Problem with Milviz PA30 Comanche

[Rein2 117]

I installed the freeware PA30 Comanche from Milviz (Blackbird). I installed it in P3D v4 and v5. In v4 the lighting is fine (cabin lights, instruments, panels). In v5 the cockpit is dark; not a single light. At the download site it says that the plane is compatible with v5. So what's wrong? Does anyone know how to fix this for v5? Thanks.

 

Rein

[Flyfox 115]

I think the installer for v5 is faulty and as it is freeware now, we cannot expect any more support or even a flawless installer. You will notice that besides the missing lights the autopilot does not work either. However, after integrating another autopilot (accessible via pop-up window), I still enjoy this aircraft.

[Rogen 1,094]

Well... I just installed it (via "Twin Comanche Installer v2.210628.exe") and the PA-30 installer seems to place all the same items into P3D v5 as per P3D v4.5, true light, real glass and xmlTools included.

I notice the aircraft does use a lot of vram memory, nearly 8 GB.

Also MVAMS doesn't appear to be updating the aircraft.cfg, MVAMS does save the settings in the correct ini file but nothing is changed in the aircraft.cfg file.

Intriguing indeed (but that could just be the intriguinol kicking in 😄).

I did update the following in the aircraft.cfg to get the PA-30 listing to display nicely for aircraft selection, but that was after testing MVAMS.

//TBM 17/01/2024
// changed ui_createdby="Military Visualisations" to ui_createdby="MilViz"
// changed title=Piper Twin Comanche to title=Piper Twin Comanche PA-30
// Added aircraft number to the title instead of just 1,2,3 etc.

I might look into this a bit further and see what pops out.

Cheers

[stalz 12]

In the old Milviz support forum for the PA30 there's a topic referring to the KAP140 not working in P3Dv4.  In that topic you can find the fix for the autopilot issue, which also works for P3Dv5.  It's just a .zip with a few replacements for the model files. 

I have no idea about the lighting issue, but I imagine the models were never updated for P3Dv5. 

I had a similar VRAM issue with the the PC-6.  It's been a few years, but I think the culprit was the RealGlass/TrueLight files, which I think had to be removed or replaced with empty files.  It might be worth digging around in the PC-6's support forum for more info.

[Rein2 117]

Okay. Thanks for the replies. I'll take a further look at it.

[Rogen 1,094]

Well... I've taken a look at this aircraft.

And unfortunately the cavalier and unprofessional attitude of MilViz / Blackbird really shines in this release.

The freebee download link will download "Twin Comanche Installer v2.210628.exe" - note this version does include P3Dv4 & v5 install options but I had to update the Radar dll to avoid CTDing (I installed to P3Dv4.5.14).

However on their forums there is a later installer version download for P3D v5, why the installer version descrepancy ? all I can say is it is not the first time I've come across such an issue @ MilViz where it often appears the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.

The forum post below holds the link for the later version download.

• http://milviz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=193&t=13129&sid=65dad25b8698ec8c6123ea4d5778eeab

Not that the later download resolves the issue of the Autopilot function, where even a basic test would have shown the non-functionality of it.

To resolve the non-functioning Autopilot a new model set was released which can be found at the below link.

• http://milviz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=193&t=11972&sid=65dad25b8698ec8c6123ea4d5778eeab

Again if even the most basic testing had been carried out they would have seen although it fixes the Autopilot, it breaks the LHS position and landing lights, as well as a breaking a number of internal lighting options, could even break more, i just didn't go looking further after my initial test.

Of course people did raise these issues on the MilViz / Blackbird forums where the response was either none or tough - no more P3D updates, even though their so called fixes broke things... I'm certainly happy I didn't need to pay for this aircraft.

So from MilViz / Blackbird the choice is working lighting and non-functional autopilot, or functional autopilot and partially working lighting.

Niether are great options and with that in mind I looked at an "option 3".

• Option three is to keep the non-functional AP models, and enable the matching popup AP that is included with the plane.
• This gives a method to operate the dash mounted AP successfully.

But wait... there's more...

• In MVAMS this plane can have GPS and WX changes, however it does this by copying a pre-configered panel.cfg, unlike the DHC2 for example where the aircraft.cfg panel pointer is updated.
• Essentually it means there is a need to update at least the panel configs you'd be trialling or using.

Looking at the lighting in the "fixed" models, it looks as if many dynamic texture references have changed, it's likely they could be updated in the various panel configs if someone has the time to do such, for myself I'll keep with the AP popout and default model files.

Also to disable the strange sound when clicking on the dash mounted AP buttons one has only to rename the file named ~\Panel\TW_Sounds\SND5.wav

Alternatively the SND5.wav can be replaced with a copy of one of the other sounds, for example you could copy SND25.wav, rename as SND5.wav, then each button click will say "Trim in Motion".

Once past the choices above the plane itself is Ok in general, modeling is reasonable overall, does add about ~4 GB of vram use for my P3D config and I do like the use of True Glass and Real Light.

Spoiler holds what I added to the various panel.cfg

Spoiler

[Window Titles]
Window00=Main Panel
Window01=Fuel Valves
Window02=TW Preflight
~ 03 & 04 depends in the GPS
Window05=KA140 Autopilot

 

//--------------------------------------------------------
[Window05]
BACKGROUND_COLOR  = 1,1,1
size_mm           = 500,155
window_size_ratio = 1.000
position          = 2
visible           = 0
ident             = Autopilot

gauge00           = KAP140_HSI!MV_KAP140_PopupDisplay,0,0,500,155

 

A few pics to round it out.

 

Check the mem usage, note I do run TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 where mem use is normally about 3~4 GB less.

 

The AP popup included with the Aircraft (I was experimenting with it's aspect and position at the time of pic), real light and real glass in use and the radar does work if you've an appropriate V5 or V4.5, alteratively Rolan's radar could be inserted if you've Active Sky and an unsupported P3Dv5 version.

 

Cheers

Edited January 17 by Rogen

[Rein2 117]

Rogen, hhanks for this very extensive explanation of the AP and lighting. I will try it out. It will keep me busy for a few hours I think.😄