Art Mods

[Reg]

This is just a reminder of some of the goodies available for download over in the >> Scenario Design and Modding >> Art Mods folder.



(This is a reformat of Cathartes excellent aircraft artwork.)

The index to the Aircraft Rotating Art is here.... Rotating Art - Consolidated Download List

---

Remember there is all this other artwork to spice up your game in the thread as well...




by TOMLABEL




by Dixie.

This art can all be installed without affecting your AI or PBEM games (it doesn't affect any game data, just how it looks on your machine.. [8D]).

Enjoy.

[Enigma6584]

Wow...that looks very nice!  Forgive me, I'm new to the game and have not even read that thread that on your art work...but is there stuff for the japanese air forces as well?

[Reg]

Unfortunately there is not much Japanese raw material around to work into a good art mod.

You can try this link for Japanese Ship icons and Air units: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2507355 or http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2482228
(This is a link to a post with more links.... )

Or this link for Japanese Land Combat Units (LCU): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2553070 or http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=2554349

(This link is just the first post, you might need to scroll down a bit to get them all).

[Reg]

Version 3 of the Rotating Artwork for Dutch aircraft has been posted due to an oopsie in Version 2.

Anyone who downloaded version 2 will need to re-download.

Sorry about that guys.

[Enigma6584]

ORIGINAL: Reg


Unfortunately there is not much Japanese raw material around to work into a good art mod.

Hi, I actually have a book which shows all the color schemes and artwork of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy aircraft. Also, did you happen to check this website? Drill down to individual page of the aircraft you are interested in. Each page has a color scheme for the aircraft.

http://aviastar.org/air/japan/index.php

Hope this helps.

[Reg]

Hi Red,

The trouble with setting up a rotating art set is you need quality coherent artwork and a lot of it. You not only need an example artwork of the plane in question but a representative example artwork covering the all of the significant stages the aircraft went through during its operational life and for the period covered by the game (see the F4F-4 at the top of this post). Allied information is readily available but Japanese is patchy at best.

What I have found is that most books and websites (including your reference) only have one example of each aircraft model. Progression of colour schemes during the war/game is implemented by the introduction of the new models of the basic type with the colour scheme current at the time of introduction. If you look in the game encyclopedia you will see the standard artwork already covers this process quite well without resorting to rotating artwork but if you still have older aircraft still in service, their colour scheme will be obsolete.

If you like your web reference, try this one: WINGS PALETTE. However, it still has the same issues. Taking the A6M2 as an example, this site has some 20 examples of colour schemes from 1941/42 but nothing for 1943, 1944, 1945 which you need to compile a complete rotating art set for the particular model.

If you would like to have a go at creating a Japanese rotating aircraft art set (perhaps by applying a later colour scheme to an earlier aircraft but you will need to be careful if you want the schemes to remain historical) you will find all the details on how to implement it in the first post of this thread: Scenario Design and Modding >> Art Mods. This link to Rotating_Art_Tool_V1.3 is a utility (including instructions) to make the job a bit easier.

I don't claim to be an authority on the subject so if you do have a go at a Japanese art set (start with just a couple of types), please let us know how you get on.

[lolz]

how do i install these??
i tried and it just blank instead of the original picture.

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: lolz

how do i install these??
i tried and it just blank instead of the original picture.

I assume you are talking about the rotating aircraft artwork??

If so, you just need to unzip into the game folder making sure the unzip utility reproduces the archive file structure.

After installation,
In the Game folder there should be a folder called "Art" (this folder should already exist).
In the "Art" folder there should be folders called "AlliedPlanes", "AlliedPlanes42", "AlliedPlanes43", "AlliedPlanes44", "AlliedPlanes45", "JapPlanes", "JapPlanes42", "JapPlanes43", "JapPlanes44" & "JapPlanes45". The Allied folders should be full of the new bitmap files (for example "A_PlaneSide0021.bmp").

If this was done correctly, none of the original standard artwork should have been overwritten. If the new artwork exists in the locations above, it will be displayed otherwise the original is used so I can't see how the original picture disappeared. (The original art work is in a file called "A_PlaneSide.bmp" in the "Art" folder and this file should still exist).

Could you please provide some more info on what files you installed and how you did it. (Also what picture is blank?).

Edit: You have downloaded the correct files ?? The index to the Aircraft Rotating Art is here.... Rotating Art - Consolidated Download List
This index contains a list of links to where the rotating artwork can be found.

This new artwork is still a work in progress and is still being added to so it is scattered throughout the thread. When it is finished we will tidy it up and put it all in one place. [:)]