lagaffe
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Hello,
Another project launched for 2025-2026, concerning a port in native FS20/FS24 of the DC-4 Skymaster from the 3D model created by Flight Replicas (P3Dv5 version), of course with the authorization of Mike Pearson.
Indeed in October last year I was very surprised that no one cared about the DC-4 while all eyes were on the B-24. As apparently it did not seem to interest other developers, with another eminent developer from SOH (I leave it to him to announce himself
) after exchanging a few messages we asked Mike if he agreed.
This one was delighted to see that we were paying attention to 'his plane', he gave us his agreement on November 7th.
After some preliminary works to exchange datas between us and to familiarize myself with this plane (I have never worked on a commercial aircraft) I was able to organize quite quickly a working project from the P3D version of Flight Replicas.
Not wanting to have too many projects at once, the current version of the PBY has been delivered before the announcement of this project, according to the planned schedules and now I can come back entirely or almost (I will works also the A-26 in the same time) on the DC-4 Skymaster.
Last week another person came forward to join the project. Before accepting his help, I had to finish the current study and the few essential works to be sure before announcing this project.
This aircraft should be primarily built for FS20, in native mode, trying to take maximum advantage of the possibilities of this SDK. we still keep in mind the possibility of being able to make a native FS24 version but it will mainly depend on the SDK ...
I would try to use what I learned on the PBY to create a project tree that will allow for several variations, but at first I think it’s better to focus on one version and then see. Maybe we will not reach the level of PMDG but I hope that the result will please a large number of people and as the welcome that was made to me on SOH exceeded all my expectations, I think that this plane like the A-26 Invader should logically be hosted on SOH’s Resources
Today this preliminary work is more or less finished and also because some people had guessed that I was working on this aircraft so I can present you some images of the current state.
Exterior file with for textures the old P3D textures simply transformed into a PNG (textures and UVs will be modified to be PBR and 4K at least)
The stairs (accessories file) are linked in this file.
The LOD00 of the Interior
A other view to see all details included in the Mike modelization. Some objects are animated (yokes and some levers) but a lot of works is needed to obtain a "good VC".
To be able to create the work files, I started from Mike’s MDL (interior & exterior) files that I transformed into glTF/bin files with the developer license that Arno Gerretssen provided me. These files were then imported via the plugin developed by FlyByWire and transformed into 2 blend files: Exterior.blend & Interior.blend.
The exterior model having a "simplified interior", the latter will be isolated to serve as Interior_LOD01 and the exterior accessories will be the subject of a separate file. The project has 5 blender files:
- one external
- one interior (LOD00)
- one interior_bis (LOD001)
- one accessories
- one called Reference file which is linked with exterior + interior + interior_bis + accessories
Using the Link function of Blender (the same exist on 3DS Max) from a Reference file permit to organize the modeling work more efficiently. Thus it will be possible to works on each of these 4 files (textures or UVs or modeling) and to reintegrate the various updates within a reference file (or main file) in an instant.
All the elements of a Linked file appear in the file that calls them but they are frozen so we cannot modify them: security !
When one updates one of these 4 files, all intermediate developments are instantly updated in the reference file.
I still have a little work to do to distribute and rename as usual all the objects of each file so that the work is easier afterwards: an explicit name is easier to find than a generic name that was automatically given by MCX during format conversions.
The version of Blender used is Blender v3.6.23 (last revision of Blender 3.6 LTS) and the export plugin from Asobo : v1.3.3.
Another project launched for 2025-2026, concerning a port in native FS20/FS24 of the DC-4 Skymaster from the 3D model created by Flight Replicas (P3Dv5 version), of course with the authorization of Mike Pearson.
Indeed in October last year I was very surprised that no one cared about the DC-4 while all eyes were on the B-24. As apparently it did not seem to interest other developers, with another eminent developer from SOH (I leave it to him to announce himself
) after exchanging a few messages we asked Mike if he agreed.This one was delighted to see that we were paying attention to 'his plane', he gave us his agreement on November 7th.
After some preliminary works to exchange datas between us and to familiarize myself with this plane (I have never worked on a commercial aircraft) I was able to organize quite quickly a working project from the P3D version of Flight Replicas.
Not wanting to have too many projects at once, the current version of the PBY has been delivered before the announcement of this project, according to the planned schedules and now I can come back entirely or almost (I will works also the A-26 in the same time) on the DC-4 Skymaster.
Last week another person came forward to join the project. Before accepting his help, I had to finish the current study and the few essential works to be sure before announcing this project.
This aircraft should be primarily built for FS20, in native mode, trying to take maximum advantage of the possibilities of this SDK. we still keep in mind the possibility of being able to make a native FS24 version but it will mainly depend on the SDK ...
I would try to use what I learned on the PBY to create a project tree that will allow for several variations, but at first I think it’s better to focus on one version and then see. Maybe we will not reach the level of PMDG but I hope that the result will please a large number of people and as the welcome that was made to me on SOH exceeded all my expectations, I think that this plane like the A-26 Invader should logically be hosted on SOH’s Resources
Today this preliminary work is more or less finished and also because some people had guessed that I was working on this aircraft so I can present you some images of the current state.
Exterior file with for textures the old P3D textures simply transformed into a PNG (textures and UVs will be modified to be PBR and 4K at least)
The stairs (accessories file) are linked in this file.
The LOD00 of the Interior
A other view to see all details included in the Mike modelization. Some objects are animated (yokes and some levers) but a lot of works is needed to obtain a "good VC".
To be able to create the work files, I started from Mike’s MDL (interior & exterior) files that I transformed into glTF/bin files with the developer license that Arno Gerretssen provided me. These files were then imported via the plugin developed by FlyByWire and transformed into 2 blend files: Exterior.blend & Interior.blend.
The exterior model having a "simplified interior", the latter will be isolated to serve as Interior_LOD01 and the exterior accessories will be the subject of a separate file. The project has 5 blender files:
- one external
- one interior (LOD00)
- one interior_bis (LOD001)
- one accessories
- one called Reference file which is linked with exterior + interior + interior_bis + accessories
Using the Link function of Blender (the same exist on 3DS Max) from a Reference file permit to organize the modeling work more efficiently. Thus it will be possible to works on each of these 4 files (textures or UVs or modeling) and to reintegrate the various updates within a reference file (or main file) in an instant.
All the elements of a Linked file appear in the file that calls them but they are frozen so we cannot modify them: security !
When one updates one of these 4 files, all intermediate developments are instantly updated in the reference file.
I still have a little work to do to distribute and rename as usual all the objects of each file so that the work is easier afterwards: an explicit name is easier to find than a generic name that was automatically given by MCX during format conversions.
The version of Blender used is Blender v3.6.23 (last revision of Blender 3.6 LTS) and the export plugin from Asobo : v1.3.3.
