Spitfire - lightened Generic skin, for TF4 (with its dark plane-shine)

**major_setback** · Sep-24-2014, 07:01

Hi all!

Here is a lightened version of a generic Spitfire skin.

It's made to look good with the latest tF patch with plane-shine, which tends to make the skins look very dark.

Download:
http://airwarfare.com/sow/index.php/...c-skin-for-tf4

Double Click on images for full size

I hope you like it
Cheers, Setback

**RAF74_Buzzsaw** · Sep-24-2014, 14:35

Thanks for your continued work Major.

**JG4_sKylon** · Sep-24-2014, 15:27

Hi,

sorry that i have to ask

1. Is this a custom skin or will it be part of the upcoming TF 5.0?
When i saw this thread the first time you were a "regular" member. Now after looking again you are member of TF. That´s the reason i ask number 1.

2. i don´t exactly understand this "dark plane-shine". The current skins are okay, but because of the plane-shine thingy they appear too dark and for that reason you lightened them?

S!

**Kling** · Sep-24-2014, 17:45

I have been thinking about his for a while. Why don't we lighten all default skins to compensate for the darkened effect with the plane shine in TF4.0?!
The skin looks very good btw!!

**major_setback** · Sep-25-2014, 05:29

Thanks everyone for the comments.

1. Is this a custom skin or will it be part of the upcoming TF 5.0?
When i saw this thread the first time you were a "regular" member. Now after looking again you are member of TF. That´s the reason i ask number 1.

2. i don´t exactly understand this "dark plane-shine". The current skins are okay, but because of the plane-shine thingy they appear too dark and for that reason you lightened them?

I have been thinking about his for a while. Why don't we lighten all default skins to compensate for the darkened effect with the plane shine in TF4.0?!

Yes, I'm in the middle of doing skins for TF5.
This skin isn't related to that work.
It's a skin I did many months ago. I was about to release it when TF4 came out. The change in lighting (plane-shine) with that patch made me wait with releasing it. It just looked too dark.
I re-did the colours this week. This isn't an easy process of simple adjusting brightness. It take a lot of work to get the colours to look good both individually and together. It's a matter of trial and error, where every change has to be checked in-game and in different lighting conditions. This process needs to be done individually for each aircraft type, as they differ due to the various hidden layers involved. Each individual skin has to be addressed individually too if it is made using custom colours that are special to just that aircraft.
For example -The above aircraft skin took me over 12 hours of work to correct the colours. Some of that can be transferred to other brown-green Spitfires, but not to the grey-green ones or the black painted ones.
So there is no easy fix. If you fix them quickly they will look shoddy.

There are 2 ways to approach fixing the problem of dark skins. One is to change all the skins so they look lighter. This causes loss in quality, and involves a lot of work, as mentioned above. The second method is to find a way to alter plane-shine so that it doesn't affect to already existing skins. From what I have heard from other TF members this is a difficult thing to do. This is a low priority question for the team, and hasn't been discussed much as far as I know.
However, if eventually a way can be found to alter the shine so it doesn't make the skins darker, then any time used to lighten all the default skins would be wasted.

There is also an additional problem - The skins I make now (from now on) I'll make to look good in the present TF4 patch. If the plane shine is altered in the future they will look too light.
Also, personally speaking, I would find it impossible to work making skins that only look good in outdated patches (old versions without plane shine). All versions of the game have different lighting, and the skins look different from patch to patch. Unfortunately. I have to try and make skins that will look good with the lighting we have now.
Unfortunately there is no easy way to go with this problem. Maybe someone will come up with a solution to the dark skins...otherwise I'll try to get time to work on the skins I've made so far for TF5, and lighten them so they work with the present lighting.

cheers, setback

**major_setback** · Sep-25-2014, 09:27

I just want to add that I am not in a decision-making position within TF. Even if I wanted to make lighter versions of all the now existing default skins it is not certain they would be implemented as default skins. That's not my decision to make...and neither have I been asked to do that.

**SorcererDave** · Sep-25-2014, 09:58

Very nice skin. Although I've got to be honest I don't think the current skins in the game are too dark. They look just right to me. I mean I've seen Spitfire Mk.Is and Hurricanes in real life and they look more or less like the ones in the game currently do in terms of colours. In fact now I think about it I don't think the default Hurricane skin is quite dark enough - the brown is a bit too yellowy.

**major_setback** · Sep-25-2014, 10:44

It probably has a lot to to with everyone's own monitor set-up. Some people have SweetFX installed and use it to lighten to whole game. (Hopefully no TF developers go by that when making changes).
I would be very interested to know everyone's viewpoint on plane-shine and darkness of skins; and darkness of the game in general.
For me the planes are too dark, and the landscape too. It is one of the greatest faults in the game in my very humble opinion. The game has to look good or no one will want to use it.
Thanks for the input!

Cheers, Setback

**JG4_sKylon** · Sep-25-2014, 10:52

Originally Posted by major_setback

For me the planes are too dark, and the landscape too. It is one of the greatest faults in the game in my very humble opinion.

Salute major_setback,

first i want to thank you for the detailed answer on my questions.
Second, i don´t know whether the planes are too dark in comparison to reality. I leave this question to the experts.
But i think the ground/landscape is now darker then it was before. I don´t know when they became darker, but when checking pretty old videos of CoD everything seems to be much lighter than now. Maybe a bit too light, but visibility seems better.

I would vote for something between actual and old brightness.