Updated props, exh effects and dps for AFScrub's Spitfires!

[kelticheart]

A message to Mission about AFScrub's Spit LF Vb/c conversion

Hi Mario,

yesterday I completed my work on the beautiful Spitfire LF Vb/Vc trop by AFScrub you converted for CFS2 deployment. I was about ready to complete the upload pack, when I noticed a readme file I had missed.

In it you write that no conversion files may be re-uploaded anywhere. Does this include blurred propeller disc textures, aircraft.cfg and dp files for both models?

Given that I upload here at SOH only, in case of positive answer, I hereby ask for permission to upload my pack as an alternative to your original work for the following reasons:

1. blurred propeller disc textures - well, no need to justify it, I did this to a ton of addon aircrafts since 2006 and never had a single complaint for copyright infringement;
2. aircraft.cfg - here lies the trigger for Green Ghost-style exh effects through the [LIGHTS] statement, plus my addition of asymmetrical landing gear animation, typical of WWII aircraft hydraulic systems;
3. dp files - here I usually add exh smoke effects to have continuous smoke emissions even after the exhaust glow is switched off. In these two aircrafts I corrected the muzzle flash locations, which were quite off, and I also reduced the payloads to strictly historical layouts. Merlin 45-equipped Spitfire MkV's never carried external loads heavier than 500lb total. It was either a single 500lb GP bomb carried ventrally or two 250lb GP bombs carried one under each wing. Only from the MkIXc onwards, with the more powerful Merlin 60 series engine and a strengthened airframe, that operations with a 1,000lb total bomb load were possible. For increased range, here I also added Cryngtoto's Spitfire 45 gal. slipper tank on the MkVb and Bruno Eskaravage's Spitfire MkVc Trop 45 and 90 gal. slipper tanks, which, with their sky blue colour, they match greatly Sopwith Chameleon's great Med repaints. I am sorry, but I do not like fictional what-ifs, I adhere to strict, historical specs only.

In order to take advantage of the extra fuel, proper changes to both models airfiles should be carried out. I'll explain how to do it in my readme and leave it up to whoever will download my pack.

I won't upload anything before you give me permission to proceed.

Cheers!
KH

 

[kelticheart]

Where is Paul Rebuffat's Spitfire 45 gal. slipper tank?

Hi everybody!

I have all of Rebuffat's splendid collection of late mark Spitfires, downloaded both from Simviation and here at SOH. In almost all of them there is a weapon pack which should include TWO "slipper" droptanks, a 30 and a 45 gal. tank.

In spite of it, I was never able to use the bigger 45 gal. tank, because I think its *.bgl is missing from all weapon packs Rebuffat uploaded.

In fact, both texture and *.dp files for it are present, but the only tank *.bgl filename in the pack ends with "sm", which I am interpreting as "small" and it refers to the 30gal. one. When I add the 45 gal. tank to any Spitfire payload list, I invariably get the CFS2 message that the object is missing from the library.

Did anyone notice this before? If anyone out there has a working Rebuffat's Spitfire 45 gal. slipper tank, please step forward and let me know.

Thank you!
KH

 

[Fibber]

Kelti....

.......I get lost in the woods on these sometimes, so don't get mad at me if I am wrong, but I believe that PR's "spitpak1" has the large 45 gal tank in it. That is at least what the "read-me" in the "objlib" zip seems to indicate. So I will deduce that the tank is in the weapons_spitfire.bgl.

 

[Roxane-21]

Both 30 and 45 gal. drop tanks are available with Paul Rebuffat's Spitfire Mk.XIV :

> spit14_91.zip
> spit14_mari.zip

EDIT : I checked and the 45 gal. fuel tank is not implemented in the .BGL file.

 

[Fibber]

Roxanne21....

...lol!!!! In your pedigree you have "Location Djibouti (American people may google it)". I don't have to. Looking at your posted age, I was there before you were born!!!! In fact at the time it was called French Djibouti and was my first encounter with members of the French Foreign Legion who, at least the group that I met at that time, spoke prominently a language of a country a little east of France .
We are not all "Honey Boo Boos".

