FDG P-61 "for the Army pukes" part III

Oglivie

Oglivie

Charter Member
Hi Friends,

Is there any interest in this?

The FDG P-61 is a rather old aircraft model, but anyway I've been looking at and working on some textures for the rescaled version of the FDG P-61 (by Captain Tenneal-The Virtual Navy). This has included demirroring and mods (including some fixes for missing textures) of the model file. I hope to add perhaps about 20 new textures for squadrons using the P-61 in the CBI, PTO and ETO and uploading them in several packages (if there is interest for them). The time line for completion maybe the end of November or December. I am going to attempt to resolve the prop spin problem, which does not allow the weapons to show through the prop spin at certain angles, but my knowledge is limited at present how to go about it, and will involve a bit of trial & error and testing. Does anyone have any ideas how the prop spin can be fixed to allow the weapons to show well through it using scasm editing? So far I have been making mods to the model file via Ivan Hsu's MDLC converting it to scasm code and back. Simon's scasm tutorials have proven very helpful in this endeaver also. Another issue I may not be able to resolve currently is adding the VC with gauges to the panel.cfg. A VC panel needs to be added to the model file I think to allow an entry to add gauges in the panel.cfg file.

Here are some of the P-61's that I've nearly finished:

P-61A-1 #42-5502 "Skippy" 421st NFS, Leyte.
P-61A-5 #42-5544 "Lady GEN" 422nd NFS, Belgium.
P-61A-10 #42-5626 "Jing-Bow Joy-Ride" 426th NFS, China.
P-61B-2 #42-39408 "Lady in the Dark" 548th NFS, Iwo Jima (with late war 310 tanks - from Malinowski P-47 download).
P-61B-6 #42-39527 "Blind Date" 549th NFS, Iwo Jima.

Cheers
O
 
Hi Friend Fellow Simmers,

Good to read there is interest in the ole FDG bird. Looking through the Osprey book at the textures there is: "Wabash Cannon-Ball IV", "Nightie Mission", "The Virgin Widow", "Sleepy Time Gal II", "Night Take Off", "Swing Shift Skipper",.... Well, I think I will be a keepin busy for a while with needle and thread.:icon_lol:

Cheers
O
 
I love the P-61....and the Virtual Navy rescaled version is a dream!

From what I know about the effects not showing through the spinning prop disk...from a thread I read over in the FS2004 forum.....the prop has to have transparency via the prop texture and via the material that makes up the spinning prop disk. It takes the double transparency to get the effects to show through. A better choice for adding the transparency to the spinning prop material would be Martin Wright's MDLmaterial program. The main thing is finding the material that makes up the spinning prop disk.

And would I be interested in new skins for the P-61...you bet!

OBIO
 
Thanks for the idea OBIO.

There are 9 materials listed in MDLMat, none seem to be for the prop spin (but I will investigate it further). Since this is an old model file, I was thinking that more modern coding for the prop spin is not present and thus the transparency issue. I was pondering the idea (if possible) that coding could be put into the model file via scasm that would bring the prop up to date and thus the transparency needed (with the correct prop spin transparency texture in the texture folder also). I think it may take some experimenting to find out if it could be done, or if it can be done at all.

Cheers,
O
 
Thanks obio!

OBIO said:
I love the P-61....and the Virtual Navy rescaled version is a dream!

From what I know about the effects not showing through the spinning prop disk...from a thread I read over in the FS2004 forum.....the prop has to have transparency via the prop texture and via the material that makes up the spinning prop disk. It takes the double transparency to get the effects to show through. A better choice for adding the transparency to the spinning prop material would be Martin Wright's MDLmaterial program. The main thing is finding the material that makes up the spinning prop disk.

And would I be interested in new skins for the P-61...you bet!

OBIO
Click to expand...


Prop spin is fixed, wep addons are now completely visible through the prop spin. I added the correct material property to the model and linked up the prop spin in the model to the new material. Also a new 444-4 bit alpha prop spin is in the texture folder. I will do some experimenting with (444-4 bit alpha) textures to see what may look the best.

Current before and after pics:
 
Captain Tenneal said:
Hell ya!!

I was workin on the p-61A but the ole lady(my Rig) took a dump on me hopfully I can get her done asap
Click to expand...

Cap'n,

With all the exitment around here lately I forgot to mention that it is good to see ya back and hope ya get the puter thingy ironed out soon.

Cheers,
O
 
Just what i need:isadizzy:.......more planes....:costumes::costumes:

I must say that my USA Hanger is a bit sparce:d:d....I guess I need to stop working on the germans:ernae: and the british:ernae:.

:d

All the Best

bretnutz
 
Yeap,

I'd like to get the VC lighting working for the panel (since it is a night fighter), but currently I do not have a clue how to do it. I already have the entry in the aircraft.cfg and I am quite sure an entry for it needs to be in the model...somewhere.:isadizzy:

I'll Keep on, Keepin On!
:d
Og
 
O

Not sure how the VC light thing works for sure...not sure if it has to have it in the MDL file or not. I will give you some more feed back in a short while...got a few planes that don't have VC lights that really need them. Going to add a light to one of them here in a bit and will let you know if it works or not.

OBIO
 
Yep, looks like the VC light has to be part of the MDL in order for it to work. I just added a vc light to the Alpha Sim F-5A Skoshi Shark and it did not work.

BUT! There is a work around for this. Thanks to DvSlats, I now know this neat way to get VC lights into aircraft....put it in the DP file as an effect, like adding exhaust and smoke.

[EXTRA.X]
location=0,0.73,3.5
effect=fx_vclight

The "X" will need changed to be in sequence with any other DP placed effects in use. Just change the location setting to place the light where you need it to be. Using this approach, the light can not be turned on and off like it can via the config file, but it works...and you can also have multiple lights in your plane using this approach.

DvSlats and I have been sending files back and forth getting the Alpha Sim B-57B converted to CFS2...and the final result will be a really great conversion. He sent me this tid bit and it works like a charm in getting a light in the rear cockpit of the B-57. The light is not bright enough to notice during daylight flights.

I will be using this approach to add lights to a lot of the older aircraft in my collection.

Dv also tipped me to a nice collection of VC light effects files over on Simviation.com that give you different colors of light. The Medium Green VC light rocks in the B-57B!

OBIO

EDIT:

Plug this into your DP file, below the [EFFECTS] section: This will add lights to the Pilot and R/O cockpits

[EXTRA.0]
location=0,1.2,1.1
effect=fx_vclight

[EXTRA.1]
location=0,.3,3.1
effect=fx_vclight
 
Thanks OBIO!

It's a good work around for the model VC light. I'll keep tinkering a bit more to see if I can get the model VC light to work, but if not I will use the DP extra effect you posted. Thanks again for the helpful info!

Cheers,
O
 
Here's an odd thing: I added two VC_lights via the EXTRA effects...as posted a couple posted above. One of those lights, the second one, the one in the R/O position...turns on and off with the L key. There is no {Lights] line in the aircraft cfg...I have looked several times. But for some reason, the second DP added VC_light works off of the L key. TOtally odd.

OBIO
 
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