FSX Tigercat SOH Native Conversion Progress

Daveroo said:
ok i meant no disrespect to anyone especially Milton..i've always appreciated what he does for this community and to Gordon and all the rest of you.i was mostly wondering what if anything would be changed..i always type to much and get myself into trouble...
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Dave,

I couldn't see any disrespect in any of your comments! Don't worry so much!

take care,

Johan
 
Dumonceau said:
G,

Would it be too much work to offer both sets? for people with less than optimal rigs.
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Hey "G":

I would have to 'second' that question !!

Some of us ( if not the majority) don't have the 'rigs' to handle 4096 and some of us - for whatever reasons - are on 'fixed' incomes therefore a nice 'big powerful rig' isn't appearing in our sights anytime in the near future !! :sorrow:

Plus it's hard to explain to the wife that you want to spend more money on an airplane / computer than HER - Know what I'm saying !!!! :banghead:

We definately appreciate the time / effort / great work :encouragement: but we might not be able to handle the 'high res' results !!

Just a thought to consider..

Bill
 
Hey guys,

RE: 4096 x 4096 textures, I didn't ask the question the right way. lol
I'll do the 2048 x 2048 textures for the basic packages. The 4096 x 4096 could be an option for higher end systems. 2048 is pretty darned good for most of my day to day flying.


Hey Dave...you didn't piss me off either, but remember Art Scholl was known to go out and stand on the wing during his shows. Heh Heh...

G...
 
gman5250 said:
Hey guys,

RE: 4096 x 4096 textures, I didn't ask the question the right way. lol
I'll do the 2048 x 2048 textures for the basic packages. The 4096 x 4096 could be an option for higher end systems. 2048 is pretty darned good for most of my day to day flying.

G...
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Concerning the 4096x4096 textures. . .and understand this is my opinion and not disputing what anyone else has stated. I do repainting, but I am not a repaint artist (big difference). I don't know how to do bump mapping, or work with speculars and find most of that a waste as my flying happens in the cockpit and not from the external view. However, when I have done repaints (and I've done a lot) I always use 4096x4096 textures (the repaints for Tim's Native T-33 and the Donationware F-100 were done with my paint kits at 4096x4096). It allows for greater detail, stencils can be read easily and everything is "in focus". With all the aircraft I've painted that way, and even with payware aircraft I've purchased I've never had a problem with my computer being able to handle the larger format. My system is now 3 or 4 years old and hardly a top end rig. I know there is an immense cross section of users in SOH and folks get by with what they can afford and I'm certainly in that boat myself, but I've never seen a drop in performance or any fps hit when going from smaller texture sizes to the larger ones. Not ever.
 
gman5250 said:
Errr...Uhhhhh...20 hour days are not unusual. :dizzy:

I'd guess that Mr. Shupe puts in a few hours here and there too.

G
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Gordon,

do us all a favour and get the sleep that you need, that your body asks for. It's people like you and Milton who are so needed for this community! (that's a compliment by the way)

Take care,

Johan
 
falcon409 said:
Concerning the 4096x4096 textures. . .and understand this is my opinion and not disputing what anyone else has stated. I do repainting, but I am not a repaint artist (big difference). I don't know how to do bump mapping, or work with speculars and find most of that a waste as my flying happens in the cockpit and not from the external view. However, when I have done repaints (and I've done a lot) I always use 4096x4096 textures (the repaints for Tim's Native T-33 and the Donationware F-100 were done with my paint kits at 4096x4096). It allows for greater detail, stencils can be read easily and everything is "in focus". With all the aircraft I've painted that way, and even with payware aircraft I've purchased I've never had a problem with my computer being able to handle the larger format. My system is now 3 or 4 years old and hardly a top end rig. I know there is an immense cross section of users in SOH and folks get by with what they can afford and I'm certainly in that boat myself, but I've never seen a drop in performance or any fps hit when going from smaller texture sizes to the larger ones. Not ever.
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Thanks Ed, I'll definitely do a set in 4096. The rivets and panels, along with all of the other details really pop in high def. At 2048, a one pixel rivet is still fuzzy to me, and the highlights are usually too dominant. At 4096 I use a round brush to make the rivet and a small one pixel square brush for the highlights on a separate layer. A Gaussian blur softens the highlight very nicely. Panel lines are much more crisp at 4096 as well.

The Tigercat source photos I have show very tight panel lines and super straight panels on the restored aircraft. To get the look I think 4096 will do the job. The finished skins can be resized to 2048 and still keep their tight appearance.
 
Dumonceau said:
Gordon,

do us all a favour and get the sleep that you need, that your body asks for. It's people like you and Milton who are so needed for this community! (that's a compliment by the way)

Take care,

Johan
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I appreciate that Johan.

I do the skins to un-wind from the scenery work, which I do tend to spend enormous time on. The scenery work is a mixed bag. The autogen can be like a root canal when you are doing many hundreds of houses/buildings and large areas of hand annotated trees. The modeling is more relaxing, especially since I went to 3DS Max. Photoshop, where I spend many, many hours is very Zen when I'm painting trees, brush and grasses. That work is very restful and I find that hours go by in low brain wave states.

These particular skins are the first I've done with the Wacom tablet/Photoshop CS6. The resulting art is the product of using real hand strokes. I've waited a long time for the Tigercat, so naturally I'm going to throw myself at the art.

It's my pleasure gentlemen, I sincerely thank you all for the encouragement.

Gordon
 
Daveroo said:
ok i meant no disrespect to anyone especially Milton..i've always appreciated what he does for this community and to Gordon and all the rest of you.i was mostly wondering what if anything would be changed..i always type to much and get myself into trouble...
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Not a problem Dave; I understood your comment and no offense taken.

The cockpit is basic by choice and circumstance, a decision I had to make due to limited resources.

If anyone wants to take the VC up a notch as freeware, and Gordon wants to release the gmax source when he is done, I will support that.
 
I did a set of spinners to match "La Patrona". I don't have the model yet, so I put them in the F7F-1 model to get a sense of how they look.

These shots are of the spinners on a high polish frame. I won't do any skins for the restored versions until I get the correct models, but these light studies work to get the gloss levels and spec right.

Note: The absence of exhaust stain on the starboard wing is intentional. This is a light study, I'm balancing the alpha to dull the shine under the exhaust.





 
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Agreed! Excellent job there Sir. :applause:

I will start packaging up the other models today and upload for you.
 
Gentlemen,

Absolutely phenominal work. Gman your work is absolutely incredible! You are the metal master. :applause:
 
Johan and Rick, I'll need a note from your doctor. The "Kitty" can cause dizziness and heart palpitations. :encouragement:
 
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