[canonuk]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is something everyone already knows or not, but just in case, I thought I'd mention my 'discovery'.

It's nice that you can have different default skins for summer and winter, but I also wanted to have different defaults for desert maps.

So, I did a bit of experimentation and I've managed to sort it.

I created a 'desert' folder in the files/3d0/plane/ etc folder (beside 'summer' and 'winter') and placed the correct files for a desert skin. I then added the correct lines to the filelist.

Then I opened the load.ini file for a desert map. I tried it on VP's Sands of Time, since I could access that one. Near the top is an entry for 'Camoflage = SUMMER'. I changed SUMMER to read DESERT.

Then, when I loaded up the map default skins would show a desert scheme if I had added the folder, and would then display their normal summer scheme on other maps.

I'm well chuffed Of course, everyone might know this already, but still, I'm chuffed


Joe

[Skunkmeister]

Watch out when you load up a pacific map, their default camo is set to DESERT.

[spud]

Wow! That easy? Does it work for static planes?

It was suggested ages ago that we should have different default skins for the PTO as well. Nothing worse than D-Day stripes on a PTO static plane.

Imagine... You could have PTO1941 folder, PTOEarly42, etc.

[Skunkmeister]

Spud: Yes it does. Here is a screen that might interest you:



And these are some of my experiments:

[6S.Maraz]

A brilliant discovery indeed !

So the desert camouflage was implemented somehow, but Oleg did not give it us !! :evil: :evil:

So when a "desert camo mod and skins pack" ?

Maraz

[Skunkmeister]

Maraz: VPmedia has a brilliant desert skin pack over at M4T. You could use that as a base. I have one for 1946 planes if you're interested in that.

Implementing the mod is simply a matter of creating a DESERT folder for the aircraft you want (with VPM's default skin mod) and then changing the line in the load.ini of the MTO maps.

[canonuk]

Well, I'm glad it's news to some people

Skunkmeister: How do I access the other load.ini files for MTO maps aside from those that came with the Community Map pack?

Spud: Yeah, that's sort of what I plan to do. Get rid of the generic 'Summer' and give a map a proper name, like 'FRANCESUMMER' or 'USSRSUMMER' so that I can have different defaults depending on the theatre.

[Skunkmeister]

I can get them for you if you need canon. Actually I think most of them are in the map mods section here. Let me get you some links to the specific posts.

EDIT: Here you are:

(The link is inoperative)

In the same thread there is the load.ini for the new MTO map. Just paste them into a text file, then add them to the proper maps folders.

[canonuk]

Great, thanks Skunkmeister

[Loku]

.

[spud]

Cool. Is it only summer, winter, and desert, or can you make any folder you wish? Can you make a CBI_Early folder, etc?

[Low_Flyer]

From reading this, you can name a folder anything you like, match it up in the map text and away you go. Spanish Civil War springs to my warped mind, for instance. Great possibilities. Thanks for tip.

[spud]

Strikes me that as long as the skins are there, you could make a version of each map with different default skins.

Alternately, a community pack could be created with a standard naming convention.

Instead of Spring/Winter, perhaps (for the pacific) Prewar (includes Pearl Harbor, fall of Malaya, times before they started changing paint schemes, etc), CBI_Early, CBI_Mid, CBI_Late and PTO_Early, PTO_Mid, PTO_Late.

The difference between PTO and CBI would vary based on the forces. For the IJNAF and IJAAF, the paint jobs would be theater appropriate, and would be more beat up as the war progressed. The Commonwealth forces might have the defaults in the PTO be more aimed at RAAF and RNAF rather than the RAF, while in the CBI they'd be more RAF and RIAF perhaps. USN schemes would be time based only (same for CBI/PTO), while the USAAF schemes would perhaps include some chinese skins for the CBI. In addition, there might be some other differences, we'd have to research them.

So The Slot would have a version with PTO_Early, and perhaps a PTO_Mid. We could clone Burma, and make one Early, one Mid, one Late (assuming there were any real differences). We might get away with pre-war/early as one, mid, and late.

[Jaypack44]

Strikes me that as long as the skins are there, you could make a version of each map with different default skins.

Alternately, a community pack could be created with a standard naming convention.

Instead of Spring/Winter, perhaps (for the pacific) Prewar (includes Pearl Harbor, fall of Malaya, times before they started changing paint schemes, etc), CBI_Early, CBI_Mid, CBI_Late and PTO_Early, PTO_Mid, PTO_Late.

The difference between PTO and CBI would vary based on the forces. For the IJNAF and IJAAF, the paint jobs would be theater appropriate, and would be more beat up as the war progressed. The Commonwealth forces might have the defaults in the PTO be more aimed at RAAF and RNAF rather than the RAF, while in the CBI they'd be more RAF and RIAF perhaps. USN schemes would be time based only (same for CBI/PTO), while the USAAF schemes would perhaps include some chinese skins for the CBI. In addition, there might be some other differences, we'd have to research them.

So The Slot would have a version with PTO_Early, and perhaps a PTO_Mid. We could clone Burma, and make one Early, one Mid, one Late (assuming there were any real differences). We might get away with pre-war/early as one, mid, and late.

+10,000 I would pay a lot of $ for that mod!

[spud]

Why is this stuff "secret?" Boggles the mind. Sure, I could see them locking up the FM/DM/whatever files, but the MAPS? Crap like pointing at a paintjob file that players already have and can mod? Insanity.

We could have had better maps, better campaigns...

Imagine a campaign like WSBS if the maps could have been built or even just modded, and the default paint jobs changed, etc.

Sigh.