Hi all,

I have just uploaded some new weathered Balkencrosses TGA files for use with IL2- MAT. This work represents the first fruits of my collaboration with the very talented Russian graphics artist Alexey Drozdov who has produced some really great looking weathering effects. I allways find it exciting and interesting working with others who share my love of graphics and IL2/FB and I'm very much looking forward to working with Alexey on more artwork in the near future.

The TGA files will unzip to your "Regiments" folder. The supplied MAT files will unzip to a new subfolder of you "CoopRegt" folder called "Balkencrosses Alexey and Aces" Simply copy the MAT files to your main "CoopRegt" folder being carefull to first backup any existing files of the same name allready present in this folder.

Please take a few minutes to stop by my guestbook page and express your appreciation to Alexey for his fine work.



Download Link

We hope that you enjoy using it.

Best Regards

Aces and Alexey.

Tested it=I love it

Tnx

very nice!

How do you get these to work?

Cheers.

Thanks guys,

Hi E.Blackadder (nice name),

You will need the IL2-MAT program from this location on my website:

IL2-MAT program download link

Then install and configure the program as per the instructions included or as discribed on this page:

IL2-MAT Instuctions Link

There are many other MAT and TGA file downloads available on my website for use with the IL2-MAT program. Drop me a message if you have any problems.

Best Regards

Aces

Cheers, I'll go give it a go now, thanks.

Great utility!

One small problem though - if I use IL2 Stab to display the swastika for the German and Finnish planes the IL2MAT is disabled. If I turn off IL2 Stab, I loose the weathered balken crosses etc.

Is there a way to get the swastikas on the German planes? I guess you could deal with the Finnish ones by replacing the post war roundel...

Hi Miglancer,

Thanks, I'm not running Stab but there's probably a setting in it for disabling it from loading the hakencrosses then let IL2-MAT load ALL MAT files including the hakencrosses (weathered version on my site)and unit emblems just like you can do with Il2-Manager. If anyone is running IL2-MAT and Stab together please can you post to this thread.

Regards

Aces

I just started using IL2mat this weekend after all this time. I've been using IL2Stab to enable the hakencrosses. I have the IL2mat weathered hakencrosses downloaded & installed. What I've found is when I first load up IL2 the harddrive chatters like crazy & my mouse cursor is choppy until I load up a mission. The first time the mission is loaded I get the weathered balkencrosses but not the hakencrosses or the unit emblems or group/aircraft numbers. If I then exit the mission & reload it everything is fine. & no harddrive chattering. If I have IL2stab running also I get the normal unweathered hakencrosses the first time & the weathered IL2mat ones after that. Maybe this is similar to MigLancers problem?

I have another question maybe you guys can help me with. When I unzip the mat files into the coopregt directory I don't get any mat files. I only get shortcuts to mat files. & I can't change the extensions or open them or edit them in any way. What the heck did I do wrong or what am I missing? I'm wondering if this has something to do with my hdd chattering? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Smokin,

Well I'm not too sure about the hard drive chattering that's a new one on me. There seems to be a link to MigLancer's post regarding Stab. As Stab now has the ability to use MATs for balkencrosses and also I believe emblems I think that they are both waiting to detect IL2FB.exe or IL2.exe to launch and there is some conflict as they are both trying to copy MAT files into the /Paintschemes/Cache folder before the FB executable launches, maybe Stab has a time delay to enable the copying of MATs to finish and this is effecting IL2-MATs functioning. I don't know if Stab has an option to disable this loading MATs (hakencrosses and emblems) feature and let IL2-MAT load all MAT files.

Basically IL2-MAT waits in memory to detect one of the IL/FB exes and then copies all of the MAT files it finds in whichever directory you set it up for (my MATs allways unzip to a folder called "CoopRegt". It then copies all of these MATs to the /PaintSchemes/Cache folder. The MATs themselves allways expect the graphic file (TGA format) which they load to be in the /PaintSchemes/Regiments folder (This has to be hard-wired) as it is impossible to guess where folks might put them otherwise.

Some of my downloads with optional types such as my different styles of weathered hakencross are contained in sub directories of Regiments and need manually copying into the main Regiments folder before use. Likewise some of my optional MAT files are contained in subfolders of CoopRegt and would also need copying over into the main CoopRegt folder before use.

This sounds complicated but it isn't really for example I have produced two styles of coloured yellow LW numbers (different RLM numbers) the MATs to load them only need copying/unzipping once into CoopRegt but the TGA files would need to be swapped round from their sub directories of Regiments into the main Regiments folder where they can stay untill you want to try/use the other yellow colour numbering TGAs.

I don't know what could be causing the shortcuts thing I've never come across this before. Most of my MAT and TGA files should unzip directly into CoopRegt and Regiments folders repectively. It look as if you have just created shortcuts to non-existant files and not unzipped the actual files ?!. What unzip program do you use ?. The MAT files are all very small text files with a MAT rather than TXT file extension. One can edit them in a text editor such as Notepad in order, for example to change the patch that that particular MAT file uses to load whatever graphic(s) eg. my MATs allways load the substitute graphic from ../Regiments/filename.TGA (a relative path that asumes that whatever folder contains the MAT files sits directly below the main IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles folder Which is where CoopRegt is created when unzipping one of my files for the first time.

Which download file did you unzip that created the shortcuts ?, was it my main "All files download" ?, I'll try and duplicate your problem if I can. Also please confirm that you are running the latest IL2-MAT program with the "new" il2hook.dll file and that you have configured it as per the readme file with the FB program location and location of the MAT files. Also are you using it's squadrons tab facility to load substitute emblems ?.

