Lufthansa.........Fleet

[Fabo 213]

On 4/5/2017 at 3:26 AM, Steve Dra said:

The package(s) will be zipped files with PTPs for each registration, so you can just install the ones you want...I didn't want to go the texture folder route and make you guys sludge through modifying anything to install the liveries.  It was more work, but will make things much easier for you guys.

This is why I tried to ask whether we can export PTP with non-visible texture folder. Sadly no reply and it looks like it's not possible.
Maybe you could designate one repaint a "base" that is required, and all the other be linked to that one.

[Woozie 732]

On 4/6/2017 at 5:53 PM, Steve Dra said:

Hey Lars,

I chatted with him and he's giving me an accurate config file from when he fly her a few years back. (about 4 years ago). I'll include this one in the package and if anyone would like to update it on their download to today's config they are welcomed to do so.

Thanks for the complement. Over the years I've refined my process and the time I spent on non-painting steps that are necessary for a paint to go from the master to the finished version you fly has been drastically reduced....leaving me more time to improve the actual painting part.

 

Great news, cant wait for it!

[Steve Dra 7,579]

Short update guys...

Jan, fixed the rear gray area:

 

I also incorporated the config file as created be my LH consultant.  Just remember it is accurate as they flew 4 years ago, so any newer configs you'd like to fly, please update the config yourself as you desire when I release the package.

In addition, I got some pics from him of the actual manual binders in the LH fleet....here is my modified version:

And finally I changed the size of the text on the reg placard in the cockpit based on a photo he also supplied:

I'll be sending a preview copy to select simmers to validate the changes.  Once I get confirmation everything looks ok, I'll make the updates to the rest of the fleet I've already painted and upload to the Avsim library for all to fly.

No timeline on that, I'm working as best I can juggling many real-world activities as well.

About window configs.  Lufthansa has some varying upper deck window configs, but with their latest fleet update they pretty much standardized it.  On the left side, its 8-door-8, on the right, its 9-door-9.  However, some of their fleet I'm including were stored before the update, so some carry 1-blank-8-door-8-blank-1.  This particular livery (ABVL), was stored and still carries this window config.  So I will get the latest pics of each reg and match the window config for them.  This will take some extra time, but I think its worth it.

I will put the city names on all the planes despite that some pics on the web show them without...I feel its an important part of the airlines's heritage. 

Folks who've replied to this thread so far should be checking their PMs shortly.   Unfortunately Avsim's anti-spam mechanisms only let you send one PM every 5 mins...so all won't have a PM at the same time...please be patient (NOTE: this is ONLY for folks who replied BEFORE this post...sometimes it pays to add your comments early)  

[serviceceiling 135]

Looking pretty good so far! The rims could maybe use some more dirt as yu won't ever see them that white in real life. 

[xTiMm_ 50]

Nice! Looking forward to see more of the paints! :)

 

Regarding the books: Maybe you can change the color of the overall a bit more to the brown then it will looking awesome! :)
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Lufthansa/Boeing-747-430M/428859/L?qsp=eJwljTEOgzAMRe/iOQu0jdRspQdoh17AclyIlJLI8QBC3L0JbF/v%2Bz9vQGlWXvSzZgYHhVFoAgMZBX8F3AYYhAS/OmAJdJ711%2B5uWhHD3FYX29tbG01J0xOVxyQrOGugJNGhRvCVPog4K3s4%2BUs8S6u40PFxrK6uBpb3kau3ch9Kjng4WDFE2Pc/tvM7nw%3D%3D

 

And here you see the registration in detail. Its not centered. :)

[Steve Dra 7,579]

John, aka rondon9898, sent me a PM with a good pic of a Lufthansa yoke checklist, asked if I can add it to the "Custom" Yoke Placard....

I guess I can.   Just another small touch to add to the immersion.

I'm working on all the suggestions you guys gave me, and hope to have the 1st batch of 10 aircraft ready this weekend sometime.  I found a total of 30 that served with LH over the years, I plan on giving you all of them (3 batches of 10 each).  I'll update this post shortly with the 10 you'll get 1st.

Here is the list;

I'm working from the bottom up (more active aircraft in that lot) and they are sorted in registration order. So the 1st batch will be DBVO to ABVZ.

The ones in green will be next, followed by ones in red.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Steve Dra
updated info

[guenseli 1,577]

You are great! Thanks!!!

