Special Aircraft Service

Individual Mods and Packs for IL-2 1946 => Skins, Maps, Missions & Campaigns => Skin&Markings => Topic started by: darky1958 on January 27, 2016, 02:28:56 AM

Title: ipeg skins
Post by: darky1958 on January 27, 2016, 02:28:56 AM
Hallo mates !
is it possible to put the jpeg. skins into paintscheme/skins folder ( of course must work ) ?
Perhaps some mods ?
Regards
Darky
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: SAS~Malone on January 27, 2016, 02:40:24 AM
no, it's not possible, sorry mate
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: darky1958 on January 27, 2016, 02:51:37 AM
Thank you , Malone
Darky
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: Gaston on January 27, 2016, 04:13:48 AM
That is an interesting questions !

Actually, this is not possible. But could it be feasible ?
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: SAS~Malone on January 27, 2016, 04:55:51 AM
well, i guess anything is possible, if you try hard enough - the main question here would be - why?
i don't see any real advantage to using another file format than bitmap...
but the crucial factor here is the way that the game is coded to use bitmaps.
to change this, while theoretically possible, would entail, yet again, major changes to the base game code....
and, following this, it would mean having to re-build each and every modpack to work with this.
so, big packs like DBW, CUP and others would need to be largely re-written.
clearly, a case of the end result not being worth the effort involved.
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: max_thehitman on January 27, 2016, 05:21:42 AM


May I also point out that "Jpeg" format skins would be of very poor quality and lacking in small details.
It would make your airplanes look a little dull. Not good if you would like to see some nice details and
make your gaming experience something worthwhile.
The way it is working now with BMP format is nothing spectacular, but it is way better than Jpeg.

The default skins use the format "tga" or often called "Targa", which is also better and those
can use Alpha-channels to make some parts of the aircraft 3d-Model transparent. - For example,
to make the windows.


Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: western0221 on January 27, 2016, 05:23:01 AM
Only my thoughts, JPEG is a lossy compression format. That is another problem.
The picture may degrade from its original.

PNG is a lossless format, quality is always kept. .....possible for PaintSchemes/Skins ?
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: SAS~Malone on January 27, 2016, 09:28:04 AM
possibly, western - although in the case of PNG files, the actual file sizes may be a limiting factor, as they are traditionally pretty large sized files.
my skins folders are already multi -GB in size, i shudder to think what it'd be if the skins were all in PNG format....
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: Whiskey_Sierra_972 on January 27, 2016, 10:43:53 AM
I hope to finish (before or later) all the updating of my Il2 installation and then try to use the hard link for manage skins for each with only one skin folder at the end....this 'll reduce the skins GB of 1/4 without quality or extension modification....

:)
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: SAS~Malone on January 27, 2016, 10:56:06 AM
walter, when you do that, i would also like to know - i probably have in the region of 200 GB in total of skins folders alone! :D
i know our good friend Gerax has been using this for a long time, but i was a little nervous when reading through setting up the 'Link shell extentions' and was worried about messing up my folders or deleting one accidentally.
or perhaps we could look at it together, along the 'more hands make light work' principle... ;)
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: Gaston on January 27, 2016, 02:25:23 PM
I am using this (Junctions, etc) for my skins, because I have too many of them, on my 7 installs of the game... working perfectly !
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: Whiskey_Sierra_972 on January 28, 2016, 12:34:03 AM
A very welcomed reply mate!

:)
Title: Re: ipeg skins
Post by: Radoye on January 28, 2016, 05:48:47 AM
possibly, western - although in the case of PNG files, the actual file sizes may be a limiting factor, as they are traditionally pretty large sized files.
my skins folders are already multi -GB in size, i shudder to think what it'd be if the skins were all in PNG format....

For the record, PNG files should be smaller than current BMP, insofar that PNG is a compressed image format, where BMP is not.

In effect, the difference between PNG and JPEG is that PNG is compressed in such way to guarantee full quality of detail is preserved, while JPEG suffers very heavy degradation from the original uncompressed image, but it is even smaller (filesize-wise).

From all my experience so far, PNG offers advantages over both BMP and JPEG with very little extra overhead. And it allows transparency like TGA. Although, i agree, it would likely turn out to be too complicated to jerryrig PNG files into the game not designed to use them in the first place, it's questionable it is worth the effort.