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Guest iholrf

Steady Progress

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Guest iholrf

A small montage of the work so far. The next problem to try to figure out is why I cannot see through the glass in the passenger cabin from the outside, but I CAN see through the roof of the cockpit. Heheh, much fun. A nudge in the right direction would be helpful.CheersShad(NOTE) Except for a few items, this is entirely hand painted from my imagination and inspiration from uber-designers.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122524.jpgThere is nothing quite so lovely as a burled walnut panel.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122525.jpg

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Guest Ionizeyou

Looking sweet Shad!

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>Looking sweet Shad!I second that... It's going to be very, very nice when finished... or, whenever Shad throws up his hands and yells "Enough already!" ;)(everyone knows that you can tweak, push, pull and twist forever, trying for that elusive goal of "perfection." At some point invevitable point though, you have call a stopping point... ;)


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Guest Lionel Goh

looks awesome mate :)

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Guest Firestriker

Shad,Looks wonderful!!! I bet the puddle jumpers would love a pontooned version.Lou

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Guest iholrf

LOLBetween you and Bill, I am beginning to wonder if I am broadcasting my thoughts. :) On Saturday, Sophie and I spent an hours looking at hundreds of Beech18 photo's. When we came across a red one on pontoons, I mentioned that a float plane was ultimately what I wanted to end up with. (I am beginning realize that Sophie is fully expecting me to build this puppy in real life for or own adventures - the gift critificates for flight school was one clue heheh - can you say Multi-IFR children?).Now that I know who you are Lou, I must say I am a tad intimidated. I am also extremely greatful for the help you provided, as I am sure you have many of your own projects on the go, yet you took time to assist me. It is nice to know decent people still exist. :-beerchugI still don't know why the cabin roof is see-through from the outside. Is it because of backface cull?CheersShad

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Guest iholrf

>>Looking sweet Shad!>>I second that... It's going to be very, very nice when>finished... >or, whenever Shad throws up his hands and yells "Enough>already!" ;)>>(everyone knows that you can tweak, push, pull and twist>forever, trying for that elusive goal of "perfection." At>some point invevitable point though, you have call a stopping>point... ;)>>>I am beginning to see what you mean. I realized that about a week ago the plane was actually of comparible quality to most freeware and could probably be released. But I keep saying no, this is not right, no this needs fixing, no, no, no no nononono.....I have also been feeling a strange sort of melencholy. Its like I don't want to release it because I don't want it to end (I have been working on this panel and gauges in one form or another since December). As I sat here tweaking and fiddling over the last week, I began to notice that while I was answering the question "what do I do next" by doing little tweaks, I was really asking myself, what do I do after this is finished?I guess the answer is "do it again, but do it better".Shad

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Guest Mathias

>I guess the answer is "do it again, but do it better".To console you, Microsoft do tend to release new versions of their sim every other year, though this time they are slowing the pace a bit to allow the likes of you and and me to complete the very complex work of creating a complete aircraft for FS2004 - VC and all.My steady project has kept me almost continually busy since FS98. If you REALLY love the plane you are making MS will give you enough incentives to upgrade and remake it for every new version of Flight Simulator :) For me only now my original goal since FS98 times is beginning to come to fruition due to the advancements in FS itself. I had to reduce the amount of hand-coded data points painstakingly taking from 1:10 scale drawings and entered into AF99 BY HALF (read: "delete again") before the program would allow me to even just compile my bird for FS98. Now things are beginning smoothen out...

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Guest iholrf

>>I guess the answer is "do it again, but do it better".>>To console you, Microsoft do tend to release new versions of>their sim every other year, though this time they are slowing>the pace a bit to allow the likes of you and and me to>complete the very complex work of creating a complete aircraft>for FS2004 - VC and all.>My steady project has kept me almost continually busy since>FS98. If you REALLY love the plane you are making MS will give>you enough incentives to upgrade and remake it for every new>version of Flight Simulator :) For me only now my original>goal since FS98 times is beginning to come to fruition due to>the advancements in FS itself. I had to reduce the amount of>hand-coded data points painstakingly taking from 1:10 scale>drawings and entered into AF99 BY HALF (read: "delete again")>before the program would allow me to even just compile my bird>for FS98. Now things are beginning smoothen out...Heheh. I am praying that MS doesn't "obsolete" my burgioning skills with the new release. I can barely cope with the tech as it is now. :)CheersShad

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Guest Firestriker

Shad,The backface cull in gMax has no affect on what you see in the sim. It is more of a modeling tool to allow you to see edges that you cannot normally see. FS draws all faces as single sided unless you apply a material with a DS_ prefix (DS_ = double sided). This effectively translates into actually two faces with the normals pointing in opposite directions to eachother using the same 3 points. Double check your normals in gMax and make sure they point outward for an exterior surface.Many times if a part has been mirrored using the Mirror button on the icon bar rather than using a Mirror Modifier, the normals get flipped as the winding order of the faces gets reversed. This is easily fixed by applying an X-Form Reset from the Utilities panel, colapasing the parts stack, then flipping face normals as needed if they are still reversed back in the Modify panel. Things should then appear properly in the sim.Lou

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Guest iholrf

I had come to much the same conclusion about the cull. I realize while it made it visible to me (which is indeed helpful) it had no effect outside gmax. Then I noticed when I was working on the nose section that the left half was not symetrical to the right, so I mirrored the half and as you described, the result was the textures being upsied down (this was OK too, because it gave me the opportunity to realize that adding a nose to the vc was not the solution I was looking for).So back to reading. I thought I needed to texture both sides, and I had noticed the "two sides" on the materials dialogue. I quickly discovered that my big fear was adding modifiers as for some reason I was convinced that at this point I could not add more (its tough being ignorant sometimes). So now I know more about the modifier stack and more and more of GMAX becomes less frightening.I also discovered that doing the math beforehand really really makes modelling easier. I hate math. ;)So, the question is, why are the cabin windows see through when inside the vc but not when looking in from outside whereas the cockpit ceiling is opaque when inside but transparent when outside?http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122982.jpgCheersShad

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Guest Firestriker

Shad,What I did was to make myself a cookie cutter and cut the window shapes in to the cabin side walls with a boolean operation. Then applied a transparent window material to the "panes of glass".http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/123016.jpgPractice on a couple of cylinders of different sizes cutting the smaller from the larger using the smaller as a reference and the cut and refine buttons checked in the boolean panel. Turn on Show Edges for the viewport so you can see how the edges of all the intersecting polys make new points and use the referenced cylinder as a guide to help you clean up the new extra points. A cylinder with 16 sides and just a single segment long works well for me and gives fairly rounded window corners when shaped like a cube with filleted corners.Lou

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Guest iholrf

Does this mean I can make my glass reflective like Milton Shupes? *Drools in anticipation*Been working hard: I still need to texture the new pillars and the panel extension. I havent even started on the lower angled panels or the center console (no gauge planers yet) and only just started the throttle quadrant.CheersShadhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/123020.jpg

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