[scandinavian13 5,192]

15 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

I'm working from the bottom up (more active aircraft in that lot) and they are sorted in registration order. So the 1st batch will be DBVO to ABVZ.

Nice!

ABTF (24967 / 848) is a 400M, by the way.

The DLH 400M fleet is ABTA, ABTB, ABTC, ABTD, ABTF and ABTH. All stored/scrapped between KTUP (A/B/C) and KMHV (D/F/H).

[Steve Dra 7,579]

14 minutes ago, scandinavian13 said:

Nice!

ABTF (24967 / 848) is a 400M, by the way.

The DLH 400M fleet is ABTA, ABTB, ABTC, ABTD, ABTF and ABTH. All stored/scrapped between KTUP (A/B/C) and KMHV (D/F/H).

Thanks Kyle!

I'll get to the Ms in the last batch as they're all in that group.  That was another reason I went from the bottom up as it will take some additional work to get the textures adapted to the M (I'll use the cargo door dirt and grime from my BCF paints, just not as much as the BCF's tend to be dirty birds, hehe)

Can't wait to paint the -8 fleet, especially ABYT! 

 

[jjlittler 1]

Steve

Really looking forward to these 

 

JJ

[Pablo Vazquez 36]

I am really excited about this project of yours. I think I'm going to be even more excited when the -800 is released. I'm sure it will be amazing!! 

[Steve Dra 7,579]

Thanks guys!

I'm working really hard to get this to you so you can get some flights in this weekend...however I need to be thorough in my QA process as it's such a large project.  All of the updates you've suggested are completed and in place on my validation livery (custom manuals, accurate reg placards, yoke checklist, dirt/brake dust on the rims, and a few other easter eggs etc.).  I just need to replicate across the 1st batches' aircraft, do a final QA, then package/upload.

In addition, the fact that I'm giving you 30 aircraft to load into your sim, I'm using a seldom-used feature of the sim itself to save many many megabytes of HDD space and upload/download traffic...the texture fallback process.  For those interested and never knew how it works...

When loading an aircraft, FS 1st looks in the root folder of THAT livery for all the required textures.  If it does not find ALL the textures required to render that livery/aircraft, it goes to the texture.cfg file in the particular livery folder you've selected.  It then looks through the folders listed in the .cfg file to find the textures missing in the root livery folder.  The order it looks in is from 1-X.  In the example shown below, I've add a #1 line so FS will look, and find the custom textures that are unique to my LH fleet, AND common among all of them.  

So what this means is that your PTP files for every livery in the fleet packages will contain ONLY the 7 textures that are unique to each livery.  All the other (common) textures will reside, and be called from the texture.LHFLEETCOMMON folder.  Pretty slick huh? 

Your only job in this endeavor as a user will be to manually add the texture.LHFLEETCOMMON folder to your PMDG 747-400 folder.  After that...installing the liveries through the PMDG OPs Center will work just as it does for any other livery (But the PTP file size will be way smaller than usual).  I'll of course include this info/instruction in the readme file and all caps lettering on the AVSIM library page.  You'll know if you've skipped this because although the plane will load fine, you'll have white engines, non-LH wings, clean wheel rims, and no custom cockpit features.  The plane will still load and fly fine (no errors or sim lockups)

I did the math and this saves you 540 MBs of hard drive space and 261 less texture files cluttering your already cluttered FS folders, hehe. (if you install the whole fleet that is).  So with that said...even if you're only interested in installing one livery, you still need to manually add that common folder to get your LH livery to display properly. 

This is a classic case of a LOT of extra work in the beginning for me....but will pay dividends in the long run for all of us!

[weeksy 45]

Thank you for all the hard work you are putting into this, the repaints look amazing.

[rondon9898 84]

I seem to remember that the texture fallback process was used by Christian Mohr who quite extraordinarily did the entire Norwegian 737 fleet - I remember not downloading the base pack and then couldn't work out why the several textures I had downloaded were not working :) 

Just to reiterate, Steve, you've done a lovely job with these. As I'm a member of Royal Dutch Virtual, I would love you to direct your expertise to the KLM fleet, but making requests to great contributors to you always seems like ingratitude. Looking forward to your LH fleet being published!

[jjlittler 1]

Steve,

WoW This is awesome! I can then jump into the real plane, fly real route of the day and you have still saved us 540MB of memory (one all the fleet has been uploaded). Slick is not the word. Genius... I would say! 

 

JJ