Sorry, sorry, sorry....

[Guest jonpoint]

Dear All,My apologies for my non-existent deliveries recently. Here's where I'm at:DHC-6 Twin Otter - Due to (more) holdups in the cockpit, I have postponed this until this Friday at the earliest. My problem was the moving throttle and prop levers putting green rectangles in my F3 view! The Renegade's work fine but not for me... There will be 3 liveries to start with; Era, Lehto and D-IVER ;)ASW28 - The 3D model is down to ~1600 polygons (from 22,500) and is starting to look OK. I've had to ditch a lot of the model 'features' as they just used too many polygons. For example, the canopy used >1,000 by itself! I also have a greater appreciation for translating GMAX models to 3DS - don't do it! I have abandoned GMAX entirely for modelling now - until someone makes a more suitable 'gamepack' for it :-( And it's not the old 'DXF to 3DS' problem of duplicated vertices and polys - the polygons become sooooo split, it's hard to find one more than 200mm in any dimesion. I tried some simple models in GMAX (like a tree) but, after conversion still got 35 polygons, instead of 6 :-eek Of course, it uses John Lewis' great ASW28 cockpit ;)F4U and T6 - both aircraft are at 'rough 3D model stage'. I am having troubles with the gear and I have to ask Ansgar about this. The FU4 needs a double-pivoting gear strut to fold into the space required. OK, I could make the gear shorter (which would look weird) or not worry about bits poking through the wing but I'd rather sort it properly ;) I'd say the T6 will be first 'coz we already have a cockpit. Anyone wish to help with anything? Like callsigns?Other models - some of you may have noticed some new additions in my screenshots ;) New trees (I actually bothered looking at heaps of photos of the SEA area and have modified my 'ntrees' to suit. I am also doing a similar thing in Sanfran), some new FBOs and other miscellaneous models. These will be released when I've worked out some issues with the other developers!AI planes - Ansgar has managed to work 2 versions of the DHC-6 into the AI scenario. Next, I will send the Dash-8. I think Ansgar is busy enough with other things to finish the AI yet (which is just as well 'coz I'm running late - as usual).The next Twin Otter screenshots you see should be announcing the upload :-beerchugRegards,******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Jon,That new AI pack is the most important new addon as far as I am concerned ;-) I have recently decided which AI parking spots will be modified in my SanFran and Seattle regions. The list is quite extensive, but the actual work shouldn't be too difficult.I can't wait to see your AI Twin Otters and Dash 8's flying around in FU3. Let's just hope that Ansgar's AI Concorde will soon join them ;-)Chris Low.

[Guest glidernut]

Hi Jon,The ASW28 is wat Im looking forword to the most.I hav never managed to get the any model from GMAX > gamepack to 3DS at all.But I did manage to get the ASW28 from GMAX to CROSSROADS, cob, DXF, 3DS, but it would always hang at the BSP, Grrrrr.The flight fisics of the ASW28 is very similer to the stemme, so I dont think that needs to be changed.Modified 'ntrees' would be briliant, it would improov thousands and thousands of trees in one go.without having to spend weeks and weeks in Fled atempting to reaplace them all.You take your time Jon, all good things are werth wateing for.A very gratefal glidernut. :-wave

[Lars Peter 0]

Hello there.It looks like there are several huge projects in the pipeline again,and once again amasing good ideas for upgrades.The high quality of the work done here, is as I can see work of perfectionism and this is not done in one day.So take your time.I am looking forward to see the end product(s):)Lars Peter. :-wave

[Hans_Petter 1]

Don't feel sorry mate -- the least we can do is to wait until you get it right :-) You have been very productive lately and we truly appreciate your work. I may be able to help you with some textures or bitmap editing if you want to concentrate on 3D models or cockpit instruments. Regarding the tree swap in SanFran, I assume there won't be any FLED issues with new models / same names? As you know, FLED may act up if the replacement models are of different size.It's funny, even after all these years there are places in the FU3 world that I haven't been and lots of aircraft that I ought to fly more often. I've spent a lot of time in the mountain ranges east of Seattle lately. I'm looking forward to flying the finished Twin Otter in this region.(In oil bee fankful if ya doan tell thee uthas that oim ploin wif anutha sim, trine ta finish that rice around Awestrighleea :-abduct)Hans Petter

[Guest jonpoint]

Thanks for the patient responses, Folks ;)Sometimes, when working on a few things at once, one can feel like you've slipped into a black hole...Anyway, contrary to me saying "the next screen shots etc.." yesterday, I was sooooo chuffed with these, I had to post them!The F3 day view. Yes, landing at Ranger is, well - quite realistic with no forward view in a DHC-6. Having been in a few, one gets used to keeping the trees parallel ;)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/64431.jpgThe F2 day view. A leetle beet more view to make landing/scenery enjoyment easier.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/64432.jpgJust finishing the night views...:-wave******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Hans_Petter 1]

Looks spectacular! And you're saying it isn't finished? If that's unfinished I'll take unfinished any day :-) (Seriously, I'll wait patiently until you decide that it's finished and ready for worldwide distribution).Hans Petter

[Guest jonpoint]

