For the base package I have some more files for the JSBSim airplanes. All of the main configuration files now have a rudder aerosurface scale component, so that rudders can be animated. This was not on my earlier models. I also put fuel in the tanks, even though this seems not to work yet.
Also attached are the -set files for all the airplanes. They now all specify a fuel load.
I've been messing with the yf23 some more. I think it flies a bit better now
and has more reasonable auto-pilot take-off characteristics - just apply full
power and go, and it doesn't go into such a steep climb.
Out of curiosity, I've also taken the rudder control input and linked it to
the stabilators/elevators and ailerons. Now, with some slick joystick
manipulation it's possible to fly it at about 30 deg off-axis in more or less
level flight (actually, with full 'rudder' input, it looks nearer to 40 deg
to me and you end up tracing a very long curve).
If no rudder input is used it flies 'normally'.
I'd like to be able to 'tune' it so that it's more stable while transitioning
but I'm not sure if that's going to be possible. It's also high-lighted some
problems I'm having with my Sidewinder joystick - when I use the rudder
control, the engine No.2 throttle jumps to 50% unless auto-throttle is
engaged (this also happens with the b52 too), and there seems to be some
interaction between the different axis if all three (roll, pitch and rudder)
are changed at the same time - difficult to be sure on that one though.
I'll probably un-map the throttle control from the joystick as I tend to use
the keyboard for engine control anyway, especially for landing.
Here's a quick update to the yf23 fdm and auto-pilot settings. It flies and
takes-off reasonably well - still haven't tried landing it yet;) It can
still be a bit wobbly at times though and It's not very good at terrain
following either.
Taking off on auto-pilot is quite fun. Set full flaps and CTRL-a (assuming
you're near sea level), hit F6 to make it go straight and apply power - about
50% until it rotates then apply full power. Retract the gear as soon as it
gets off the ground and by the time you#ve done that, retract the flaps.
Quite entertaining from a tower view:)
It's not really an ideal a/c to model but apart from the aesthetics, which
appeal to me, I was curious about not having a rudder.
There's a new texture sheet too but it only makes the a/c a paler shade of
grey.
I've attached an update for the yf23 and I think I've included all the right
files - the model is unchanged (I think I'll eventually paint it in an
imaginary NASA scheme, perhaps a bit like the HIDEC F-15, until I can get
some newer pictures and see what they've done with it) so I've not included
it again.
The fdm still needs quite a bit of work - it can be a bit twitchy and wobbly
at times, and the auto-pilot roll-out and smooth need tightening up, but it's
flyable. Haven't tried landing it yet though;)
- HSI GS needles shouldn't disappear when they hit their limits, only when
there is no GS signal.
- Make vac/amp gauge driven by new minimalistic amp model.
- Update digital clock face color to look more "LCD-ish" based on a real
C172-S cockpit photo.
- Add an OAT gauge to the old C172 2d panel.
here's an update to the b52 - it's just some relatively minor changes to the
fdm and panels.
I've been trying to improve the take-off and landing characteristics, or at
least get them to fit the pictures and film I've seen.
The best way to take off is by using the autopilot - at sea level just extend
the flaps, punch in the altitude hold on the autopilot (and heading if you're
lazy), and apply full power. It'll also take of with the default the default
elevator trim of -0.07 but it 'staircases' a little bit - the auto pilot
smooths that out.
I've included some notes and observations about taking-off and landing in the
readme.
While I wouldn't claim any sort of accuracy for it, I hope it manages to get
some of the characteristics right.
I've done a new Sea Hawk. Well, the model and the fdm aren't new, just
slightly modified, but I've incorporated some more animation stuff and tried
a different way of texturing it.
The animation additions are things I worked out for the YF23 (still can't get
it to fly again) - mostly u/c related stuff.
This actual aircraft (WV908) is in the Royal Navy Historical Flight and so is
kept unusally clean;) In the photographs I looked at, hardly any fuseage
panel lines were visible so I've not tried to include any. Instead of the
normal fuselage side views and wing plan textures I've just used fairly
high-res detail 'patches' for the markings, applied to 'carrier' objects.
This is much more like the way I'd do things if I was working on a picture in
my 3d software - there I'd apply multiple textures to an object, as required,
using scope and priority settings to get what I want. With .ac format models
you can only apply a single texture to an object - hence the need for the
carrier objects. These are sections of the underlying 'real' object that
have been moved out/away from from the original object surface so that they
cover them.
The pros are 1) the resolution of the details is much higher - have a close
look at the Ace of Diamonds art on the nose and on the bit that sticks out of
the front of the tail-fin (I don't know the proper name for this), and 2)
less texture space is needed.
