[Muas]

Unmirrored underwing insignia for the US P-40's!

This mod enables unmirrored underwing insignias for the US P-40's E and M models, on their default skins only.

This is achieved by remapping some left wing textures to a second skin. The ingame custom skin loading only enables one texture per aircraft, so this mod is meant to be used with default skins only. If multi texture files per aircraft are enabled in the future, it will be possible to use custom skins with this mod. New default skins are included for both models.

Instructions on how to change default skins included in the readme.

Once installed, standard custom skins won't display properly.
There will be only one skin for the each P-40E/M, disregarding theatre of operations.

DOWNLOAD MUAS UNMIRRORED P-40'S
DOWNLOAD MUAS UNMIRRORED P-40'S
DOWNLOAD MUAS UNMIRRORED P-40'S
DOWNLOAD MUAS UNMIRRORED P-40'S

[Brophmeister]

So, what you're saying is that this might make it possible to have a very high resolution skin, say by having a seperate 1024x1024 BMP for each part of the aircraft?

[Muas]

So, what you're saying is that this might make it possible to have a very high resolution skin, say by having a seperate 1024x1024 BMP for each part of the aircraft?

Yes. Its possible for default skins. In fact, its been used since the early versions of iL-2/PF with propellers and other parts that were textured on another file inside the sfs containers. So if we want a mega-hi res skin for a given aircraft, it's just a matter of remapping the 3D model to several texture files, and load them as the default skin.

Now for customs skins, we gotta understand how the engine loads the skin bitmap, and try to get it to load more than one texture file "on the click".

[American]

Yea but it won;t work for online play...

[HH_Cipher]

Awesome work. Maybe you could Do it to the P-38 aswell? But that would mean default textures will suffer the same problem?

[Muas]

Yea but it won't work for online play...

Not really. As most of all mods of this kind, they will work if both server and client have them installed; the same happens with any new aircraft. With this mod, even if one client doesn't have it installed, every other clients will see the mod ok in his aircraft as long as he's using a default skin. Vice-versa is also true. Remember that online, you only see what you have. The only thing that your computer loads from a server, apart from the mission file, are skins and noseart (if you have their download enabled). Your computer will never load an object from a server. It's as simple as this: if you don't have it installed, then it won't be rendered. Pretty logic.

Awesome work. Maybe you could Do it to the P-38 aswell? But that would mean default textures will suffer the same problem?

I was thinking about doing that, but I came to the conclusion that with the P-38 it's useless unless we were able to aply custom skins... the P-38 issue is about mirrored booms and vertical stab. Unmirror them without the possibility to aply individual codes will make the mod barely noticeble.

[BomberBoy]

8)
This is a pretty cool mod but I think it could be taken a step further.

How about completely remapping the P-40 to a new skin layout?

I know, lots of people will complain that "none of the 300 skins I already have for the P-40 will work". Well, that's pretty much the case with this mod, too. Sure, a redone skin would also need to be slightly less detailed than the current skins (since there would be less room on the skin for each part), but it wouldn't be any less detailed than pretty much any other single-engine fighter. At the very least, it would be one way of getting around the problem of this mod only working for default skins.

[Muas]

How about completely remapping the P-40 to a new skin layout?

That would be a solution, but a very hard working one... and of couse, all of those hundreds of skins around will become obsolete.

On the other hand, I'm sure sooner or later, someone (maybe me?) will figure out a way to load multiple textures for the custom skins option.

Meanwhile, I figured out an alternative solution to make custom skins and the unmirrored insignia to be compatible. I just need a little extra time to gather the ability to do it... 8)

[McWolf]

Hi Muas
I wonder if there are some way to change decal layout on skin, if possible, some default decal positions can be changed.

[Muas]

Hi Muas
I wonder if there are some way to change decal layout on skin, if possible, some default decal positions can be changed.

You can change every decal position except the left wing one, otherwise the mod will not display properly. The only part of the model (mesh) that is mapped to a second skin is the left wing from middle to tip, just by the aileron lenght, so the insignia must remain there. It can be made smaller though.

[Claymore]

8) .../...

How about completely remapping the P-40 to a new skin layout?

.../...

+1 :!: and eventually some other skins layout as Fw 190 (minor things as canopy bar), P-39 (rudder) etc... :?: