HMS Ark Royal

HMS Ark Royal 2026-08-07

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I bet it will look good with textures. :wiggle:
I'm going to try swapping in the texture folder from the Falkland's Ark Royal and give it a spin. :geek:

Update, I copied the textures from the other (same?) Ark Royal to this folder and still no-go:

oops.jpg

Don't feel bad, this is part of the thrill of uploading files. :ernaehrung004:
Is this a re-port of an FSX (DDS) scenery? I also noticed the hard deck is a foot lower than the deck of the 3DO.
 
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@Sbob uh-oh, it appears per https://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=ark+royal+baker+smith there was a texture and platform fix update that unfortunately does not appear to have been included in this package, as is also the case for the one available at simviation; and indeed said update fix is also no longer available at simviation

Moreover, @Sbob the Falklands' Ark Royal is a model derived from the original Portsmouth UK scenery by Simon Swallow while this particular one is by Bruce Baker and James Smith - the Virtual Navy - two entirely different models by different authors with different texture/uv mapping etc - concerning texture swaps, perhaps the release for CFS2 *may* prove helpful: https://sim-outhouse.org/sohforums/resources/vn_rn_pack.5452/

@kdriver - if you can look into it... much appreciated!
 
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I got it fixed... with DXTBMP...
Some of the Textures are in 256x256 and 512x512...
Also some are safed in DXT1 instead of Extended Bmp… (typical for an FS2002 or even lower Plattform and as normal from an FS2002 or even lower plattform model, they all do not have any Alpha Channels, which means that the ship and its superstructure might not be as visible at Dawn, Dusk or Night).

So i changed that and safed them all in 1024x1024, Extended Bmp format.
Now it looks like that… - I'd say, it is as it needs to be… useable for Pictures as a 2D object, but not much more… :sneaky::oops::cautious:

1786074865530.png

Some of the Textures seem to remain white, which i don't know why that is.... looks weird…eventually still some missing textures.. (but thei’re not highres anyways… kinda washy and FS2002 or even FS98 Plattform like… - which i don’t like, to be honest…)

The Deck is totally landable though... works normal. - I don’t get it, what these big triangles are though… wish thei’d be deleteable…

1786075262408.png

To me, its an awefull model, which i won’t keep… i might delete it… and add an Alphasim Nimitz Class Carrier instead… which is highres textured and has a better detailed model and even landing and taking off AI Traffic. As Gibraltar and Algeciras is just nearby, that might make sense as well.

Btw. for everybody else: don’t forget to install the Gibraltar Bridge, where it seems like, the HMS Ark Royal is headed to and you’d be able to see the Bridge from the Ship.

1786077368871.png


You'll find the fixed model here:
 

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Thanks Airbasil for the fix - I'll amend the download.

Wolfebee, I had a look at the CFS2 ship version. The textures are exactly the same as the FS2004 scenery version.
 
Well, some other things I noticed: :unsure:

The hard deck is about one foot below the 3DO. I'm pretty sure this can be fixed with AFCAD2. There is also no flatten BGL. This can usually cause all sorts of mayhem. When I flew around, my wake texture was wayy behind the ship. That's usually a problem in the actual BGL or maybe a separate wake BGL? I'll try poking around with some BGL tools and post if I find anything. :ernaehrung004:
 
kdriver said:
Thanks Airbasil for the fix - I'll amend the download.

Wolfebee, I had a look at the CFS2 ship version. The textures are exactly the same as the FS2004 scenery version.
Click to expand...
indeed but the CFS2 textures also load by default in the FS2004 version, unlike the FS2004 textures that have to be corrected; and further, if both sets are individually opened in Martin Wright's DXTBmp, then one will find that in fact there is greater detail in the FS2004 texture bitmaps relative to the CFS2 bitmaps, and which necessarily means the FS2004 textures are the ones to go with, and so the efforts by @Airbasil are most welcome! much thanks @Airbasil

Sbob said:
Well, some other things I noticed: :unsure:

The hard deck is about one foot below the 3DO. I'm pretty sure this can be fixed with AFCAD2. There is also no flatten BGL. This can usually cause all sorts of mayhem. When I flew around, my wake texture was wayy behind the ship. That's usually a problem in the actual BGL or maybe a separate wake BGL? I'll try poking around with some BGL tools and post if I find anything. :ernaehrung004:
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as mentioned earlier, previously on simviation, there was in addition to a texture fix, also a platform fix which potentially would have resolved said issue; said combined fix hms_Ark_Royal_fix.zip is no longer available on simviation - leads to an error 404 - pity! anyhow much thanks for looking into a solution
 
Interestingly i just found a video on youtube about the HMS Ark Royal, which looks completely different than the above model…

Does anybody know where this model comes from and where we can find that model (which seems to be very detailed and even seems to feature AI Traffic).


