EE Lightning T.5 (fingers crossed!) for 2008....

[Arny_01]

Well into yet another year... Hopefully (how many times have I said that!) this year I'll have my Lightning T.5 finished and released.
Have been inundated with one email since Christmas (lol ) asking what's happening - so decided I'd post a couple of screenies to show what I been up to...

Basically have redone a lot of the textures, especially in the VC and am currently locked in the labourious task of coding in all the gauges (3D gauges) - unfortunately my limited knowledge of the coding "Black-Arts" has proved to be a major stumbling block - and one that only with a massive thanks the kind soles of the likes of Rick Piper & Fr. Bill over at the FreeFlightDesign forum, would probably have seen me either settling for something less satisfying - or simply walking away. Anyway progress and more importantly knowledge is being gained - and I am, if somewhat slowly, still chipping away at the ole' girl.... :drinkers:

Pilots (LIBRARY PICCIES - now fully painted and skinned)




In Sim (FSX) - some of the missing parts have been left off whilst I'm re-texturing/and or simply to make the compile a bit quicker






All in all - obviously still work in progress - but yes, I'm still on it!! :flying: All the best for 2008 CHEERS

Mike

[Techy111]

Wow......That looks the bees.....

Definitely one to look out for.....

Tony

p.s. if i had your e-mail i would have bugged you......

[John]

You're a brave man... that's a hell of a project!

Looking forward to it

John

[Rick Piper]

Hi Mike

Looking great.

have you managed to get Hydraulic pressure & brake gauge animation .xml tags to work in FSX ?.

i have animated mine about 10 times now and they never move.

they work fine with perameters in FS9 but FSX seems to ignore them :-(

Regards
Rick

[Arny_01]

Hi Rick

No sadly I haven't even started on either yet. :-(

I'm currently trying to sort my Fuel & Electrical systems (stuck trying to get Wing to Wing transfer to work and also simulate some sort of in-flight refuel ? :brick: ).

Which Variables are you using for the hydraulic pressure and brake gauges? (assume you building 3D gauges?) - I'm certainly no expert with coding (you got my altitude drums working!) and still trying to find my feet with it all - but if can help you out and experiment with a couple of possible solutions - would be more than happy to assist if I could (and it's on my list of things still to do anyway...)

Regards

Mike

[Rick Piper]

Hi Mike

i will dig out my tags later.

I now have my altitude drums working properly and the Kohlsman drums.

they roll over at last second when next number gets to about 9.8 like on a mileometer rather than smooth rolling which to me looks wrong.

Regards
Rick

[Arny_01]

Redid my drums on keyframes 0-360
<PartInfo>
<Name>drum_altitude_100</Name>
<AnimLength>360</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Code>
(A:ELECTRICAL MASTER BATTERY, bool) (A:AVIONICS MASTER SWITCH, bool) + 2 ==
if{ (A:INDICATED ALTITUDE, feet) 1000 % 36 * 100 / } els{ (L:INDICATED ALTITUDE FREEZE, feet) 1000 % 36 * 100 /}
</Code>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>
Yeah, staggered rolling looks far better
Keyframed my drums to turn on every 36th keyframe - ie: 0-35 (37-71... etc) the drum stays stationary then turns onto next number on frames 36, 72.. etc.

Mike

[Rick Piper]

Hi Mike

i tried 360 like the default F18 but could see no difference apart from a lower framerate.

Not sure Captainsim didn't just think more frames where better :roll:

I ended up on 200 frames and set as your notes but 1 frame for roll to next number as FSX smoothly rolls the number even with 1 keyframe.

Regards
Rick

[SkippyBing]

Guys couple of questions as I'm starting work on a VC.

Is there a repository of XML code for animating common instruments? (and if not should we start one somewhere as a sticky)

For the gauges it looks like you've put a transparent layer in for the gauge glass, or is that just good texturing (I have a good texture monkey so not a problem!!)

Cheers

[Arny_01]

Rick,

Can get movement changing to work on a position unit (like a TURN COORDINATOR BALL): As a basic:

<PartInfo>
<Name>needle_brake_pressure</Name>
<AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Code>
(A:BRAKE LEFT POSITION, position) 1 + 50 *
</Code>
<Lag>100</Lag>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

Mike