Glider Flight Mission II

Wudpecker · Post by **Wudpecker** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:09 am

Okay, phase 2.

Crowded take-off

COMMENTS:

SHRECK has also made progress. Waiting permission to post some of his shots.

1) Moved hard point node from glider to end of tow rope.
2) C-47 "M" 3dz shows from some angles. Not from front.
3) No attachment point found on C-47 Ord14.3dz
4) Obvious transparency problem on tow cable.
5) Shadow view is blank--needs help.
6) No long-distance view of glider+C-47
7) And...of course....no good close-up view because of "M" model.

Looks fairly realistic in flight. No front or rear view of tow plane as yet.

Wudpecker · Post by **Wudpecker** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:18 am

Shreck has given me permission to show a couple of screenshots of his version of glider+C-47 combo.
He is still working on modding a B-24 cockpit into a glider cockpit, so I will not show that one (even though it looks great)

"Drop Tanks" means drop everything

Col. Gibbon · Post by **Col. Gibbon** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:09 pm

Now, all you need to do is give the drop tank the flight properties of a HAVR rocket, and it'll be fine.

I think you need to edit the weapons.dat file to change the drop tank into a rocket. :wink:

Wudpecker · Post by **Wudpecker** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:45 pm

Thanks, John.
Also Tx for the info on including hard points and checking transparency over at Frugal's.

Hmmm. Interesting idea about switching to "rocket" in weapons.dat---
Would it disturb our planned use of Drop Tank?

rotton50 · Post by **rotton50** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:04 pm

Wuddy,

You don't need to change it to a rocket. You can make the "drop tank / C47" fly forward by changing the 6th byte of the weapon slot you are using from "0" to either "3' or "4". A "3" will make it drop slightly as it moves away from you and a "4" will make it rise slightly.

I used a similar fix to get the drop tank to drop like a bomb or fire like a rocket in my weapons mod which allows multiple bomb drops or rocket firings.

Ray

Col. Gibbon · Post by **Col. Gibbon** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:14 pm

Hi Rotten50.

That's right. You need to make the drop tank behave like a rocket, but still be a drop tank. I've forgotten a load of stuff to do with editing the weapons.dat. Texpole and I used to mess around with flight models, and other dat files, to see what was possible to make the game do. If you think about it, a C47 dropping a tow, would naturally rise as the weight of the glider comes off, so the 4 option I think would be best. As long as the C47 keeps moving forward. I think there might be another byte, which you'll need to edit, to give the C47 forward movement, and another byte for duration of burn, or in this case flight. You'll no doubt, have a copy of the EAW notes, where the file structure of the weapons.dat file is explained. I used to have fun trying to calculate the position of the appearance of the ordinance in the flight file. I never did crack how to do it properly, before I moved onto making 3dz models.

rotton50 · Post by **rotton50** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:31 pm

Col,

I tried this out today with my new detachable float on the E15K "Norm" recon plane.
All I did was change the 6th byte from '0' to '4' and off went the float sailing into the sunset. Remarkable sight!

You can adjust the speed with another byte but honestly, once you let go of the rope you ain't worried about the mothership anymore. :lol:

Ray

Col. Gibbon · Post by **Col. Gibbon** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:00 pm

rotton50 wrote:Col,

I tried this out today with my new detachable float on the E15K "Norm" recon plane.
All I did was change the 6th byte from '0' to '4' and off went the float sailing into the sunset. Remarkable sight!

You can adjust the speed with another byte but honestly, once you let go of the rope you ain't worried about the mothership anymore.

Ray

Hi Ray.

I think in this case getting the C47 to fly off would be nice, rather than just sailing off.

I adjusted the burn time byte on Moggy's torpedo mod once, and turned it into a Exocet missile. It went all the way to the wall from London, were I fired it from.

Post by **Moggy** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:26 pm

Looks really good chaps!

rotton50 · Post by **rotton50** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 1:13 am

Col.

Sorry about that. Inflection never comes off right with the typed word. :roll:

I was just trying to be funny with the "sailing off" comment. Actually it moves away quite nicely, I think just about the speed you would want.

Ray

VonBeerhofen · Post by **VonBeerhofen** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:24 pm

perhaps the use of a single line element for the tow rope is more appropriate then trying to use a drawing, it will remain more sharp.
Other then that it's looking awesome!

VonBeerhofen

Wudpecker · Post by **Wudpecker** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 1:15 am

VON B-- Yes, a single line will show up better, Roel.
It is hoped, though, that a "droopy" cable will be more realistic--since they in fact did have a slight loop.
However, there are some transparency problems. You will notice the tailwheel on the glider and Shreck's pilots and clear cockpit do not show as yet, either.
And we don't know why. The transparency code 6 is used in Gurney's 3dz Studio, and we have a transparency file. Just checked Shreck's pallette and changed the "pink" so it matches Code Zero on pallette (first checkbox at top left). Still no luck.

COL. Gibbon and ROTTEN---You seem to know what to change in weapons.dat. I don't.

BTW, John. There are LOTS of RS problems in the glider version Shreck is using. I'm going to try going back to your original 3dz and work from there, unless you have suggestions.

rotton50 · Post by **rotton50** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 1:23 am

Wuddy,

I'm fairly confident I can set up the weapons.dat file when you're ready. Finish the graphics to your liking and send me the package. ( rotton50 at yahoo dot com )

Ray

RAF_Roy · Post by **RAF_Roy** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:50 am

Incredible Work!
:shock:

-S!

Wudpecker · Post by **Wudpecker** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:59 am

Thanks, Rotten. Will do.