Edit, after all it seems to be the FSX Model… i can’t find an FS9 Model… but if anyone wants to test if this works in FS9 as well… let me know about:

flyawaysimulation.com

FSX Features For Pilotable Carrier HMS Ark Royal

Experience commanding the legendary HMS Ark Royal in Microsoft Flight Simulator X thanks to this carefully adapted freeware package. Originally developed by Fraser Paterson and Philip Chandler of the flyingstations team, this release includes a fully pilotable model with integrated panel and...
flyawaysimulation.com flyawaysimulation.com
 
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@Airbasil it was previously available on avsim https://library.avsim.net/extsearch...ch[author]=hardee&extended_search[category]=0 but no longer is; the readme https://pilote-virtuel.com/viewtopic.php?pid=84598#p84598

I believe the FSX upgrade of the FS2004 release you are looking for is here: https://library.avsim.net/extsearch...rch[author]=kirby&extended_search[category]=0 or https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/18335/fsx-ark-royal/ and while I could be mistaken, I do not believe the FSX/A release is compatible with FS2004

anyhow, the model itself has been developed by Phillip Chandler @SkippyBing here at SOH i.e. Bravo Zulu https://web.archive.org/web/20230607114048/https://bravozulu.blog/category/ships/ and therein is a functional dropbox link to the Ark Royal, presumably a further updated one for FSX

cheers!
 
I didnt realise there was a 9 version, i thought the flying station models where for x only, i'd be interested myself if there's one out there somewhere.
A while back, i had Skippybings permission to turn them into static scenery object's, but the poly count was to high and they wouldn't export using ModelConvertX
 
The FS9 version of Ark, as well as being on flying stations site, used to be on flight sim.com (which has also more or less gone the way of the dodo). I’m sure I’ve still got the FS9 zip, plus the fix that was required, that I downloaded from flightsim.com filed away on an external drive somewhere….not sure about the rules on sharing it though however it is a zip that was available on a freeware download site so wouldn’t think there would be too much issue providing the original zip
 
I seem to remember a partially successful attempt to position this midway across the Atlantic to set up a recreation of the Rowland White book, Phoenix Rising. Using the DBS flying banana. I didn't have much success with the AI flightplans though.
 

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Thank you for the Backups… Helps a ton… now we can exchange the rather old and FS98 looking ship with a rather more detailed looking one…
Much appreciate your shares…

Unfortunately though, it doesn't display right in my Sim: any clues as to why this happens?

Did you miss on sharing the Flatten Files we need for the Ship to display correctly? Seems like…
If you don’t mind, could you please add these as well? That’d be much appreciated…

Thank you!

1786396032735.png
 
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There was a fix created for that issue which was also on flight sim.com I’m sure I have a copy of that. Travelling with work if no one else has it I’ll post a link in the next day or two when back home and have access to my pc.
 
gp183601 said:
There was a fix created for that issue which was also on flight sim.com I’m sure I have a copy of that. Travelling with work if no one else has it I’ll post a link in the next day or two when back home and have access to my pc.
Click to expand...

That’d be highly appreciated… thank you!
 
Airbasil said:
Unfortunately though, it doesn't display right in my Sim: any clues as to why this happens?

Did you miss on sharing the Flatten Files we need for the Ship to display correctly? Seems like…
If you don’t mind, could you please add these as well? That’d be much appreciated…

Thank you!

View attachment 195116
Click to expand...
@Airbasil everything works perfectly fine as it ought, to as is! The relevant flattens are included in the arkroyal.zip file provided by @Desert Rat.

The complete install instructions are included in the file_id.diz in the arkroyal.zip file and which can be opened in Notepad; said readme is per previous also posted here https://pilote-virtuel.com/viewtopic.php?pid=84598#p84598

Note that the flattens folder has to be positioned near the top of your scenery library, per the instructions in the readme!

Anyhow, hope you are able to resolve the flatten issue in your setup

cheers! and much thanks Jamie for making available the absolutely splendid Ark Royal by Chandler and teamArkRoyal-Chan_Test-Fla.jpg
 
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