Pélicandrome incoming! (don't hold your breath though)

[kekelekou 42]

Hello fellow virtual aerial firefighters!

I am glad to announce that I am working on modelling and interfacing a pélicandrome model with FFX! "Pélicandrome" is how refill stations are named in France, a portmanteau of Pélican, the callsign of French waterbombers (Catalinas, then CL-215 and CL-415) and aérodrôme.

I developed a proof-of-concept about 18 months ago with a single firefighter waving ams to give instructions to the pilot (hence making the green band dispensable) and much more realistic as it follows the French specifications. Thanks again to Oliver who very kindly created a dedicated gauge that exports FFX variables as Lvars.

But this guide was feeling very lonely and looked a bit weird alone on the taxiway. So I have been tackling adding 2 more firefighters : the valve opener and hose connector. These guys will (hopefully!) move as per the status of the FFX refilling, what would help in giving a bit of eye-candy. I know my skill limitations and can not vouch for a state-of-the-art modelling and animations, but hope I can achieve something good enough to bring a feeling of ground support to FFX.

No release date is defined by now, so please stay tuned to learn more about the proceedings of the Pélicandrome for FFX!

[kekelekou 42]

 Hello fellow virtual airtanker pilots!

I am VERY happy to share this ingame picture of the current status of the pélicandrome model for FFX. A missing hose texture, a few glitches in the animations (especially the hose extension), the gauge code is not tested yet, but I think this is promising enough to let you know.

Hope you like it!

Have a nice day and stay safe.

[kekelekou 42]

And another one with a fixed hose texture. Well, kind of...

Animations 80% done...

Stay tuned!

[BSV1191 1]

Hello,

Very nice working ! 🙂 

[kekelekou 42]

Thank you BSV1191!

Well, it is now working well enough to post you some updates here.

An issue with the animations got me banging my head against the wall for most of the last two months. I couldn't find a solution (the modelling wizards at FSDeveloper.com neither). So I have had to change my way of dealing with the hose and hose crew animations, and I have just been able to come to a quite satisfying solution. The hose crew can't walk around (having them walk would mean I could not fix the anim issue), so they "slide around" in a static pose (pose that you can see in the following pictures). I know this is not ideal, but I had come to a point I was faced with the eventuality of discarding the whole project. 😱

But the hose is animated as one could expect.

I still have to work on the hose gear texture and a ground poly, and submit a modification request to Oliver so that he can introduce a specific function to create the hose crew model at the right spot in the sim.

So it is definitely comes along nicely. At long last.

Stay tuned!

PS : I tested first the marshaller and stripes, then the hose crew and gear. The released version will feature all these items together, of course.

View of the marshaller and the positioning stripes


Default Position of the Hose crew


Bringing the Hose to the Aircraft


Hose Connected, Walking Away


Refilling Ongoing


Topped Up, Coming to Disconnect

And I apologise for having forgotten to screenshot the hose crew dragging the hose away from the aircraft...

Edited August 6, 2020 by kekelekou

[BSV1191 1]

Wouah very nice job ! 🙂 

[kekelekou 42]

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Edited August 18, 2020 by kekelekou

[kekelekou 42]

Thank you BVS1191 (you have got an PM!)

New batch of screenshots with the final textures :

 

 

 

Stay tuned!

[kekelekou 42]

Hi there!

Sorry for the silence in the last few months, but I am back with sole good news : the last few details in the instructions are being ironed out! The package should be released this week, and will be compatible with FSX up to P3Dv5!

Thank you for tour patience!