Skins and Profiles

[Ace Antilles]

There's been a lot of new features created since our XWAU 2020 Mega Patch, with even more coming.
One thing we haven't discussed properly is: Skins and Profiles

The XWAU Team constantly thinks up new ideas we can use in the game. Then new Hooks are created by JeremyaFr to make them work.
Three new concepts allow us to customize the look and behaviour of a Spacecraft or Object in a campaign or custom mission.
The changes are only applied to edited missions and INI files. The new features introduced are:

Object Profiles: What this mode does is hide or reveal meshes already in the Opt file to change its physical appearance.
You could have containers, launchers, wings etc and the Profile would hide or reveal them in selected missions. Just some examples.
You can choose from the different Craft modes that have been made available by the creator in their relevant INI file.

Skins: With Skins you can customize the visual appearance of the 3d models. Giving it new colours or patterns not seen by default.
For example, you can change a grey ship to red, add damaged looks or turn Red 2 into Red 5. Even make your own unique Star Wars ship
You can choose from the different Skins that have been made available by the creator, or create new textures to characterize the vehicles.

Stats Profiles: This mode allows you to give a ship different Statistics or performance in a mission without affecting the default ship.
For example you can set up a TIE Fighter to have added Shields or Hyperdrive, or decreased hull strength, speed and handling.
This is all controlled from the StatsProfiles section in the Opts INI file. You don’t need run an editor to change the ship stats first.
You can choose from the different Craft performance modes that have been made available by the creator in their relevant INI file.
You can also use MXvTED for reference to create new performance models to characterize your vehicle.

One example that uses Skins and Object Profiles is the Errant Venture profile from the Imperial Star Destroyer II.
This turns the skin red in places and it reveals all the glowing advertising signs on the hull that are hidden by default.

ev.jpg

Skins and Profiles are going to be used a lot more by the team going forward and there are several new items in the works!

[Ace Antilles]

You can now view the Tutorial in the XWA folder under Readme\Editing.
If you wish to read it on another PC you may download it from the link below.

We want everyone to be able to experiment and make up their own fun and cool customisations.

We look forward to hopefully seeing some great fan made Skins created by everyone in the future. So please share them with us.

[theonegalen]

Looks really neat!

I wish I didn't have my hands in so many pies at once, because I think I'd enjoy making a little campaign shipset using these features.

[Ace Antilles]

You can see 3 new Skins for the Assault Gunboat in this thread.
https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 34&t=12037

I also forgot to post the great example from @Vince T of what is possible from using Skins.

Sponge.jpg

[Ace Antilles]

I've edited the original post. We can now reveal the full details referring to Stats Profiles.
Stats Profiles is something we've been testing and refining for a while and finally the bugs have been worked out.

I've updated many model INI files from Updates 1 and 2 to include a "Default" profile listing.
This means you can easily see the original Stats without opening MXvTED.
There's a lot of models in the game but we will update more INI files with default templates as we go.

There will be a proper tutorial added to the page once Update 2 is out but you can see a little more explanation into how it works in the Hook forum:
https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 22#p180022

[Ace Antilles]

Hopefully you guys are enjoying the new Skins that have been created for XWAU.
We've tried to make things simple for users to create their own brilliant paint jobs.

If you didn't know @DTM has created "Void" template Skins for his recent ships.
These are totally unpainted versions of the textures which you can go nuts with to make your own unique ship.
You can find them in the FlightModels\Skins folder in your XWA directory.
So there have been 3 ships released like this:

TiVoid.jpg

InVoid.png

GunVoid.jpg

There's already a guide for the X-wing but very soon there will also be an X-wing Void skin to use.

XWVoid.jpg

Don't worry there are more exciting Skins to use in game and they Maybe Forthcoming very soon

[Ace Antilles]

New craft Skins available in Mega Patch 2020 Update 3.

Partisan X-Wing by @DTM. Compatible with the Xwing and XwingA at the moment.

Partisan Xwing.jpg

Assault FrigateL Rebel and New Republic. Originally from The Farseer, with adjustments by @Vince T and @Ace Antilles.

Frig Skins.jpg

Platform 3 by @Vince T. It comes with 5 skins: Alliance, Empire, Green and Yellow.
The fifth is No Markings. Which can be used as a template to make new Skins or a generic Platform version.

NoMarkings.jpg

Plat Skins.jpg

Victory Star Destroyer by @Vince T. The FG colours have been altered into Skins - Imperial, New Republic and Old Republic.

Imperial.jpg

NewRepublic.jpg

OldRepublic.jpg

[Ace Antilles]

In Update 3 I updated the Freighter Container K so that uses Profiles. It has an Empty and Partial Cargo loaded profiles for mission use.
That means you don't need to choose one from Babu Frik or Hook anything. The Babu option will be removed later.
I've just updated it for the next Update so that you can choose to either have Boxes or Tubes only shown, or fully empty.

FreighterConKEmpty.jpg

FreighterConKBoxes.jpg

FreighterConKTubes.jpg

I didn't think about adding only the Tube option before. So that and a profile renaming will be out next time.
The rest you can explore and use now as needed

[PunkFriday]

Most Excellent!

[JC]

[Rich C]

[Rookie_One1]

Goddamn it JC!

[Vince T]

LMAO!

[Bman]

Good point. To perhaps add other containers that could be piggy backed onto that freighter and use the new profile hook to hide those meshes (imported .opts). I suppose the convoy trains could get pretty creative too with switching out .opts with custom models. Cargo Haulers & engines will eventually get an upgrade.

