Project Airbus – Talk

Sigh...you are REALLY making me feel terrible about myself lol. I love what you did with the "burn" effect. It looks bloody amazing!

For some reason, 3dsmax keeps crashing and I can't work on the model...
Reinstalling it. Good thing I'm on a student license!

It's hard to use this program?

Airbus Fan wrote:It's hard to use this program?

It isn't hard once you get the hang of it. If you find a good tutorial, you'll be able to make nice stuff within a week.

Working on the nose gear, btw.

Getting back to it!

YaY!

At last, my animation are cleared from scaling errors. I guess the "switch" saved the day.

The nose gear works fine so far. I will post an ingame video/screenshots of its operation in the next few days.

I've finally figured out the LE flaps!

And a render testing the animations. A lot of details and improvements need to be made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwhZR_9N ... e=youtu.be

Ooh...very nice! How long does this take (curiosity)?

LE flap extension takes around a second, from the videos I've seen.
They extend at 30, 60 and 55 degrees (inboard, middle, outboard flap), at 1/2 flaps position.

Good work Alexis!

Alexis wrote:LE flap extension takes around a second, from the videos I've seen.
They extend at 30, 60 and 55 degrees (inboard, middle, outboard flap), at 1/2 flaps position.

I meant: how long does it take you to put in animations?

For the flaps, it's taken me around 7 days of figuring it out by reference and trial and error. When finished, applying the animation is a matter of seconds (for the LE flaps). More complex parts can take hours of aligning and rigging.

My tenure with 3dsmax 2012 trial didn't turn out as expected. The exporter for 3dsmax 12 is problematic, so I have to migrate the model parts back to my 2011 license! Argh!

A set-up screenie on the cat.

You work so quickly !

Incredible !

Nice! Never noticed the landing gear door before...extremely unaerodynamic. That's quite odd..

Damn, that's looking good!!

I couldn't resist it anymore. Started doing some work on the VC.

Also, I installed Javier's carriers modified to a drivable version and set up some nice views. I drove it under Golden Gate and replayed with FS Recorder to make some launches and arrests.

Finhally, there is a chance that there will be some great news for the F-4 project by next week. For now back to the 330.

Some great news regarding the F-4:
The exterior has been adopted by a friend who is going to finish it, so I'll be moving to the VC.
After getting the forward frame out of the way (there are some screws missing around it, but they'll be placed), I started making the forward panel and I'll be moving backwards after that.
Progress is going fast and I'm aiming for a good looking freeware Phantom to fill the gap until A2A comes out with theirs.

Very very nice!

This model will have high quality instruments? ( speed, altitude indicators etc.)

3D instruments and a RADAR.

In fact:
Gauges will be placed ingame soon.

Nice! Switches and buttons will be clickable?

Did the F4 have a glass crosshair/gunsight/I'm not really sure what they call it?

It is a gunsight, although it's official name is Optical Sight Unit -trying to make WW2 technology seem elaborate on a 60's jet-powered, missile-launching interceptor...
It will also be adjustable.

Made the side framework and textured the altitude and TAS indicator (letters have a yellowy tint. Early phantoms had UV lights that made the panel needles and lettering glow at night. I'm not sure whether I'll do this or the red lighting version as seen in Cloud9's Phantom.

Also modeled the rear canopy. Now I need to UV map them.
Texture work is half-done as I'm not the one that will paint the cockpit.

Here's a couple more instruments: TAS and AOA indicators. I'm getting the hang of it now!

Nice! You're working very fast!

Those AOA and TAS indicators...THEY ARE SO AMAZING!

TAS seems to work, AoA isn't... :'(

The AOA seemed OK in that screenshot...it would make sense that there is a slight downward angle on the ground I think...unless the Phantom has a slight nose up attitude. Did it just stay frozen in the air or something?

It stays frozen, yes.
Also, the TAS indicator has some strange hiccups. I'll have to consult with Gary to get the formula right.

I've managed to fake needle thickness. I can now display needles that are thinner than 1mm. It could be done in FS9 using scaling to trick 3dsmax's and makemdl's units, but if scaled in FSX the part will not animate. So I mapped the needle side and made half the width transparent using a texture!
I'll now change all the needles to reflect this change (PA aircraft as well if needed).

After spending a day making the backup ADI (caged flag is missing), I couldn't make it work as it should.
Instead I made some lightmaps to get a taste of how the lighting will look at night.
The AoA indicator has been upgraded too.
When the gear is down, the small flag is at 5,5deg showing the optimum climb angle, and the big one at 19,2 degrees (optimum approach angle).
When up, the small flag moves to 8,5deg (maximum endurance) and ~22deg (don't remember precisely) which is the stall AoA with full flaps down.
The functions are tied to the gear percentage animation, but I'll change the conditions to be more precise.
The above operation is an assumption from reference material I've read. As I delve into the real manual, I'll solve those questions -but let's get the ADI sphere right first!

The gunsight is collimated, btw, but the blocking cone doesn't work yet.

I love the subtle bloom of the gunsight, but I'm not sure whether I should keep it. It would make combat difficult in the real thing.


Another thing: the instruments common to the rear cockpit have their "boxes" built so that when looking back you'll be able to see the "intestines" and other details of the instrumentation.

Note to self:

Note to self: After modeling the backup compass and correcting some texture issues, I now have a navigation capable plane (by 1916 standards).
I also corrected the night lighting of the instruments, as they're supposed to be red and laid out a basic rear cockpit to test instrument sets.
Of course, I took it for some launches and traps (replaced F/A-18VC with mine).
BTW, for the devs, the latest file has been uploaded. Password is known.

Nice! There are still a lot of work in VC.

Added the ASI/Mach indicator.

Moving on to the RADAR.

And the RADAR is working now!

Shot of RADAR and Attitude-Heading indicator. I'll model the off flags on them and they're ready to go.

Nice!

Forward panel almost done:

Good job Alexis!

Here's the front panel ingame. It's missing a few switches and off flags ATM. I also rescaled it so it is closer to the proper size and adjusted its position. (The clock needles have been fixed).

And here it is in 3ds max with the Martin Baker Mk.7 seat and stick. These great models were made by Jamal who's working on the exterior model.
I will be making the Mk.5 seat which was common in the F-4B and C versions. They were later retrofitted with the Mk. 7, but it doesn't harm anyone if both are there.

Nicely done mate

This is soooo BADASS!!!

Here's a small update of the right side. Switchery will be added later tonight.

Nice!

I've missed quite a lot! SO AWESOME!