Hello again ZtheE Studios, from what I had seen when I used the KC-130 the pods did appear to be painted to match
the skin so I assumed they were, however, when I had loaded the KC-130 I mainly had all grey skins on them as that
is what Alex had provided for the default so never paid any attention to it until you asked. What you say is correct
those pods are mapped to that area but here you see a issue with the camouflaged RAF aircraft and it is the same for
the South East Asia scheme:
Until your request I had not opened the mesh up but I did to see what I could do and decided with removal of the fuel
filler it would most likely do as it seemed to be roughly the right size compared to photographs of real aircraft that were
carrying those inner wing tanks.
Anyway, when I took the mesh into gmax and opened it to see the mapping I could see the reason for the odd pattern
for the RAF pods, the pod is broken down into four sides:
If I close in further you get a better idea:
And further out you see another area:
Before I looked at this I sort of assumed maybe the tank had been mapped from the profile view
where you just map one side and essentially capture the whole shape both sides like here:
The reason for that was that when I did look at the texture that is what it seemed to indicate but
on opening it it was not the case although it had been positioned over that area as you say.
Another issue was the size, I thought maybe Alex had enlarged what I thought was the Skyraider pod
because the size looked right on the Hercules, I asked last night in a mail but he has not got back yet.
Downside is the size as it does not match the fuel tank area on the texture but I could maybe enlarge
the mapping and if possible move the pylon part of the map. I would have to experiment.
So, it does look like we have that Skyraider pod question is what to do.
I can remove the fuel filler nozzle, that is easy enough to do. As for mapping, well I could either integrate
the mapped areas I have into one, however, if they do not match exactly that could cause further ugly
outcomes as we see on the RAF aircraft or I can just do as described above which is map the pod right
through on the face that matches the area painted on the texture, that would mean you get a duplicated
pattern on the opposite side, it might not look perfect on some textures but at least it would save those
who skinned this already needing to colour new areas for the tanks.
As for java for it, yes, if it is to work as a fuel tank then it needs to be added to the arms folder and would also
need to be added using the armament options also set up in the java so you could have it on or off depending
on what you wished so some alterations there and it would need to be created first as a tank.
The alternative is just add it in the hier but it would be strictly eye candy, does anyone fly this thing so far that
they actually need extra fuel tanks?
As I said in the earlier post the pack still needs a lot of things adding but right now I cannot devote more time to it
other than maybe convert the pod, then I have to prioritise other things.
Take care and be safe.
Wishing you all the very best, Pete.