Best Regards

Aces

i had this problem,and it was due to wrong name in .mat files for desired TGAs or wrong folder name.

to have the whole thing working one needs to have il2stab running but launch FB via il2mat,for the record.

and anytime you load an option (weathered hakken for example),be sure to read the read me if available,if not check the corresponding .mat files to check wich TGA it's looking for.

BTW,those latest crosses are awesome

Hi Richard,

Thanks for helping out with the Stab stuff m8, much appreciated. I'm uploading 4 weathered Red Stars later when I get in from work that I just got from Alexey and I did my stuff. Alexey supplies me with the graphics with some super weathering including opaque areas that I can use to add some background mud/dirt effects. I hope that you enoy the new files.

Best Regards mon ami,

Aces

sounds good

any spare time to work on the missing custom numbers for VVS acft ?

and a remark: when you decide wich "ultimate" redstars you will use for VVS acfts,it would be nice to have red numbers matching the color of stars.of course it's not a priority,but if you ever find the time...

Hi m8,

any spare time to work on the missing custom numbers for VVS acft ?

I think that if I sleep one hour less every night during the week then I'll have a whole 7 hours a week to work on them , seriously though they're on my list of things to do m8.

when you decide wich "ultimate" redstars you will use for VVS acfts,it would be nice to have red numbers matching the color of stars

Okay, np, difficult because I guess different people will prefer different stars but if there's one set that you prefer I could do red numbers to match. As some of my numbers use a parameter in the MAT files which changes the colour then you could experiment with this. Have look at my MAT and TGA file tutorial for info on the relevant line in the MAT file which sets colour values. You could sample the red that you like and experiment with this paremeter to get the colour of the numbers to match. There's a formula on that page expalining how to turn RGB values (as per your sample red) into the correct value to enter in the MAT file.

There's also a link on that page to a nice "find and replace" program that you could use to change the colour value line in a batch of MAT files to the value that you have established which will speed up the process of editing all of the MATs that load a particular number set for a particular plane type(s) for the squadron number that uses red numbers.

Regards

Aces

PS. You could, for example, using Paintshop Pro use the eye dropper function to sample a pixel in the Red Star TGA file and then have a look at it's RGB values and use the conversion formula on my tutorial page to calculate the new value to be put into the relevant line in the numbering MAT file(s).

Hi Richard,

Here's the bit from my tutorial page regarding the parameter in the MAT file which enables colouring:

A colour "tint" can be applied to a graphic for example if you design a white coloured graphic and wish this to be displayed in another colour then this is how it works. The first three parameters of the ColourScale are values of Red, Green and Blue ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 where 0.0 = 0 and 1.0 = 255. So if, for example, these parameters are set to 0.501 0.501 0.501 then your graphic will be mid-tone grey (Red 128, Green 128, Blue 128). To convert from RGB values in your graphics program DIVIDE the Red value by 255 then do the same for the Green and Blue values eg. 128/255 = 0.501. I have taken this to three decimal places. I'm not sure what the final parameter does , I though it might be some form of intensity value but settings other than 1.0 cause the graphic not to be displayed !

Regards

Aces

Thanks AH - I have to admit that I just d/l'd IL2 MAT and am yet to read the instructions throughly and check what is available to d/l for IL2 MAT.

Thanks rollnloop for advice - will try that later on.

Cheers

... Later on....

Yep - get the files in the correct folders, open IL2 Stab then start the game via IL2MAT.

Thanks guys!

Hey guys. Just thought I'ld give a little update. I got it all figured out finally. The hdd chattering & choppy mouse problem was caused by my not waiting long enough for the files to be copied. With a P3-600 & 512mb ram (I know I need to upgrade, I'm workin' on it!!! ) it takes a while. About two & a half minutes My mat file shortcut problem was caused by files with .mat extensions being set to open with Microsoft Access. I have no idea why but when I went into folder options/file types & removed .mat files from the list everything went back to normal.

Anyway thanks for the help & Aces thank you for all Your hard work. We're not worthy!!! Really!

Cheers.........Smokin256

Hi Smokin m8,

I'm pleased that you sorted out your problems, well done m8 and thanks for posting your solutions for the benefit of others.

I should have thought about the Microsoft Access shortcut problem as I have seen this before, long ago when first experimenting with MAT files but it had slipped my old, and flakey memory.

I have e-mailed Andrew and asked him if it is possible to incorporate an optional and variable time delay feature between detecting FB exe launching, copying the MAT files and running FB into the next version of IL2-MAT which, I hope and think, would overcome this problem.

Best regards

Aces

thanks for explanation leigh m8

sadly i don't have photoshop or paintshop pro and especially miss enough time,but if i cand find some spare (maybe in 3-6 monthes) i'll give it a go,thanks

Hi Richard,

NP if you have a favourite redstar TGA that you would like the red numbers to match then send it to me and I'll sample the red and convert the values to be entered into the MAT files.

Salut mon ami

Leigh

it 's really kind of you leigh.i just tested with yours and they match ok (i was previously using Avirex's),but the issue remains with missing plane numbers,because default FB red numbers are much clearer.

this concerns many early il2s (41/42),La5F,P40E,P47D10,yak9T,Hurri terrain mod,and nearly all AI only planes except Pe2/3.

Later i'll try to have matching colors for avirex's stars but initially it would be great to have the missing ones

i'll be far for a week (work),don't need to make it for tomorow

and well,i hope i won't be the only one to enjoy it,but at least i will,and thank you a thousand times for your art