Slitherine

When my massive re-skinning project reached the plane stage, it hit a snag. Dwights Camo Sprayshop doesn't support planes in its current incarnation. Frustration quickly gave way to problem solving and within a couple of minutes I had a solution.

Split plane images files into a format supported by DCS, use DCS to apply the skins and finally reassemble the split files into a file that Panzer Corps could use. Now to code it. There were a couple of minor obstacles, mainly the position of the small icon when DCS applies a skin and when DCS fills its units combobox, but some repositioning solved that easily enough.

Here's a screenshot of the program: Here's a screenshot of the before images. Basically, my program processes a folder indicated by the user. It takes all plane image files and splits them. The split files can then be used by DCS. Here's a screenshot of the after images. DCS has rendered two files and my program has joined them into a single file, ready for use within Panzer Corps. Again, my program processes a folder of the users choice, in this case my DCS output folder. Included is my program, including the source folder. Feel free to change or just look. See the post below.

[Edit: Crappy Rapidshare link removed]

I hope some of you will find this of use.

This post will always contain the most up-to-date versions of the program and the source code.

The program: The source code: All airplane graphics (*) will be correctly split into DCS compliants formats, and after rendering by DCS, the program will rejoin all files into a Panzer Corps compliant airplane image. Please note, you will have to supply the Masks yourself, just as before with only DCS.

(*) The exception is the flying V1 graphics, whose original contains a transparent ghost pixel that triggers my program's check if a wing goes out of bounds. Just delete any file that has no corresponding mask file split. Only the V1 as far as I'm aware, although I have only tried German units.

The Me323 Problem has been fixed. I'll wait a day before I re-upload the latest version, in case other silly bugs pop up.

Wow! Sounds very promising. This should help a lot of people... Thanks for taking the time to develop a solution for planes.

+1 big thanks. It will truly make custom aircraft icons easier to make. I remember I took quite a while when I tried to redraw a plane icon manually.

All done now.

jmacnamara wrote:All done now.

Nice. Thanks for the update.

Ah well, I didn't know people were still using my old piece of software.
I had an improved version prepared which also was capable of supporting aircraft skins ... I'll try to remember digging out the sourcecode and see if I can post it.
In the meantime, thanks for expending the effort JMacnamara.
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rezaf

rezaf wrote:Ah well, I didn't know people were still using my old piece of software.
I had an improved version prepared which also was capable of supporting aircraft skins ... I'll try to remember digging out the sourcecode and see if I can post it.
In the meantime, thanks for expending the effort JMacnamara.

The sooner my program becomes obsolete, the better.

But if you're considering requests...
- Implement batch processing. One skin & all units and All skins & all units.
- Change the output file name and location.
NOW: ..\SELECTEDFOLDER\UNITNAME_SKINNAME.png
PROPOSED: ..\SELECTEDFOLDER\SKINNAME\UNITNAME.png
- Have the select folder dialog auto-select the last selected folder.

Anyway, thank YOU, Rezaf, for that wonderful tool you gave us.

jmacnamara wrote:Anyway, thank YOU, Rezaf, for that wonderful tool you gave us.

You're welcome.

I uploaded a new version of DCS in it's own thread - it should be able to skin aircraft icons, but I have included only a single mask as a proof-of-concept. I hope some of you guys can help me out a bit and provide additional masks.
While I was at it, I threw rudimentary batch processing in there - give it a try and let me know what you think.
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rezaf

Thank you. I've uploaded additional masks in your own thread.

As this thread no longer serves a purpose, I will ask a moderator to close it.