Paint Guide

Gearjammer said:
Are you talking about the polished metal or chrome look? If so, you would basically make a medium grey in that area and in the alpha channel you want to make that area almost 100% reflective. Just make sure that the decals are not as reflective.
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http://radikal.ru/F/i036.radikal.ru/1305/bb/d3351cf40195.jpg.html

Can I get a picture for car in RF2?
Marussia, Corvett, or other car?
I have a video where the guy shows how to work with alpha channel.
How does this apply to RF2 cars?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kH2XPCwZVY
 
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rF1 and rF2 work the same when it comes to the alpha channel. If you follow what the person in the video was talking about you will be getting high gloss in the areas you want.
 
Is there a reference image available that labels what part/area of the vehicle is where within the template files - the wireframe is mostly sufficient, but, there are still a few areas which I am not sure what area of the car they actually associate with. Also, I wonder if anyone has a third-party .dds skin/model viewer? :P
 
bassweight said:
Is there a reference image available that labels what part/area of the vehicle is where within the template files - the wireframe is mostly sufficient, but, there are still a few areas which I am not sure what area of the car they actually associate with. Also, I wonder if anyone has a third-party .dds skin/model viewer? :P
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Not sure about a skin viewer, but if you wish to see where each part goes I find it best to put numbers or colors on a template and make a skin to see where they show up in the showroom. Obviously you would need to make each piece a separate color or number so there is no confusion. Numbers work better btw so that you can see if any portion of the skin is going to require that decals be mirrored instead of normal.
 
I recommend making a .dds that is entirely a color gradient, very broad, with a circular layout. When you view it in the game, note which parts of the car carry which odd colors, and then you can identify which area in the template pretty easily.

Look at the attachment to see what I mean.

View attachment 7596


Oh, and particular parts I did write words on to see what they were... you can see a little of that on the rollbar, and the bulkhead behind the driver says "WHAT IS THIS THEN" in small text, if you look closely.
 
The gradient is an interesting idea, but to be certain that you can easily identify the parts, I would still recommend each area on the template getting it's own color. With gradient there is a possibility that 2 parts might have the same or very similar colors so being able to identify a single part becomes more difficult.
 
Gearjammer said:
The gradient is an interesting idea, but to be certain that you can easily identify the parts, I would still recommend each area on the template getting it's own color. With gradient there is a possibility that 2 parts might have the same or very similar colors so being able to identify a single part becomes more difficult.
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+1

:)
 
Isn't the "Reload" button in spinner working? When I hit the Reload button, nothing happens and I have to relaunch the game to see the changes I've made.
 
Am I doing something wrong then? My skin is in rFactor2/USerData/player/Settings/M2009_car/M_2009_01/ALTTupsi.dds. I overwrite it, press reload and nothing.
 
It's just the first underscore character in the M_2009_01 folder name. It should be M2009_01. The name of this folder must be exactly as the .veh file name appears (minus the .veh extension) in the M2009_team.mas file.
 
Deadpedal said:
There is significant advise in the Build 198 change log regarding sharing of custom skins and a further discussion here:
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/10257-So-what-does-this-download-custom-skins-do?p=160256&viewfull=1#post160256

This addresses the problem of supplementary skin files such as WINDOW.DDS and EXTRA0.DDS files not being transferred along with main skin files by creating a single.MAS archive file with MAS2.

After creating your .DDS files for a car...
Create the path/folder for your custom alt skin (easily done in the Vehicle Tuning in game)
Start MAS2.exe (normally in C:\Users\yourname\Documents\rFactor2\Support\Tools\ folder).
Click Edit then Add Files ....
Navigate to your .DDS files.
Select all files that pertain to a particular car and click OK.
Check that the desired files are listed in MAS2.
Click File then Save as ....
Name the file the same as your main skin .DDS file except the file extension will be .MAS
Move this new .MAS file in the appropriate loose skin folder.
You may delete the .DDS files that were used to create the .MAS (they should not coexist with the .MAS in the destination folder).
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I take it this does'nt work for Offline? as I've tried but cannot get the skin to show up in game
 
4L0M said:
Basically as soon as you change the.mas file of a vehicle, you will break the digital signature and you cannot play online.

You can however, get your car in game and race other cars in All cars and tracks mode if you want, with AI using any custom skins you may have and NOT mess any online stuff up.

An example Using the EVE F2, but the principle is the same for All cars:

DISCLAIMER : This method has worked perfectly for me for the BT20, EVE, Clio, Megane, NGTR and 370z, but i haven't tried doing this for a while so i do not know whether any updates have changed this method from working correctly.

