Saab 340 flyable previews

[Guest effyouthree]

Dear All,She's almost finished ;) Here's some previews to whet your appetites!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/110652.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/110653.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/110654.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/110655.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/110656.jpgRegards,**************Jonathan Point**************"I'd rather be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here"

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Jon,Ahh, now I know why my mailbox was empty. You have been too busy with the Saab 340 :-)By the way, that radio tower that can be seen centre right in picture #1 has been deleted. The new Bruno Mountain scenery package will have a suite of TV towers, and these will be in more accurate positions ;-)Chris Low.

[Guest effyouthree]

Chris,Busy? Haven't had time to think about it :-roll I needed to get some other things done before dedicating myself 100% to all these models! As you can understand, creating aircraft takes literally hundreds of hours for one person :-( I'm not grumbling though, as I knew what I was in for when I started! Last night, I spent the entire evening just getting the inside and outside engine 'run' sounds just right. Now, I need another evening just to get the startup and shutdown sounds to sync-up. Then I'll give it a rest for a couple of days and use it for flying around the models I'm working on. That way I can do some flight-model tuning and checking, although it's darn close now.By comparison, making models allows one to often complete a few items in one evening (unless it's a bridge ;) ).I haven't forgotten anything though! I have a stack of bridges under construction, I've done a simple water tank (or 2) for you (check your inbox), the TV & microwave towers appear to be to your liking and I have about a week's marina work laid out to do. On top of that, I been looking at the 'Do it yourself Substations - Roofing Supplier's Guide' document too! Oh! I've 97% done the new fire towers as well - I might sneak that one out this week, along with the substation stuff. I fixed the railings and legs so it actually compiles without ~500 polygons. And it's got a 9' whip aerial so the crew can actually report fires now! 'Towers'? Yeah, I did 2 - one short (without the aerial and with a closed door) and the other 'normal'. Can't stop me, eh?It's positively exhausting :-waveAnd yes, that tower must go. As you can probably also see, I've already removed all my TV and radio tower packages, ready for your new packages ;) BTW, when you compile the packages, make sure you include the relevant .mod files from the regionssanfranmodels folder, to save others from having to delete the existing models. It's soooo easy, I don't know why I never thought of it before! In future, when you move/delete existing LGS-placed stuff, just include the modified .mod files and users can have instant karma :-wave...assuming they follow the instructions, that is ;)PS My office email is flaky right now, due to a worldwide system changeover. Might be a week or so before it's 100%. Use the address for now please ;)Regards,**************Jonathan Point**************"I'd rather be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here"

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Jon,Yes, it is amazing how we completely missed the ease with which we can delete existing models, and then simply include the modified .mod files in the SanFran 2005 pack. This has already been done, and the pack now has a new MODELS folder that includes all of those .mod files that have been updated.Chris Low.

[Hans_Petter 1]

The Saab looks stunning as do the new radio towers, pylons and bridges. I think it's about time we delete quite a few of the original Looking Glass aircraft and scenery models :-)Hans Petter

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Hans,Here is the current situation with respect to progress on the SanFran 2005 pack:-New scenery packages to be added: 242New scenery packages completed: 39New scenery packages under construction: 33Existing scenery packages to be updated: 14Existing scenery packages completed: 5By the way, SanFran Pylons only accounts for ONE of those 242 scenery packages, even though it has been split into 53 separate folders :-)ETA of SanFran 2005 ? Well, I think that I will take a leaf from Id Software's book.....IT'LL BE DONE WHEN IT'S DONE ;-)Chris Low.

