Is it safe to assume that the last colour (or first depending on which way you are counting) on the PCX palette is the transparency?
If so I can write an editor which will make it FF 00 FF which works on the spitfire files I have been working with.
Then I could use my freeware PCX to BMP converter and not photoshop, make a 8-bit BMP and convert it to a 24-bit BMP with MSPaint.
That way a player could make 24-bit BMP files to play with, without the need for expensive software

Don't know about BMP's but yes, on the PCX pallet the transparent color is in the first position.

Ya' couldn't a made this utility ABOUT AN AEON AGO could ya'?

Well, I managed to get the mapping done properly on the nose art without a 3dz editor that does BMP's. It just took prior experience working with textures and some guess work.(And more than a few in game tests)

You can see how much sharper the image is:


Now that I have the "B.3dz" set up I can use the same process to make very hi-res nose art for the rest of the squadron.

Once that's done we still need to figure out why the wingviews won't change from plane to plane but one step at a time.

I just had a bit of fun testing the multiskin making software with one of Moggy's Midway planes









The names were added using MSPaint, which I also used to blacken a couple of rogue pink areas which I saw on the first run.
The bulk of the time taken was to individually convert each PCX to an 8-bit BMP, and then to convert each 8-bit BNP into a 24-bit BMP
I did not use Photoshop.

Ray I just checked Mike B-17 multiskins


I jumped to the fourth plane which is brown to check the wing views

The port wing is brown despite the green engines:


The starboard wing appears to be silver:


I cannot be certain if this is a fault in the skin files or a problem with the exe.

The green panel you see on the silver side is not a mistake. It is an anti-glare panel put there by Mike.

Not sure what's up with the different color wings though.

The only skin that displays the correct wing view in the B-17 slot is the first plane. I could not get the other skins 01-15 to display the correct wing. It did not matter that the 3dz pointed to the correct texture panel for the skin number. If you are not seeing silver wings on the plane you do not have the correct texture panel loaded . The wing view comes from the B17mex.tpc/bmp. Y'all eliminated the m3dz and most likey the mex.tpc/bmp from the skin set. So, the issue is that you are not using the wing view from the unit because of the missing mex texture panel. You are getting the generic included texture panel/s since the program is defaulting to the base model in the plane set.

Mike
The code for the "m.3dz" was still there but remmed out.
I have restored it, but with the B-17s I am still not seeing the correct starboard wing.
I will investigate further.

Look for the b17mex.bmp/tpc, it should be the old tex

I did not expect to have these skins flown so I used the files that Chompy created.

I didn't do much just threw together a basic copy of the original mex.pcx for the silver planes. This was primarily for the distance view, not a pilot view.



I did do a wee bit more for the green forts.




I did do a wee bit more for the green forts.

I made a BMP of the Plane01 "m" texture, flew a mission and jumped from the lead plane to plane01

The BMP


I can see the blue text


Still silver


It looks to me as though there is no texture area for the starboard wing in the BMP.
The textures appear to show the upper and lower sides of the port wing and port tailplane.
I do not know if this is part of the problem. I would guess that maybe another file would be involved.

This is a result of a little investigation with the SPAW B-17 single skin


The Y texture looked as though it was for a wingview so I made BMPs of the M and the Y and put blue text on them





I can see blue text in both views




I will investigate further and report back

Pretty sure this wingview problem relates to the "Y.3dz"

I have a mixed squadron of Mike's P-47D''s that have 4 or 5 different camo patterns plus some silver ones and they all show the correct wingview. The single engine planes use the U.3dz which is pointed to the *UEX.3dz.

The two and four engine planes use the Y.3dz linked to the Y.pcx and since the props are on the Y.3dz there has to be a YTR.pcx or you get the old "blocky props" issue.

What I found was that if you point the Y.3dz to anything other than Y.tpc, such as YEX.tpc, the YTR.tpc is ignored.

As to the use of the MEX.tpc for the wingview, this is not the standard approach that we've come to use. You copy the MEX.tpc and rename it Y.tpc. I saw this issues when I set up the B-17 squadrons for the new aircraft_inventor and I made the appropriate changes but the wingview issue remains unsolved.