MAKE SURE that you call your skin is named something other than a current ISI Skin. You will also need your icon and sml icon for the vehicle select screens. You also need a .veh file, which can be edited if needed in notepad.

ie/ Our example files are going to be called : Skin = MS7_33.dds, VEH File = MS7_33.veh, MS7_33ICON.dds and MS7_33SMICON.dds

You can then COPY, that's COPY the "EVE.mas, EVE_F2TEAMS.mas and EVE_main.mas" files to a folder on your desktop.

Rename the files you just copied to your desktop: ie/

NEWMODEVE.mas, NEWMODEVE_F2TEAMS.mas and NEWMODEVE_MAIN.mas

Open the NEWMODEVE_F2TEAMS.mas file, click on any .veh file and export it to the folder containing your mods. Use notepad to edit things in the .veh file like Driver Name, Racing Team, Nationality etc. Give the .VEH file, the same name as one of your skins ( as i show above ).

Then, click "select all" and delete everything in the .mas file.

Select the MS7_33.dds, MS7,_33.veh, MS7_33ICON and MS7_33SMICON.dds files and drag them into the empty .mas file.

Repeat with as many custom skins as you have....then

Click the yellow create the mas file button. Quit the gMotor2 MAS file utility program.

Reopen the gMotor2 MAS file utility program, click on the "C" icon ( Create the component file ). A window pops up, hit the txt logo next to <add new component>, type a name for your car, doesn't matter what Now got to TYPE : and choose "Vehicle"

Then click the locker logo on the Submit Mas files box.
Choose the 3 renamed .mas files in the folder on your destop. Click Package button. it will say something like " file doesn't exist, do you want to create it? " Click yes ( i had to do this twice ), Your file will be created.

Take the file you have created, place it in your packages folder, start rfactor2, click "manage mods", Go to "Options" untick show mods only. You will see your file in the list, right click it Choose install. go into game, got to all cars and tracks, your car should be there !

Finished Article :30 Cars - Custom Skins - No online or ISI content touched :


I'm sure there must be a simpler way to do it, but this worked for me without breaking any online functionality.

Good Luck !!!!
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Ok I dont think this is working in 228 as an update may of changed something so need some help please, trying to get Skins working for AI (offline), but when I get to the (bold) part at the bottom I get an error message saying "error opening mod file".
In the MAS program the File area is blank above but that's because this is a fresh/new rfcmp...so I'm a little lost, any help would be greatly appreciated thanks :)

EDIT: ok scrap the above, clicked the File and chose a name and it saved and packaged correctly....but now when I install the rfcmp nothing shows up in game :confused:

EDIT2: ok getting there (hehe!), created an RFMOD not an RFCMP and I've got it up and running in game....but I cant get it to show under All Cars All Tracks :confused:
 
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Have a question about the file DDS naming.
When have skin named Altskin1.dds i can find it in the game, with the same named Altpjd1.dds (for example) I can't find it in the game.
There are a rule for naming of one's skin ?

Also, if I put my own skin, for exemple, in CR6_06 folder named Altskin1.dds, if I go on a server and an other player have an another Altskin1.dds in C6R_06 folder and use it too, what's happened with the auto skin download ? Mine is overwrited ? The game don't download the other skin, or the game download and rename the second skin ?

Thank
 
@GaetanL
As far as i know you must also create a new "Altpjd1.veh" file for the new skin. This file contains the property:

DefaultLivery="Altpjd1.dds"

This way you tell the sim to use a new livery. Just copy paste an existing .veh for the new CR6 "as a template" and just change that value.

If I recall correctly:
- You will not be able to select the new livery for a multiplayer race if the server does not have the livery properly installed.

- In case that another player is using the same livery name in another putor then every player sees his own version of the livery for that car, since I've not tested this yet in rf2 I can't assure you that the livery will not be overwritten but in rf1 livery where not shared across multiplayer sessions, and where also excluded from checksum validation (when you join to a server and shows a msg like "file.ext mismatch"). This is also valid for sound files, everything else validates unless specified otherwise in the server .plr file.
 
Ok thank I will try that.
If I understand, I mustg create a new file.txt with only one line contain DefaultLivery="Altpjd1.dds" and after I must save as "Altpjd1.veh"
 
Mmm ... not quite right :)
1) Copy an existing .veh file (because contains several propertys and values)
2) Change DefaultLivery="XXX.dds" to match the name of your DDS file
3) Name the new .VEH file with the same name of the DDS file (without his extention of course)

Example:
-----------
C6_Livery_Folder
|_ Altpjd1.dds
|_ Altpjd1.veh

Edit 1:
-------
The .veh file also has extra info that could be changed, like the Driver's name, Engine, Manufacturer, Description, etc etc... but just make sure not to edit Category or Classes.
 
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