Skinner’s Den

[cbr]

Not exactly sure what is asked...

[Cholmondely]

Not exactly sure what is asked...

O my giddy aunt! If I start waltzing around the system in something looking like that, cousin Digby will have me defenestrated from his adjuratory balcony for Extreme Dominoes. Digebiti is English not Texan!

Actually I was hoping to get some instruction as to how to do it myself, ideally over Zoom or such, once I'd been told which AppleMac compliable software I'd need for the task...

[cbr]

Actually I was hoping to get some instruction as to how to do it myself.

There are probably 'dozen' ways to do it, here's one of my favo(u)rites

1] Take (a) PHKB skinjob.oxz make it an OXP
2] Pick the diffuse map you like inside of the OXP
3] Open it in graphical editor with layer possibilities
4] Overlay your LOGO in a layer above the diffuse map
5] Save / overwrite as png

Now one of the skins in the OXP is altered
Start up oolite goto the gallery and admire your work

Looking forward to a Cholly_phkb_skinpack.oxz !

[Cholmondely]

Actually I was hoping to get some instruction as to how to do it myself.

There are probably 'dozen' ways to do it, here's one of my favo(u)rites

1] Take (a) PHKB skinjob.oxz make it an OXP
2] Pick the diffuse map you like inside of the OXP
3] Open it in graphical editor with layer possibilities
4] Overlay your LOGO in a layer above the diffuse map
5] Save / overwrite as png

Now one of the skins in the OXP is altered
Start up oolite goto the gallery and admire your work

Looking forward to a Cholly_phkb_skinpack.oxz !

Questions:

1] Take (a) PHKB skinjob.oxz make it an OXP

Does this refer to his Ship Respray OXP or to his Factory Paint Jobs set of oxp's?

2] Pick the diffuse map you like inside of the OXP

How do I see what is in the diffuse map? The only images I can see are the .png files in the texture folders, I've never been able to open the models folder .dat files or the gubbins in the shaders folder. I have both Gimp and LazPaint (and maybe one or two other software packages over the years) which have signally failed to open up any of these. I think that Svengali's addons to Library.oxp might possibly work... but don't understand who to use them.

3] Open it in graphical editor with layer possibilities

As above - how? All I ever seem to see are ominous-looking icons nestling in the models & shaders folders...

4] Overlay your LOGO in a layer above the diffuse map

I presume that this will become obvious if I ever manage the above...

[cbr]

1] You could take any ship skin pack, just look for a visible diffusemap, factory paint jobs is good starting point because
it is more of less set up for customizing ( thanks phkb )

2] pick a visible diffuse map ( without applied alpha ) par example above I used phkb_ferdelance_diffuse_3.png

3] open phkb_ferdelance_diffuse_xxx.png in gimp

4] edit and save

sorry no mac hardware here...

[Cholmondely]

Thank you for the above!

4] Overlay your LOGO in a layer above the diffuse map

Righty-ho! I found one of Phkb's which I liked, and managed to open it "in layers" in Gimp.

What do I do next? Create another layer? And how do I import the various decals? There seem to be a zillion-and-one options and I understand nothing about any of them!

I'm using Gimp-2.10 if that has any bearing on the matter...

[cbr]

4] Overlay your LOGO in a layer above the diffuse map

open it "in layers" in Gimp.

Create another layer?

1 ] Open / Overlay your LOGO in a new layer above the diffuse map

2] Move it around and/or scale it

[phkb]

Not sure how GIMP works with layers when saving, but Oolite can't use them. I use paint.net normally, and the final step in creating a texture file is to merge all the layers into one. Once you do that, you then can't move the logos around - they're "burnt in" to one layer. GIMP may do this step automatically if you're saving as a PNG file.

[cbr]

GIMP may do this step automatically if you're saving as a PNG file.

Yes

[Cholmondely]

Apologies, but the above ended up being too complex for me - Gimp offers so many incomprehensible possibilities that it is far too bamboozling for this dumb pilot. I did try, failed miserably (it didn't work in the OXP and I had no idea how to fix it without driving everybody nuts again), and then slunked away with my tail between my legs.

[MrFlibble]

Apologies, but the above ended up being too complex for me - Gimp offers so many incomprehensible possibilities that it is far too bamboozling for this dumb pilot. I did try, failed miserably (it didn't work in the OXP and I had no idea how to fix it without driving everybody nuts again), and then slunked away with my tail between my legs.

IMNSHO, Gimp is a great tool. Like most powerful, competent tools, it has complexity which is bewildering on first approach. Seeing the (simple) wood despite the (complex and irrelevant to your task) trees can be difficult.

Gimp's native save format is XCF. Using the normal file menu 'save' function, one can keep a working copy with layers etc. intact for any future tweaking. Then, use "merge-down" from the layers menu to reduce things to a single layer. Then from the file menu, "export as" and use a png suffix. DO NOT save when quitting or closing the file in Gimp, as that will write the flattened image into your 'backup' XCF.

If you will, please upload what you're working on and PM me a link. PNG files can vary quite considerably in their encoding and content. Perhaps this needs better documenting.

...I might even wander sideways for a couple of minutes and conjure an imagemagick 'convert' script to accept almost any input format image, and conform to an output file in the appropriate format, colour depth etc. PNG output for OXP use.