F7F-1 Tigercat FSX & P3D Native Released

[menef]

Thank youuuuuuu gman&Company for your gift

 

[jankees]

aaah, Lucas, the prince of darkness...
(says the former Triumph and BSA owner)

 

[DaveB]

I'm seeing a lot of colour variation on Bad Kitty not present on the default 'Navy' paint.. certainly not as obvious..

Is the high gloss causing this?
ATB
DaveB

 

[gman5250]

Gordon, hope you don't mind the feedback. Everything is outstanding, but I just came across a couple more items to share.

After downloading and installing all the converted Tigercats, and adding additional textures, I finally got around to taking a complete flight from my home airport to Boeing Field. I flew the -3 Tandem model with the "Bad Kitty" texture (thanks, Jankees) and made an ILS landing in real weather. Here is what I noted:

First item noted was using Shift +5. Not sure what it was supposed to show, but all I got was a black box.

Second item noted was the external light switches. It appears that the Nav light switch does nothing. The Landing Light switch, however, not only activates the landing lights, but also the Nav lights. I've owned a couple British sports cars, so I guess the Lucas Electrics has got a short circuit somewhere.

Just thought you'd want to know.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

I don't mind the feed back at all.

I'll look at that code and update you with a replacement for the Shift+5 key.

The switching issue is something I couldn't resolve in the Gmax model for the VC. The lower panel is a separate model that I did not have the original for.
The new VC that I am building in Max will resolve the switching glitch and improve the night lighting. The new VC is a WIP and will be released a bit down the road.

 

[jankees]

I'm seeing a lot of colour variation on Bad Kitty not present on the default 'Navy' paint.. certainly not as obvious..
Is the high gloss causing this?
ATB
DaveB

mmm, I think so...
I'm having difficulties with my eyes lately (first cataract operation in two weeks), so I am maybe not as critical as usual, but looking back at my pics, I see the same, but sometimes the rear of the fuselage is darker, sometimes lighter and sometimes similar, so I think it has indeed to do with the shine. Strangely enough, the blue is the same, and the grey of the alpha is too, so I am a bit confused here...

 

[DaveB]

mmm, I think so...
I'm having difficulties with my eyes lately (first cataract operation in two weeks), so I am maybe not as critical as usual, but looking back at my pics, I see the same, but sometimes the rear of the fuselage is darker, sometimes lighter and sometimes similar, so I think it has indeed to do with the shine. Strangely enough, the blue is the same, and the grey of the alpha is too, so I am a bit confused here...

Yup.. I see that too mate. While panning around to take that shot, the rear fuse on the shaded side was actually lighter than the front.. especially the lower rear. Odd innit!
ATB
DaveB

 

[WarHorse47]

Thank youuuuuuu gman&Company for your gift

I missed this one somehow. Which model has the centerline fuel tank? Or is there something I need to do to make it visible?

 

[Duckie]

I am certainly no modeler and don't have the appropriate terminology but, if I may offer, the color variation here looks like it may be a model issue, at least the fuselage part. I've been involved as a painter on a couple projects where similar anomalies presented themselves. Once the modeler was made aware the issue was quickly dispatched.

Just a though...

Steve

 

[gman5250]

Painters tip.
The file structure for the F7F series provides for a single common folder to contain all of the variants. To make this work I put certain bump and specular texture sheets in either the common folder or in airplane specific folders.
The single and twin variants in Navy Sea Blue will have the bump and spec maps for the fuselage in each airplane folder. When you release a specific skin you will need to include those files in your folder.

Basically, the bump/bump alpha + spec/spec alpha work with the basic texture/alpha combination to render light properly. If one of those elements is not included in with the airplane the light will behave differently on the part that is missing the file. In DX10 and above this becomes more critical to light rendering.


Bad Kitty Shine:
I just downloaded had a look at "Bad Kitty". To fix the shine issue, copy the bump and spec files from my texture.twoseat file and paste them into Jan Kees "Bad Kitty" texture folder. That should do it, Jan Kees will make the mod to his original.



