RD Race07 skinpack

[Björn]

The RaceDepartment skinpack
As discussed during the previous week(s), we're unifying the Mini/WTCC skinpacks into a new RaceDepartment skinpack. At the same time, we're extending the pack to include all other classes run during RD club events, so you can spraypaint your Radicals, GTs, everythings!

All skins by drivers who have signed up for a RD club event during the last three months as well as pending uploads have been migrated and are already available in the pack.

As usual, the pack is available as a 7zip file via the RD download resources and, in order to keep things tidy, now contains a slightly modified folder structure (see below).
Updates, if there are any, will be issued every Sunday - given the current club event structure, this allows short-term skin development targeted at vehicles used at the next week's events right after they are announced

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Guidelines & Informations
(a.k.a. "I don't wanna call this rules, we're still casually racing )

• updates will be published every Sunday evening(GMT-ish time), please make sure skins are submitted by then to see them included.
• since we're drastically increasing the amount of permitted car models, your skins will be removed from the pack after 60 days of not signing up for club events - of course, you are free to re-submit your skins once you restart racing.
• please stick to the default skin sizes - oversized skins have been causing problems in the past (for example, for WTCC skins, body/windows/internal dds files should be less or equal to 1366/683/513 KB)
• each car can only be present once per driver - another upload of the same car will replace your current skin
• one skinned car per class (WTCC/GT Club/Retros etc.) is what's desired - should you find yourself to be switching cars often enough to justify it, however, you may enter multiple skins per class - please mention this accordingly in your upload.
• the skin pack features a root folder which should be placed in Race07's user files (for Win7/8, entering "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\SimBin\RACE 07\CustomSkins" in Windows Explorer should get you there). Inside this folder, there are user-based folders which might, in turn, contain car-based folders - but I'll take care of that

Add your skin
Getting your skin added is easy - just zip/rar/7zip it, upload it somewhere (dropbox, mega, the choice is yours) and link it in this topic. If everything's fine, it will be added to the next update.
You don't have a skin yet? Whoops! Well, basically, there are three ways to overcome this dilemma:

1. Get your Paintbrushes out and skin your dream car! Basic skinning is actually quite easy and very well covered in this RD guide. Software-wise, the guide (rightfully) covers GIMP and Paint.Net, a worthwhile addition might be Inkscape in case you work with or need scalable graphics.
   Spoiler: file information

   The guide mentioned above only covers body and windows skinning, so here are the formats which other files should be saved as:
   Body/Driver/Ext_Driver/Numberplate = DDS file, DXT1 with Mipmaps (6, if adjustable)
   Windows/Helmet = DDS file, DXT5 with Mipmaps (6, if adjustable)
   InteriorWindow = DDS file, DXT5 without Mipmaps
   Menuflag (menu) = 32Bit TGA file, 60x45px
   IngameFlag (result screen)= 32Bit TGA file, 40x20px
   The base files needed can be found in RD's download section: Base Game | STCC | Retro | Additional.
   Spoiler: Content of Base templates

   WTCC 87/06/07, Mini, Caterhams, F3000, FBMW, Radicals + Nameplates/Driver/Helmet templates
   Spoiler: Content of STCC templates

   STCC2, Camaro Cup Gen5, Retro Volvos (240, 850)
   Spoiler: Content of Retro templates

   Retro Cool, Retro Max
   Spoiler: Content of additional templates

   Camaro Cup Gen4, GT Club, GT Pro, GT Sport, Muscle Cup, Formula Master, Formula RR, WTCC Extreme, Seat Leon TDI, Lada 110s, additional STCC1 cars (Peugeot 308, BMS Incognito, Audi A4)
2. Use Simplivery to create basic skins for a few cars.
3. Don't have the time or patience to do it on your own? Well, some of us really like this stuff and might be willing to create a car or two for you - just post into this topic and ask for help
   (Do you like designing cars and want to be contacted for skinrequests directly? Shoot me a PM and we'll get your name in here!)
4. Found the skin of your dreams on some site or the RD download section? We might get it included as well, however, please contact the author and make sure he's alright with this!

Status
Currently, there are no skins waiting to be included - the pack's up to date!

 

[ajokay]

Aww @Daniel Linder, nothing better than racing in a car of your own creation with your own identity! Although that is easier said than done, I understand.

Gotta love RacingColour.co.uk!

 

[Nelson Ullinskey]

Well, I have to be completely and embarrassingly honest: I have not downloaded any form of RD skin-pack in months

Well, that changed today, and I must say great work Bjorn . Thank you much for puting this together. Maybe sometime in the near future I will submit some skins of my own. I am still working on understanding this stuff .

 

[Björn]

Well, thank you
Regarding a nice entry into skinning, the Mini as well as most of the touring cars (at least the Seat and Cruze, I think the Honda has some weird mirroring going on IIRC? But you're changing touring cars pretty often, anyway ) would likely be a good start, especially since the Mini is actually used as an example in the RD guide.
Another "easy" skinnable car is the Radical, despite not looking like it at first glance - however, all parts are neatly separated and provide a great and easy way to work with different colors

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PSA & tagging time:
No updates this week, though next week, we'll cross the 60-day marker purging some skins that barely made the cut in the first place and have not been used since. Unfortunately, Justin's out for the time being, but maybe @Arne Dopudja, @Blaz Kosir, @Kennett Ylitalo, @Mark Bushell and @Matthias Klein want to "save" their skin by joining a race again?

