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An old project brought up to date: Canso PBY-5 of SAGQ

Hello,

The realization of PBR textures started in the middle of last week but even if it’s like "using a bike", having not used it for almost 6 months, a small memory reset was necessary and especially the viewing of the author’s tutorials.

The landing gear and control arms were the first to undergo a rejuvenation:
- addition of all the bolts to the joints,
- new UVs,
- creation of the most realistic PBR textures possible and
- addition of the "Good Year" logos on the tires (still and blurred tires, of course).

1764706563112.png
PS: You can click on each image to see them at the max resolution. Damn, I forgot to add the brake hoses on each wheel again :banghead:

These were particularly well cared for, their running surface was worked in such a way as to have a "lighter hue" as if they had just ridden on a dirt track.
Then the exterior model (fuselage and wings) base BlackCat was taken to refine various details and add a look textures. For the rivets, the normal textures were re-created from the layers of Ferondoe and I particularly monitored their scale in relation to the rest of the plane.

Here are two images to show you the results (the aircraft has only it exterior model). It is two render views in Blender with just a HDRi envionment :

1764705058778.png


1764705745933.png

Jankees and Ferondoe can "be reassured", a minimum of modification has been made to the "fuse_albd.png" and "wings_albd.png" textures (it will their final names for theses textures) so that their repaints should not have too many modifications to be updated with this development version.
I hope to be able to transfer them a BlackCat version "in the state" so that they can see what needs to be retouched.

Now that the BlackCat exterior has been revised, I still have to postpone "all my modifications" on the other 5 exterior models. Theoretically, this should only take a week of work at most.
 
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For those who are interested by details on this aircraft, I have found this video yesterday. It is about "the Princess of the Starts" - N9747, exactly the plane which serve of model for the first blender file of this project.
Mr Stitch is always in the VC, and it is the first video where I can find informations about the flight engineer bulk.

 
I just finished one last modification on the exterior model, which was just asked by Jankees. I enlarged the inner diameter (the one seen when facing at the same height as the engines and not on the ground) of the engine covers.

Looking from the front of the plane, we can now clearly see the locations of the spark plugs :
Before:
Before.png
After:
After.png
 
Superb attention to details, absolutely outstanding! On the subject of engines, the exhaust heat shimmer effects seem to be be flowing toward the props instead of away from them - or is it just me?
 
No, they are flowing backward ;) I am sure !

At the level of details, in improving the edges of the blisters, I noticed that there were fairings on the back of the blisters ... but only on military PBY. The planes converted into a civilian version no longer have these fairings. So I redid these fairings and they are now on military PBYs.

Compared to yesterday, all the wheel bolts have finally been added, textured and the brake hoses are now placed on the wheels.

By searching in my documentary archives, I found repaints that had been made for the XPlane 9 version of this aircraft. I have started to update them and I think I can add at least 5 new ones.

Normally tomorrow I should be able to update the other models with this exterior that seems more than perfect to me (at least in my eyes)
 
Sorry to say, but i have to confirm, that the heatshimmer flows in wrong direction, at least in MSFS 2024
 

Attachments

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    Screen Shot 10-25-25 at 05.30 PM.PNG
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There are more than 30 effects on the PBY that are positioned and set by "plain axis" empties :
- the effects of smoke during startup,
- the heat effects due to escaping gaz
- the flames at the exhaust for each exit and to be multiplied by 3 (oil, lean, reach and for 4 exhaut tubes)
- without mentioning those for the light effects and water spray ...

Yesterday I replied to Tim regarding the exhaust flames, but it seems that this is not it ? :rolleyes:

PS: I am French and sometimes it is quite difficult to translate your remarks: they must be more precise and if possible with an image to highlight the problem. Excuse my translation of Tim's remark which must not have been accurate.

If I refer to the last image, is it the heat vapor released by the exhaust gaz that is at issue?

Regarding this point of the exhaust gaz, I opened Blender and instead of displaying "plain axes", I changed some empties for "oriented axes" (X, Y, Z) in order to better see the orientations. By rereading the SDK, it seems that the direction of the effects is along the Y axis.

If I’m not mistaken this time, are the effects triggered by the empties framed in red causing display issues?

1764838424747.png

So, I will turn these two effects by 180 degrees so that the Y axis is directed towards the back.

Thanks to those who remarked this bug !

1764842222690.png
PS:
1- You can see on the left of my picture, the exaustive list of all effects used in this addon.
2- You can notice that I use Blender in the English version and that all my objects are labeled in English too to avoid most of the translation issues.
 
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Bonjour Lagaffe!