 

[misson]

Kelticheart dear friend, first before anything else, thanks for your deference for request permission to make changes to such conversion.
I will not discuss technical issues, as CFS2 does not truly reflect the behavior that is entered in the air file, aircraft and dp.(which it is my intention), althought you are right about payloads.
Neither do about the skins, since no detailed official information is to deny the work of S. Chameleon.
I am not the original owner model, so is Mr. Scrub, but what my job keeps desire as such is referred. However you can use my model folder as your own model folder for the package.
I´m glad that you had not complains about copyrights before, and being you , it won´t from me. Altought i sugest that you send a copy of your work to Mr. Scrub and wait.


I want to thank one more time the Sopwith´s helps in this conversion.


Cheers!

 

[Roxane-21]

...lol!!!! In your pedigree you have "Location Djibouti (American people may google it)". I don't have to. Looking at your posted age, I was there before you were born!!!! In fact at the time it was called French Djibouti and was my first encounter with members of the French Foreign Legion who, at least the group that I met at that time, spoke prominently a language of a country a little east of France .
We are not all "Honey Boo Boos".

You might be one of the few. Most American people I told about Djibouti on other forums didn't have a clue where this country was.

Of course, people here at SOH are mostly aviation fans, which makes a great diffrence since Djibouti has always been an interesting place to see some exotic planes and liveries.

 

[Devildog73]

You might be one of the few. Most American people I told about Djibouti on other forums didn't have a clue where this country was.

Of course, peaple here at SOH are mostly aviation fans, which makes a great diffrence since Djibouti has always been an interesting place to see some exotic planes and liveries.

Ah, yes, ..... Djibouti. And what is the Capital City of Djibouti???

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Ah, yes, ..... Djibouti. And what is the Capital City of Djibouti???

Lee,

Djibouti City, of course. (This Yank didn't need a map for that; US and world capital cities was a hobby of mine, and I won a couple of geography contests when I was a kid.

 

[Roxane-21]

And what is the Capital City of Djibouti???

Djibouti City, of course.

Simply Djibouti, no need to add 'City'.

 

[kdriver]

I disassembled the offending .bgl and found both tanks are there, using the same texture. The 30 gal one is named wep_pr_30gal, while the 45 gal one is simply called 45gal.

Try those names in the .dp file KH - if that doesn't work, I can separate the tanks into two .bgl files. The wep_pr_45gal.dp file in the OBJECTS_DP folder will have to be renamed 45gal.dp.

[PAYLOADS]
payload.0=%payload_name.0%
payload.1=%payload_name.1%
payload.2=%payload_name.2%

[PAYLOAD.0]
; Payload = Guns Only

[PAYLOAD.1]
; Payload = 30gal droptank
mount.0=wep_pr_30gal, 1, -1

[PAYLOAD.2]
; Payload = 45gal droptank
mount.0=45gal, 1, -1

[STRINGS]
"payload_name.0"=Guns Only
"payload_name.1"=30gal droptank
"payload_name.2"=45gal droptank

On the subject of Djibouti, Dombral's Operation Ironclad includes a "what if" mission where you fly into Djibouti to refuel your Latecoere 523, before taking off for Madagascar. There is some good harbour scenery, although the mesh and the shoreline don't match too well. The country was called French Somaliland in those days.

Kevin

 

[Fibber]

kdriver.....

........when I went there it actually was called French Somailand but in keeping with the context of the thread I just went with French Djibouti. It really was a nice place with a lot of nice cafes and clean streets and good food . Considering where I had spent the previous 7 months it was quite a change!

 

[kelticheart]

Oh, yeah!

I disassembled the offending .bgl and found both tanks are there, using the same texture. The 30 gal one is named wep_pr_30gal, while the 45 gal one is simply called 45gal.

