Skinning is bigger than people probably realise.....
Monday, April 12, 2010 by Jafo | Discussion: Skinning
I was going to mention an entirely [almost] different field....[that I'm a long-time fan of]....but instead will refer to the 'newer' [to me] bit first.
Nothing beats screwing with timelines...
Recently I got a few Flight Sims [namely Wings of Prey, and a WW1 sim...'Rise of Flight']. Both are graphically great to look at...and fun to 'play'....but they led me to an older sim...by Microsoft...that I'd messed with years ago...in a very early version.
The 'newer' one was/is MS Flight Simulator X.
I dl'd the demo and gave it a go....comparatively clunky in comparison....but fun all the same.
Now, I have ALWAYS been a fan of 2 particular aircraft [3 if you add the Spitfire]...but mainly...the Republic F105D Thunderchief....and the XB70 Valkyrie [the latter made it into the Time-Life magazine when involved in a midair way back when....and I'd seen the news item at the time.
Needless to say, neither of those aircraft was in the FSX Demo ....but a quick Google search found where 'skinners' had subsequently made them...for download/adding to the game.
Gobs were really smacked when I discovered I could get them added successfully....to THE DEMO.
WOW....and Great, etc.....
Eventually though.....reality crept in.....either it was my 'small' knowledge of [our form of] skinning or it was my knowledge of the 2 aircraft that had me yearning for a more fair-dinkum cockpit [for both].
Someone, somewhere was apparently 'happy' with a bodgied-up conversion of a F86 panel pretending to be an F105.
About the most 'polite' comparison would be...yes, they are contemporaries [a bit] .... and both American.
But so is an Edsel.
Crap.
I have a shitload of books on the F105....and film...and vids of the net...even transcripts of 'mayday' calls from pilots going down over 'Nam....so there's no way I'm gonna be happy with these graphics.
Text-based config files.... xml ....bmps.....chuck stuff into cab's ....damn....looks like I have some skinning to do....
Then I'll hunt down the full game....I see there's some maps of Australia ..... I could buzz my own house at mach 2 ....
Reply #3 Monday, April 12, 2010 6:18 PM
Someday I really want to skin some aircraft or spaceships for some cool game. I saw some great ones being done for a BSG mod for truespace or something like that.
Reply #4 Thursday, April 15, 2010 11:32 AM
Still hunting for suitable 'bits' for the cockpit panel......looks like I'm going to have to get my hands dirty in both images AND xml.
Nothing so far is any better.
Reply #5 Thursday, April 15, 2010 11:56 AM
The 'other' interest of mine....Driving Sims....
http://www.nogripracing.com/index.php
Another particularly active world of skinning ....
Reply #6 Thursday, April 15, 2010 1:02 PM
yep...those are the only games I ever mess with...driving or flying. 
Reply #7 Thursday, April 22, 2010 10:03 AM
OK....got stuck into 'skinning'...in FSX ..... modding/tweaking an existing Panel [F105D].... the HUD and the Radar bits....mainly [they were borked as they were].... but much more to mod yet...
The wall is a screen-cap ....that is one darn good-looking model......
Reply #8 Friday, April 23, 2010 8:40 AM
Drat and darn....got the full ver of MS Flight Sim X ....installed it....and no bloddy activation key to be seen anywhere.
Bugger.
Now a thirty mile drive to the shop I got it from to exchange it for one with a key.
Bloody morons remove the disks from the boxes so no-one can steal them .... but obviously left the key in it....and someone pinched that instead....all they need is to borrow the disks from a mate...or dl it off the net...and they have the legitimate key.
Mine.
Bastards.
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Reply #1 Monday, April 12, 2010 11:21 AM
XB70...
F105D...with NQR Panel.
The mess that is the real deal...