[Forceflow]

Good point. To perhaps add other containers that could be piggy backed onto that freighter and use the new profile hook to hide those meshes (imported .opts). I suppose the convoy trains could get pretty creative too with switching out .opts with custom ones too. Cargo Haulers & engines will eventually get an upgrade.

Already working on an updated Freighter Type K, though the options are pretty limited. Most of the containers are just insanely huge and don't fit at all. The pressure tank used in the current model is less than half of the original size. There might be a new version in the next update of the freighter sporting other configurations. Fun thing is that with the profiles feature there's a lot of options in terms of mixing and matching without having to have tons of different models.

[Bman]

Or what if the Freighter K is made just bigger and longer ? I suppose there is no cannon Wiki Source that officially has specs on it. Yep these profile hooks are awesome.

[Vince T]

Dude, will you please stop wanting to make everything bigger??

Size doesn't help, just look at the Death Star! They tried it twice!

[Forceflow]

Or what if the Freighter K is made just bigger and longer ? I suppose there is no cannon Wiki Source that officially has specs on it. Yep these profile hooks are awesome.

In order for that to fit you'd have to make the Freighter a LOT larger, compared to other ships it would be humongous then. And then of course we'd run into compatibility issues again. We are really trying to stay within the given size of any craft these days. A bit here and there is okay, but that would easily mean to double the size of the freighter. That's just asking for trouble

[Bman]

Edit: was just thinking. The opposite approach could be taken. Make a derivative works of existing containers but make them smaller or even as different custom shapes, textures, and so on that could properly fit on the freighter. These could be hidden profile meshes by default so freighter starts empty, but unhide an inventory of different things when wanted.

[Drinkinmiester]

fiddling around with the modding tools one night I made sever variants of those ships with containers... but I like JC's idea better lol

[keiranhalcyon7]

Nice updates! So, does the stat profiles, in combination with the opt replacer, allow the craft limit to effectively be broken? (Not within a mission, but from mission to mission or campaign to campaign.)

For the freighter K, what about the container models seen on the Medium Transport? I've always thought it was a shame that those container models (and also the ones on the freighter K) were one-offs. Could potentially be used in hangars, too, depending on the sizes.

Might also be cool to have less-loaded profiles for the bulk freighter, container transport, modular conveyer, etc.

[Forceflow]

For the freighter K, what about the container models seen on the Medium Transport? I've always thought it was a shame that those container models (and also the ones on the freighter K) were one-offs. Could potentially be used in hangars, too, depending on the sizes.

Might also be cool to have less-loaded profiles for the bulk freighter, container transport, modular conveyer, etc.

The freighter K will get updated profiles with more container options. (More than shown above and all with properly sized containers) The containers on the medium transport aren't really that detailed and don't even exist as single objects. So I don't think we will use them anywhere else.
As for the others, it's possible but I think currently not planned on any of the models. Maybe when (or if) they are being upgraded again we can add some more profiles. It's not hard to do but would need some alterations on the models. While you can easily hide the meshes you will need to add some structure below it, currently that would only leave a hole in the side of the crafts.

[Haakan]

Nice updates! So, does the stat profiles, in combination with the opt replacer, allow the craft limit to effectively be broken? (Not within a mission, but from mission to mission or campaign to campaign.)

If I got it right, only the IFF I.D. would be remaining. Namely the "new" ship would still retain the original IFF I.D.

[Ace Antilles]

We've got a lot more Skins and Profiles added in Update 4!

First up we have the TIE Bomber. It has a First Order Skin and Shuttle and Advanced profiles. Also a Void skin template.

Void.jpg

TIE Bomber Profile.jpg

The new Shuttle has Rebel and Imperial cockpit pilot variant profiles.

Shuttle.jpg

The Platform 4 has multiple skins.

Platform 4 Skins.jpg

Then there's some updates to old models.
I made 3 different versions of the Family Repair Yard. Great for small yard options.

Family Repair Yard Profile.jpg

The Pirate Shipyard is turned into just rock with a hangar cut inside. No external buildings.

Pirate ShipYard Profile.jpg

The Repair Yard has had it's claws removed. Make it look kinda like a base from the Clone Wars

Repair Yard Profile.jpg

The Shipyard has been simplified for different building choices.

Shipyard Profile.jpg

Finally our largest use of Profiles to date. The Freighter Con K has 10 options available! @Forceflow fitted every possible container option he could onto the back of this ship. So there are lots of options for a cool fleet of transports.

Freighter Con K Profile.jpg

All of the names to use these Profiles are in the ships named INI file in the Flightmodels folder.

[Ace Antilles]

Update 5 brings us new Skins and Profiles to use.

Millennium Falcon – Ace Antilles has made many changes and improvements to the ship and pilots.
The 3 different versions of the ship have now been merged into 1 using Object Profile and Skins.
When flying The Battle of Endor then Lando will be used by default.

Millennium Falcon Profiles.jpg

So now you can choose which pilot you want for a specific mission without having to default to that all the time.
For The Force Awakens, the profile changes the sensor dish and then if you apply the TFA skin you get the older Han.
All the pilots have had improvements to the textures and Lando & Nien Nunb have been redone in outfits as seen in the ROTJ!

Skins: There are now 4 different versions of Han Solo skins that can be used. All with slightly different movie outfits.
Based on his looks in A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

Millennium Falcon Skins.jpg

So now you can choose the Falcon from any movie period to use in your custom missions.
You can still use Babu Frik's Configurator to default to your favourite choice.