Losing skin settings?

[Der_Kuenstler]

Every time I load a save the camo tank skins I picked go back to default grey. Is there a solution for this? Getting tired of redoing skins over and over...

[Der_Kuenstler]

To elaborate on the trouble:
I have 23 skins in my game skin folder here - the first skin shows up as the default skin in my game for all tanks and guns. Notice there are no skins for "sand storm" or "desert snakes"

skins.jpg (144.87 KiB) Viewed 1462 times

However, in the game I have 25 skins available (+2) - the two extra skins are labeled ''sand storm" and "desert snakes"...

sand storm.jpg (53.62 KiB) Viewed 1462 times

All the other choices are just labeled "skin" -

skin.jpg (49.6 KiB) Viewed 1462 times

The problem is that although I can change my tanks to any of these skins during play, when I save and reload only the "sand storm" and "desert snake" choices are remembered. Everything else goes back to the default color. (skin_land_all_0.png) I cannot find where these two extra files are located or why only those two are remembered after a save.

Any help please?

[bru888]

Sorry that I cannot help you myself - my skins experience is minimal - but I will move this over to Tech Support which is where it belongs and where it will be noticed by people monitoring that forum.

EDIT: One piece of advice that I can offer you is to append the faction name to the file name of each of your skins. That seems to be SOP according to this authority. That may be why your skin applications are working while in the game but failing upon reload. Back when I was looking at skins and asking a question about the slight file size difference which explains the highlighting (the answer was it was too small a difference to matter) this is the sample image that I posted; notice the faction names:

Capture934.jpg (82.52 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

EDIT 2: Here's something else which may be more informative than helpful. Custom skins go into your C:\Users\[name]\Documents\My Games\Order of Battle - WW2\Skins folder, as you know. The game looks in there but it also looks at its own folder for standard skins according to your faction and unit. So, for example, my custom skins folder is empty right now. However, I was able to focus on a PzKw IV E just now, select the Unit Information Panel, click the Skins button, and could choose from those skins that you mentioned; "Sandstorm" and "Desert Snakes." Those apparently are the 2 out of 9 standard skins that are applicable to this particular unit:

Screenshot 1.jpg (427.26 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

Perhaps this would be an interesting experiment: Does the selection of standard skins stick? That is, are they still applied when the saved game is loaded? If so, then that could point to the validity of what I said about appending the faction names to the end of the custom skins file names so that the game knows next time. However, if standard skins fail, then I'd say you have a tech support problem.*

Here is a list of the standard skins; remember, each is applicable to only certain factions and units:

[3_COLOR_PATCHES]
id = 0
texture = japan_0
factions = japan, ijn
category = land

[3_COLOR_STROKES]
id = 1
texture = japan_1
factions = japan, ijn
category = land

[3_COLOR_OUTLINED]
id = 2
texture = japan_2
factions = japan, ijn
category = land

[2_COLOR_OLIVE]
id = 3
texture = usa_0
factions = usa, redusa, usarmy
category = land

[OLIVE_BEIGE_OUTLINED]
id = 4
texture = usa_1
factions = usa, redusa, usarmy
category = land

[OLIVE_BRONZE_PATCHES]
id = 5
texture = usa_2
factions = usa, redusa, usarmy
category = land

[SAND_STORM]
id = 6
texture = general_2
category = land

[GERMAN_DESERT_1]
id = 7
texture = german_0
factions = germany, waffen_ss, kriegsmarine
category = land

[GREEN_BEIGE_WEB]
id = 8
texture = british_0
factions = britain, raf, canada, new_zealand, australia
category = land

EDIT 3: *I just reread your last paragraph and saw that these standard skins do indeed "stick." Now I bet the answer is to add the faction names to the custom skin file names.

[Der_Kuenstler]

OK thanks bru888 -

I tried replacing the "all" in the files with "Germany" but had no luck there. However, your idea got me to experiment with the file names. I noticed that the one file I had ending in "0" would stick, so I renamed all the files to end in "0" like below, and moved the numbers to the "skin" name at the beginning, and now they all stick when loading a save as desired. I have no clue why, but they do work - yay!

I will post my working names below in case it helps somebody else:

fix.jpg (150.5 KiB) Viewed 1428 times

[GabeKnight]

I tried replacing the "all" in the files with "Germany" but had no luck there. However, your idea got me to experiment with the file names. I noticed that the one file I had ending in "0" would stick, so I renamed all the files to end in "0" like below, and moved the numbers to the "skin" name at the beginning, and now they all stick when loading a save as desired. I have no clue why, but they do work - yay!

The skins files have a fixed syntax, as far as I understood it. This naming convention should be observed: <name>_<category>_<factions>.png

If your file names have to be numbered, use them in the prefix, not suffix. E.g.:
Skin1234_air_soviet or Skin_orange_23a_land_germany or Brown-camo-01_land_all and so on...

The in-game name of the skin can be changed in the \data\skin.txt file IIRC.