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[sparky]

After some help please

I cannot get any skins I have worked on to show in the game. I have photoshop CC 2015 (32bit) with the Bright plug-in installed. I have the 24-bit skins mod working ok and have tested it with Edlors Hampden skins in 1024, 2048 and 4096, they all show up and work in my game.

I have the same problem with a panel finder i downlaoded as a jpg, i saved it as a bmp through bright in photoshop but it will not show.

Here are the steps i have followed,

1) selected all relavant layers to be visible
2) selected File -> Export -> Bright
3) saved it as default Bright(c) BMP export (*.bmp)

checked all sizes and they are 1Mb for 1024, 4MB for 2048, and 8MB for 4096 skins.

No idea what else I can do. I did create a few basic skins a few years back, I seem to remember doing the following

Image -> Mode -> Indexed colour, to change from editing in BMP, and then saving as an 8 bit BMP making sure compress RLE was not selected. I take it this step is not required with Bright?

Sorry to ask but I cannot find any tutorials explaining this anywhere.

[sparky]

A quick update

If I do not use Bright for 2048 and 4096 skins but just save them as .bmp in 24-Bit then they show in the game. Therefore is Bright only for 1024 skins? If so is there any alternative to Bright for skins with higher resolutions than 1024? Or is there no need for anything?

I am thinking that Bright converts skins to 8-Bit and is therefore no good for higher res skins, can anyone confirm this, please?

Thanks

[max_thehitman]

Bright saves ALL your skins (Any size) to have less distortions and color "bleeds", which makes for a more good looking skin,
rather than saving it the usual way.

What you may be doing wrong is in the "saving" your skin process with Photoshop.

You wrote...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) selected all relavant layers to be visible
2) selected File -> Export -> Bright
3) saved it as default Bright(c) BMP export (*.bmp)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This what I do...
1 - First make sure you are happy with your final skin....I usually shout out to my neighbors dog next door and scream "Look at this crazy shit I just did!" 
2 - Then go click on "LAYERS" and go down the menu screen where you see "FLATTEN IMAGE".
3 - Just so things work good, open up a new layer with the desired skin size.
4 - Move over to the new layer the image you see in your final artwork.
5 - In your original skin artwork (with the photoshop layers) Go to "history menu" and move BACK one step. SAVE THIS As your PSD file.
SO you do not loose any of the layers already made.

6- Now Go to that new layer where you moved your skin. Place it neatly into that square background.
7 - Then go click on "LAYERS" and go down the menu screen where you see "FLATTEN IMAGE".
8 - Go to "FILTER" -- Then to "Sharpen" --- then to "UNsharp Mask" --- When a NEW menu screen open up with 3 diferent selections
do the following...
Amount 10%
Radius 4,0 Pixels
Threshold 0 Levels
Click "OK"
.... This will give your skins a slight boost in sharpness and contrast , but not too much.
So when its saved, it will keep your nice details in view in the game. Because even saving stuff using Bright, some skins will loose
their details and look blurry in the saving process. So this method I found, will keep your skina rt looking nice and not loose
too many details on it.

9 - To save your skin using Bright, Go to "FILE" --- "Export" and select "Bright" ... A new window will open up and you
will select which folder you want to save your skin to. SAVE IT AS A "BMP" format skin.

10 - Once its saved, you can now delete this image from your Photoshop Screen.

-------------------
This is a 10 step way I work with which will become so familiar to your brain, that you can do this in a matter of 10 seconds everytime
you save your skins  It will become easy as time goes by. I am not joking.

NOW THE REASON I took you to do a Step 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7  and 8... is that sometimes you WILL Do an error of saving your
skin from your original Skin-template layers and you will sometimes save the "Original" with all layers flattened.
LAter when you will want to use that skin-template, you will see that you cannot use it ! Because all layers have been flattened.
So remember ALWAYS to take ONE STEP BAckwards in your "HIstory Menu" after you Flatten your layers 


Another thing to make your life ALOT easier is to do the following.
When you save your skin INTO Your skin folder, you will notice that you already have MANY Other Skins inside.
DO NOT WRITE A LONG NAME on your new skin name when you save it with Bright. Sometimes it will not let you save it with a long worded text.
Keep it super simple and just name it "001" or "A1" and save the skin with Bright.

Then ,
after the skin is saved and you have put down to rest your Photoshop program screen, go open up your game´s Skin folder.
Look inside the airplane folder where you saved your skin.
AND ONLY THEN Will you rename this skin with a long worded text or whatever you want.
Or , do it like me and DO NOT CHANGE THE NAME right away - first test the skin on the airplane while flying in the game 
Just to make sure the colors look good and the details are looking alright on the new artwork.

When you start your game and you are ready to select your new airplane skin, you will notice right away that it is placed FIRST in
order before all your other skins. The reason will be... because you named your new test skin "001" or "A1" 
So go fly your airplane and test the new skin. If your happy with your art, then later once the game is turned off,
go to that airplane folder and rename your skin to whatever you wish.

DO NOT NAME SKINS with strange Characters!! (for example and "exclamation mark")
KEEP IT SIMPLE ....  THIS IS A MUST if you want your game to work with no problems.

I usually name my skins like this... here is an example for the airplane He-162 WW2 jet...
He162A_DE_1945_310027_Black27_HermannSteckhan_Bernburg

1 - He162A = the name of your airplane and skin folder
2 - DE =  the 2 letter code for the country which uses this skin
3 - 1945 = the year this airplane was used.
4 - 310027 = this is the production serial number on the airplane (Sometimes I use the squadron number or code instead of this production number)
5 - Black27 = in this area I usually label he airplanes markings or some other relative information
6 - HermannSteckhan = The pilot who flew this airplane
7 - Bernburg =  Location of the airfield if you know this information


By labeling in order ALL of your skins in this matter, all of your skins will be in a neat order inside your  game folder and it will become
alot less complicated to find a certain skin, specially when you have over 200+ skins inside just one folder. 
But you decide what to do and what is best for your game play.

Cheers 

MAX