
CFS-3 P-38J skin for WWII Fighters
by John "Skycat" Turner and Vincent "MEGA" Crane.
Dec. 12, 2004


Project history
---------------
A little over a year ago, in November 2003, MEGA sent me a beta version of the P-38 model and skin ('Beautiful Lass') he had been working on.  While the package I received didn't have a damage model yet, I could see there was exciting promise in what MEGA had accomplished.  To begin with, the resolution of his skin was increased significantly over the 'stock' P-38; in addition, he was working on a system to make random and interchangeable noseart options.  (I understand that a version of 'Beautiful Lass' was later submitted to ww2fighters.org but got lost in the shuffle and has yet to be posted as a download.)

Since 'Beautiful Lass' was an adaptation of a custom Combat Flight Simulator 2 skin, I began to wonder if I could adapt a skin from Combat Flight Simulator 3 to MEGA's model.  I chose the skin from the stock CFS-3 P-38J as my resource.  The CFS-3 P-38J is nicely weathered and, despite some frustrating ahistorical markings, visually matches the default WWII Fighters version pretty closely.  I began work in September 2004.

In the end it turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated. :-)  On and off, I worked on the cutting, pasting, resizing, painting and tweaking that was required, and eventually I had a satisfactory skin.  Underneath my additions you can still find bits of MEGA's skin (chiefly the noseart of the girl) but nearly everything you see in-game comes from the stock CFS-3 P-38J skin.  I used Hammerd's "California Cutie" P-38 skin for a few components as well.

This package has a damage model (easy stuff, I just duplicated the regular model and reassigned some bitmaps) and a damage skin.  For the damage textures, I used Tom-Eye's damage textures .PSDs, Johnny Red's bullet holes .PSD, and the damage layer from Rammjager's P-51D paint kit.


Important Notes
---------------
1. The full model and skin is installed by clicking the "Install_CFS3 P38.bat" icon.  With the skin a noseart is automatically installed -- this art is based on the 'Beautiful Lass' noseart graphic. 

2. When the model installs, it will automatically include a new pilot texture for the cockpit.  The graphic the model uses has been renamed from default "USPILOT" to "P38PILOT" so it will not conflict with any of the other pilot textures in the game.  (This texture was created by Rammjager for his P-51D v1 model, by the way.)

3. If you would like to replace the stock Allied pilot texture (shown in the bail-out sequences and in the cockpit of any default Allied aircraft) to match the new P-38 pilot, use the "XTra Allied Bail Pilot.bat" icon.  Warning: This will globally change the bail-out pilot for all Allied planes including the Spitfire. However, I believe this replacement looks better and is more 'universal' than the default.

4. If you prefer to have no noseart on your P-38, use the "X-Tra_No Noseart.bat" icon.

5. I've included five alternate nosearts, all directly from Combat Flight Simulator 3.  Some of them are kinda cheesy, I know, but in my opinion these were among the best of the dozen or so that CFS-3 offers.  I did them up in about ten minutes, mostly to give you some examples to work from if you want to make your own. Here's what they are:
   A) XTra_NoseArt_01 = "Bang Yer Dead", a cowgirl in front of a yellow star.
   B) XTra_NoseArt_02 = "French Dressing", a brunette in an evening gown reclining seductively.
   C) XTra_NoseArt_03 = "Cocked 'N' Loaded", a hillbilly with a shotgun.
   D) XTra_NoseArt_04 = "Maiden America", a patriotic blonde posed like Betty Grable.
   E) XTra_NoseArt_05 = "Kickin' Ace", a mule kicking rockets. 

6. You can always go back to my original noseart ("Spit Shine") by using the "XTra_NoseArt_Original.bat" icon.


~ Skycat.



--------------
Installation
--------------

Before installing this, or any other, custom modification, you are advised to make a backup of your original ww2.sqs archive. 

This distribution utilizes 512x512 (high resolution) textures.  Video card related issues including crashes to desktop may be experienced if you are utilizing a card that can not handle 512*512 textures.

Extract the contents of this archive to the WWII Fighters\Data directory.  Assuming the
default installation, this is: C:\Program Files\Jane's Combat Simulations\WWII Fighters\Data

The files will be extracted to a new directory WWII Fighters\Data\P38_CFS3.

Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the WWII Fighters\Data\P38_CFS3.

To install the modification, double-click on the install_CFS3_P38 icon.
     
This will open up a DOS session and the installation will proceed in this window. A message "INSTALLING MEGA's P38 Beautiful Lass MOD" will be displayed. When the installation is complete, a message saying "INSTALLATION OF Beautiful Lass COMPLETE...CLOSE DOS SESSION" will be displayed in the window.  Close the DOS session by clicking on the X close button in the top right corner of the window.

Installation is now complete.


------------------------------------------------
MEGA's Original Notes For 'Beautiful Lass'
------------------------------------------------

P38 Beautiful Lass.zip

Vincent "MEGA" Crane

Due to popular request, this mod is being released in an unfinished condition - the primary item missing is the damage files. A little more effort could be put into lining up the bitmaps as well.

This aircraft represents an extremely detailed model of the Lockheed Lightning P-38J-25-LO "Beautiful lass". It is based upon texture files modified from a re-paint by J-P "Gray Wolf" Demmerle (jpdemmerle@bluewin.ch) for CFS2. "Gray Wolf" not only did an outstanding job on the repaint, but was very supportive of the modification process. (Please drop him a line and let him know if you really enjoy this skin).   
 

Designer's Notes

This mod was developed in November and December 2002 and has been on the back burner for too long. I had intended to package it with several other skins in a FLIGHT package (random skin generation mod I've been developing). The FLIGHT package will instead be released with the "P51Ds of the 4th Fighter Group" mod due to the abundance of source material. 

"Gray Wolf's" original files were 1024*1024 bitmaps. I lost some resolution in reducing them for use on the P38 model with only minor 3D modifications. I also utilized several of Hammerd's texteures and had to create a few textures from scratch.

There are several other quality skins using the same format available as well.  If anyone is seriuosly considering an update of the P38_s J3P, please investigate fashioning a model that could use segments of these bitmaps. 

Enjoy! 

MEGA