John,"I hav never managed to get the any model from GMAX > gamepack to 3DS at all.But I did manage to get the ASW28 from GMAX to CROSSROADS, cob, DXF, 3DS, but it would always hang at the BSP, Grrrrr."Before conversion to a binfile, the 3ds file must be ~<150k. The resulting 3DS from the ASW28 was about 440k :-eekGMAX does not (and probably will not ever) output to 3DS. The trick is to identify a suitable (convertable) format and use the required gamepack. So far, I haven't found one so I use the .md3 output. The BIG problem here is the sheer size of the converted file. The .md3 exporter in GMAX does some strange things (apparently, it was only designed for smaller files, like RPG figures and related models). There must be a maximum polysize or similar limit in the game that uses .md3s because, put a large (complex, with lots of subparts) file through it it becomes split. Split? 22,000 polygons is more like a veritable explosion of polygons :-eek As I mentioned, put in a tree and it chops that up too. I should try a smaller object maybe...So, don't worry that you had no joy. I've been slowly plugging away at the ASW for a few months now so I appreciate the frustration. As Rachel Hunter says; "it won't happen overnight, but it will happen..."PS Get the GIF?:-wave******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Guest Ansgar]

Hi Jon,I second that what Hans Petter is saying above!Take your time and let the babies grow. Important is that you

[Guest jonpoint]

Ansgar,I will speak to you about the gear door/axle problem with the T6 and F4U but that's later!I have another funny one. It's not stopping me on the DHC-6 but it surprised me!Ages ago, I found a limit to the number of instrument bitmaps one could use. Try to expand any resfile instrument resource beyond 200 simply kept replacing the last file. OK, that limitation is accepted.So, with the DHC-6 I decided to clear out the 'useless' bitmaps I didn't need, giving me space for the ~80 new bitmaps I wanted to use. Problem is, delete ONE of the original bitmaps and you get a CTD in FU3! CPD is OK with it but not FU3. Last night I opened up a fresh Windhawk resfile in CPD, deleted EVERY instrument from it and tried again - same result. CPD saved and 'built' but FU3 gave a CTD :-grrUnlike other aircraft, the Windhawk only has two cockpit bitmap resource folders, one for day, the other for night. Looking at other aircraft, they have more resource folders.Of course, trying to add extra engines to the Renegade or Mooney doesn't work either - only engine #0 starts :-grr :-grrSo, 'wonderful person that got 4 engines out of 2' and even nutted-out the Beechjet cockpit, what am I doing wrong or is it time I resorted to hex-editing resources? Truth is, I'd love to use the Beechjet base but nearly every time I try to edit the cockpit, I trash the resfile. I can make a fairly convincing turboprop out of the B400 - I did it with the Dash-8 at one stage, but the inability to sort the cockpit put me back to the Windhawk model :-( As to why the Renegade's engine controls work and mine put green blocks across the screen, it seems the Rennie's have modifiers whereas the Windhawk's don't. Any fix for that would also be appreciated - so would the ability to make throttles work backwards...:-wave******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Jon,Don't take TOO long getting those AI Dash 8's to Ansgar, will you ? ;-)I have recently listed all of the AI planes at every airport in the Seattle and SanFran regions. This was done so that I could carefully plan the modifications required when the new version of the AI Pack is released. The total number of changes that I intend to make is approximately 130 ! :-eek Around 45% of these have already been done, since these were based on existing models. However, the other 55% requires the new DHC6 and Dash 8 AI models....which is why I would like to see the new AI Pack sooner rather than later :-)Anyway, when these modifications are complete, I will be releasing update packs for the Seattle and SanFran regions. Don't worry. These will only be modifications to the airports, so there will be no packages involved (apart from Byron Municipal...where I would like to add a new hangar next to the new player parking spot. If anyone has a nice new hangar model that they would like to donate, then please feel free to send me a copy ;-)). The upgraded San Jose International will be included, allowing you to see Boeing 747's operating from the runway 12R/30L (and maybe even the odd Concorde).Chris Low.

[agtim 0]

Jon,The explosion after MD3 conversion has to do with 2 bytes integer used by MD3. The scale is multiplied by 64 when exported and as soon your vector goes over 0x7fff near 32000 it becomes negativ !resize down the full model in gmax before exporting it the you get a nice plane. same problem when using mdl2dxf or so but there is no way to modify scale. :-wave agtim

[Guest jonpoint]

Andre,Thanks for that! I expected something like that. So, should I resize to 1/64 or 1/4 (4^3=64) before exporting?As I have now actually done most of the model, I won't need this for the ASW28 but it may come in handy later. Others I know who use GMAX for RPG games may also benefit from this tip!Thanks again :-wave******************* Jonathan Point *******************

[Guest Ansgar]

Hello Jon,that problem with the 200 instrument resources I didn

[agtim 0]

Hi Jon,Best is to save your work as gmax first the try scaling down until you get a good result as md3.here is a excellent md3 description, i used it for the geotilesviever conversion using md3 for elevation to gmax editing.http://linux.ucla.edu/~phaethon/q3/formats/md3format.htmlor search for "md3 format specification" :-wave agtim