Targetware: 2D Textures

Working with Skins

Skin Basics

The Targetware engine allows for an unlimited number of 'skins' to be used with each 3D object. In Targetware terms, a "skin" is a texture file that replaces the default texture file associated with an object. It allows a single 3D model to have several different marking schemes. An example of a skin would be a F4U scheme set for VMF-225, that replaces the default VMF-213 marking set. Skins can be assigned to aircraft by players, through the "skins" item on the online menu, as in the follow example:

Skins can also be pre-assigned by scenario designers, see the documentation for scenario creation for more information.

At this point, you may be asking: "Why do I even need skins? Can't I just replace the original texture with my own, and be done with it?" The answer is: "Maybe." If you are only ever going to play offline, then you can do whatever you want. But if you are going to play online, and you replace an original texture with a custom one, when you hit the online server, it will notice that your texture is different from the one on the server, and either kick you off, or upload an original one to replace it. So the way to get around that is to create a skin file points to your custom textures. If you do that, it will not get replaced when you log in, and you won't get kicked off servers for having it.

Creating Skin Files

A Targetware skin is composed of a skin descriptor file, which is just a simple text file whose filename ends in ".skn", and one or more textures that will be wrapped over the 3D airplane or other object. The .skn skin descriptor file is used to tell the graphics engine which of your texture files you want to be used. You can create and edit .skn files in any text editor that saves in text-only format (BBEdit, WordPad, etc.). Let's look at a sample .skn file:

The comment lines (those starting with #...) are optional, but it is a good idea to include a few words to describe each skin. You may know exactly what that skin is, but not everyone will, and even you might forget in the future. Put down an appropriate amount of information so everyone knows how to use the skin file in scenarios.

The [Skin] section is used to assign a name to the skin. Use something descriptive, this is what players will see in the Select Skin menu shown above. The second line in the [Skin] section tells the game how many texture files you will be controlling with this skin. An airplane will typically use 2 textures, but a simpler object might only use one.

For each [Texture n] section, specify the original texture file, and the name of the file you want to replace it with. Notice the replacement file in this example is in a 'skn' subdirectory. Using a subdirectory keeps all the skin textures together in one place, and not floating all over the plane's main directory. In this case, we are replacing the default skin for the Zero A6M2 with one from the 582nd Kokutai. When you make your own .skn files, you would put in the names you chose for your custom textures. The original texture filenames must match the default textures used by the model, or your skin won't show up.

Skin File Naming Conventions (for Target Rabaul artists)

• Skin files (xxxx.skn) must start with 'skn_'. All lowercase, no spaces in the file name.
   
• Skin files (xxxx.skn) must be in the plane's main directory in order to be seen by the game.
   
• Name your skin files with the variant, if any. "skn_f4u1a_xxx" etc.
    If there is only one variant in the plane folder you are working from, you do not need to include the variant name in the filename.
• Skin texture folders should be broken up by plane variant. If you only have one plane variant in the model folder, then just name it "skn". If you have several variants co-existing in the 3D model directory, then you need a separate skin folder for each. For example, "skn_f4u1", "skn_f4u1a", "skn_f4u1d", etc, might be used in the Corsair directory.
   
• Skin textures should all be located in a subfolder whose name starts with 'skn'. This keeps skin folders and files together.
   
• For the actual name of the skin file, try to make it describe the unit, and if necessary, the time/place. 'skn_f4u1_vmf213.skn", "skn_zuikaku_1942.skn", etc. This makes it MUCH easier on the scenario editor to pick the right skin just by looking at the file directory, without having to open 10 different skin files to find the right one.
• Inside the subfolders, the names of the actual texture files are not that important, as long as they are correctly linked in the xxxx.skn file.