[Guest effyouthree]

"IT'LL BE DONE WHEN IT'S DONE"My sentiments exactly! I am truly swamped right now with about 10 models 'on the go' and a but I'm still enjoying it ;)Wait until you HEAR this thing! I got the startup and shutdown sounds finished last night. ...taking off from Half Moon Bay and climbing into the scattered clouds with the constant hum of the 2 4-blade props and just that slightest bit of asynchrony between the engines as you hit small pockets of turbulence...Yesiree, there's nothing sweeter than the sound of a nice turboprop! Seriously, I think I need to redo the Dash-8 sounds now - in fact, I need to redo the entire thing, probably using the Saab as a base. Then we can have the full GPS as well.BTW, you'll need a good bass response in your sound setup...Oh yeah, Chris! I also finished the firetower too - check your inbox.And RobD, check your inbox for the 'light test' model I've sent. It includes all the existing lights (@hxx) AND the 'new' ones I found (by mistake ;) ). The 'new' ones are the bottom row.As to everything else, IT'LL BE DONE WHEN IT'S DONE :-waveRegards,**************Jonathan Point**************"I'd rather be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here"

[Guest Ansgar]

Hello dear Jon,Thank you very much for the S340 as AI version! It is implemented now properly in my models.res. I modify now the sound file to give it an turboprop sound and then I only need to build an KC10 tanker from my DC10 to be prepeared for the big upload of the new AI-update.A short question in the meantime:have you received my mail with the german beechjet file or not?If not I will try it again as splitted file in WinACE format again.Best regards ;-)Ansgar A

[Guest fu3]

Ansgar,I'm glad you like the S340 AI! Do you need a sound for it? I posted one ages ago but I have a better one now...Yes, and thanks for the German B400 resfile. Our mail is getting sorted right now (we have 2 systems, with one for sending, while BOTH receive, under different addresses). So much for progress...Speaking of which, due to my old mail not working, and a new IP address, I had to re-create myself (!), as I couldn't pick up a password from the old address :-( .So I finally got the login I wanted. I don't know who had it before (I tried) but I hope they didn't leave a bad impression :-lolBTW, I'm having a really hard time trying to find the coordinates of the digital attitude and digital altitude instruments. I thought I'd just find them in the resfile but I can't. Last night I went through the beechjet scripts and .h files and I identified things but not what I want. It must be there somewhere - I just need to move it a bit left and up :-roll I wish Gideon had sorted these. I even opened his source files last night but I have no idea how to create software anyway, let alone take on an unfinished project and finish it!PS You know we discussed gear doors? No, they still don't work but I did find a flight model entry for them last night (buried in a .h file). I'll dig it out later. Problem is, BSP.EXE just won't accept the doors as moving objects :-( :-(

[Guest Ansgar]

Hello Jon,what happens to your effyouthree login? ;-)Or did you mean this with "got the login I wanted..."?Well, now to your question concerning the digital attitude and altitude instruments. I think I already send this description to you earlier, but if not then I redo it now. I got THE important hint how this could be done from Gideon, and here is his description again where he described in general how it works:************************************************Hi Ansgar,The instrument definitions inside the .res file are compressed, so it is not possible to edit them "as-is" in an hex-editor.What you can do is edit the Cockpit Designer files that store the instrument definitions.If you look inside a project folder you will see these files:IFRDInst.defIFRDInst.hdrVFRDInst.defVFRDInst.hdrThese are the uncompressed instrument definitions files.It is obvious from the filenames that one is for IFR instruments and the other for VFR (there are also files for Extra-View instruments named EVDInst.def/EVDInst.hdr )The .def files include the actual instrument definitions, one after theother, the structure is the same as in the files released by FU3 programmer Pat McElhatton ( file instr_.h )In all instruments, the first byte is the instrument type (example: 00 is INSTR_ASI according to the cpitdefs.h file from Looking Glass)The second byte is what I call the System number.Then come the other parameters that define each instrument (differentaccording to instrument type).I'm sure you already know all this.Because in the .def file there are no separators between each instrument, the .hdr file defines the end of each structure.The format of the header is like this:Number of items - 2 first bytesEnd offset of header - next 4 bytes // specifies where the header ends (this is the end of the .hdr file)Then follows an end offset for each item (4 bytes each) // specifies where each item ends and the next item starts inside the .def fileSo to modify/add instruments you need to manipulate the .def and .hdr files and then open the project in Cockpit Designer.I'm also attaching a new version of Cockpit Designer, which lets you add all the digital instruments based on static title (Digital Airspeed, Digital Airtemp, etc.)I hope it helps.Gideon************************************************I used this trick to move the instruments in my B747 cockpit - nevertheless it is really complicated - and you need to use a hex-editor.If you still couldn

