F7F Tigercat New VC for FSX & P3D

[gman5250]

ALL of them? Then why would P3d not load what was installed and that error message appeared, what was that all about?

I used the same naming conventions. If you have the earlier model...pre new VC, P3D sees duplicates of the airplane and tells you. It won't load both. I would just remove the earlier folders to your desk top when you are flying the beta.

Or even better yet, you can copy all of your textures from your previous install and place those in the new aircraft folder. Open the old .cfg file and copy all of the [fltsim.XX] entries into the new model. Be sure to adjust the XX to keep numbers in sequence. Once you do that you can have your previous skins with the new VC model. Trick! I set it up that way on purpose.

 

[gray eagle]

I used the same naming conventions. If you have the earlier model...pre new VC, P3D sees duplicates of the airplane and tells you. It won't load both. I would just remove the earlier folders to your desk top when you are flying the beta.

Or even better yet, you can copy all of your textures from your previous install and place those in the new aircraft folder. Open the old .cfg file and copy all of the [fltsim.XX] entries into the new model. Be sure to adjust the XX to keep numbers in sequence. Once you do that you can have your previous skins with the new VC model. Trick! I set it up that way on purpose.

Well, Rather then remove everything, I went conservative and removed the F7F-3 Military and then P3d loaded ; I flew in a single seat Mil in blue.

Seems like I narrowed the issue to the F7F-3 Mil as that was the burr under the blanket with P3d.
But then the folder title says F7F-3 Military and when I removed it, I was surprise to see -low and behold a blue Military F7F. The names are a head fake to me.

 

[Penzoil3]

First impressions are GREAT! A pleasure to fly, visuals are good. Can't find anything to pick on yet. Only flown about a half an hour. Will test further. Are the weapons supposed to be armable ? Those switches don't work...
Sue

 

[gman5250]

First impressions are GREAT! A pleasure to fly, visuals are good. Can't find anything to pick on yet. Only flown about a half an hour. Will test further. Are the weapons supposed to be armable ? Those switches don't work...
Sue

The weapons panel has not been coded yet Sue. I'm going to integrate those as TacPack. Don't have TacPack yet, but it's going to become necessary if I'm going to get this airplane authentic.

BTW...right of the seat, rear console, square yellow handle. That will bring out the belly tank. The red handle will drop the arrestor hook on the military bird.

 

[gray eagle]

Single Seat Armed

I originally got a P3D error message that it couldn't open a dupe single seat armed, ok, then, I removed the entire F7F-3 Military folder and load P3D
and I see that single seat armed texture is avail to load (red square). IOW, in spite of me removing the Military folder, what do I see but a few military
versions in the preview box. oy vey....

I'm still trying to understand this dupe files and Penzoil has already flown it for awhile already. I guess I am the only one that had this hurdle to jump over and
others got past that on their own. Oh well, I get thru this. I can still select what you see (the blue mil ones)

I kinda feel like Charlie Brown on Halloween..... when he went for trick or treat, all he got was a rock.

 

[Penzoil3]

Don't have TacPack either, no problem...
Thanks
Sue

 

[gman5250]

I originally got a P3D error message that it couldn't open a dupe single seat armed, ok, then, I removed the entire F7F-3 Military folder and load P3D
and I see that single seat armed texture is avail to load (red square). IOW, in spite of me removing the Military folder, what do I see but a few military
versions in the preview box. oy vey....

I'm still trying to understand this dupe files and Penzoil has already flown it for awhile already. I guess I am the only one that had this hurdle to jump over and
others got past that on their own. Oh well, I get thru this. I can still select what you see (the blue mil ones)

I kinda feel like Charlie Brown on Halloween..... when he went for trick or treat, all he got was a rock.

Butch,

I can see by your menu that you still have the pre-beta files I had sent you a while back.

The beta is a more current, trimmed down variation I put together using those old files. The syntax in the new config file will have a heart attack once it sees those old files. You need to pull those old folders out of P3D entirely. Put only the new set that you downloaded today into P3D.

Those old files will work, but not with the syntax written for the beta. I can get you squared away with those later. The older files need to have the new .mdl files added and be directed correctly. There is no need for the beta to be that complicated at this stage. Once I see everyone is able to use the basic, I will add the other models.

Patience my friend. Do it my way and you should not have any problems.

