Animated hanger door

[Guest Hugo]

Hi all. I would like to produce an animated hanger door using FSDS2. The door's action would be triggered by either selecting a radio frequency or, better, by the proximity of an incoming aircraft. It'd even be nicer if the door would also operate with the incoming of an AI aircraft :-eekHas anyone succeeded doing something alike with FSDS2? I'm aware FSDS has the capacity to animate aircraft parts but what about scenery parts?Thanks for any lead,Hugo

[arno 1]

Yes, you can also animate scenery parts in FSDS, but I don't know if you can easily add triggers to them, I am afraid that is not possible.For GMax I have written a tutorial about how you can add conditions to animations, if you are familiar with editing SCASM code you might be able to use the same techniques also in FSDS. At this moment my site is down unfortunately, so the tutorial will be back soon.

[Guest farmer]

FSDSv2 has a scenery animation tutioral.Farmer

[Guest Hugo]

Hi Arno. Good to know that activating scenery parts is feasable with FSDS. There is is some kind of tutorial on animation that comes with the program but I wasn't shure if it could be applied to scenery parts, as it refers mostly to aircraft parts animation. I looked a bit through it but can't conclude right off if the explanations apply to scenery parts as well.As far as I know, aircrafts and sceneries are compiled in a different way and the informations related to animation, would be stored in the mdl file, in the aircraft cases. It requires the use of mkmdl or a similar program (function) for FSDS in the compile process. Sceneries would not follow the same path, hence my wondering about the feasability animation and/or triggering with FSDS.I'm aware Fr. Bill Leaming has produced a Gmax animated door henger triggered by a frequency setting. Compliles, using mkmdl in the process that, somehow, ends up as a bgl file. I'm looking to build something alike but of my own design to fit in a small airport scenery I'm working on but using FSDS instead. Fr. Leaming's is way too large for my need and also has a different 'look' that what I'm after.As for Scasm, I know it can be edited with notepad but that's about it.(Wow!) I don't have the knowlwedge to program with it. Yet I will take a look at your tutorial when the site returns on, maybe I will find enough to, at least, fill in the blanks.Thanks for your reply,Hugo

[Guest Hugo]

Hi Farmer. Indeed I have looked at the tutorials within FSDS. When I got the program a couple of years ago, I did make few trials animating aircraft parts, actualy pilots parts, having a coordinated of mouvement of fore and aft arm and of the hand to move along 'fluently' with the stick as I moved my own joystick. It worked. But I did this only for the sake of learning how to produce animation FSDS style. The tutorials were a great help in that case.But when it comes to scenery animation, the included tutorials are a bit short on documentation. Is that what applies to aircraft parts also applies to scenery parts?Before spending a lot of time trying to do something the program isn't meant for, I thought I'd looked to other experiences.Have you had any success implementing scenery animations, with or without triggering capacity, solely through to use of FSDS?Your remark though, brough me to give a second look at the tutorials and I found something that I pass by without much notice at the time. In the Part Properties window there is at bottom right an Add button that opens a Display Conditions window, among them Aircraft distance condition and numerous other. Something I had not remarked before. Maybe something could be done this way but dosen't seem to be documented. Possibly, through trial and error, this could lead to what I'm after.Hugo

[Guest JoeW]

Lewis Sinclair wrote this program. Support is avalible at Abacus.They are the best at answering your questions.Assuming that you have the upgrade to 2.24.Good luckJoe W.

[Guest Frank Betts]

I think it is time I upgraded myself. That animation looks like it could be fun to work with.

[Guest gorchi]

Hi!Animating hangar door is half possible in FSDS. I have answered on this subject on Arno's site www.scenerydesign.org but unfortunatelly is lost.Anyway, animation in FSDS 2 is possible (as far as I know) only in repetitive manner. So You can have only continous animation, translation, rotation or combination of both.It is possible to make different sort of animation. One method is to make as many parts of doors as there are frames and show these parts at some condition.The last variant, which I think it is desired in this situation , is more or less handcoding. I recommend to check out SCASM tutorial by Andreas Klisch on http://www.combatflight.de/html/scasm-tut/scasm1_eng.html (especially this part)It is definitely not easy, but once You know it, then You can almost copy-paste into any object You wish (okay, I used only translation).I hope this will help. Best regards,Goran BrumenFS Slovenija 2002 teamhttp://slovenia.avsim.net

[Guest Hugo]

Hi Goran. Thanks for the infos. I got the document and will see if I can make something of it. Meanwhile, as per JoeW suggestion, I contacted Abacus, matter of getting the word from the horse mouth. Most probably their conclusions will be along the line of what you guys have brought. Maybe for a future upgrade, as customer needs rises.Arno, I visited your site looking for the Gmax tutorial you suggested. I gathered it is build around 2 video zip files totaling 75 mb of download. Being on a phone connection would take me about 8 hours to do. I guess I will wait for Abacus answer before attacking this!Thanks to all for your helpHugoOups! Hi Frank. Thanks for your nice sceneries and macros.. If you ever find something about scenery animation, you know where to find me ;-)Hugo

[arno 1]

>Arno, I visited your site looking for the Gmax tutorial you>suggested. I gathered it is build around 2 video zip files>totaling 75 mb of download. Being on a phone connection would>take me about 8 hours to do.That is not the tutorial I meant. The frequency controlled animation tutorial still needs to be but back.

[Guest Hugo]

OK. Got that. Will revisit :-)Hugo

[arno 1]

It's back nowhttp://www.scenerydesign.org/forum/showthread.php?t=61I hope it helps you a bit, as it is in BGLC, so you need to translate the idea to SCASM.

[Guest MatthiasS]

Arno,have you had any more luck with messing with the FS9 animation code ?In an older post you mentioned that you where already somewhat succesful doing so. If you have anything that may work, even only partially, I'd be happy to know.Thanks,Matthias

[arno 1]

Hi Matthias,Yes, I have a very basic animation working, so I think the techniques can still be used. But when I manually tweak other animations it does not always work, so I must be doing something wrong there :).I am planning to spend more time on these problems the coming weeks, as I have been busy with other things lately. So I hope to have some succes (and a new version of CAT) relatively soon.

[Guest MatthiasS]

That's great to hear, Arno. I hope you can figure it out. I know you have been busy with the website. I think I'd write my hosting service a strong worded letter if that would happen to me ;).Keep it up !Matthias