Captain Bazza's Micro~Lite

[Guest twsimfan]

I have been fooling around with Bazza's Micro~Lite which is available in the library. It comes with the Stemme's interior. I removed all of that and put in a slightly modified version of Gideon's great Cub panel for the IFR view... all other views including the VFR are blank. It makes a great plane for sight-seeing!My 1st attempt didn't work out so well... the tach needed recalibrating and there were...http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3112fc24e97ccf.jpglots of green pixels and when the throttle was advanced it showed a green patch above it...With a little hunting (OK... maybe a lot) I finally got all them little green buggers...http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3113af2a57d330.jpgAnd I borrowed some rollcage tubing from a Cortina in Rally Trophy to hide the green above the throttle.My VFR view...http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d311507336bbc6e.jpgWhich shows the same amount of interior detail as every other view... except the IFR. (none)http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3116173cd1c615.jpgI love the translucent wings & tail.http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3116d04252a42f.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3117284525dd24.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d31179348ee326d.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3117cd4ad351e8.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d31183a4d8f945d.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d31188a50a0a891.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3118eb536b16dc.jpghttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d31194655ff5566.jpgLike I said... it makes a great sight-seeing vehicle! You can use all of the Stemme's controls... deploy the spoiler and it slows down abruptly... raise the gear and it goes faster... positive & negavive flaps work... but you have no panel indication of those things... and of course the 3D model will not show them either... It would be easy to land with the gear up and not understand why you crashed!I just use it for fun and don't use those "other" controls much... the spoiler can come in handy if you are too hot on the landing.All the pieces are in the library... a nice "do-it-yourself" project for a rainy day! :)

[Hans_Petter 1]

Nice job!Suggestions for further work:1) The green pixels probably are a mismatch between day and night textures. When the "transparent code" (defined as yucky green in FU3) doesn't cover the exact same area in the corresponding day and night views we get green pixels. OK, you found a workaround!2) Since all the Stemme controls work, even gear travel, I assume that the flight model is 100% Stemme. It would be nice to modify this and get the wing span and the weight right. Hennie made some micro-lights -- did he alter the flight model? I remember that they seemed very underpowered which is correct for a micro-light. You might try to import his flight physics.3) The full view is great but one might introduce some of the struts from the aircraft model. The Cortina roll-cage tubing would fit perfectly!best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest twsimfan]

Hans,"The green pixels probably are a mismatch between day and night textures. When the "transparent code" (defined as yucky green in FU3) doesn't cover the exact same area in the corresponding day and night views we get green pixels."That is one cause... one that has given me fits in the past. In this case I am using the same image for day & night panels... with no lights I don't expect to use it at night. You also get green pixels with slight discoloration of tranparent green... areas that are close (usually close enough that my eyes can't tell the difference) but not exact. Corel does that to me sometimes. This time I used GIMP and did not expect it to be a problem. The cure is to compare a screen shot to the actual image and select and "cut" to the proper color."It would be nice to modify this and get the wing span and the weight right. Hennie made some micro-lights -- did he alter the flight model? I remember that they seemed very underpowered which is correct for a micro-light. You might try to import his flight physics."You are correct. I will wait until Gideon releases his new version of ResViewer which should make this a very easy operation. It will make a good test project for the new funtionality. I could do it now but I have too many other projects in the mill. For now it works very nice and is lots of fun. Bazza must have modified the flight model some... the Micro~Lite is not a tail dragger and it works fine on the ground and even turns properly."The full view is great but one might introduce some of the struts from the aircraft model."That would be good... but it will have to be a future project for now.Thanks for the kind words. Have a nice day! :)

[Hans_Petter 1]

Tom wrote: You also get green pixels with slight discoloration of tranparent green... areas that are close (usually close enough that my eyes can't tell the difference) but not exact. Corel does that to me sometimes. This time I used GIMP and did not expect it to be a problem. The cure is to compare a screen shot to the actual image and select and "cut" to the proper color.Believe it or not, I'm still working on Baron bitmaps :-)One trick that I've learned: To check whether the paint program has done some anti-aliasing and changed "transparent green" pixels to another hue of green, pour a bucket of red into the transparent area. With zero tolerance it will only overwrite the true "transparent green" and the not-so-transparent green pixels will show. Then you may work around all edges and paint them red as the rest. Finally, pour a bucket of "transparent green" over the red and you're all set. Needless to say, it doesn't have to be red but rather any bright color that stands out from the cockpit graphics as well as from the "transparent green". The paint program will smoothen out edges if you resize the image and that's when "transparent green" pixels get polluted with other shades of green.best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest twsimfan]

Hans,Yes, I have used the flood fill approach as well. It works pretty well in Coral but in GIMP it can have unpredictable results.Have you made any major changes in the Baron since your contributions to Baron 2.1?

[Guest jonpoint]

Oh yeah, the yucky green!My solution is, before editing anything, do a 'magic wand' select of the green part (for Corel) or 'select same colour' for others. Set the colour tolerance to 1 (i.e. minimum). This will 'grab' just the green bit. While you're at it, save a sample of the green and paste it to your palette. Once selected, save this mask. After editing your image, import the mask and 'flood fill' it with the green. Don't resize or adjust B/C/I and you should be OK. Sometimes a couple of spots sneak through. I zoom in to 800% and fill them with the green I saved to the palette.Jon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Hans_Petter 1]

Major changes to Baron bitmaps? Well, it's sure turned into a major folder of trial and errors :-) Kiwi really set the standard except for one thing that I'm trying to do differently -- I want all the right side views to reflect a viewpoint from the pilot's seat. I've got heaps of real Baron images for reference. If you or someone else would like to help finish this I'll send you a CD by snail mail. I haven't got too much spare time and just dabble into it every now and then.best regards,Hans Petter