[Plantoid 1]

Hi all:

Well, here goes again:

I'm trying to skin ships and have run into a problem. This all started when I was making historical missions for Operation Hailstone - the attack on Truk Lagoon on February 17-18, 1944. We're missing all the flattops from Task Group 58.3 - Bunker Hill CV-17; Monterey CVL-26 and; Cowpens CVL-25. I could use the Generic Carrier for Bunker Hill but very much want Monterey and Mighty Moo in their correct skins.

The .tga files in Il2 seem to be some sort of proprietary type and PhotoShop won't open them. I was pointed to ViewIMF and have used it to open the file then save it in a format that can be read by PhotoShop.

Now, here's the problem: when saved through ViewIMF the file 'skin1o.tga' changes sizes from 1026KB to 1025KB. At that point the game won't recognize the file and goes back down into the SFS files and pulls up the correct skin.

The file 'skin1o.tgb' - note it's a .TGB file - can be converted into a .tga file simply by replacing the 'b' with an 'a' in the file extension then read with ViewIMF and saved. The file again changes sizes - this time from 4099KB to 4097KB. However, I've successfully skinned this through PhotoShop and the game will recognize the file and use it.

I've been advised to use Gimp and I have but, after seven years of good old PhotoShop I found Gimp slightly hard, hell, damn user-unfriendly, and dumped it after trying for six months to get good at it.

So, is there anyone out there that has had this problem before and found a fix for it or do I just give up (not bloody likely!) and live with ships that I feel can and should be re-skinned to represent historical ships that we're missing.

Hope someone can help.

Great days all.

[PlaneEater]

I'm a little confused. The conversion process you're using (ViewIMF -> Photoshop -> ViewIMF -> Game) works for skin1o.tgb, but not for skin1o.tga.

Skin1o.xxx should be the default undamaged skin state. Are you dealing with two different versions or a model that has a .tga instead of .tgb?

[David603]

Ah, I see the problem. You don't need to save back through ViewIMF, Il2 will read the default .tga files created by Gimp (don't use RLE compression) and probably PhotoShop too. To make the .tgb just take the skin1o.tga and change the extension to .tgb.

That is how I did the skins for the Asheshouses's Tribal class destroyer pack (over at SAS).
http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,8182.0.html

[dunkelgrun]

Ah, I see the problem. You don't need to save back through ViewIMF, Il2 will read the default .tga files created by Gimp (don't use RLE compression) and probably PhotoShop too. To make the .tgb just take the skin1o.tga and change the extension to .tgb.

That is how I did the skins for the Asheshouses's Tribal class destroyer pack (over at SAS).
http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,8182.0.html

..and if you are still having problems (for a long time I couldn't get into the Japanese carriers' .tga's when making the Midway skins) you could try this:
http://www.converthub.com/tgatojpg.php

:cheers:

[Plantoid 1]

Hi all:

Thanks for the replies but I'm afraid the problem has been missed.

PlaneEater:
All ships have a .tga and a .tgb file for skins close and slightly farther away. The 'skin1o.tgb' file must first be converted to 'skin1o.tga' (I change the name to 'skin1otgb.tga' so there's no conflict) simply by changing the '.tgb' to a '.tga' file extension as David603 says.

David603:
I don't save the file back through ViewIMF once it's been over in PhotoShop - I save it direct. However, and this is the real problem, the file changes size when I convert it through ViewIMF - from 1026KB it drops to 1025KB. Also, no matter what I do, I can't get PhotoShop to save any 512 X 512 .tga file to 1026KB and thus the game won't read the 1025KB file.

dunkelgrun:
Sorry to be so dense. I went to the site you sent - how do you work it? I dl'd the trial batch converter but nothing happened when I tried a skin. Or perhaps I should say I can't find anything that happened if it happened.

Hope this clears things up.

Great days all.

[David603]

Can you try this set of tgas and a tgb in place of the ones you are using?
http://www.mediafire.com/?cku1tv0awm2iico
They are for one of the Tribal class destroyers, so they won't do the escort carrier much good looks wise, but if they do or don't work it will be easier to find out where the problem is.

[Plantoid 1]

David603:

Dl'd the skins and thank you for your time and patience. I put them on the Intrepid CV-11 and they worked fine. The result looked absolutely stunning; like some sort of dazzle camo as was tested early in the war. It looked like someone came up the bright idea of trying to make an aircraft carrier look like a lowly tin can. I also found they opened right into PhotoShop without any conversion whatsoever - even the .tgb file after changing the file extension.

I must digress here as there has been some confusion caused by me: In the initial post I alluded to skinning the Monterey and Cowpens. However I've been concentrating on the Bunker Hill and was trying to use Intrepid by simply changing the number on the flight deck and island and maybe changing some weathering. The Monterey and Cowpens -ShipPack vessels - have their skins in the 1025KB size and PhotoShop has no problem with these. In fact I'm now in the process of changing these skins since I found they are so easy to do.

