Hubbabubba's Corner

Thanks for the compliment Johnny, but I certainly don't "rule the sky". I just mess around and hopefully every once in a while something useful to the rest of the Flight Sim community comes from something I worked on. As I see it, there isn't really any competition here. We all build what we want and sometimes it benefits others as well.

If you think this is modesty, it really isn't because I am really making no special effort to finish anything to release to the general public. Then again, I'm not ruling out releases either.

- Ivan.
 
Well Johnny, I don't even have a driver's permit...:kilroy:

Not that I flunk the MV test; I simply never had the will when I had the means and the means when I had the will:redf:.

I once told Ivan that I am the expert of one project; the one I'm working on.

I now know more about Bf 108 than most people on this planet, some of them having fly the thing! I never saw one with my own eyes. LOL!

Same thing with the jeep now and, as I just said, I don't even drive!

We are not in competition:173go1:, sometimes we may even collaborate:ernae:!
Do as you see fit, there is no "niche" to fill.

You should have seen my first aircraft :costumes:, this one piece of :censored: I will never post a picture of.

P.S.- Ivan may be "ruling the sky", but not for long...
 
Hi Hubbabubba,

Now you have me curious. I never claimed to "Rule the Sky", but if you also make that claim, is there an aircraft project coming out of your shop that I should be expecting shortly? I do remember you were working on a AT-6 Texan at one point. Have you finished?

I think I need to go find a hammer and pound out some sheet metal for a Japanese Zero now.

- Ivan.

P.S. Hubbabubba is right. There is no "Competition". He and I even work together on occasion.
 
Well Ivan...

I am working on details for the jeep and, just to see, I animated it (blackout lights, night lights, front wheels and steering) and, after assembling, my MDL was still fitting squarely in a 70Kb "run of the mill" AF99 format. The calls do not need 32 bit commands.

In comparison, the Taifun was forced to fit in a 133Kb AA format.

The BGL portion stands at 54 722 bytes.

I still need to do test in MP with smilo, but I'm pretty sure the FPS is very reasonable. I've tested it in test missions and had no severe drop of frame rate.

I told you it was only a "testbed" for my theories;
- Was I able to make an MDL using VectorJump commands in a more efficient manner; YES!;
- Was I able to use more components than AF99 limit?; YES!;
- Was I able to get rid of all that s:censored:y groups-coding?; YES!;
- Does it reduce size of BGL code?; You bet!;
- Finally, to satisfy your curiosity Ivan, does it apply to aircraft as well?; WHY NOT?

I just have to decide which project will benefit first; Taifun or Harvard?

I still have to make a "windshield down" position, actuated with spoiler key, and "beta" testing versions will be on their ways. If you could help me with the AIR file, I would appreciate (you see Johnny?). smilo will help me with the MP aspect.

Just went for a "stroll" at night in AAC_Ripe compound; eerie! When I cut-off the engine near the squash court, I coud almost smell the short grass and hear the crickets!
 
AAC_Ripe

~S~ Hubbabubba,

Sometime I wish I could move to Ripe. I even had a dream about it. The problem was there was nothing inside the house. It was just an empty box with four white walls and green tinted windows, no door. Some how I found myself outside and I walked in the shade of the trees and felt a gentle breeze blowing ever so softly on my face. I stood there and watched the airfield, waiting for you to return so I could get a TV, door and a bed.

It reminds me of a Country and Western song:

"When I die, I may not go to heaven, I don't know if they let cowboys in...I hope I go to Ripe, cause Ripe is as close to heaven as I've ever been." Or something like that.

That could be my next project. An AF99 me.

j:isadizzy:
 
"That could be my next project. An AF99 me."
talk to Rebel, he did a Hubba standing on the Carrier, remember?
 
Hi Hubbabubba,

I had no doubt you would be able to accomplish what you set out to do. I just don't find your method to be as useful to me.

This is really not intended as an insult but rather as a statement that we work differently. I try to do as much visually as I can. Consider how you would go about doing what I just did over the last 24 hours:

I finished texturing the wings of the Zero. (Not a big deal.)
I then went back to the problem of non-optimum contours in the wings.
I rebuilt the wings once last night with a significant change to the number of polygons (removed the triangulation) and found that there were now bleeds from a profile view. The weird shadows were gone though.

This morning, I was dissatisfied with the bleeds and triangulated the wings again, but went through a visual check for angles and then calculated the slopes of each segment in the wing root station as compared to the wing tip station. After that, a couple points were moved to adjust the angles and then all the polygons were rebuilt.

