The Liveries
This section of the post shall outline the process for creating & submitting skins for the RDLMS Season 7.
NOTE: this shall only contain relevant details regarding how to create and submit skins for the RDLMS, and is NOT a tutorial for creating skins. Information for designing, producing and testing skins may be found here.
Every team confirmed as an entry for Season 7 of the RD Le Mans Series is required to submit a vehicle skin; failure to do so may lead to a penalty. Each team must supply a skin before the submission deadline of the first round in which they shall participate, so that the livery may be added to the custom skin pack for this league.
Once a skin pack has been created teams may use their livery if it has been included as part of the pack. At all other times the available default liveries must be used; no other (custom) liveries are permitted to be used on the server.
The submitted livery must use the template, from the provided
RDLMS Templates, corresponding to the team's chosen car model.
Elements that have been added to each template by RDLMS staff - number plates, league logo, sponsor logos, etc. - must not be moved; doing so may result in the rejection of your skin. [
SEE BELOW FOR UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT MOVING AND RESIZING ELEMENTS PLACED BY RDLMS STAFF]. Vehicle window skins will be added by RDLMS staff for each skin that has been submitted, and this will overwrite any modifications made to the windows by teams.
The skin templates for all of the available cars can be downloaded from here:
The following list specifies each of the cars and the name of the folder in which its template files can be found:
Prototype
- Alpine A450b Nissan - RDLMS_P2_Oreca03/2014
- Gibson 015S Nissan - RDLMS_P2_Zytek
- Ginetta Zytek 09S Nissan - RDLMS_P2_Zytek
- Ligier JS P2 HPD - RDLMS_P2_LigierJSP2
- Ligier JS P2 Judd - RDLMS_P2_LigierJSP2
- Ligier JS P2 Nissan - RDLMS_P2_LigierJSP2
- Lola B08/80 Judd - RDLMS_P2_LolaCoupe/2010
- Lola B09/86 Mazda - RDLMS_P2_LolaCoupe/2010
- Lola B11/83 HPD V6 - RDLMS_P2_LolaCoupe/2011
- Oreca 03 Judd BMW - RDLMS_P2_Oreca03/2014
- Oreca 03 Nissan - RDLMS_P2_Oreca03/2014
- Zytek Z11SN Nissan - RDLMS_P2_Zytek
Grand Touring
- Aston Martin V8 Vantage - RDLMS_GTE_V8Vantage
- BMW M3 E92 - RDLMS_GTE_M3E92
- Corvette C6.R 2012 - RDLMS_GTE_C6R
- Ferrari F430 GT - RDLMS_GTE_F430GT
- Flat6 (Porsche) RSR - RDLMS_GTE_F6RSR
Setting Your Car Number
Each main body template skin file includes 3 groups named 'Number Template 1', 'Number Template 2', and 'Number Template 3'. Within each of these groups is a text layer named 'Your Number Here!' (or similar) - each one of these layers must be selected in turn, and the typing tool must be used to change the value to your car number.
All 3 layers must be set with your correct car number, else your skin shall be rejected.
The font, text size, text colour, background colour and position of the number plate must not be altered in any way, else your skin shall be rejected.
File Naming Convention
Each skin file must be exported and saved as a
.dds file from the graphics editor of your choice. Any skin file not in this format will
NOT be accepted.
The main body file (all of which are named
#.psd as templates)
MUST be exported to
.dds and included as part of the skin submission for your chosen car. Failure to include this file will mean that your skin shall be rejected. Meanwhile, only those "extra" files that have been modified should be included as part of the submission; for any extra files that are excluded the corresponding default extra will be used.
The skin template files have been named in such a way that the following must be done before submitted your files:
- "#" should be replaced with your car number for the necessary skin files in the folder for your chosen car (refer to the above list of cars and folder names to determine which template files you should use)
For example, the files to be submitted for car #16 would be:
- 16.dds
- 16EXTRABODY.dds
- 16WINDOW.dds
- ...(etc.)