[Guest fu3]

OK, thanks Ansgar!I was actually 'fu3' at one stage but I lost the password, and the email account I'd created it with, so I couldn't get a new password! I then created the 'effyouthree' login and used that for some time. Now, the old login has resurfaced so I got it back!As to the instruments, I was trying to make sense of the hexfiles themselves, which wasn't helping. I saw the .h file entries and even worked out some changes but I have to edit the ones in CPD, THEN create a project? That explains it! I will attempt to do it tonight and see what happens. If it all goes wrong I can always substitute a 'normal' attitude indicator but I like the altitude strip and I need to move both of them. Also, and I have no idea why, when I replace the attitude horizon (the brown/blue bit) with an identically-sized bitmap (the original, with the brown changed to yellow), FU3 seems to 'magnify' the bitmap (the scale disappears) and it's movement becomes very jerky - again, as though I am only looking at 3 or 4 pixels above the horizon. As soon as I put the original file back, it's fine :-hmmmCould it be something weird with Corel bitmaps? I still palettise bitmaps in iMage.exe because Resviewer doesn't accept Corel-palettised ones - and I have no idea why, it's not as though they're DTX or anything weird like that. RobD modified his Fixmip so it would accept Corel-palettised gifs (before that, it only accepted Gif87) but this is different. My assumption is that all cockpit and instrument bitmaps are 16-bit, as that has worked so far for all the other planes I've done!Now, as if I hadn't rattled your brain enough, I would LOVE to know how to edit the sound reference section of the resfile. I found what I was looking for in the 'bjsnds.scr' script file but I have no idea where this info is stored or how to edit it. The stuff I wanted to play with is below (a section of the script):RES PlayerPlaneSoundId BIN INLINE NONCOMPOUND // In-cockpit non-pa sound modifier FLOAT 0.8 // In-cockpit pa sound modifier FLOAT 1.0 // Wind base volume LONG -3200 // Wind Velocity Threashhold FLOAT 10.0 // Wind Frequency Multiplier FLOAT 0.5 // Wind volume multiplier FLOAT 0.7 // Stress Threashhold FLOAT 0.5 LONG $DO_TWIN_ENGINE // Cruising Sound // RPMs where normal sounds start, overlapping end of "starting" sample FLOAT 1900.0 // Time, in seconds, of overlap between "starting" sample and normal running sounds. FLOAT 3.0 // Time, in seconds, of overlap between "stopping" sample and normal running sounds. FLOAT 3.0 // Min Running RPMs 1 & 2 FLOAT 1000.0 FLOAT 1050.0 // Cruise squash FLOAT 0.6 //0.4 SHORT $RES_Eng1CruiseExt SHORT $RES_Eng1CruiseInt // "Bad" sound SHORT $RES_Eng1CruiseBadExt SHORT $RES_Eng1CruiseBadInt SHORT $RES_Eng2CruiseExt SHORT $RES_Eng2CruiseInt // "Bad" sound SHORT $RES_Eng2CruiseBadExt SHORT $RES_Eng2CruiseBadInt // Min RPMS. FLOAT 1200.0 // Max RPMS. FLOAT 9500.0 // Sample RPMs FLOAT 2050.0I tried adding this to the flight model resfile and, whilst it didn't crash it, I got no difference when I altered values. What I'm trying to change is these sections below, to get my turboprops working in the Beechjet! The Dash-8 and DHC6 were Windhawk-based and whatever settings they used work OK. Problem is, the shutdown sound starts too early on shutdown and also when you feather the props. It seems the Beechjet has higher values. For example, I have included my comments below with '>>'. // RPMs where normal sounds start, overlapping end of "starting" sample FLOAT 1900.0>> Should be ~750 // Time, in seconds, of overlap between "starting" sample and normal running sounds. FLOAT 3.0>> Better if 1.5 // Time, in seconds, of overlap between "stopping" sample and normal running sounds. FLOAT 3.0>> Better if 1.5 // Min Running RPMs 1 & 2 FLOAT 1000.0 FLOAT 1050.0>> This is why the shutdown sounds starts when you feather the props! Should be say 700 and 650 // Cruise squash FLOAT 0.6 //0.4>> Don't know what this does but I'd like to find out!If we can 'unlock' these 2 issues (editing unsupported instruments and the sound mapping), we can use the Beechjet for any future plane project and get the GPS and other digital instruments ;) I'm thinking A400M here! Now I know I could just 'fudge' the flight model and actually have the engines running at 3000RPM with only 1600 showing on the tacho but the prop noise gets weird and my 'turboprop fudges' don't work :-(And I love the sound! You cannot easily get a satisfactory turboprop sound using jet engines because they aren't 'constant speed' and the prop RPM goes all over the place. Actually, the prop RPM with the jet engine is about 22,000 RPM and the prop wind noise is like a whistle :-erksNow, If I could edit the sound allocations and have separate turbine and prop samples...Sorry to trouble you but any help would be appreciated! I'll let you know how I go tonight. If all else fails, I have a complete aircraft with non-digital attitude and altitude, I just wanted THOSE instruments :-wave

