Bukkit

Q: How can I make groups of players share the same skin or cape?

For example, I want all Orcs to look like Orcs, and all Dwarves to look like Dwarves without having to enter a command for every player.

A: Let's say you had a faction of Dwarven players that you wanted to give the same skin to.

1) First, you would use this command to save the skin so we may use it as a permission.
/saveskin dwarf <YourURLHere>

2) Next, you would add the following permission to the players or groups:
simpleskins.skin.dwarf

Now all players with the permission "simpleskins.skin.dwarf" would have the Dwarf skin.
Capes are done identically, as follows:

1) First, you would use this command to save the skin so we may use it as a permission.
/savecape allycape <YourURLHere>

2) Next, you would add the following permission to the players or groups:
simpleskins.cape.allycape

The reason group capes and group skins have different permissions is so that you can mix and match. Say you have five armies of various races. You would obviously want different skins for these races or groups. But perhaps they all fight on the same side as an Alliance - you could give them all the same cape permission and all races would instantly have the same cape.

Let's look at another Example! Let's say you have a permissions group called newplayers. And you want all new players to have a human skin. And you have a group called orcplayers. Here's what your permissions file (controlled by your permissions plugin, such as bPermissions) might look like:
----
groups:
newplayers:
permissions:
- simpleskins.skin.human
- simpleskins.cape.alliance
dwarfplayers:
permissions:
- simpleskins.skin.dwarf
- simpleskins.cape.alliance
------

All newplayers would have the saved "human" skin. All dwarfplayers would have the saved "dwarf" skin. Both groups would have the saved "alliance" cape. Changing all of this would be as simple as:
/saveskin human <SkinURL>
/saveskin dwarf <SkinURL>
/savecape alliance <CapeURL>

You could give these permissions to any group or player that you'd want to have these skins or capes. To summarize, you are saving a skin or cape to a particular permissions node, which you can use over and over again.

Q: Is it possible to give a player a permission to change his own group's skin, but not another group's skin?

A: Yes it is! It is quite simple to do so. Just like the name of this plugin.

Simply give a player the following permission:
simpleskins.saveskin.self
OR
simpleskins.saveskin.<savedSkinNameHere>

For example, if a player has these permissions:
simpleskins.skin.dwarf
simpleskins.saveskin.self
simpleskins.saveskin.femaledwarf

This player will only be able to use the commands:
/saveskin dwarf <Skin URL>
/saveskin femaledwarf <Skin URL>

The same thing applies to capes. This gives you complete control over what players can change.

Q: Will this allow HD skins/capes?

A: Yes. I've tested it with a 512x256 skin and cape which is 8 times larger than a standard Minecraft Skin. HD Skins, Textures, and Capes work natively with Spout.