FSDS 2 and Helicopters... help needed

[Guest]

HiCould someone tell me how the main rotor and tail rotor should be tagged in fsds2 to give animation and control.ThanksJohn

[Guest]

can anyone help ?The Model is built and this is now the last item before working on the paint scheme

[Shaka 2]

What exactly have you done? I don't want to tell you to try something you may have already tried. Have you tried tagging it as "prop_still", "prop_slow" and "prop_blurred"? I have never done this, but it makes sense to me. Of course you will have to change the part axis, and all. As for "control", you might be stuck here if you want the rotor to move around when you move the cyclic stick. It might be possible using the parent-child thing and making the rotor the child of a lever... but is this really necessary? Maybe just work on getting the rotor working first.- Martin

[Guest]

Hi MartinI was more concenred with getting Pitch and Roll control for the model.I am happy with the concept of the prop slow, blurred etc for visual animationIf I can get the rotor disc to mimic the real thing with visual movement of the disc that would be a nice touch.With no elevator or ailerons, how do you make the main rotor control pitch and roll and the tail rotor control yaw?ThanksJohn.

[Shaka 2]

Ok, try making the rotor the child part of another part that can either be named aileron/elevator (not possible for a helo?) or, you can name it after the lever parts meant for the cockpit (easier to control?).Example (I know the names aren't exactly right):- lever left and right (keyframe animation) - lever front and back (keyframe animation) - prop_still - prop_blurred - prop_slowThis is basically the same way you would made a control stick for an airplane, except on top of the stick would be a prop. There is no part that will do both front and back AND left and right motion for the stick, hence the need for two parts. If you need help with the stick part, then there is a good reference in the help file.When I was playing around with GMAX I didn't really "get" the keyframe animation stuff since it was so different from AA. Now that I have FSDS2, I am just starting to "get" how flexible and powerful it can be if you use your imagination a little.Now, what would be really tricky is to animate the blades themselves. The rotor doesn't move all that much I think - the control comes from adjusting the pitch of each individual blade to adjust the thrust (...I think... on modern helos at least...). I seriously doubt that this would be worth the trouble, but it might be interesting to try it. It would at least be visible if the helo rotor were still. I think someone designed a variable pitch prop that would do something similar. Anyway, seems like a small thing to do all this writing about...Good luck with your project!- Martin

[Guest]

MartinMany thanks for your reply.I can see what you mean and will set it up on the model.You are right that the blades do not move much, I am trying to set up the animation for the swash plate that translates the cyclic inputs to the blades.Anyways, as you said a small detail.ThanksJohn