 

[gray eagle]

Butch,

I can see by your menu that you still have the pre-beta files I had sent you a while back.

The beta is a more current, trimmed down variation I put together using those old files. The syntax in the new config file will have a heart attack once it sees those old files. You need to pull those old folders out of P3D entirely. Put only the new set that you downloaded today into P3D.

Those old files will work, but not with the syntax written for the beta. I can get you squared away with those later. The older files need to have the new .mdl files added and be directed correctly. There is no need for the beta to be that complicated at this stage. Once I see everyone is able to use the basic, I will add the other models.

Patience my friend. Do it my way and you should not have any problems.

I guess I am getting Half-Heimers, I don't remember the old F7F files and loadng them into P3D, I've only had P3D since Feb 2016. And I don't remember loading any F7F files in P3D simobjects/Airplanes. What I got today is only F7F I installed So, I guess I will clear it all out and just start over tomorrow. I'm about two hours ahead and us septuagenarians need our sleep. So, I'll work on this tomorrow then,

Thanks

 

[gman5250]

I guess I am getting Half-Heimers, I don't remember the old F7F files and loadng them into P3D, I've only had P3D since Feb 2016. And I don't remember loading any F7F files in P3D simobjects/Airplanes. What I got today is only F7F I installed So, I guess I will clear it all out and just start over tomorrow. I'm about two hours ahead and us septuagenarians need our sleep. So, I'll work on this tomorrow then,

Thanks

Probably me...I've had 13 concussions and the CRS can take over when I work too hard.
I'll get you squared away tomorrow.

 

[gray eagle]

Okay, I gutted the F7F from P3d. Now I checked and sure enough, you did send me some F7F stuff but I put that on FSX/A not P3d. I still have FSX/A on another HD.
I run P3d on its on HD. I wanted it that way so that I can have both sims and not have to give FSX up completely. So, what you sent me today, I installed for the first time
in P3d (I did not install that older F7F files LA Patrona I think and others into P3d) so there could not of been duplicates in P3d. I do have those old file in an archive directory and
on FSX.

But, I went ahead and toss all the Beta F7F I installed in P3d and nothing related to F7F in in the Airplanes folder. I do have in FSX some of Your F7F stuff you send me or made
avail on SOH for D/L. So now I know I wasn't going completely crackers.

I'll start from scratch tomorrow, but just know that the slate is clean in P3D as far as F7F's go - (like it was before I downloaded the beta a few hours ago.)


Later.

 

[blanston12]

Downloaded and tested in P3d v3.4. Overall I am very impressed, it looks much better than the older versions, I can see myself flying it a lot.

I noticed a few things I thought I should share.

First there is a strange smoke effect that comes out from behind the engines when you turn on the lights,

I did a full power takeoff using one of the military version and saw this smoke effect behind me.

Another thing i noticed is from the VC if you look backwards you see through the back of the seat and there is also a gap between the back panel and the top of the aircraft frame. Here what it looks like, I shifted the view point forward to get a better look at it.

One last thing more a suggestion that a problem. In P3d the title= parameter becomes the label you see in the aircraft selector so in my system the title for one was "F7F-3sc Restored" which comes from the aircraft.cfg file

[fltsim.0]
title=F7F-3sc Restored

If instead the aircraft.cfg file read something like

[fltsim.0]
title=Grumman F7F-3s Civilian Restored Metal


It would be much clearer and would not impact FSX by doing so.

That's all the time I had for tonight, will try to test more tomorrow.

Edit: One more small item, in 'F7F-3sc Polished VC2' the heading knob does not seam to work, it does work in 'F7F-3sc Polished'

 

[gray eagle]

No P3D Startup Issues

I did a fresh install of the Betas and as the title says, P3D will now load with no complaints.
I think it might of been a possibility that I also installed some of the old F7F FSX native files that predates this new beta.
I have a dedicated target drive sector where compressed files are unpacked and I noticed that some of the older F7F files were there as well and these unpacked Beta files.
So, it could be possible that I copied those older F7F files over to P3D as well, and maybe that explains the duplicity that P3D was moaning about.
Now, I can finally try all the variations of the beta.

 

[gray eagle]

The Tanker

Curious about the sounds. Are they Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34W Double Wasp radial engines sounds or close to it? In external view, the sounds in the Tanker seem a lot quieter then from
the cockpit, but I guess I can adjust for that on my end.