The visual mistakes would hardly be noticeable to anyone but the author, but to me they needed to be addressed. Having the reference copy in SCASM code makes that kind of tweak much more difficult.

Consider that each time I moved a point, I change the views a couple of times to make sure that the contour lines were still the way I wanted. I also created a few throwaway parts that were snapped to the existing points just to see if they were all co-linear or close to it.

So far in the last day or so, about 35 polygons have changed over two components and to accomplish those changes, I have used templates and other parts at least a couple hundred times. Yesterday morning, the wing was made up of 50 polygons. Last night, it was 44 polygons. This morning it is 49 polygons again. I doubt this would be easy with just looking at SCASM code.

- Ivan.
 
I don't want to stand.

~S~ smilo,

I do not want to stand or slide on my backside around CFS. I want to walk up-right like my grandfather 126 times removed, Udda "The Mammoth Lover". He was one of the first known humans in what is now the British Isles and my favorite. Or Grandfather 647 times removed Adam.

j:isadizzy:
 
okay...that should keep you busy for a while.
if you can get one to work,
then build an army and we'll strafe it,
or, we can sit around Ripe and pick virtual daisies.
there was talk of making the Officer's Club accessible so we could walk around inside, but the idea never materialized.
heck, then we could sit around, have a beer and talk about the mission.
 
The visual mistakes would hardly be noticeable to anyone but the author, but to me they needed to be addressed. Having the reference copy in SCASM code makes that kind of tweak much more difficult.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree here (surprise!...:kilroy:). I think that you're having a false idea of what a SCASM "working copy" may look like. Let me show you what I mean;
;*** Start of Main Aircraft Code ***
:L0015FC
Call( :L001602 )
Return
:L001602
VectorJump( :L00161A p 0.00000000 180.00000000 -517.000000 )
Call( :L001624 )
Call( :L00470E )
Return
:L00161A
Call( :L00470E )
Call( :L001624 )
Return
:L001624
VectorJump( :L00163C p 0.00000000 180.00000000 -959.000000 )
Call( :L0045F2 )
Call( :L001646 )
Return
:L00163C
Call( :L001646 )
Call( :L0045F2 )
Return
:L001646
VectorJump( :L00165E p 0.00000000 270.99148560 273.920164 )
Call( :L001668 )
Call( :L0018EE )
Return
:L00165E
Call( :L0018EE )
Call( :L001668 )
Return
:L001668
VectorJump( :L001680 p 0.00000000 269.00851440 -273.920164 )
Call( :L0018AA )
Call( :L00168A )
Return
:L001680
Call( :L00168A )
Call( :L0018AA )
Return
:L00168A
Call( :L0016A4 )
Call( :L001778 )
Call( :L001D3E )
Call( :L001E40 )
Call( :L001F42 )
Call( :L001F96 )
Return
:L0016A4
VecPoints( 1 ; 8 points
-273 -472 754 -9612 -16621 26551 ; 1
-273 -620 754 -8824 -20041 24373 ; 2
273 -620 754 8825 -20042 24373 ; 3
273 -472 754 9612 -16621 26550 ; 4
-273 -472 704 -10045 -17367 25904 ; 5
-273 -620 704 -9154 -20793 23610 ; 6
273 -620 704 9155 -20792 23609 ; 7
273 -472 704 10045 -17368 25904 ; 8
)
LoadBitMap( 0 6 EF 0 0 0 "jeep0010.bmp" )
TexPoly( m 0 0 32767 754.000000
3 3 25 4 3 54 1 123 54 2 123 25 )
TexPoly( m 0 0 -32767 -704.000000
7 3 25 8 3 54 5 123 54 6 123 25 )
RGBSColor( EF 10 10 10 )
Return
Click to expand...