The most obvious con is that there's more potential for z-buffer problems. I
notice that whilst on the ground (in chase view), there appears to be
z-buffer fighting for the texture patches but once the a/c has taken off and
has got to about 200ft or so, it clears up. I've no idea why this should
happen as I'm not changing any of the view settings.
There are a few things I still need to figure out in this respect - I think
there's an issue with graduated textures - they seem to get reduced to 16bpp
and show a lot of banding that's absent on the texture and the model appears
inverted from tower views, at least in 16bpp, but ok from the chase view, and
stuff like that.
I said that the model and fdm aren't new but they have been modified a bit.
I've only reduced the approach aoa in the fdm but the model, whilst basically
the same, has had quite a few changes to accomodate the new u/c and texture
patches. It also got into FG by a slightly different route - I found that
AC3D would support polys with > 3 sides and after looking at and comparing
.ac and .obj file formats (I can export from RS3D in .obj format) I wrote a C
prog to convert .obj format files into .ac format files. It's a nasty bit of
hackery that even uses a temporary workfile (LOL), and it will only work with
the simplest of .obj files (e.g. no vertice normal or texture info) but it
allows me to export the model geometry in .obj format, convert it, and load
it straight into AC3D without turning everything into triangles or flipping
face normals.
The funny thing is that objects that consist of just a single rectangle (e.g.
an aileron or flap surface) are not recognised by FG and they have to be
split into two triangles, and once the model's loaded up into FG I can see
from some of the rendering artifacts that it's all still reduced to triangles
prior to display anyway. Still, it saves me from having to do a lot of face
flipping.
Really, the texturing method is experimental and I hope I get some feed-back
on it regarding display and performance issues. Ultimately, I'd like to try
to reduce the texture size down from 512x512 to 256x256 - nearly half of the
current texture 'space' is unused.
Here's a 'beta' version of a YF23. The model is virtually finished - I think
I just need to split the wheel well and cockpit linings to clear up the
smoothing artifacts, and add a couple of other little details.
The texturing is rudimentary, all I've done is to map simple colour blocks to
everything. There's a definite problem with the rear cockpit canopy
transparency - anything viewed through it, except for the pilot stuff and the
rear canopy surround is invisible. The weird thing is that everything is ok
if you angle the view to look through the front canopy - this is easier to do
with the rear canopy open (parking brake). The front and rear canopy
glasses, and hud glass are the only transparent objects, and they're all at
the bottom of the hierarchy.
I'd found that if I placed objects below any transparent objects in the
hierarchy, they'd become invisible when viewed through the transparent object
- any objects above the transparent objects would be visible. This seems to
have worked for the front canopy and hud (the pilot and seat is visible from
the front view through both the front canopy and the hud glass) but not the
rear canopy.
Time for a bit more experimentation, methinks. That, or find TFM to R:)
I've finally got the u/c door/gear timing working, and I'm also pleased with
the suspension animation. I couldn't resist linking the pilot's head to the
rudder - it's not as though it does anything, except on the ground (where it
also operates the nose wheel steering.
It all still needs some tuning and finishing - I've modelled the front wing
flaps/slats/what-ever-they-ares and I've put some slats in the fdm, but I
haven't 'used' them yet. The suspension is still too spongey and it heels
over quite badly on take-off in cross-winds (shows off the independent main
suspension nicely though), and more work on the fdm is needed too.
support under /radios/.
The display now goes dark when the switch is turned off.
The switch position is now handled entirely within the XML -- the C++
code is generic, so that other DME receiver types can also be
modelled.
Here're some updates for some of the instruments, the TSR2 and the B52.
The instruments are just parameterised/non-specific versions of the engine
and fuel gauges. The old gauges will still be used by the a10s and the sea
hawks until I get them done.
There're a couple of tweaks to the tsr2 yasim config and amendments to the
model file to change the angle at which the airbrakes operate, correct the
direction that the nose gear retracts/extends and to rotate the main-gear
carts during retraction/extention. There're also new panels, using the new
instruments.
The b52 yasim config has some big changes due to finding some more info i.e.
wing incidence of 6 degrees, fuel capacities and aileron changes (removed
from G & H versions!). It's now based on an 'F' model and I've put some
comments in the yasim config about it. The b52-readme.txt includes a
suggested method on getting airborne;). I've included an amended model -
B52-F.3ds, which is the default in the new model file, and a couple of panels.
I'm quite pleased with the b52 - the take-offs resemble the photographs I've
seen and I think I've got reasonable values where I've had to guess at stuff,
but the results from the yasim solver look as through the model is
approaching the limits of acceptability for yasim. By this I mean that the
model is probably a bit dodgy, not that the yasim solver is limited.
