Sever/Client Skin Transfer Option?

Greetings,

I was wondering if it would be possible, in a future update to DCS, to have the ability to download custom skins when joining a server. Maybe a clickable button in the Game Options menu to Allow or Dis-allow skin transfers.

I imagine it would take a while to download them, but it would be nice to see the custom skins that folks have made.

Pros, cons, possible, not possible? Whatcha think?

Two biggest cons would be size, so given clients upload would quickly max out, causing their download rate to suffer too, and then you have real shit ping real fast.

Then there is the lack of control. Users could make some real nasty skins real quick, that we wouldnt like to see.

Biggest con is the size though. These things are big and some a huge. Several F-14 skins are 200mb a piece for example. So I have made such a F-14 skins that Id like the world to see, and I join a server with 40 clients on it all rocking a nice F-14 skin of their own. Now I have to feed 40 x 200mb, all the while Im also sucking skins from the other 40 clients. And this is every time I join a server. Very worst case.

Excellent points!

See, that's why I'm not a progammer. :thumbup:

I'd love to see that feature as well since 2003. But this is a very valid point:

Biggest con is the size though. These things are big and some a huge. Several F-14 skins are 200mb a piece for example. So I have made such a F-14 skins that Id like the world to see, and I join a server with 40 clients on it all rocking a nice F-14 skin of their own. Now I have to feed 40 x 200mb, all the while Im also sucking skins from the other 40 clients. And this is every time I join a server. Very worst case.

Back then I've been flying another well known sim that had skin transfer and the files just had been 1MB each (decals were much less), but nevertheless it took ages to transfer those (like 40 minutes for that 1MB), probably because the whole thing was heavily throttled to prevent issues occuring.

The whole thing would be possible if DCS would generate lower quality versions of the liveries for net distribution. The whole distribution thing then could happen via torrent just like the updates. And it should be optional on the client side, of course...

There is one smaller file with "Nose Art" that could be used by downloading online when connecting.

It would not take long for liveries to get pretty disturbing and I doubt ED would want that flak.

Maybe an option would be a community skins pack that was updated on some regular basis so that the chances someone will see the great Asia Minor skin your F-14B is rocking provided it is in the pack. (Which would provide a degree of curation to stop it turning into a series of skins that would get you gaol time in some parts of the world.)