FAQ

Here are my guiding principles on liveries for my assets:

• Avoid markings since I need the assets to be able to be used by several countries without having to redo all the textures

• Two liveries: camouflage and desert (if user countries doesn't use camouflage it will instead be green)

You have to remember that every added bit of work becomes enormous with scaling. I have almost 200 assets to maintain, if I want to add a livery type to each, it'll take a long time since I have to make 200 new liveries. 

• You most certainly have a conflict between old and new assets of the same type.
• Make sure to delete all earlier versions of my assets.
• I re-packaged all my assets into country packs the 22th of December 2023 - make sure all earlier single assets are removed before installing the country packs and running DCS.
• Most of my earlier assets have folders with a CH-prefix - but there are some exceptions so be thorough when removing old assets.
• I always test all my assets simultaneous to make sure they work fine together.

• I have created and released more than 100+ assets and I need to maintain and support them, both in terms of new features, but also because of DCS updates that will break them.
• Maintaining that many single assets is an administrative nightmare, which is why I had to pack them together into country packs. 
• Some of you prefer the old distribution method with single assets, but if I wouldn't have switched over to the country packs I would have been able to keep doing this at all. 
• The biggest drawback with this new distribution method is the size of downloads needed when I update, because you would have to download the complete pack again no matter how small the actual changes are.
• I'm looking into new methods of implementing incremental updates though - so stay tuned. 

• All my assets are OvGME compatible packages. 
• If you have have OvGME setup and ready to use, just put the downloaded zip file in the configured folder and you'll be able to enable/disable it with the press of a button. No need for unzipping at all. 
• I recommend using OvGME!

• Open downloaded zip file and go into the first folder (for example CH Shahed 136 LM 1.0.0). 
• You will find a folder named Mods, extract it to your DCS Saved Games folder (in my case C:\Users\yourname\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\)
• This will place the asset in the correct path (in this case C:\Users\yourname\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Mods\tech\CH Shahed 136 LM 1.0.0\*.*)

• Nope, I don't do roadmaps or release plans. 
• I create the assets I want, when I want - and how I want. This is a hobby for me and I'm a one man band. 
• I always have several ongoing projects and switch between them. When I think something is good enough for release, I just release it. I won't glue myself to a release plan.

• Absolutely! I definitely want suggestions, please leave them in the forum thread on EDs forum. 

• The easiest way is by making a donation. All donations goes into sourcing new 3D models for new assets. 
• If you have skills in 3D modelling and want to help out, please contact me on Discord (username Currenthill). 

• Please use the forum thread on EDs forum for questions about my assets, support issues or bug reports.

• I put a lot of time and effort into making the assets as realistic as possible, with DCS limitations. A lot of the times there aren't DCS core support for the features I'm implementing, in those cases I have to implement workarounds that emulates the desired feature. These workarounds won't be perfect, but it's better than nothing. 
• When ED updates DCS I also go back to older assets and implement the new features. 
• I use OSINT sources for all my parameters. It's the best I can do. If you have a good case for changing a parameter, please submit a description of it in the ED forum.

• No. I texture all my assets in Substance Painter, so I don't make PS livery templates available. But you can ask for additional liveries as a suggestion in the ED forum thread.

• It's a combination. I first try to source a suitable model (checking format, vertices, quality of the mesh etc). But even in the best case scenario where I find a really nice model, there's a lot of work that I need to do with the mesh. I restructure the model, group objects, split objects, rig it for animation, create uvs, add missing details, add additional objects, replace stuff that doesn't look good. I then either increase of decrease the amount of vertices. Lastly I animate it and export the uvs to SP and continue with creating the textures (I make them from scratch). 
• In some cases where I really want an asset and there's no suitable 3d model available, I make it myself. But since I have bought a fair share of models and created a lot of stuff I can mostly put stuff together with what I have. That's what's good with the military stuff, there is a lot of standardization going on. And that really makes my life easier. 
• So while the work on the model (mesh) is a lot of work, that's just one part of the process. 
• Here's a quick overview of all the steps involved:
• 1) Research, 2) Mesh, 3) Uvs, 4) Animations, 5) Textures, 6) Code, 7) Sound, 8) Destroyed model, 9) Collision model, 10) Testing, 11) Documentation, 12) Publish, 13) Support
• I have created a very efficient workflow, which relies on me being the only developer. But as I mentioned in the forum thread, I cut some corners since I do this as a hobby and not officially for ED. For example, at the moment I don't create several LODs, and I don't spend too much time on optimizing the model (mesh and textures). This makes my assets pretty heavy to run. 
• But these are cons I'm prepared to accept to keep getting now assets released. But that is all I'm prepare to accept, I really try to keep the quality high in regards to realism of the weapons, I make every ammunition and weapon type myself so that I can tune and optimize their performance. I add all the details like small detailed animations on the assets, custom sounds etc. I'm not interested in creating the same assets with different 3d models. 

• I only make 4K textures and the polycount for my 3D models are pretty high. 
• At the moment I don't use LODs. 
• In order to create time for new assets and maintaining the already released ones, I minimize on optimization like the ones mentioned before. 

• I primarily focus on ground and sea assets. 
• Once in a while I make aircraft and helicopters, but only as AI.