Need help getting skins to appear in game. (PF)

Bluefish73 · #1 (**permalink**) 26th March 2007, 19:19

Hello all,

I've made a few skins for Pacific Fighters and I'm having a hard time getting them to show up as a selelction in the arming screen. An example is an A6M5 skin that I did. It was saved as an .bmp file, 8 bit 256 colors. It is the exact size and format as the void but when I save it into that planes folder it won't show up in game. The file name is A6M5_Bluefish.bmp and I'm using PSP7.

I'm completely stumped. I've made skins before about a year ago and they worked fine. I just can't remember exactly how I got them into the game. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

~Patrick

Serval · #2 (**permalink**) 26th March 2007, 20:05

In which folder did you put the skin?
Can you show a screenshot of the image properties?

Bluefish73 · #3 (**permalink**) 26th March 2007, 20:35

Serval,

...Pacific Fighters/Paint Schemes/Skins/A6M5

Name: Sample1.jpg
Views: 115
Size: 73.8 KB

Serval · #4 (**permalink**) 26th March 2007, 20:49

Looks good indeed.
Might be that some special option is/was switched on. It's not very often that IL-2 refuses 256 skins, but I assume that some special option is the cause.

Easiest solution is this:
Try to convert this file with Bright
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/file35.html
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...ng-bright.html

If that doesn't help resave your skin in 24 bit mode and then convert it with bright. It likely might even look better.
While following that procedure you can be sure that the BMP file has all the right properties.

Bluefish73 · #5 (**permalink**) 26th March 2007, 21:22

Serval,

Thank you for your replys. I'm attempting to install bright but damned Windows Vista is preventing it from opening. I'll get it eventually but in the mean time, one more quick question...

Why don't I see the default skins that PF uses in the repective plane skin folders? All of them only hold the voids and some have the historical that shipped with the game. The F4U-1D folder, as an example, has some carrier specific skins and a void but no default that I can see. However the default is in the game as an option to choose. Might this be connected to my problem?

~Patrick

Serval · #6 (**permalink**) 26th March 2007, 23:45

Bright is a command prompt program.
You should run it from a DOS or Command box.

There is a Bright Plug-in for Photoshop (see the download section). Seems that Snake got it to work with PSP too.
To get that done you need the extra DLL-files which are also available in the download section.

The default skins are hardcoded in the game. That is standard. Only some aircraft do have some custom skins installed.

Your problem has something to do with the format of your BMP file. Not sure what though.

A collegue of mine has Vista, I'll see if I can use her computer to test Bright under Vista tomorrow.

Bluefish73 · #7 (**permalink**) 27th March 2007, 01:35

Serval,

To see if any skins would show up, I downloaded a user made skin and put it into my A6M5 folder. Low and behold, there it was in the game along with my "Bluefish" skin that was missing earlier. I can't explain why it's suddenly working now but it is.

Thanks for your replys.

~Patrick

1.JaVA_FD · #8 (**permalink**) 27th March 2007, 21:38

I've have the same issues with a pilotskin.
To get it on the top of the list a gave it a # as a prefix.
In some way or the other the game doesn't like this sort of things.

Another issue:
I have some saved QMB DF's if i switch form any saved file to one with a FW-190D i can't go to the loadout screen. I then must quit the game with the taskmanager.

Rather odd to say the least!

Regards FD