I wanted to tell you about something I noted in the latest build, I don't see anyone else mentioning it, so it might be a weird error on my end and nothing to do with your PBY at all.
But the build 0.9.4 I noticed that on a cold and dark water start there was a looping grinding sound every 1s, and another sound related to a door opening. I isolated the door sounds to:

dc3_door_open.wav and dc3_door_close.wav. For now, I set their volumes to zero in sound.cfg

The other is smwngscr.wav, which I renamed in the folder

frenchvfr-canso-pby\SimObjects\Airplanes\frenchvfr_canso_common\sound

Now, even if it's a little wrong, at least I can start on the water in peace :D I'm not sure about the door sounds, but perhaps my chosen water start points all were so shallow the sim thought I was parked on land and scraping the floats?
 
Hello,

Thanks for your remark, the current sounds are actually those developed by TuFun for Manfred’s DC-3. He agreed 2 years ago to allow me to use them and I have not modified the sound.cfg file.

In the last step of this development, I wanted to make a mix between the WWISE package of the DC-3 provided by Microsoft/Asobo and Legacy sounds for the noises of the switches and levers, like what I did for the Aeronca.

Nevertheless, if these two sounds seem to interfere, I will note them in the ToDo list in order to avoid these discomforts in the final version.
Currently I was in the process of transferring the modifications made on the BlackCat to the other 5 models. In fact, these reports were faster than expected (because they had been anticipated and thought through) and I have since last night the 6 models that are compiled with Blender 3.6 for exterior and Blender 2.83 for interior. The UVs on the windows and windshield have been worked on to show rain/snow but also the appearance of frost in case of bad conditions, I still need to check that the VC switches work well and allow this frost to disappear.

Regarding the exterior UVs that impact repaints, I corrected some details (two or three polygons that had moved from the initial mapping) and I tried to distribute the textures into three files: albd for base color, comp for reflections and nrm for normals/bump. All fuselages and wings now use these three file types (some comp need to be reviewed to render less reflective some colors which are to shiny).

Regarding the NRMs, I worked from the paintkit of Ferondoe and the 3 provisional repaints of Jankees. I extracted the layer "lines & rivets" from this paintkit and created an nrm file from these layers. After this first work, it is clear that the rivets are seen in 3D and are of the correct dimensions; however, the lines are also treated in 3D like the rivets instead of being hollow.
If I am not mistaken, the lines are dividing lines between the different sheets used for the coating of the plane so these lines should be recessed to signal their joints.
Moreover, as these lines are created with a juxtaposition of light lines and another darker one, their size after processing seems too large. I haven’t decided yet if I should leave them in the albedo or if they should be reversed and stay in the normals.
For the paintkit files, I now have all the UVs and therefore wireframe files (fuselage/wings) to serve as a model. Nevertheless, there are 3 types of empennage and several front parts of the fuselage which impacts the NRM files that must be customized according to their destination.
So if there are modifications to be made on the old paintkit, it is mainly on the empennages that it will be necessary to modify certain UVs.
In red the main modifications and differences between the variations:1765016170149.png
Indeed I modified the 3 variations but trying to simplify the work of the repaints by putting the two faces of the rudder face to face and at the same level so that if there were color lines, they could be easily traceable.

For the PBY-6A, the tail has it own set of textures so it is more simple. (tail6A_albd, tail6A_comp, tail6A_nrm).
 
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A successful aircraft is a clever mix of 3D for the exterior shapes and the atmosphere of the cockpit, an XML code correctly exploiting the SDK but without liveries and repaints it serves no purpose :encouragement:

The modifications that I exposed in the drawing above are being applied on the basic liveries provided with PBY aircrafts, and there are 10 variations to be done ... so I have also some work to obtain the v0.9.5 release.
 
lagaffe said:
Thanks for your remark, the current sounds are actually those developed by TuFun for Manfred’s DC-3. He agreed 2 years ago to allow me to use them and I have not modified the sound.cfg file.

In the last step of this development, I wanted to make a mix between the WWISE package of the DC-3 provided by Microsoft/Asobo and Legacy sounds for the noises of the switches and levers, like what I did for the Aeronca.

Nevertheless, if these two sounds seem to interfere, I will note them in the ToDo list in order to avoid these discomforts in the final version.
Click to expand...

Yep! All I wanted to do was put it on your radar. The doors I'm not sure about but perhaps something is weird with the contact points. I'll do some more searching while I'm taking a break from my own little projects.
 
lagaffe said:
Hello,

Thanks for your remark, the current sounds are actually those developed by TuFun for Manfred’s DC-3. He agreed 2 years ago to allow me to use them and I have not modified the sound.cfg file.

