I think too much is being made of this 2K vs. 4K thing.  I have a ton of skins, probably everything that is going to be in the upcoming FiF skins, other than a few stragglers: All JG1, J5, J2, J99, all 3PG (old US103rd), WW, anything else that was in Black September....can't remember them all.  Also included is all JG1 WWII skins and WW WWII skins.

The point is, my skins folder is now 12.1 GB.  It is likely to grow.  Let's say it more than quadrupled in size to 50 GB.

Currently my skins folder is taking up 2.4% of my 500 GB main drive; if it actually did quadruple, that would still be less than 10%....that's IF it increased by 4 times what it is now.  A 500 GB drive is not even very big in today's age; one double that size would be considered more standard today.

I think if anybody is truly short on space, I would submit that it's because of reasons far more significant than skins from Great Battles, like excess programs files, or especially video files.  Assuming all of the skin files I have now are 4K files (and they aren't), if I took them and reduced them to 2K files, that would change the total skins files size to a hair over 3 GB, or 0.6% of my total drive size.  I save 1.8 GB over what I had before, or I increased the usable space on my drive by less than 0.4% of my drive size.

Is that really worth all that fuss?

@Luftritter and @Vonrd, reason for raising the question is that I remembered that it was a subject in the past, and because I was creating FiF skins better ask before I have to do the work twice. Not to stir up the mud or create fuss.

Funny enough I share Lufts opinion. I agree about the size it takes up in total compared with the capacity of the drive. Mostly it are JG1 skins who are in 2K. Not reducing the size is easier in the creating process and more beautiful. Especially the stencils and personal drawings benefit from it. Has it an influence on the performance and visual effects in-game?

If Vonrd is okay with it I’m in favour of going for 4K skins (that said and looking at some 120 2K skins in process 🤔)

Apologies for the hammer-on-the-head presentation of data. Once these figures start floating around in your head, they can pile on top of one another and look over stated.

My main worry is that resizing these files could change the color density, and therefore the shades.  Especially things like the weathering and shadowing layers, where the dirt/grime and shading effects could end up looking darker over all.  I know that happens to colors when I import objects files into my projects and then adjust their size for placement.

That is just conjecture on my part, since I don't know that it actually happens.  I need to do an experiment and see if the pixels per inch actually changes. 

Just few words from my side:

First of all I need to say that I am really impressed by the creativity and the skills of all you skin-builders.

But for me unfortunatly disc space starts to become an issue... I have steam installed on an 250 GB SSD drive and despite I have uninstalled most of the steam games there are only about 30 GB left on that drive. Considering that with each new update of IL2 the space used will increase more and more, esp. when further Maps will be rolled out and also as 1GSC announced further improved graphic details on maps, pilots, etc and also more official skins....

Now I am totally agree with the approach, that 2K vs. 4K doesn't make the huge difference space-wise BUT the simple number of skins do...!

So I kindly ask if we can go with the approach, that our skins are 2K by default only BUT with the strict rule that the official JG1 skin pack contains only 1 personal skin per pilot per plane  and when any new skin for a plane is added the existing older skin for this pilot and plane will be overwritten?

Otherwise sooner or later I won't be able to install the updates any more.....🙄

Personally I could live with the one skin per pilot rule....I have already requested to withdraw the one example of an "extra" skin that I have.  That said, I don't think it should be a hard rule, though.  After all, just because skins are included in a download pack, doesn't mean you have to have all of them installed.  You can select just what you want to extract....or you can just extract everything and delete what you don't want.  Also, looking at what you have now, you may want to delete entire groups of skins based on the fact that you hardly, if ever, see those groups actually flying and using them.

Your space situation seems pretty dire.  Is there a reason you don't get another internal SSD and move stuff to it?  512 GB and below are often very cheap and easy to install.  It could change your life  😉

At the moment it's lazyness to be honest... I have 2 250 GB SSD, 1 where I have the operation system, several tools and general programes (office, etc) and 2nd one for games dedicted... all other stuff (like media) I have already on a additional hard disk....

If I'd buy a new one I need to get rid of the old one, meaning I have to ensure that the data is transferred properly, Steam needs to be re-installed and all the other stuff there... so overall there would be some work to do which I'd like to postpone to the time when I'll buy anyhow a complete new machine... 😉

Regarding the management of skins: Well, I could clean up the skin-folder on myself but therefor it must  least to be clear, which one is the Main-Skin for the Pilot... otherwise I delete this one and have the other (maybe just rarely used one) still on the disk....

I hope I did that right. I made them the same name as my original ones so they all can be overwritten 

@AngryGoat

In the future, you might want to adjust your file names so that they follow the JG1 naming convention.  Some points to consider:

1) The plane name is supposed to match the folder name for that plane in the game's "skins" folder.

2)  Your pilot name is supposed to be your JG1 name.

3)  If you have more than one skin for any plane, you're supposed to designate subsequent files using consecutive letters starting with "b"....etc.

An example for your second Dr.I:  ! JG1 FokkerDr1 AngryGoat b

or your Sopwith Camel:  ! JG1 SopCamel AngryGoat

S!

