Just an update for you all :- a few of us had a pretty successful test of the to-date skinpack last night. We found a couple of very minor errors, basically typos in two *.veh files, one causing a problem with a Renault for Denis, one causing Peter's name to be spelled wrong in the menus, both of which are easy fixes.
It was as good as I could have hoped for really, the actual skins themselves looked good, no graphical corruption and worked fine on all 4 cars (Renault 8 1100/1300, Simca 1150 SS/Corsa). Denis, Peter, Yves & I tested all cars and also jumped into everyone else's skins to make sure they all worked (spoiler alert: they did).
I'm going to be cracking on with it over the weekend, but it's really up to
@Denis Betty when he wants to implement these, and for what cars.
Just so everyone knows the score, here's a little FAQ from the questions I've been asked so far:
Q: Will I need to install the skin pack to be able to race?
No, but you need to be aware that if someone else is using a skinpack car, and you don't have it installed, you will see and hear them in the Temp Car throughout the event.
Q: How will we access the skinpack?
After talking to Denis, he will restructure the event threads slightly so there will be a "Required Downloads" section, comprising the track, the pitbox allocation fix and now the relevant skinpack(s).
Q: How are the skinpacks divided?
They are currently being divided by Racing class, so there will be a pack for the A0's, a pack for the A1's etc.
Q: How big are the skinpacks?
That's a little tricky to answer, because honestly "it depends". It depends on how many people want skins, how many cars in the class, etc. Here's an example for you:- So far in A0, I have done 4 cars x 9 people's skins, so 36 cars, and that pack is coming in at approx 8Mb. A0 has 10 vehicles in total, so if no-one else wants a skin, it'll be 90 cars total (10 cars x 9 people). If the scaling stays as it is, a complete A0 pack would come in at about 20Mb. Considering a small track comes in at about 35-45Mb, I don't think that is unreasonable, or onerous.
Q: Is the skin request window closed?
No, absolutely not. If you want a skin, I can accommodate you, as long as you can live with my interpretations and limitations:
No specific livery recreations, and liveries will at least attempt to be period specific. The skinpacks will be constantly updated.
Q: Will I have to install/uninstall for each race?
No - once the packs are installed they can remain in place, and any updates can be installed over the top allowing Overwrites.
Q: Will every car get this treatment?
Maybe in the fullness of time, but some cars have shedloads of default skins, so they will be lower on the list of priorities.
Q: If I have a skin design, will all of my cars be identical?
Similar? Yes. Identical? No. A skin that works on, say, a Renault 8 will probably not work on, say, a 911, so there will naturally be some latitude in design. If a car has a generally accepted classic design I'll often try to recreate that in your colours. If, however, we have multiple cars that use the same model, I'll be reusing skins wherever possible for speed purposes. Hence the R8's will be identical, the Simca 1150's...I'd guess most of the 911's without rear spoilers will be transferable, etc.
If you have any further questions that are not addressed above, please post it in here, and I'll do my best to address it.
