Forrestal Class Carrier

[navy81]

I took a little time to recently paint the statics for Gary's Midway aircraft - VF-151 (F-4's), VA-93 (A-7) and VA-115 (A-6). I'd be happy to provide in the skins section with Gary's permission and if there is interest. For the Forrestal (series), I'd be happy to take that on as well, though it would take some time for four carriers. Wondering where low poly Tomcat statics can be found, so that both a 60's-70's era Air Wing as well as an 80's-90's Air Wing could be configured, depending on what the user would be flying at the time (kind of like the Enterprise with both and 80's and 90's Air Wing).

Final points - Thanks so much for expanding the fleet! Some day - America and JFK, and hopefully expanded Oriskany's to inlcude Hancock, Tico, and Bonnie Dick.
First screenie (yeah i know, no Tomcats on Midway...) shows VA-93 and VF-151, second one shows VA-115.
Cheers, Deke

 

[gray eagle]

For the Forrestal (series), I'd be happy to take that on as well, though it would take some time for four carriers. Wondering where low poly Tomcat statics can be found, so that both a 60's-70's era Air Wing as well as an 80's-90's Air Wing could be configured, depending on what the user would be flying at the time (kind of like the Enterprise with both and 80's and 90's Air Wing).

I'd be for that Navy81; Offer something similar like the Big "E" offers, 80's 90's era air wing. For the 80's; I'd like to see CVW-17 AirWing.

 

[Mickey D]

Yup.. it's certainly nice to have the option. Much depends on the deck models though. The Flying Stations Ark Royal IV (for example) only has a parked deck option in FSX (it had both in FS9). Sadly.. the poor girl shows her age now but would look less dated if the parked aircraft were gone. This goes for land based statics too. Models without ground shadows look so naff these days but folk still shove them out. Looking at screenies of SDB's latest release (Whiteman AFB), there are a lot of these in evidence. It just doesn't work for me

Anyhoo.. yup.. having a choice is desirable but if the only choice is with parked models.. having none at all is often better

ATB
DaveB

As I'm sure you know static shadows are switched on/off in the sim Dave. That goes for ALL ours too. IIRC I took the screenies on my old system and the sim runs faster without shadows. Just forgot to switch them on for the shots that's all. Just to put the record straight

 

[gp183601]

I took a little time to recently paint the statics for Gary's Midway aircraft - VF-151 (F-4's), VA-93 (A-7) and VA-115 (A-6). I'd be happy to provide in the skins section with Gary's permission and if there is interest.

Hay Deke,

I really don't enjoy doing textures so I was hoping someone would pick this up! I've got no issues with it so feel free to paint and share away!

Cheers
Gary

 

[DaveB]

Yo MD

Actually.. that isn't the case and certainly not with the Ark Royal IV's deck models (and others). I load up Ark and the models have no shadows. I load up Victorious and the models have shadows. There's a function/option in SAMM2 when saving a model to save it with or without ground shadows. I'm not talking about scenery casting shadows. Cast your peepers back at Gary Summons original FSX VFR Airfields series. His statics here were much like the old FS9 versions (eg shadowless). Check out the latest versions (with the advent of Vol1 v2) and many of the statics have been remade with ground shadows. I never use the scenery cast shadows option as by and large, I think it looks naff but each to their own

EDIT: To make it a little clearer.. here's a shot of what I mean. The Cub has yet to have a make-over and you can see how odd it looks shoved in with the models that have ground shadows built-in

ATB
DaveB

 

[fsafranek]

The deck eye candy on the Big-E do have shadows. Same with the original FS9 version. If we were to do an NAS scenery using those aircraft again they would have shadows as well -- it is built in to the model. Might look weird if there was a mix of them and AI's not casting shadows though.

 

[DaveB]

Cheers Frank.. we crossed in the post. MD is obviously more confused than previously thought

ATB
DaveB

 

[WombRaider78]

Still looking forward to using Gary's statics and tilly on my ships.

Anticipating the planes, I added specular mapping to the ships. The result turned out great, and will be included in the update with the static aircraft.