The rear view (tanker) is a bit of a see thru

 

[gman5250]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The interior model is not a complete airplane, only what is shown here. The idea is to create a model that represents only what can be seen from the pilots point of view...wings, nacelles, props, nose etc. At this stage of development, there is no back half of the airplane. Exterior views of the airplane will show the entire model.

Rotating the pilots view towards the back of the plane will result in seeing the gap behind the bulkhead. The final version will include a rear airframe.

Important Note: The interior model is a rough fit into the current exterior model. Moving the pilots eyes outside of the canopy "walls" will result in visual artefacts that are not intended. When I mate the interior and new exterior model (WIP) the airplane will be seamless with no visual conflicts from either inside or out.

Side note: EZDok 2 and ChasePlane both have a handy feature that puts virtual doors in the airplane. You can jump from interior to exterior without losing half of the airplane.

 

[gman5250]

Curious about the sounds. Are they Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34W Double Wasp radial engines sounds or close to it? In external view, the sounds in the Tanker seem a lot quieter then from
the cockpit, but I guess I can adjust for that on my end...

Those sounds are PW R-2800 from Nigel Richards and Gary Jones.
TuFun provided the "Tigercat Howl".

Read the Documentation/Read Me First file for the details.

You can tune the exterior sounds from the sound.cfg file for louder fly by. I like mine loud, but left them as the original devs created them for the beta.

 

[gman5250]

Tanker HU

At this point all three versions are using the same FM. I have not integrated the custom tank drop code into the Tanker version yet, so you won't be able to access drops. The new Tanker VC will be coded with proper switches and levers for the drops, but that is WIP.

Most importantly are flight characteristics. The Tanker "hangs in the air, very much in the same way as bricks don't" (Douglas Adams).
The airplane is quite sluggish and heavy when carrying its payload. That will come with an update later.

 

[gray eagle]

The idea is to create a model that represents only what can be seen from the pilots point of view...wings, nacelles, props, nose etc. At this stage of development, there is no back half of the airplane. Exterior views of the airplane will show the entire model.

Rotating the pilots view towards the back of the plane will result in seeing the gap behind the bulkhead. The final version will include a rear airframe.

Side note: EZDok 2 and ChasePlane both have a handy feature that puts virtual doors in the airplane. You can jump from interior to exterior without losing half of the airplane.

[/QUOT

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[gman5250]

[/QUOTE]So from the pilots perspective, the view of the rear is no back end of the A/C to see right? When I try to take this all in, it brings to mind David Copperfield's disappearing airplane trick
Glad you can keep up with and understand that cutting edge CAD program you use. [/QUOTE]

CAD lesson:

Polys use a condition called "normal". The normal points in the direction that the poly can be seen. The fuselage normals face outward so they can be seen from outside the airplane. If a developer wants to see the fuselage skin from the inside, a second shell needs to be created with normal facing inward. This model uses a tub with inward facing normal. The tub has ribs, formers and rivets etc.

As this is a beta, and the Tigercat has single and two cockpit variations, the rear cockpit of the interior has not yet been modeled. The fuselage shell, therefore, cannot be seen from the inside when the pilot eye point is rotated aft. The normals face out, so the exterior skin cannot be seen.

This beta is to evaluate that the model downloads, installs and operates at its current stage of development. The point of the exercise is to look at gauges, switches and controls and evaluate their integrity. There is a lot of work yet to be done, coding the internal components, integrating working details and adding TacPack. This is a process.

As far as understanding the CAD program, I have a relatively firm grasp of the fundamentals as they apply to your observations. I've provided a lengthy outline of the project at this stage of development.
The software, 3D Studio Max, is commercially available to anyone wishing to learn and understand the process and build their own models to suit their individual requirements.

The purpose of the Beta exercise is to shake out bugs, warts and technical hurdles. I've invited the community to participate in the process, which is intended to be undertaken with courtesy and respect.

 

[banjoman1960]

Thank´s for let me test.
tanker download for me was one dds not right,i have send you a e-mail with a picture......but it work.........

the other work fine,fly´s very nice,very nice work!!!
will test this evening.........

cheers
Ralf

edit,tanker redownloaded,is ok now......

 

[gray eagle]

The purpose of the Beta exercise is to shake out bugs, warts and technical hurdles. I've invited the community to participate in the process, which is intended to be undertaken with courtesy and respect.

And you have it from me sir.