OK -- thanks. I have now fixed up all the other XML files in the base
package that use "max" and "wrap". Those affected are all in
Aircraft/Instruments/. In these files I have also corrected the
indentation in some places, and corrected the frequency controls in
nav3.xml (which does not seem to be in use), and corrected a few obvious
hotspot position bugs. Where the radios used wrapping to toggle the
ident button between 0 and 1, I have changed this to use
"property-toggle" instead.
There's now another a10 variant - a ferry load configuration - no weapons but
3 x 600 us gal external tanks. This seems to be the heaviest confguration
for an a10. I also found a performance graph for the a10 in clean
configuration and it showed max speeds of 275 knots at 45000 ft and 398 knots
at 1200 ft. As things seem to get a bit squiffy above 35000 ft, in my
experience, I used the 1200 ft figure. This is pretty close the the figure
that Andy Ross found (380 knots at 0 ft) and I've also tried to incorporate
his mods into the new configs, with a better balanced wing/hstab settings.
After getting a good clean config, I added the extra masses/fuel
tanks/fueselages but didn't change any of the rest of the config, and it
still seems to work properly. The external tanks were done as fuel tank
entries, with corresponding fuselage entries, whereas I'm not sure how to
handle the 'weight' entries in yasim yet so the weapon load is still done
with an increased total mass and ballast entries.
There'll be some stuff in the archives that haven't changed i.e. the cl & wl
a10 and seahawk models, but until I get using cvs for my own bits and pieces
it was easier to do the whole directory. I hope this isn't a problem.
Finally, I've set up some panels, based on the c310 vfr and mini panels. The
vfr panels have a lot of additional instruments on them but impose quite a
high frame-rate hit on my system. The mini panels also have some additional
instruments but seem to work without noticable penalty here. I've set these
panels as the defaults for these aircraft but I'm not sure it's a good idea
to have the vfr panels by default due to the performance hit. Using them as
default will should give some feedback though;)
To go with the new panels are a number of rough and ready instruments I
hacked, mostly out of one of the rpm gauges, but I've adapted the throttle
quadrent (jet-throttle-quadrant) to funstion for throttle, flaps and reheat.
All the gauge faces were based on an existing ffgfs instrument texture, so
there's no problem with copyright there. All the other bits that I've done
may be distributed under the same conditions as fgfs.
The only real changes to the seahawk stuff were to add the panels, but I
found that Sea Hawks have three fuel tanks, with a 'saddle tank' over the
engine feeding fuel into the second/rear tank, so the yasim config's changed.
Here are some more updates, and bits and pieces.
The tsr2 is mostly a re-write, with more reasonable figures for the wing and
hstab. I've also tried to reduce the poly count on the model whilst adding
the airbrakes and canopies.
Finally, I've set up some panels, based on the c310 vfr and mini panels. The
vfr panels have a lot of additional instruments on them but impose quite a
high frame-rate hit on my system. The mini panels also have some additional
instruments but seem to work without noticable penalty here. I've set these
panels as the defaults for these aircraft but I'm not sure it's a good idea
to have the vfr panels by default due to the performance hit. Using them as
default will should give some feedback though;)
To go with the new panels are a number of rough and ready instruments I
hacked, mostly out of one of the rpm gauges, but I've adapted the throttle
quadrent (jet-throttle-quadrant) to funstion for throttle, flaps and reheat.
All the gauge faces were based on an existing ffgfs instrument texture, so
there's no problem with copyright there. All the other bits that I've done
may be distributed under the same conditions as fgfs.
[ In support of the TSR2, SeaHawk and A-10 ]
I've set up some panels, based on the c310 vfr and mini panels. The
vfr panels have a lot of additional instruments on them but impose quite a
high frame-rate hit on my system. The mini panels also have some additional
instruments but seem to work without noticable penalty here. I've set these
panels as the defaults for these aircraft but I'm not sure it's a good idea
to have the vfr panels by default due to the performance hit. Using them as
default will should give some feedback though;)
To go with the new panels are a number of rough and ready instruments I
hacked, mostly out of one of the rpm gauges, but I've adapted the throttle
quadrent (jet-throttle-quadrant) to funstion for throttle, flaps and reheat.
All the gauge faces were based on an existing ffgfs instrument texture, so
there's no problem with copyright there. All the other bits that I've done
may be distributed under the same conditions as fgfs.
The other stuff isn't really an update but something I did for a bit of a
laugh. The idea ocurred to me after animating the folding wings on the
seahawk and seeing that the aileron and flap axis still worked...