Try those names in the .dp file KH - if that doesn't work, I can separate the tanks into two .bgl files. The wep_pr_45gal.dp file in the OBJECTS_DP folder will have to be renamed 45gal.dp.

[PAYLOADS]
payload.0=%payload_name.0%
payload.1=%payload_name.1%
payload.2=%payload_name.2%

[PAYLOAD.0]
; Payload = Guns Only

[PAYLOAD.1]
; Payload = 30gal droptank
mount.0=wep_pr_30gal, 1, -1

[PAYLOAD.2]
; Payload = 45gal droptank
mount.0=45gal, 1, -1

[STRINGS]
"payload_name.0"=Guns Only
"payload_name.1"=30gal droptank
"payload_name.2"=45gal droptank

On the subject of Djibouti, Dombral's Operation Ironclad includes a "what if" mission where you fly into Djibouti to refuel your Latecoere 523, before taking off for Madagascar. There is some good harbour scenery, although the mesh and the shoreline don't match too well. The country was called French Somaliland in those days.

Kevin

Thanks, Kdriver!

So it was only a typo in Rebuffat's install instructions, then!

I always tried to add them to Spitfires dp files as "wep_pr_30gal" and "wep_pr_45gal" as their individual *.dp's indicate. Since there aren't individual *.bgl's for each tank, I simply assumed the dp names were the correct ones. Evidently, they are not, only the 30 gal. dp name is correct, "wep_pr_45gal.dp" needs to be renamed.

This is why the 45 gal. slipper tank never showed up in all of these years of Rebuffat's Spits flying and trying to equip other Spitfires with it!

I can't wait to go back to my Spitfire fleet and see if I can get that damn' 45 gal. slipper to show up!

Cheers!
KH

 

[kelticheart]

Grazie, Mario!

My upload will be exactly like all the others I previously did. So, no changes to the model file, which contains your conversion work and no changes to SC's repaints. I only replaced the slipper tanks with BSK's ones that are painted in the RAF desert camo scheme underside colour, matching SC's skins.

I usually do change all of the model files in my personal CFS2. Since I like closer proximity among aircrafts during dogfights, I reduce the collision bubble to a bare minimum. Before the collision bug was discovered in the early CFS2 days, getting close to an opponent for a sure shot was almost impossible and it constantly drove me mad!

Then, I found few years ago that the "shine" effect on matte camouflaged aircrafts was quite exaggerated for my tastes. Since I remembered from my youth days, when I was an avid collector and builder of 1/72 scale plastic models, that Humbrol matte paints left only a soft, satin sheen on each aircraft surface. I tried re-creating the same effect with Morton's mk_MDL utility.

I think I got it with the following settings: 0.2-0.40 for satin finish and 0.5-0.40 for glossy finish and/or natural metal reflection. In spite of it, I never uploaded any aircraft model file thus modified, because the model IS the justly copyrighted work of art of any addon designer.

B.T.W., just a personal suggestion: I think that the LF MkVc flies better with the corresponding YAS' LF MkVc airfile. Very same aircraft, clipped wings and all, try it out, you can find YAS' model here at SOH if you haven't got it already. The only difference is that the YAS version is not tropicalised, but you can replace YAS engine data with yours as I did, to reflect the loss of power caused by the huge Vokes dust filter on the carburettor intake.
The airfile you uploaded has some nasty, unrecoverable stall characteristics to it. Since I only fly with the flight model set to "hard", it made me crash several times during landing finals. Judging from all WWII reports I read, Spitfires did not have such severe stall behaviours, even the clipped-wing versions with their reduced wing areas. They are all described as sweet, manoeuvrable machines, a joy to fly if one learned how to dominate the powerful torque effect of their Merlin engines. YAS' airfile offers a gentler stall, easier to handle even with severe crosswinds.

So, in my upcoming pack, there will only be the usual two versions of the blurred prop disc, aircraft and dp files for both LF MkVb and LF MkVc Trop versions and the two exh effect files. Plus the customary pictures and readme.