Flying Tips:
The drop tank is controlled by the Water Rudder hot key. To operate the drop tank assign a hot key for that function.
The ladder is controlled by the spoiler key.
Wing fold is controlled by wing fold key.


Jan Kees "Bad Kitty" looking good on my end with the bump and spec files added to the folder.

 

[dvj]

 

[bob407]

Thank you Gman, Milton, and Team for all of the long hours and hard work you have put in to this project. This indeed is an awesome gift.

 

[Anneke]

Is the tanker version also released?

 

[Milton Shupe]

Is the tanker version also released?

Thank you for your interest in the Tanker; she is a sweet machine.

Per Gordon's earlier statement: "The tanker has one glitch in a drop door animation that I need to work out, then the tanker will be ready too."

 

[Milton Shupe]

Hi G,
Thanks G for and Milton for all you've done to make this possible
I tried your texture fix and for the most part it's a lot better. As you can see there is but just a small area where I can see where the front painted area (darker) meets the rear section (Lighter)
If I were to level wings, then that area is hardly noticeable. I copied the files named with a spec and bmp and right away noticed the difference on the + side.
I guess that area (circled in yellow) is par for the course - right?

Does Jankees plan on sorting this issue and re release or....??????

GE,

There are many things that can cause viewing difference.

The area in question is where the front and rear halves of the fuselage join. That means that the front and rear fuselage halves are on different texture sheets.
With the complexities (or capabilities) allowed in texture definition with primary+alpha, specular+alpha, and bump+alpha, there are lots of opportunities for variances where the two halves meet. I suspect the difference lies in the spec sheet alphas at the joint.

In the real world, one could write off the visual differences to variability between panels, shapes, curvatures, and sun angle and accept as is.

When I originally mapped these birds, I should have gone with 4096 x 4096 to eliminate the two halves in favor of a contiguous fuselage; that would have made the job much easier/simpler. Unfortunately, or not, I also was mapping for FS9 and was concerned about the losses in reducing the textures to 1024, or 25% of original sizes.

We were trying to share as much as possible between the FS9 and native FSX projects. At any rate, we shall see if the difference is specular alpha, primary texture alpha, or a modeling anomaly, I guess.

 

[jankees]

I'm not really sure there is anything I can change here...

 

[DaveB]

Yup.. thanks Milton I presumed it was a model join/map join. Gman's 'fix' has improved the situation a little but it's certainly not gone. JK had included spec and bumps for the fwd map (EDIT: make that bump only) but not for the aft map. His maps may be the same (though the dates are different) so I'll try his front with Gman's rear to see what pop's up. Appreciate the time being taken to see if an alternate solution can be found
ATB
DaveB

 

[Milton Shupe]

Yup.. thanks Milton I presumed it was a model join/map join. Gman's 'fix' has improved the situation a little but it's certainly not gone. JK had included spec and bumps for the fwd map (EDIT: make that bump only) but not for the aft map. His maps may be the same (though the dates are different) so I'll try his front with Gman's rear to see what pop's up. Appreciate the time being taken to see if an alternate solution can be found
ATB
DaveB

As a test, you try this one at a time:

1) Remove both fuselage spec sheets and test;

2) Remove the Bump sheets and test.

See which one corrects the issue.

I suspect the spec sheet as there are some 10-15 point alpha differences in the front/rear half joints.

At any rate, Gordon has a solution coming.

EDIT: My test shows that after removing the spec sheets, the difference disappeared.

 

[DaveB]

Will do Milton.. cheers

EDIT: A quick test doing that showed the most uniformity in colour is with neither spec or bumps. However, it didn't look too bad with just the specs added. The bumps have the most profound effect.

ATB
DaveB

 

[DaveB]

Could be. The middle section does stand out on the blue paints and does much to draw your eye to the difference between it and the rear. Looks great on the metal skin in that shot but a little odd on the blue navy paints.
ATB
DaveB

 

[Roger]

Guys, let's remember the effort Milton went to, to create the original aircraft. Let's remember the effort Gordon went to, to give us the FsX native models with all the refinements that can be incorporated into a native model. Now lets give him a breather and maybe later some minor issues could be corrected if required.

I may be stupid but I'm greatly enjoying the models for what they are.