No real luck. On the Y texture for this plane I changed the text colour to red, and saw it on both port and starboard views, so for this plane the M was not used for wingviews.
However, if we cannot crack this it is of minor importance because flying a four engined bomber is of little fun in EAW when all you can do is drop bombs with very limited accuracy, and hope that your gunners and your escorts can keep you safe.
For AI bombers the cockpit view is not needed.

While I agree with you about the level bombers in EAW this does affect the twin engine bombers like the B-26 and B-25 which are fun to fly as attack panes.

Upon further research at least one other linkage in the multiskins is not working.

In the B-26 package PLANEA.3dz points to PLANESEX.pcx because it needs the transparency file PLANESRA.pcx for the rear and upper turret glass.

This works but the next plane in line, which points to PLANE01SX.pcx, does not link to the PLANE01SRA.pcx so the turrets are opaque. And of course we also have the problem that PLANE01SRA has one more digit that PLANE01SX, thus complicating the file conversion routines you are working on for the new utility.

By extension I think it's probable that ALL the multiplane linkages are not set up correctly. That would be PX.tpc, MX.tpc, SX.tpc, TX.tpc, YX.tpc and ZX.tpc.

I will point out that the PX.tpc is not actually necessary if the props are left off the secondary aircraft. The game will use the props from the primary aircraft. Same for the ZX.tpc as the gunsight from the primary will be used if the secondary ones are left out.

So really, it comes down to the MX, SX, TX and YX that need to be fixed because, as presently configured, we can't have multiskin twin engine aircraft that use the extended transparency files. (Planes like the P-38 and Mosquito are OK as their multiskins don't require transparencies other than the cockpit and props.)

Also, if you're going to fix this might as well do it correctly and fix the digit issue by making the transparency files have the same number of digits as their comparable texture files. For instance, PLANE01SX.tpc should link to PLANE01SR.tpc, not PLANE01SRA.tpc. And PLANE01YX should link to PLANE01YR, not PLANE01YTR. I think this last one will fix the wingview issue as well.

Far as I can tell this wouldn't affect Mike's multiskins since they are mostly single engine aircraft.

I re-did the linkages and I will put the two files in your folder. I will also put the exe I made this morning with the m.3dz loading again.
I just need to change drives from W7 to W10 again.


Edit:

It is there now "Good tex link 021218.zip"
It has the "EAW Versions" folder with the new exe and my "EAWTM2" folder with the two texture link files, plus the text versions

I do not want to edit the filenames in the "TextMap1.str file".
If you recall the problem was the header in the "01-15" 3dz files where he extra two characters made the filename use all of the bytes from 3-16 for the name
Byte 16 has to be a "00" terminator, because the data starts at byte 17. This problem does not apply to the filenames in "TextMap2.str", so there is nothing to be gained from changing it

Urm, mine work just fine, it is in 1.28 though...

Mike your pictures do not relate to the problem
They are external views, and we get the same in 160 with no problems.
Fly the B17, and hit J to jump to the next plane so that you are in a brown one.
Use your mouse to see the pilot's view of the starboard wing and the port wing.
Are both wings brown?

We see the starboard one as silver.

But there is a problem with the external views too, just not on these models.

Amy model that uses one of the new transparency links, PRA, MRA and SRA does not work in multiskin mode even with the new exec you sent me.

Something very basic is wrong here.

Take this as you will since I'm NOT a code guy, but I'd suggest going back and seeing how the TEX/TRA, Y/YTR, V/VTR and Z/ZTR links work. Then figure out how to make them work not only for PRA, MRA and SRA but also with PLANE01PX, PLANE01MX, PLANE01SX and PLANE01Y. This last one is a PITA because it doesn't adhere to the new *EX naming standard.

Edit:

I forgot to mention that there is a problem with the middle distance models too.

Load Mike's 100th Bomb Group B-17G multiskins. The one with the silver, brown and green aircraft.

Line the whole 16 of them up on the runway and zoom out. Then pan side to side and watch the planes blink from silver to brown or green depending on the angle.

I got rid of the problem by editing the view distances in the plane.dat file, extending the views out by about another 50% but that's not a proper fix.