Deception Jet Reskins

[WilliamOfOrange]

EDIT: These are reskins of White Rabbit's F-15. While I am humble enough to realize they are only a reskins, I am quite proud of it as they are my first published units ever and I learned quite a bit in doing it. I had the dds pretty much completely mapped by trial and error before I realized that nifSkope lets you view the layout.

Given the Decepticon symbol, I thought the alpha layers for Civ colour were redundant and removed them. Here we have Skywarp, Starscream and Thundercracker and the nameless Decepticon Seeker, which eventually weren't seen in the cartoon after more characters were brought in.

In your ArtDefines_Unit.xml file, just replace f15 with the name of the unit.

ie.

        <NIF>Art/Units/Starscream/Starscream.nif</NIF>
	<KFM>Art/Units/JetFighter/JetFighter.kfm</KFM>
	<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Starscream/Starscream.nif</SHADERNIF>

I have changed the nif file just a bit for each of the different Decepticon jets for their colour scheme mapping. You also will want to keep the jetfighter_256.dds file in the unit folder for the missles and stuff underneath. Each jet has it's own coloured jetfighter_256.dds file.

Download here.


EDIT: Big thanks to Deliverator for his help and answering my questions below. I was able to fix up the units quite nicely as a result.


I am asking the question here because it pertains to my units and their look/quality.
I seem to have a problem with colours bleeding. I don't know if it is a problem limited only to Photoshop, but that is what I use. The next two screenshots are of the problem that I am having. It might be difficult to see, but the pixels seem to group together in square blotches. It is not limited to just where the red stripe is on the wing, it tends to happen on the whole entire dds picture. It seems like this might be a result of saving the file. I am not sure.

I have also had problems with the actually painting. I have found that even with the 1-pixel paint brush that the pixels to the right and bottom of the one being painted are also affected. I have tried boxing things off when painting, but things don't always work out. I find too that when copying and pasting that even the pixels not in the selected area are sometimes copied and their transparency affects the pixels around them when pasted.

If you take a look at the red stripes on this skin, it's maybe not too bad, but if I try to add a small white strip on top, it makes the underlying pixels really blotchy. Check out the last picture. The purple squares aren't there when I paint the white, but it seems they appear during the saving process. Is there not enough colours? Is this why it is happening? It doesn't affect the look of the unit too badly in game if you don't zoom in, but being the near-perfectionist that I am, I wish to correct it. Any thoughts on this problem?

Oh, and tell me what you think of the unit. Thanks.

 

[The_J]

While I am humble enough to realize it is only a reskin, I am quite proud of it as it is my first published unit ever and I learned quite a bit in doing it.

[...]

Oh, and tell me what you think of the unit. Thanks.

I think, it's a very good begin for modding .
It maybe has not the highest quality, but it's very decent.
I like the civilization symbol on the wing. Is this dynamical (civ dependend)?

 

[mechaerik]

If he removed the alpha channel, then no.


It looks absolutely fantastic.

 

[Deliverator]

The DDS textures generally used in Civ are compressed in a similar way to JPEG images so that means you can get artifacts. You'll find that texures which have large blocks of single colour tend to suffer from more severe visible compression artifacts just as with JPEG.

There are actually a range of different DDS compression options - see this link. I've never used the Photoshop DDS exporter - I use the freeware Paint.NET which supports DDS and lets you choose which kind of DDS compression you want to use. The uncompressed options such as R5G6B5 (for no textures without alpha) or A1R5G5B5 (for those with alpha) take up double the space, but for a model with only one or two textures involved you will probably be OK. There are plenty of custom units around that use 4 or 5 texture files, which uses up more graphics memory than a single uncompressed texture.

Also, when working on textures I generally work on a 512x512 texture, then downsize to 256x256 using bicubic just before saving. That seems to help give a quality result.

And good work on the reskin - a classic Transformers Mod would be interesting...

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Thanks to Deliverator's advice, I have now been able to finish all four Seeker models. I am still unsure about the Decepticon symbols look on the zoom, but I guess they are better than before. I will figure out how to do damage states, but for now I am happy with these. The next step in the coneheads.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

I have made some new Transformer skins. Follow the directions in the first post for adding. As with the skins above, I tried to combine the simplicity of the cartoon colour schemes and appearance with the detail of the decals of the toy and the RL counterpart.

At some point, I plan on redoing the Seekers from above, but in the meantime here is what I have added, with notes or questions I would like to ask of the unit maker or other helpful poeple:

Air Raid and Ramjet: Reskins of F15 by White Rabbit

Unlike the Seekers from above, I kept the dds file at 256 pixels for Air Raid. Is this good or bad? Does the Autobot symbol look more clear than the Decepticon symbol on the Seekers?

Blades: Reskin of Bell UH-1 Huey by Snafusmith

In the animation, I get a little red on the rotor assembly in game and can't seem to find where on the dds in the UV editor in NikScope it is coming from. I can live with this, but any ideas? Also, it looks a bit different in the game compared to NifScope, but I discovered I can load the game and edit the dds file and Alt+Tab back to the game to see the effects if I want.

Blitzwing: Reskin of Mig25 by Nautil

I am really pleased with how this one turned out. It's badass.

Fireflight: Reskin of F-4B Phantom by The Conquests

I worked hard to move vertices in the UV Editor or NifScope in order to get straight lines for the wing design, Autobot logos, etc., as the UV map was on an angle. OVerall, I think it turned out pretty great, but I have two problems. I notice the F4 from the Modern Warfare Mod and that it seems more detailed. I do not want to redo the skin, but are these models one in the same? I really want to improve with the skins and move beyond dragging the vertices in the NikScope UV Editor to fit my dds skin. The dds of the other F4 is like some other that I have seen for the F14, F18, etc. where it's just one or two orthogonal views and many, many vertices in the UV Editor, if you can get it to open. Right now, I prefer to work with Smitty's dds skins and other like it. It's easier for me, but like I said, I would like to improve.

I ask this because there is a version of the F16 that looks great, but I feel the dds that comes with the game for the fighter is an easier F16 to reskin for Transformers skins. Any advice on that?

The other major problem with the F-4B, is that in game this thing is tiny despite scale info similar to the other jets. Any ideas on that one? I don't have a screen shot because it is too minuscule.

Powerglide: Reskin of A-10 Thunderbolt II by Snafusmith

Great model and although not exactly like Powerglide in shape, it'll do nicely. Possible Cobra Rattler skin in the pipe as well.

Slingshot: Reskin of AV-8B Harrier by The Conquests

It's very dark to view in NifScope and equally dark in game. Any way to lighten it up a bit?


Thanks for the advice and look for more coming soon.

 

[Healz]

Do a robot named Warpath if you can. Warpath is an Apache Helicopter.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

In the g1 continuity, Warpath is a General Motors M551A1 Sheridan ARAAV tank. Vortex is a similar helicopter though. I plan on doing him and Whirl. I am only dealing with G1 characters, so sorry there is no character as you mention. Anyone doing a Sheridan M551 tank would be a hero of mine.

 

[Healz]

Sorry it was the wrong series that the Apache Helicopter was named Warpath. It was Machine Men not Transformers but it would suit them.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

There is an Apache helicopter in the 4th series of the toy: Spinister. I might get around to that if I have the mod incorporate those later characters. The unit out there looks great.