glide 2 which had real TPC files and not dummy ones.
He no longer needs to make these "real" TPCs.

OK Tony. Your first reply made me think you had found a way to ignore the TPC if not there.

Dummy TCP's is OK.

I just checked and in EAW 140 I put the base files from one of Mike's multiskins in the root folder so there was just the single plane.
There were five 256x256 BMP files, each with a corresponding TPC.
Then I made a blank 256x256 PXC file using photoshop and named it "256dummy.PCX"

I edited a batch file to use with picpac:

picpac -p 256dummy.PCX planerex.tpc
picpac -p 256dummy.PCX planelex.tpc
picpac -p 256dummy.PCX planemex.tpc
picpac -p 256dummy.PCX planebex.tpc
picpac -p 256dummy.PCX planen.tpc

Running it created a five new TPC files which I copied and pasted into the root folder.
This caused the originals to be overwritten.

When I ran EAW the files in the root folder were used, and although they had different names all the planes had the same skin, but it worked, and that is what I needed to confirm.
All that is needed is a blank TPC of the correct size, such as a "512dummy.tpc" for the 512x512 BMPs, and a set of batch files to make the dummy TPCs.
Once these dummy TCPs are made they can be used time and again

From what I can see the exe only reads the size of the dummy TPC, but it needs to match the size of the BMP it is used with. If not you get a CDT with an error message.

That's right Tony, if you have a 256x256 TPC, it must be the same size BMP, so in my case it will be 512x512.

Mike's been doing that for a while, using a simple Grey texture.

Just a shame you can't have an either, or, way of loading textures.