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F7F Tigercat New VC for FSX & P3D

Gordon that ol' Tigercat never expected that kind of upgrade...SUPERB!!!
Ted

Ha! I knew when he took over the Tigercats, good things were coming but Gordon keeps raising the bar. Super pleased with where its going and happy he left the old stuff behind. :jump:
 
Of course, I still remember the moon (or maybe Mars) landing...
Just fyi, it was a Mars lander, and NaySay are the ones that got the metric to standard conversions mixed up. Needless to say, that agency underwhelms me these days. They are just a bloated bureaucracy mostly engaged in justifying their own existance. No "will" like they had in the 60's any more. By now, we should have solar and lunar LaGrange colonies, moon colonies, asteroid mining, whatever. Instead, we can't even supply the space station, such as it is, ourselves. Oh, yeah, we can send a probe out to see things...
Sorry, touchy subject with me...

I still say, though, that those panels are really amazing. Every time I see them I start to drool...
Pat☺
 
PhantomTweak..."By now, we should have solar and lunar LaGrange colonies, moon colonies, asteroid mining, whatever."

Of course, had we taken Mr. Tesla a bit more seriously we would be farther along than that. Instead we subsidize Mr. Musk with gozillions of tax dollars, for...errr... just what....exactly?
Imagine if the technology of transportation had developed at the pace that computers have in the last fifty years. We would be traversing space/time in the quantum field and seriously exploring the real potential of zero point for infinite energy.

Sore subject with me also....thanks for expanding on the Mars lander debacle Pat. :encouragement:

I'm up early this AM...lots to do.
 
Status Update:

I've been down for about a month with the repairs to the computer. New WD Black 5TB hard drive was necessary after the Windows 10 disaster. New OS on the fresh drive, new installs of everything from the ground up. I've got a clean system that is undergoing final fine tuning, but I'm back working and free from any further Win10 updates.

I also did a clean install of P3D on the SSD with the latest updates. All of my system drivers and NVIDIA are updated.

Currently I'm working on the Brewster Buffalo, F7F-3 Exterior/VC package and the Abrams Explorer along with four major scenery packages and some surprises.

I've taken on gauge building, panel modeling and VC lighting. Attached is the current work as of today.

Gauges have been the most challenging aspect of the learning curve, due to the un-indexed nature of the various tutorials written on the subject. There is an extensive databank of material on the subject, but finding data that addresses state-of-the-art simulators is sketchy. Many thanks to Mr. Leaming for his tutorials which clarify much of the "terse" data in the actual SDK documentation.

This is a color study of LED light steam gauges for a restoration quality (real world) airplane. I chose the blue/teal lights for this sample, although the military version will be traditional red...pending on vetted research. These screen shots are taken in various stages of light from dusk to total darkness. As I stated in a previous post in this thread, I've taken some creative license by adding the Garmin stack, rather than LORAN for this model. The radios make the plane very comfy for IFR flights, so don't flog me too hard on this one detail.

As always, I'll be very interested in opinions on the development. General observations are what I'm looking for as the VC is very much a WIP with many development and textural details still to be brought into focus. That being said, the overall representation of the night VC is quite soothing...IMO.

Bear in mind...this is my first VC and gauge/panel build. It ain't easy....that's for sure. :biggrin-new:

32374930746_f6b14be7b2_o.jpg


32374928856_c92a4c7c52_o.jpg


31603192363_4fcd52e25f_o.jpg
 
Outstanding work. One of the reasons I haven't attempted modeling again is the VC. I haven't any doubt it's as daunting as it sounds.

Thanks for the update.
 
Gman , you've become multi-talented in all aspects of aircraft and scenery building . I envy your talent and skills . This is excellent ! :applause:

Rich
 
G, exponential WOW factor. Very immersive atmosphere, and these are just screen shots. Panning around must be very satisfying.

Nice.

Steve
 
Very nice and thank You. Any news about more expected by me ; ) classic version of VC?

The classic military VC is in parallel development along with the three civilian VC's. My approach is to do one aspect of the build i.e. gauge "lighting" for all of the models. In this case the texture sheets for the gauges and lighting are different for each plane, so I do them all in the same work flow. I'll post up some shots of the military variant VC lighting as I finish the artwork.
 
Congratulations on the progress so far, it is truly a beautiful work. If it continues as it has so far, you may as well put it up as payware. This kind of quality and attention to detail if very good indeed. Thank you. Don
 
you may as well put it up as payware... Don

Thank you for the compliments Don, and everyone else. I sincerely appreciate it.

Mr. Shupe and I are in agreement that this plane shall remain freeware, so I'll be releasing the new model as freeware once I finish the project. While the interior model is entirely a new creation by me, the exterior model began with Milton Shupe with extensive modifications by me when I took it FSX native. If I do decide to create a payware version of the F7F Tigercat I will use a new exterior model and infrastructure, which is currently under construction but very far down my priority list.

This project was my first exploration of aircraft modeling and has been approached as an intensive study exercise. I deem it appropriate to share that process with the community, as freeware, to encourage others to become involved in the development side of flight simulation.

For me, undertaking the curve allowed me to appreciate the work that developers dedicate to improving the flight sim experience.
 
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