The problem still exists with those original ships and the size of their files.

Great days all.

[Plantoid 1]

Hi all:

OK! Got a work-around:

Found that Essex CV-9 only has a skin1o.tgb, skin1p.tga and skin1q.tga.

I opened the skin1o.tgb after converting to .tga and running it through ViewIMF so GIMP could read the file. I then erased the number 9 that was on an invisible portion of the skin and added the number 17. This was as far as I've gone just so as to not waste too much time. The file size changed from 4099KB down to 4097KB but previous experience showed me that that was fine and the game would pick up the skin.

Eureka! It worked! Now I should be able to use good old PhotoShop to make the rest of the changes like the camo and weathering.

Glad I got this and I hope this helps others as well.


Great days all!!

[katdog5]

What is the best way to alter the skin on the Cossack?

I'm trying to alter the number on the front of the ship to see if I can disguise it as a Farragut class destroyer in a Truk night attack scenario .

Im a little confused as to the .tga and .tgb relationship. I got a little ahead of myself and I altered the skin1.tga. I then renamed the file to skin1.tgb, although of course it doesn't actually change to a tgb. Please help

It doesnt need to be perfect, I only need it for a few shots.


http://allaircraftsimulations.com/forum/...20&t=30438

Heres the idea: (of course I would give credit to tribal class)

[Plantoid 1]

katdog5:

First off: what ship is this? I went through the ones I have and can't find a match for what you've posted; I may not have the dl.

Having said that, I'm fairly sure there's a standard approach to skinning as I've done a few.

Before going on - BACK UP all files you're going to edit!!!

1) .tga is a standard file format while .tgb on the other hand appears to nothing more than .tga changed to .tgb. I use the app ViewIMF-V1_0_TGA Viewer to convert the .tga files into a readable format for GIMP. I use GIMP after I found my old version of PhotoShop 6 wouldn't handle the alpha channel very well.
1a) So, to start: convert the .tgb file into .tga by simply altering the last character of the file extension.
1b) Convert this file to a readable format for GIMP.
1c) Start editing.

2) This is important - the file sizes are fairly critical. You should see that the .tgb file starts life at either 4,099KB or 4,097KB; you can get away with 4,097KB. When you save the file after editing save it as .tga WITHOUT RLE compression (no idea what RLE means but it's vital). If the file started at 4,099KB it'll end up at 4,097KB. If it started at 4,097KB it'll stay that size after editing and saving.
2a) the .tga file will be 1,026KB or 1,025KB. After editing, if it started as 1,026KB, it'll end up 1,025KB. If it started as 1,025KB it'll stay that size after editing.

3) Reconvert the .tga file to .tgb by simply altering the last character of the file extension.

This is really all there is to start having fun with ship skins.

You do know that you have to insert the skin in proper protocol for the game to read it right? root folder>Mods>Whatever-you-name-your-ship>3do>ships>whatever-the-name-of-the-ship-you-started-with>new skin1o.tga file + new skin1o.tgb file.

Oh, and one last thing: these files MUST appear in the Mods folder AHEAD of the ship that uses them.

Here's an example: I skinned the USS Essex CV9 as the USS Bunker Hill CV17

rootfolder>AA_USS_Bunker_Hill_CV17>3do>ships>USSEssexCV9>skin1o.tga + skin1o.tgb

Have fun

Great days all.

[katdog5]

Thats the re-skinned Cossack! (flag and number) Looks like the disguise may work? However, I changed the .tga in the file first, not the .tgb included...

I tried altering the .tgb by opening it in ViewIMF...but it wont open. I think it said non-recognized format when I tried to open .tga or .tgb..hmmm It looks like I have to do some more tinkering. Thanks for your help. I'll have to try again

I guess theres no way to use the image here somehow?

[Plantoid 1]

katdog:

I still can't find the Cossack

When you want to open the .tgb file you MUST change the file extension manually to .tga by simply changing the 'b' to an 'a' in the extension. You can then open it in ViewIMF and save the file somewhere.

My method is to start by moving the skin1o.tga, skin1p.tga, skin1q.tga and, skin1o.tgb into a separate folder. I then rename 'skin1o.tgb' to 'skin1o_tgb.tgb'. I then change the extension of this file to 'skin1o_tgb.tga'. At this point ViewIMF can read the file and 'Save As'. It will make a file called TGA-skin1o_tgb.tga in the folder you're working from.

Hope this helps.



Found the Cossack - I was right in that I hadn't dl'd it before this; got it now.

OK, here's what I've found. As you know both the skni1o.tga and skin1o.tgb are the same size. I opened BOTH files in Gimp simply by clicking on them. I had to do what I suggested above and rename and change the file extension for skin1o.tgb to skin1o_tgb.tga. after doing this I didn't even have to run them through ViewIMF.

Again, hope this helps.

Bob