Hi!
There is an active community of content creators who make liveries/paints for the different aircraft. At the moment, we are left alone guessing how the different aircraft are built, most information is unofficial and community created, and including downloading third party software for the end users to be able to not edit game files. None of this is particularly user friendly.
It would be really nice if Microsoft/Asobo could make an official guide on how to create liveries/paints, including:
- Templates for all the aircraft, with no mirrored parts on the planes
- How to make different paint surfaces like the official planes (matte, metallic, chrome)
- A way to change the colour, size and position of the printed text on the aircraft (tale number)
- An official place to upload and find the paints in the in-game marketplace (some sort of approval system is needed here - i.e. “approved painter” or something).
Hi,
Perhaps it already exists, but, I have not seen official instructions, and it seems to me the appropriate place to put it would be in the SDK. I’ve searched the latest SDK and I don’t see any reference to how to create community packages to add features to/modify features of an existing/official aircraft.
Responders, please don’t point me to other instructions written by people who don’t actually know how the code works but have figured it out by trial and error. I would like to hear from Asobo on how they actually want packages structured and written. I have created several livery packages myself, but the process seems inconsistent to me across various airplanes, and I have not found a consistent method nor do I have an true understanding of the features of the package and how the software uses it (i.e. what dependency to use? Propdef? The aircraft? how to structure the name of that dependency? How does it know what aircraft it is for? How to structure a texture.cfg file and what to use for paths for that file? How to include multiple liveries in a package (if I use the [variation] method it fails)).
I REALLY want a method that allows multiple liveries for the same plane, as I do not want to clog my Community folder up with a thousand directories. I perhaps might want a few of these multiple livery packages for organizational purposes (i.e. civilian livery package, commercial livery package, Navy livery package, air force livery package, etc.).
Could Asobo please create official instructions for how to create a livery that can work with other packages cleanly without interfering with functions in other packages, including:
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A package with a single livery
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A package containing multiple liveries for the same plane
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How to control the visibility, font, and color of the Registration on the outside of the plane
(I currently use the panel.cfg method, which can cause problems for packages that manipulate the panel.cfg. I’d like a way to just manipulate the Registration on the plane without having to worry about the panel.cfg (or panel.xml, which now seems to be required if a panel.cfg exists in a package, sometimes.) )
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How to add new camera views and control the eyepoint for the pilot view
(I currently have to create a package with just a cameras.cfg file in it. That’s ok, but I’m just wondering why it doesn’t work in a livery, since changes to an aircraft.cfg file do work in a livery package. But I can’t seem to add a cameras.cfg file to a livery package. Maybe it’s because it would only work with the livery package planes, and it needs to be separate so it can act on all variations of the plane?)
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When is a [variations] section needed and when is it not? How does it work?
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How to create a livery for a deluxe/premium aircraft where we don’t have access to an aircraft.cfg and which won’t cause the software to CTD. I’ve downloaded several such premium livery packages, and I have not yet found one that doesn’t cause a CTD (it’s been a while since I’ve tried it though).
If these official instructions from Asobo* exist, please put them in the SDK where they belong, (or make it obvious they are there if they are there, I’ve searched and searched).
2 Likes
Nice suggestions and inputs.
But I fear they would do it. If they had the intentions they would have included in the very first release. But fingers crossed.
The SDK documentation is very sparse, and they admitted it is and that they are in the process of filling it in. I’m just trying to direct some of the their early efforts. It’s going to take a long time for them to finish the SDK documentation, as it is still getting lots of new features at a fast rate, and they need to get that done first.