In the last step of this development, I wanted to make a mix between the WWISE package of the DC-3 provided by Microsoft/Asobo and Legacy sounds for the noises of the switches and levers, like what I did for the Aeronca.

Nevertheless, if these two sounds seem to interfere, I will note them in the ToDo list in order to avoid these discomforts in the final version.
Currently I was in the process of transferring the modifications made on the BlackCat to the other 5 models. In fact, these reports were faster than expected (because they had been anticipated and thought through) and I have since last night the 6 models that are compiled with Blender 3.6 for exterior and Blender 2.83 for interior. The UVs on the windows and windshield have been worked on to show rain/snow but also the appearance of frost in case of bad conditions, I still need to check that the VC switches work well and allow this frost to disappear.

Regarding the exterior UVs that impact repaints, I corrected some details (two or three polygons that had moved from the initial mapping) and I tried to distribute the textures into three files: albd for base color, comp for reflections and nrm for normals/bump. All fuselages and wings now use these three file types (some comp need to be reviewed to render less reflective some colors which are to shiny).

Regarding the NRMs, I worked from the paintkit of Ferondoe and the 3 provisional repaints of Jankees. I extracted the layer "lines & rivets" from this paintkit and created an nrm file from these layers. After this first work, it is clear that the rivets are seen in 3D and are of the correct dimensions; however, the lines are also treated in 3D like the rivets instead of being hollow.
If I am not mistaken, the lines are dividing lines between the different sheets used for the coating of the plane so these lines should be recessed to signal their joints.
Moreover, as these lines are created with a juxtaposition of light lines and another darker one, their size after processing seems too large. I haven’t decided yet if I should leave them in the albedo or if they should be reversed and stay in the normals.
For the paintkit files, I now have all the UVs and therefore wireframe files (fuselage/wings) to serve as a model. Nevertheless, there are 3 types of empennage and several front parts of the fuselage which impacts the NRM files that must be customized according to their destination.
So if there are modifications to be made on the old paintkit, it is mainly on the empennages that it will be necessary to modify certain UVs.
In red the main modifications and differences between the variations:View attachment 177849
Indeed I modified the 3 variations but trying to simplify the work of the repaints by putting the two faces of the rudder face to face and at the same level so that if there were color lines, they could be easily traceable.

For the PBY-6A, the tail has it own set of textures so it is more simple. (tail6A_albd, tail6A_comp, tail6A_nrm).
Click to expand...
Lagaffe, real aircraft panel lines are created when the sheets of alumunium (yes I'm an Aussie) are overlapped, that's how most metal aircraft are constructed. They overlap from the bottom up to stop water from running under the sheets vertically & from the back forward to stop airflow drag (kind of like weatherboards on a house). Some aircraft do have butt joins too but it's usually an aerodynamic thing for wings tails etc. I believe the overlap is a stronger & easier method, less work.
 
Hi,

The explanation seems realistic to me (it’s the principle of tiles on a roof) but to do this, you would need to re-cut the 5 fuselages and the wings (they are common to all 6 planes) and for each plate proceed with a slight elevation (1 or 2 px) starting from the back and bottom to respect this reality.

Besides that it is a "work of Romans" (I am French) who will look so closely to check the differences? Most users (other than those from SOH) only look at the appearance of the exterior repaint and whether there is an Auto Pilot and a GPS (official MSFS forum) which on a WWII plane amazes me :(
Reflecting since yesterday, I found a plugin for blender: Dynamic Lines (https://pitiwazou-1.gumroad.com/l/dynamic_lines) that allows you to cut a model according to lines and add bevels automatically. Given the modest price of this plugin (less than 2 dollars), it can be tried but the 6 3D models will need to be reworked.

The method I think I will use is to take back the horizontal lines of the paintkit and reduce the thickness of each line. In fact, when working in 2D, we had to create a line of 1 px very clear then slightly shifting a second darker line to give the illusion of relief. In our case, by removing the clear line it would refine the drawing and it could give the illusion via a normal result of this simplification.
A few weeks ago, I read a post on SOH where a simmer explained how he practiced doing this kind of thing in 2D but it was impossible to find the post again ....
 
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lagaffe said:
Besides that it is a "work of Romans" (I am French) who will look so closely to check the differences? Most users (other than those from SOH) only look at the appearance of the exterior repaint and whether there is an Auto Pilot and a GPS (official MSFS forum) which on a WWII plane amazes me :(
Click to expand...
Haha , well ... you can't really enjoy a flightsimulator as much when you are not able to hit the auto flight button and go watch a movie. ;)
 
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