 

[delta_lima]

A small request, with all this talk about statics:

While the majority would prefer some statics, I'm wondering if there could be even one hull number (doesn't matter which) with a "clean" deck. By that, the Tilly crane, but no a/c. That enables the carrier for use in either CARQUAL - where there were few birds on deck, and/or a much earlier angled deck period, (Cuban Missile Crisis era, etc).

No biggie if can't be done - but that would be most excellent if possible.

Kind regards,

dl

 

[WombRaider78]

A small request, with all this talk about statics:

While the majority would prefer some statics, I'm wondering if there could be even one hull number (doesn't matter which) with a "clean" deck. By that, the Tilly crane, but no a/c. That enables the carrier for use in either CARQUAL - where there were few birds on deck, and/or a much earlier angled deck period, (Cuban Missile Crisis era, etc).

No biggie if can't be done - but that would be most excellent if possible.

Kind regards,

dl

I was planning on having clear decks too.

 

[expat]

I was planning on having clear decks too.

Super! Thanks.

 

[delta_lima]

Super! Thanks.

+1 - great news.

dl

 

[Mickey D]

Cheers Frank.. we crossed in the post. MD is obviously more confused than previously thought

ATB
DaveB

Not confused at all Dave. You referred to the Whiteman screenies and so did I. The Big E deck candy have built in shadows. Different beastie.

 

[DaveB]

Have you missed the point or have I MD?? Your statics in the Whiteman scenery don't have ground shadows.. they'd look better if they did.. without having to resort to scenery casting shadows. I illustrated this with my screenie

ATB
DaveB

 

[WombRaider78]

A little glimpse of things to come...

Gary graciously sent me his A-7, F-4, Tractor, and Tilly crane. I tooled around with ways to attach them to the ships. I also added some specular texture to the static models. I found an A-6 from another freeware 3D download site. It is really low poly, and VERY frame friendly. I folded the wings and added the landing gear today.

Here is a good shot of some statics on the deck.

Thanks Gary for lending me the statics.

 

[expat]

Those look excellent. Will you be able to include/exclude each type by adding/excluding each a/c bgl?

 

[gp183601]

Gary graciously sent me his A-7, F-4, Tractor, and Tilly crane. I tooled around with ways to attach them to the ships. I also added some specular texture to the static models. I found an A-6 from another freeware 3D download site. It is really low poly, and VERY frame friendly. I folded the wings and added the landing gear

I've always wanted to try specular texture mapping but have never been sure how to do it. What steps do you use?

Cheers
G

 

[WombRaider78]

I've always wanted to try specular texture mapping but have never been sure how to do it. What steps do you use?

Cheers
G

Using modelconverterX. Go to material editor. Find the texture map you want specular on. Select add specular texture and then apply. Do this for every texture map that you want spec on. Export the model.

Open up the texture maps that you assigned spec. to.(I use paint.net for an editor). Adjust the brightness and contrast to make the texture a bit darker, almost black and white. Then open layer properties. Adjust the opaqueness of the map down to half or 3\4 invisible. Use the Save As function and rename the file to add an _S.dds (ie fuselage.dds to fuselage_S.dds) to the end of the file name. Continue with saving, there will be a new spec map.

Easy peesy.
Raider

 

[WombRaider78]

Those look excellent. Will you be able to include/exclude each type by adding/excluding each a/c bgl?

Default objects are the only things you can attach to the models using attachment editor. That being said, I am having to merge the aircraft into the model. I am experimenting with other ways too. But to make single aircraft types on deck might make the download way too big.

I was thinking of making launch/recovery setups, crowded decks, and an empty version. The only problem I am running into is finding accurate and available low poly statics. I want an A-4c or e model, an AWACs bird, and an A-3 Skywarrior but I cannot find any. I found a few A-4s around the web. They all were not convertible using the tools I have, Guy's A-4 was a humpback marine version, or they were just ugly looking models.


I am also open to ideas on what and how to add to the decks.

Raider.

 

[WombRaider78]

Update..

Due to some issues that have come up in my life, progress has slowed to a halt on this project. I will be definitely picking up the pace soon. Here is a preview shot of the progress I have made. I have started with the CV-59. Made a crowded deck and a launch cycle. I plan on making a recovery cycle as well and maybe a few other variations. If anyone can point me to some other ideas, and I would love to have some texture artists work on some variations of paint schemes on the aircraft.