1945 & Beyond Skin Pack for the Firepower B-29.zip

Threedp

Threedp

SOH-CM-2024
127916727199134187.jpg

A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category CFS 3 American Skins

Description: This pack contains five skins for the B-29 in the commercially available Firepower add-on by A2A Simulations. They are not compatible with the freeware B-29. The skins concentrate on the famed 509th Composite Group and fill in a couple of gaps for post-war B-29s:

- B-29 44-86292 R-82 'Enola Gay', 509th Composite Group, 1945

- B-29 44-27297 N-77 'Bockscar', 509th Composite Group, 1945

- B-29 44-27353 Arrow-89 'The Great Artiste', 509th Composite Group, 1945

- B-29 44-86438 'Flying Parts', 92nd Bomb Group, 1950

- Washington WF552 (B-29 44-62326), Royal Air Force, 1953

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit 1945 & Beyond Skin Pack for the Firepower B-29.zip
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.
 
Sorry folks! In my haste, I inadvertently left an extra folder level in the individual skin ZIP files. The giveaway is that it doesn't ask you to overwrite when you do what the instructions tell you. I'll put together a 1.1 version shortly.
 
***Make A Back-Up Of Your Original***


To make a stand alone for this you will need a test editor and a hex editor.
http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm


You have four characters to work with in renaming the aircraft files. Don't use more or less than four or the stand alone will not work.
Here's an example of how to create a new aircraft called B29K from the Firepower original B_29:


1. Make a copy of the original b_29a folder in your CFS3 Aircraft directory and rename it B-29K


2. Add the texture files you created replacing the original _t.dds and _r.dds files.
B29K_t.dds
B29K_r.dds
B29K_t_1.dds (optional depending on if you want to change the gun turret or tire colors)


3. Rename the air and M3D files to
B29K.air
B29K.M3D
B29K_cockpit0.M3D
B29K_cockpit1.M3D
B29K_cockpit2.M3D
B29K_cockpit3.M3D
B29K_cockpit4.M3D


4. Open the M3D files with the hex editor and replace
B_29_t.dds with B29K_t.dds
B_29_r.dds with B29K_r.dds
B_29_t_1.dds with B29K_t_1.dds (optional see above)


4a. If you want to be fully compatible with AnKor's shaders you may need to do an additional edit


Starting at hex address E3E the sequence through address E79 should be FF 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 FF 33 33 33 FF 00 00 7E 43 00 00 FF FF 01 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 FF 33 33 33 FF 00 00 7E 43 00 00 FF FF 01 00


5. Text edit the Aircraft.cfg file at the top to say


//FIREPOWER SERIES CERTIFIED AIRCRAFT
//B-29A
[fltsim.0]
title=B29K
sim=B29K
model=B29K


6. Rename the xpd file to B29K.xpd and text edit the top to say


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="B29K" ShortName="B29K" ModelName="B29K.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="2" Type="moving" EnteredService="06/05/1944" LeftService="10/1/1956" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="level_bomber" Country="usa" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infob_29a.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infob_29a.htm"/>


This is also where you would reassign the country if needed.
 
Kill this post!

HELP!

With the new, corrected 1.1 version now up, could someone kill the original download (it serves no purpose) and zap this post if possible? I hate clutter! :redfire:

Thanks in advance.
 
No issue here. As all the turrets have to be the same, no matter what one does on two-tone schemes, half of them are wrong!
 
Thanks! I love your work on these.

p.s. For personal use, I modified my texture for the Washington yesterday to move the fuselage roundel forward of the gunner's blister. Because of how the texture is mapped to the model the size and alignment can only be an approximation (smaller and higher) of what you seen in the period images.

c37cfe26270bcd6c8b494a280f11b200
 
MajorMagee said:
If you want to be fully compatible with AnKor's shaders you may need to do an additional edit

Starting at hex address E3E the sequence through address E79 should be FF 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 FF 33 33 33 FF 00 00 7E 43 00 00 FF FF 01 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 FF 33 33 33 FF 00 00 7E 43 00 00 FF FF 01 00
Click to expand...

"Fully compatible" is pushing it quite a bit. There's nothing incompatible about it to begin with. All that string does is to boost the specularity a lot. And there's a reason for it, let me explain...

Out of the box, it looks a bit dull. But that's not a problem with the aircraft, or the shaders themselves. The problem comes from the default settings in the shaders' release version, which aren't AnKor's work. When he made them he intended the defaults to be Glossiness=5 and EnvReflection=5 but that's not the case in the version we have.

Because when you repackaged them for release, you changed it to Glossiness=1 by your own preferences and that's what everyone is stuck with unless they're tech savvy enough to dig into the files and change it. There's no mention in the readmes about it either. And while 5/5 may be a bit too much, 3/3 would be very close to the original in Windows 2000 or XP, ie. what the developers originally made it to look like. Your version is undoubtedly very dull and now you're implying there are problems with the models that in reality are perfectly fine, and generously releasing "fixes" for something you broke in the first place for everyone.
 
Yes, I'm sorry, I've done terrible things to CFS3 in the past.

Thanks for reminding me that, in spite of good intentions, no good deed goes unpunished.

:uncomfortableness:

S!
 
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