AMS2 - User Livery Overrides

@Wolfgang Herold don't shoot me for this....
but should there not be a blank image cutout for all cars so we have a uniform look for the car selection screens? I mean, if i make a livery and make a preview picture from a slightly different angle it will make the whole page look messy!! This is a big problem in AC (IMO) where car previews all come from different angles.
Can't there be a template for all car for the preview? ATM most livery creators seem to be very close but for some getting the right angle may not always be spot on.

 

I may be wrong but shouldn't this be available for all cars? I think AMS2 is in such a unique position with its non moddable platform (ish) to stay uniform and polished, but if liveries are available for the community to make (awesome) but previews of them from different angles then that polish and uniformity will soon be lost.

 

why should i shoot somebody.
Nice idea, but wrong direction.
All we need is a showroom option for a predefined fixed camera position and the option to set the background to single color.

 

here is what. I have done. Skin is not showing up. what have i done wrong. i have saved it as montana.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<USER_OVERRIDES>

<!--
Create a copy of this file without the '_dist' part and place it beside this one

eg 'montana_dist.xml'
should become
'montana.xml'

Define a 'LIVERY_OVERRIDE' section for each default livery you wish to replace.

A LIVERY_OVERRIDE definition must be based on one of the base liveries provided which will provide
variations where required. The LIVERY attribute determines which base game livery is replaced.
A NAME attribute must be set

Within a LIVERY_OVERRIDE definition each desired texture override
should be defined in a TEXTURE element. Any texture not present will use the texture from
the BASELIVERY.

Additionally a PREVIEWIMAGE element with a PATH attribute can be used to note a texture for use
in the game's UI. (2048 x 600 px )

Texture PATH attributes are relative to this file's directory. Further sub-directories are
permissable and their structure is left to the users own preference.

LIVERY IDs can be viewed in the game UI by running the game with -showLiveryIDs switch/launch option

AVAILABLE BASE LIVERIES
=======================

Default: Default body only skin
Available textures:
BODY - the main external body/window paint texture
- 4096 x 4096
- DXT1 with MIPs

WindowGlass: Windscreen skin
Available textures:
BODY - the main window glass paint texture
- 2048 x 2048
- DXT5 with MIPs

-->

<LIVERY_OVERRIDE LIVERY="51" NAME=""Emerson Racing Team" BASELIVERY="Default">
<PREVIEWIMAGE PATH="ertmon\ertmonp.dds" />
<TEXTURE NAME="BODY" PATH="ertmon\ertmon.dds" />
</LIVERY_OVERRIDE> -->






</USER_OVERRIDES>

 

you need to delete that "-->" in bold at the end of this line, just </LIVERY_OVERRIDE> and there is a doble "" in NAME=""Emerson Racing Team"

You can use some online validator like XmlLint - Awesome XML Formatting & Beautification

 

<LIVERY_OVERRIDE LIVERY = "51" NAME = "" Emerson Racing Team "BASELIVERY =" Par défaut ">
<LIVERY_OVERRIDE LIVERY = "51" NAME = " Emerson Racing Team "BASELIVERY =" Par défaut ">

 

Has anybody got any tips for lining up colours between different panels? I have Photoshop on a different PC upstairs, so it's taking a lot of guessing, testing, running back and forth. The masking often doesn't seem to line up, even on each side of the car.

 

its trail&error.
Many uv maps are not mirrored.
For painting i suggest to install steam and AMS2 on your workPC to save time
And use vector shapes for lines. That are easier to move.

 

In both the GTP mod for NR2003 and iRacing I used a lot of time and energy to paint my own cars.
And I must admit that sometime I used a lot more time painting my cars than driving them.
But in these sims the painting tools and specially how to get the paints into the sim was way more transparant and "polished" than in AMS2 - at the current stage.

ByTheWay: As I evaluate the painting status in AMS2 I consider it more or less as hacking a racing game not created for custom and/or extra paints.
And eventhough I respect people who bother to mess with this awkward painting "hacking" I admit that I consider it more or less as a joke - mainly because the devs dont want to use time creating an integrated paint importing tool.

 

Compared to what PC2 offered, Reiza has already done a huge job, we are no longer limited to a single custom livery.
All that remains is to have the possibility of adding and not just replacing liveries. It also lacks an efficient viewer, but other than that I don't see where the joke is, there aren't many Sims that offer to make their own liveries, or else it's limited, and Raceroom even less than the others. Better to use Photoshop.

 

BTW: thats BS.
The only professional sim today with an integrated painting system is ACC.
And to create really good ones for ACC, you'll have also to use external programs.
All other don't have one. And Raceroom doesn't support it in any way.
The rest is made for kids ( not meant bad ) on xbox and ps, where you cannot import own graphics easily.

 

So except to be able to add further custom paints than the standard ones then there are no shortcommings in AMS2 compared to most other racing games?
OK

But in as example iRacing and NR2003 and all its mods you just have to:
1. Create a paint in the universal picture format tga
2. And then place the tga file in the car paints folder
3. Inside the game you just import the created tga file in any car you want.
4. No there is no 4. - because to the contrary of as example AMS2 you dont have to mess with any goofy text syntax to tell the game exactly what paint file to use upon one of the restricted standard paints. The game know it allready because this import service is integrated.

ByTheWay: In the mentioned games you can create and paint as many cars as you want(and team crews too). And you dont have to mess with any fancy adons to as example PhotoShop or Gimp because every paint program can create a tga file.

 

Record a livery in 4096px in DDS, and then the same image in TGA, you will see the difference in weight. And the TGA compression completely destroys the images (degraded)
10 MB in DDS
32 MB in TGA (without compression)
30 Cars on the track and you quickly saturate your memory.
Not to mention the export options available in DDS, non-existent in TGA.
But hey, you're right (as usual) Photoshop or Gimp really isn't needed.

 

ByTheWay:
No one said the livery system was perfect in AMS2, but the joke isn't from Reiza but from SMS.

 

Hopefully things do improve a lot in this area, many of the cars have terrible/limited livery options to start with. And at least in iRenting you're able to integrate with 'Trading Paints' so liveries can be viewed online, IMO we should be at least matching that kind of feature going forward... And ideally not so much messing about. Appreciate what we can do for the moment though.

 

TGA is a bit retro.
I think they wrote that importer 20 years ago and stayed with that nonsense.
Very progressive

 

does this engine use AO layers? are they applied to the model as a whole and not on individual skins? or just it just not use them?

 

Powershell

 

Right.
But why do you post this plain bland statement?
Has anybody postulated that AMS2´s "livery system was perfect" ?

ByTheWay: Or even is perfect?

 

Is it not possible to skin the Brabham BT44 currently?

EDIT: Nevermind, found it... It's listed in the folders as just the "formula_retro".