@AngryGoat

I changed a couple of your skin names as @Luftritter suggested in order to keep with the naming Dicta. Please change them in your files in order to have everyone see them:

Changed the "Early" and "Late" DR1s to... ! JG1 FokkerDr1 Goat.dds and ! JG1 FokkerDr1 Goat B.dds. Also changed the lowercase "se5a to uppercase (I don't think it really matters for the game to recognize... just for consistency purposes)... ! JG1 SE5a Goat.dds and changed "Sopwith Camel" to ! JG1 SopCamel Goat.

 

A plain old goat is not as much of a threat as an AngryGoat

😅

I've just posted skins for Greif. These are the pictures. I've send Vonrd the skins related to the FiF Winter Campaign. 

After going from 2K to 4K (=do it all over) I'm back at 2K. With mine skins added it would be some 27 skins x 22 MB and that's without the 2 Halbs, Spad and Se5a.

On 1/21/2020 at 8:46 AM, Heinrich said:

Funny enough I share Lufts opinion. I agree about the size it takes up in total compared with the capacity of the drive. Mostly it are JG1 skins who are in 2K. Not reducing the size is easier in the creating process and more beautiful. Especially the stencils and personal drawings benefit from it. Has it an influence on the performance and visual effects in-game?

If Vonrd is okay with it I’m in favor of going for 4K skins (that said and looking at some 120 2K skins in process 🤔)

I have to come back from this statement, because the danger with such a huge package is, that some players will not download them and that would mean that I've missed my goal.

 

22 MB = 0.022 GB.  That's 2.2% of one single GB.

Just in case you were operating under a mistaken assumption.

Drive on, sir!

S!

I know, it's not about my drive I worry. I worry that others will not download. 

16 hours ago, Heinrich said:

And here is my skin set:

*SNIPPED*

Beauties! Especially liking Dr.I and D.VIIs 

On 1/28/2020 at 5:42 AM, Butzzell said:

 

 

WIP

Is the yellow too dark on the alb?

No I would leave it like this, think this is good. Maybe extend the black lines over and under the horizontal tail to end in a point before the elevator.

 

 

I did one with the black going back to the tip of the tail. It did not look right for some reason. The wood color gives better definition of the shape.

Looks great, Butzzell!  Now I have to come up with an emblem for the side.  Checkering the Elevator and Rudder (but leaving the stabs black) would be appreciated as well. 

1 hour ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

 Now I have to come up with an emblem for the side.  

Something like this: 

1 hour ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

................ Checkering the Elevator and Rudder (but leaving the stabs black) would be appreciated as well. 

I wouldn't do that, you loose the Jasta 10 identity and more important, you go from a plausible skin to a carnivals wagon. 

Sometimes less is more. My first skins were absolute fit for Rio, now even the enemy appreciate my skin (will take long time before they fear them 😩)

On 1/28/2020 at 9:44 PM, Luftritter said:

One minor point of failure was that I couldn't find a way to make the spinning prop not green.  I swear there is nothing on that file that changes that.  But I stand to be corrected by more experienced experts.

U-2VS Fictional German Skin

Entente skin to follow if there's any interest....

Nice! I would like to see an Entente version as well. 

Regarding the green prop when spinning: you're right, I tried alpha, no layers, textures, but I couldn't find the prop location, get rid off or overwrite the green color (yet). To be continued ....

51 minutes ago, Heinrich said:

Something like this: 

I wouldn't do that, you loose the Jasta 10 identity and more important, you go from a plausible skin to a carnivals wagon. 

Sometimes less is more. My first skins were absolute fit for Rio, now even the enemy appreciate my skin (will take long time before they fear them 😩)

If it fits more for Jasta 10 to have no checkers on the tail, then let's do that.  Thanks for the advice.  If there isn't one, a checkered line on the bottom of the lower wing would be good too for identification.

A period appropriate Taxi (carriage?) emblem would be great, even if my checker stripes might be a bit before their time.   Perhaps my exploits in the air inspire NYC taxis.   I like the "Public Hack" one.  Maybe polish the metal a bit in photoshop so that the lettering stands out brightly.  If possible change the number to "10" for J 10. 

Thank you. It will be a great skin, I'll do that tomorrow [CET] and send the badge to you for your approval and than to Butzzell. I don't want him to have more work because of my idea  @Butzzell okay?

4 hours ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

Checkering the Elevator and Rudder (but leaving the stabs black) would be appreciated as well. 

Did that. Got shot.

 

PD3 look ok?

Both those look great!  Whatever preserves J10 colors while being distinct.  I'd like to be able to say, "I'm the Taxi" and have everybody immediately know who I am. 

The badge is a good idea.

 

Checkers on the tail and lower wing gets into the " clown wagon" region.  You no longer see the plane. You see the checkers. I know we have a few of the old ones that come close to that but we are trying to look a little more authentic? Colorful yet distinguished?  The single band on the upper wing, fuselage and wheels is reasonable yet not over done. Easy to recognize and no need for sun glasses.

 

 

I took the liberty of polishing up this badge if there is enough resolution for the skins.  (And yes, I know this whole thing is very American.  Come and get it, Yanks!)

7 hours ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

And yes, I know this whole thing is very American.

Objection! We’d never fly anything so ridiculous looking!
 

(Think the first Alb picture looked the best, with single wing stripe!)