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Now I know why I decided to leave plane building to others ;-)Chris Low.

[Guest Ansgar]

Heeeeyyy Chris,this is quite simple and only the building of the Cockpit! Wait until we start over to discuss about 3d-model aircraft building.... :D :D :DDear Jon,I try to remember all that....First of all you only should work with an copy of your S340.res file for this!!! If you make an mistake in hex editing the *.hdr files the S340.res file may get damaged during the build process of CPD and couldt not longer be loaded or changed at all in ResViewer and/or CPD!if not done you first have to create/open an new project in CPD from your S340 first to get this files (*.def and *.hdr) extracted. Then close CPD and you can edit the *.hrd files as described by Gideon.If you are finished you must restart CPD again and "build" your project to compile your changes into your *.res file of the S340. Thats all then.As said above ... I offer you that (if you fail) you can send me the res-file and I/we try to make the changes parallel. This I can document than, so that you can follow my instructions direct at your examples and S340. Concerning bitmaps which are used in cockpits or it

[Guest R_Driscoll]

Amazing.

[Guest fu3]

Thanks, Ansgar!I'm just getting all this now. I looked at the panel files in CPD, then made some changes and compared them. I must have slipped a bit or something because I just got CTDs every time I switched to the F3 view, so i just put the old resfile back and she's (still) OK. I always work from copies so don't worry - I got caught out with the Dash-8 and, whilst she flies, the cockpit cannot be edited any more :-( Since then, I put a folder in my 'plnpile' folder called 'arc' and keep checkpoint versions in there. When I get a failure (often, but to be expected...) I just copy the most recent archived version back into the plnpile folder and rename it. I do the same with packages too! Simple 3D models are easier - I just keep ALL the versions until I'm 100% happy ;)I will play with the cockpit and sound settings on the weekend and see what I get. I DID try just copying the file out of the Windhawk but I got NO sound from the right engine (actually I did but it was on the left...)!!Thanks again, I'll let you know how I went.Chris, now do you believe me that I do 3D models for a distraction? There's nothing like not having to worry about axles, whether the night/day/lit/unlit panels all look OK, the fact that I can't get a good 'Saab' out of the voices available, engine sounds that mysteriously just turn off in-flight......and flight models where one accidentally leaves out a decimal point and the plane flies nose-up sideways because it only has a right elevator :-lolRob, you don't know what you're missing out on! Actually, you probably do now :-lol The reason I like doing planes is that it prevents me from wasting all my time creating packages soooo complex that nobody would want them. Clare's Valley was just a warm-up and Lewis Creek was 'just' a nice spot for newbies to try gliding - you should see my Half Moon Bay or Harvey :-roll Or my 'Seattle trees' (North, North-East, South-East and West sets...) - looks durn fantastic but I think you PC would have some issues with it! BTW, more than 1024 objects in a package and they don't load ;)Having recently received a new PC from a more advanced society, I can finally run everything at 100% and still have bandwidth to burn. I mostly get 30+ framerates in Seattle but approach to Half Moon Bay with lotsa clouds brings even that down to 12-15fps. Overboard? You bet ;)