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Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
DC-4 Skymaster
- Thread starter lagaffe
- Start date
lagaffe
SOH-CM-2026
Just a few words to complete a question that I had asked myself a few posts above: the unit of speed displayed in the "MSFS Hud" interface: this debugging interface that can be selected by over-printing on the screen.
After checking with SimVars in which I asked for the display of the airspeed in several units, it turns out that this interface displays the airspeed in KNOTS which, if we have instruments with other units, can be a bit surprising.
This display surprised me because while developing the Aéronca, the person who had asked me several times claimed that I was mistaken since the values between this display and the instrument were different... and for good reason, the gauge display was also in MPH.
Fortunately the engines are always expressed in RPM
After checking with SimVars in which I asked for the display of the airspeed in several units, it turns out that this interface displays the airspeed in KNOTS which, if we have instruments with other units, can be a bit surprising.
This display surprised me because while developing the Aéronca, the person who had asked me several times claimed that I was mistaken since the values between this display and the instrument were different... and for good reason, the gauge display was also in MPH.
Fortunately the engines are always expressed in RPM
Hollister56
Members +
I think Lagaffe had to take a couple of weeks off due to his wife having knee surgery. Hopefully she has a speedy recovery and Lagaffe can get back to working his magic with Blender and the other programs he uses.
But in the mean time I found this cool video on the development of the DC-4.
And maybe Javis can take note of that beautiful livery.
Ed
But in the mean time I found this cool video on the development of the DC-4.
And maybe Javis can take note of that beautiful livery.
Ed
lagaffe
SOH-CM-2026
Thanks for your posts: yes, all went well and she is at home; now it’s the recovery stage with the physiotherapist that has started for a few days.
For the DC-4, I left a bit of the VC which causes me problems to be interested in the engine starting environment.
These large radial engines like the Stearman’s Pratt & Withney or those of the PBY need a "pull-throught step" before starting the engine. I had started to add and test a specific code on the PBY in 2023 but which is not activated in the last release. I had copy and past theses codes from the PBY to the DC-4 ant test it currently.
In fact, the propeller is related to an pivot axis that performs the normal animation: prop0 and the whole thing is still related to another a dummy axis: custom_prop_0.
The principle to give the illusion of a pull-through is to animate this dummy axis with a few lines of code in order to control the rotation speed, and since the propellers are associated with this dummy, they are driven at low speed.
Then, we switch to the start phase and when the engine has started, we can stop the dummy animation, It’s like a centrifugal clutch.
Here is what I want to get:
Currently, the whole thing works perfectly on one engine but I have some difficulties running the second engine. This comes from a calculation loop that blocks.
Of course, in simulan this realistic start-up it increases the start-up time in the simulation so I plan to add a variable that will allow for either a realistic start-up or a quick start-up for busy people.
For the VC, I realized that after the transformation via MCX of the original P3D MDL binary, the blender file contains a lot of elements (mainly pivot or animation dummys for rotations) that have scale issues, which has big implications on the animations.
It is sometimes possible to correct these scale issues but in some cases, it is almost impossible so the best thing is to start the animation again by saving the object as an OBJ (Wavefront object) then resubmitting it and doing the complete animation again: this takes a lot of time.
It’s mainly the levers and needles of the VC that have these troubles.
Here you can see the mixture lever on keyframe 1: the lever knob is orthogonal to the direction of the lever.
The same object at keyframe 50: the lever knob is deformed due to the pivot dummy scale being incorrect, it should be at (X:1.0; Y:1.0; Z:1.0).
For the DC-4, I left a bit of the VC which causes me problems to be interested in the engine starting environment.
These large radial engines like the Stearman’s Pratt & Withney or those of the PBY need a "pull-throught step" before starting the engine. I had started to add and test a specific code on the PBY in 2023 but which is not activated in the last release. I had copy and past theses codes from the PBY to the DC-4 ant test it currently.
In fact, the propeller is related to an pivot axis that performs the normal animation: prop0 and the whole thing is still related to another a dummy axis: custom_prop_0.
The principle to give the illusion of a pull-through is to animate this dummy axis with a few lines of code in order to control the rotation speed, and since the propellers are associated with this dummy, they are driven at low speed.
Then, we switch to the start phase and when the engine has started, we can stop the dummy animation, It’s like a centrifugal clutch.
Here is what I want to get:
Currently, the whole thing works perfectly on one engine but I have some difficulties running the second engine. This comes from a calculation loop that blocks.
Of course, in simulan this realistic start-up it increases the start-up time in the simulation so I plan to add a variable that will allow for either a realistic start-up or a quick start-up for busy people.
For the VC, I realized that after the transformation via MCX of the original P3D MDL binary, the blender file contains a lot of elements (mainly pivot or animation dummys for rotations) that have scale issues, which has big implications on the animations.
It is sometimes possible to correct these scale issues but in some cases, it is almost impossible so the best thing is to start the animation again by saving the object as an OBJ (Wavefront object) then resubmitting it and doing the complete animation again: this takes a lot of time.
It’s mainly the levers and needles of the VC that have these troubles.
Here you can see the mixture lever on keyframe 1: the lever knob is orthogonal to the direction of the lever.
The same object at keyframe 50: the lever knob is deformed due to the pivot dummy scale being incorrect, it should be at (X:1.0; Y:1.0; Z:1.0).
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