All skin files to be used for your chosen car must be added to and sent as a single compressed file (.zip, .rar & .7z will be accepted). However, the files themselves must not be packed - .mas files will
NOT be accepted. The name of this compressed file must conform to the following format:
<car_number> - <car_name_from_list> (see
here for list of car names; replace any invalid file name characters, such as "/", with "_"). For example, the name of the compressed file containing the skin files for the #16 Lola B08/80 Judd would be as follows:
16 - Lola B08_80 Judd
Painting Rules
- Liveries must not contain any explicit images or graphics, nor any profanities, political propaganda, biased messages, or any other material deemed inappropriate or offensive
- Drivers' names may be added to the door frame of your chosen car (on one or both sides), but they must not appear anywhere else (unless they form part of the team name)
- The maximum image resolution is 2048 x 2048 pixels
- The maximum size of submitted files is 20MB (this limit applies to all .dds files in the compressed file, once these files have been extracted - this is NOT the permitted size for each file or the size of the compressed file)
Teams that do not comply with these rules will have their submissions rejected, and depending on the severity of the breach disciplinary action may be taken - this includes potential disqualification from the league and / or a RaceDepartment ban.
Please send your skin submissions to either
@Daiman Patel or
@Dennis by sending a PM titled:
RDLMS Skin - <car_number> - <team_name>. For example, the title of the PM for team RedShift Racing, with car #16, will be as follows:
RDLMS Skin - 16 - RedShift Racing. If your team has entered more than one car then a separate PM must be sent for each car. The PM should contain a download link created via Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Mega, or a similar file sharing repository, and the name of the chosen car (from the list of those that are available) must be specified. Please ensure that your skin works before it is submitted.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact either
@Daiman Patel or
@Dennis via PM with your query, and we shall do our best to answer as quickly as possible.
Issue when using GIMP
There is a problem with text layers when loading .PSD files into GIMP - the plugin for reading a .PSD file is currently unable to distinguish text layers from other layers, therefore the text cannot be edited. This feature was once available, but following changes to the PSD format and the slow evolution of GIMP there are a number of similar incompatibilities.
When using GIMP you must do the following to add your number, in place of the existing (placeholder) layers:
- Set the layer visibility so that each of the number (placeholder) layers is invisible
- Create a new text layer in its place, with the following properties
- Font: Arial Bold Condensed
- Size: 108px
- Kerning: -5.0
- Duplicate this text layer - create two more copies
- Align a text layer over each of the number plates
- Ensure that the text layers are below the alpha layer - it would be best to place a text layer within each of the 'Number Template #' layers
IMPORTANT
- If you wish to submit an updated skin for any subsequent rounds of this series then you may do so; the files must be received in the correct format before the submission deadline of an upcoming round, else it will not be included until the following round. Each time a new skin is submitted this will be the livery that shall be used for your car.
- Due to the way in which the templates and cars have been designed, there are inconsistencies in the size of number plates and logos between templates. As a result these elements appear to be larger on some cars than on others. Therefore we have taken the decision to allow you to resize and move (only along the panel on which it is already placed) elements placed by RDLMS staff on your car; they must still be a sensible size, and continue to be clearly visible. The background colour of the number plate must NOT be changed.
- Custom skins may be submitted for Round 0, however this is not a mandatory requirement. Any submissions that are received before 15th January 2017 will be included as part of the custom skin pack for Round 0, and shall continue to be used for the remainder of the league unless an update is submitted. All skins for Round 1 must be received before 29th January 2017; failure to submit a skin may result in your disqualification from this round.
- Skin file updates may continue to be submitted at any time.
- The skin submission PM, for each car that has been entered to partake in this series, must be titled: RDLMS Skin - <car_number> - <team_name>.
- The name of the chosen car (from the list of those that are available) must be specified in each skin submission PM, alongside the download link to the skin files.