Also, @Daniel Linder and @Michael van Scheppingen have posted skins in event topics recently, wanna get them added to the pack?

And finally - @Reggie Blain, @Reggie Blain Snr & @Aaron Channer have made a comeback and might wanna re-submit their skins?

 

[H34d5h07]

@Björn Golda

Yes, I want my skin to be added. However, I want to make a small change to it. No idea how to do it, but I would like to have my own name on the rear window. For now it's still the default name.

 

[Björn]

Alright

You'll need to skin the windows files as well in order to get your name onto them. For the Accord, those should be "Honda Accord Windows Int.psd" (interior view) and "Honda Accord Windows.psd" (exterior view) from the templates download. Both need to be saved as DDS files (DXT5, exterior with MipMaps, interior without )

 

[H34d5h07]

Okay, all that sounded like technical mumbo jumbo for me
There are only two files in the skin folder. The .ini file (I know what it does) and "GBKITTY.dds"
So, should I open up the .dds file with Photoshop or how do I proceed?

 

[Björn]

Whoopsies - I'm assuming that skin isn't your own, then? In that case, you might wanna get permission to use it over here from the author

As for the technical mumbo jumbo the DDS files are the actual graphic files, each representing an area of the car. The one present now is only the car's body - other parts, like the windows (from both the external & interior viewpoint) and various other, smaller parts (helmet, suit, nameplate... though most skins only go with the body+windows route ) have to be saved as a seperate DDS file generated from one of the template files provided by SimBin: Base Game | STCC | Retro | Additional (the Accord's in the base game files).

However, there's quite a bit more to this in terms of how to save each file, etc.. so if you want to spend the time, you might wanna have a look at the guide available at RD - if that doesn't sound like your thing, though, that's fair enough - hit me a PM once you got permission to use the skin and I'll get you some windows done (they are fairly easy, actually ) for the Honda

 

[H34d5h07]

Okay, I have tossed away a message to the author of the skin, but looking at his profile, he hasn't been active for a very long time. No mail could be found, so it does look dark atm. Also, the skin comes from another forum as well.

// EDIT

Also, hes account is banned, so yeah

 

[Aaron Channer]

And finally - @Reggie Blain, @Reggie Blain Snr & @Aaron Channer have made a comeback and might wanna re-submit their skins?

Here's my skin mate. https://www.dropbox.com/s/y6hfpsht7rg5n1o/Movie-Go Chan Accord.rar

Or if you prefer to use the same skin for Reggie, Reggie snr, Matthias and myself. There is a generic Movie-Go Honda skin that can be used by all. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j0ydvdtbmu2wtx7/Movie-Go Accord.rar

 

[Björn]

The update's live! Apart from @Aaron Channer's and @Daniel Linder's liveries, I've also included @Reggie Blain's skin from the previous skinpack, hopefully that was alright?
Apart from that, a few skins have been removed after not being raced in for 60+ days - all of which are invited to come back, of course

 

[Robert Covey]

Not sure if I'm uploading this soon enough for Friday event or properly but here is my first attempt of making my skins available. This File contains the following liveries. Download Zip File

 

[Björn]

Ain't it a good thing I was outdoors this afternoon?

The update's live! Including the Blains' and Robert's liveries (minus the McLaren one, that's mod content, unfortunately).

In other news: @Murat Erdogdu & @David Hudson are approaching the 60-day mark of not having raced - save your skins, join a race!

(Also, stay tuned for a livery-related treat (well, kinda) I might release into the wild tomorrow/sometime this week)

 

[Sam Hill]

Hi, could you add my around 7 mini skin to the pack please? I don't know how to upload it to another site but its on my RD account.
Thanks

 

[Robert Covey]

Ain't it a good thing I was outdoors this afternoon?

The update's live! Including the Blains' and Robert's liveries (minus the McLaren one, that's mod content, unfortunately)

I guess it was, didn't think I would make it. Shame my McLaren didn't make it as I like the livery. However the Cruze needs a facelift since splitting from bestbuy watch for an update possibly next week. See all the mini fans and racers on the track later today

 

[Connor Caple]

CooperColours works great. Great job on that application. Maybe you should add it as a fourth option to the "How do I get a skin" in the first post.

 

[Connor Caple]

I'm not sure I'm doing this right, but I made a mini-skin using CooperColours and I'd like to run it in the Mini Friday race this week.

Google Drive claims people can see this - if you cannot download it, please let me know how to upload it to RD and I'll try that instead. I'm pretty new at this file sharing stuff

7Zip File on Google Drive

 

[Björn]

Looking good, I'll add it on Wednesday

 

[Björn]

Removing a few liveries, adding a few more.. update completed & live!

Enjoy

 

[Björn]

FYI: I've added about three weeks to everyone's "last raced" column in my spreadsheet, so fear not, your skins are safe - for now

 

[H34d5h07]

Cheers Björn. I were started to get little worried that my skin would see the bottom of the garbage bin
Now when the servers are back up, time to race again!