I am going to try to place Rebuffat's 45 gal. slipper tank under the LF MkVb, now that Kdriver just explained me how to find it! Cryingtoto's tank is too old and too rough to my tastes, so it'll take me another few days for the proper changes and testing.

Cheers!
Stefano

 

[kelticheart]

It worked!!!

And here they are, pictured below, Rebuffat's 30 and 45 gal. slipper tanks, under the belly of AFScrub's Spitfire LF MkVb, converted for CFS2 by Mario Mission!

Thank you, Kdriver!

Cheers!
KH
​

 

[kelticheart]

A preview...

....so that you can see what I am doing!

The attached are Bruno Escaravage's 30 and 90 gal. slipper tanks, painted in RAF desert scheme sky blue, from his Spitfire MkVb/c pack. Although a little darker, they fit greatly Sopwith Chameleon's ETO repaints for the LF MkVc.

You can see the ETO Rebuffat's 30 and 45 gal. slipper tanks here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...l-slipper-tank&p=863965&viewfull=1#post863965

I am almost ready to upload!

Cheers!
Stefano

 

[misson]

ok

Go ahead! ;-)

Cheers!
Mario

 

[kdriver]

You're welcome Stefano - I'm glad I can at least make a small repayment for all the good work you've done.
Cheers Kevin

 

[kelticheart]

A good day to everybody!

I just uploaded alternative, updated 3-blade blurred prop textures for A.F.Scrub's Spitfire LF MkVb and LF MkVc Trop for FS9, converted to CFS2 by SOH's member Mario Mission and available here at SOH.

As usual you will find, included:

• a Green Ghost-style DAP gauge-controlled exhaust effect;
• alternative dp files with historical payloads and additional "slipper" droptank options for increased range, plus adjusted muzzle flash locations;
• detailed readme instructions about how to modify both aircrafts *.air files to enable the use of larger droptanks.

I equipped these two aircrafts with an extra long range choice given by Paul Rebuffat's Spitpack 45 gal. and Bruno Escaravage's Spitfire MkVc Trop 90 gal. "slipper" droptanks.
Brunosk's 30 and 90 gal. slipper tanks, painted in RAF desert scheme sky blue, will fit nicely Sopwith Chameleon's MTO repaints of the Spit LF Vc Trop, as shown in the attached screen shots below.

Brunosk's Malta Spitfires are available here at SOH.

====>> A WORD OF ADVISE WITH REBUFFAT'S SPITPACK DROPTANKS
​

Paul Rebuffat included a 45 gal. droptank in his late marks Spitfire-series weapon pack, together with the 30 gal. one. Over the years, since Rebuffat's work releases, I have never been able to use it because he unwillingly made an error in naming the dp file which governs the 45 gal. droptank.
The same pack is included in all of Rebuffat's late-mark Spitfire series uploads, all available here at SOH.

I duly followed his install instructions and placed the file "wep_pr_45gal.dp" in my root \OBJECTS_DP folder, but I constantly got a CFS2 system error, warning me such object was missing from the library.

This mistery went on until few days ago, when I posed the question here as to where was that damn' 45 gal. droptank. Our good Kdriver kindly used his skills to open Rabuffat's Spitpack *.bgl and found that the proper object name for it is simply: "45gal.dp". It's obvious CFS2 could never load an object *.dp filename different from what its own *.bgl file calls for!

THEREFORE, IF YOU WANT TO USE REBUFFAT'S 45 gal. SLIPPERTANK, YOU NEED ALSO TO RENAME YOUR "wep_pr_45gal.dp" TO "45gal.dp" IN YOUR ROOT \OBJECTS_DP FOLDER.

Least you get the same annoying error message I got until yesterday!!!!

We are all in debt with Kdriver! ;-) ;-b
​

I uploaded the pack in the "CFS2-Effects" section.

Enjoy!
KH

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Good morning,

Outstanding work, Stefano. I will go approve this immediately!