This is what you get when you decompile a MDL file BGL section with MDLDisAs. But my working copy look like this;
;*** Start of Main Aircraft Code ***
:L0012B2
Call( :AACJeep1 )
Return
;***assemblage capot avant au reste***
:AACJeep1
VectorJump( :persavmid00 p 0.00000000 180.00000000 -517.000000 )
Call( :hoodfront )
Call( :midhoodarrass )
Return
:persavmid00
Call( :midhoodarrass )
Call( :hoodfront )
Return
;***assemblage capot avant au reste END***
;***front hood assembly***
:hoodfront
VectorJump( :persavg01 p 0.00000000 180.00000000 -959.000000 )
Call( :bumperf )
Call( :ASSavant )
Return
:persavg01
Call( :ASSavant )
Call( :bumperf )
Return
:ASSavant
VectorJump( :persavg00 p 0.00000000 270.99322510 273.920164 )
Call( :avdavgass )
Call( :ASSavg )
Return
:persavg00
Call( :ASSavg )
Call( :avdavgass )
Return
:avdavgass
VectorJump( :persavd00 p 0.00000000 269.00677490 -273.920164 )
Call( :ASSavd )
Call( :ASScent )
Return
:persavd00
Call( :ASScent )
Call( :ASSavd )
Return
;***ASSEMBLY CENTRAL code***
:ASScent
Call( :frontaxel )
Call( :mainass )
Call( :pharedroit )
Call( :pharegauche )
Call( :feugabdr )
Call( :feugabgc )
Return
:frontaxel
VecPoints( a 1 ; 8 points
-273 -472 754 ; 1
-273 -620 754 ; 2
273 -620 754 ; 3
273 -472 754 ; 4
-273 -472 704 ; 5
-273 -620 704 ; 6
273 -620 704 ; 7
273 -472 704 ; 8
)
LoadBitmap( 0 6 EF 0 0 0 jeep0010.bmp )
TexPoly( a 3 3 25 4 3 54 1 123 54 2 123 25 )
TexPoly( ai 7 3 25 8 3 54 5 123 54 6 123 25 )
RGBSColor( EF 10 10 10 )
Return
Click to expand...

If you observe carefully, you will see;
- inserted comments (;***assemblage capot avant au reste***) which tell me what this section I'm dealing with (here, it is the assembling of the front hood with the rest of the jeep - I use French and English as you can see). The same comment is repeated a few lines under with the added comment END, so that I don't have to wander around.:running:

- evocatives label names (:avdavgass -> AVant Droite AVant Gauche ASSemblage -> Front right and left assembly), at least for me, that gives me an idea of what they represent or what they do. Btw, labels with "pers" suffix are for perspective calls, if you wonder.

- automatic vectoring. Just look at the point declaration of my working copy and compare it with the "manual" counterpart. SCASM, during compiling, does the dirty work, not me.:icon_lol:

On top of that, add my "blueprint" copies in AF99, my "in game" partial models, and it start to get very "visual".

If I ever find myself looking at an unidentified section, I just have to compile it using a vivid color (red, yellow). I don't even have to compile the whole model, only the polygon section I'm looking for will do.

I hope it clears the matter a bit.
 
"I hope it clears the matter a bit."

~S~ Hubbabubba,

I hope Ivan knows what you are doing, because I am lost. I did not know SCASM could read French. LOL Maybe in the next installment of your lecture I may understand more. Especially if we keep it to the box, 6 parts, 12 sides, 8 points and 6 colors, I think.

j:isadizzy:
 
Hello Hubbabubba,

You've seen the SCASM copy of my F6F-5 Hellcat, so you should already know that I labeled things after disassembling as well. I just did not go beyond groups because I had no intention of building each part separately below that level. It was a minimalist attempt at addressing the group silliness of AF99.

A few years back, I saw Pennti Kurkinen's (Sp?) description of his very excellent Me 109 and how he built parts using AF99 and added the generated code to his SCASM source. What you are doing here goes a bit beyond what he was doing but the basic concept was there in his assembly of the 109.

My issue with doing just about all the work in SCASM is that *I* can't tell when things line up properly and when they don't. In your example SCASM code, if you look at the VecPoints section, are you sure that your value of 472 is the best selection? Are you sure that 473 would not put it in better alignment with another part? Perhaps some of the points should be 475 and some should be 477? Perhaps the shape would be better with (X,471,757). With this jeep project, just about everything is at right angles with everything else, so the numbers are pretty easy to figure out, but take a look at the wingtip of the Zero. I probably scooted the points around several hundred times to get the appearance I wanted. In order to get the dihedral of the wingtip lined up with the rest of the wing, I had to move each point up/down and do fine adjustments by moving the points left/right because the vertical dimension was too granular. (The fore/aft setting had complete freedom as far as dihedral was concerned.)

At least a hundred times, I created just a simple line in AF99 and rotated it or translated it to check whether three points were in alignment or to make sure that the curve I was looking at was concave in the right direction.

At least as many times, I adjusted several points in a template part (jig) and then snapped a couple vertices from each of 10 or so polygons to match the new template.

When I had to rework the flaps because the dihedral and sweep of the wing changed, in order to make sure that an oblique part was in alignment with a polygon on the wing, I kept inserting points in the wing polygon until I had the lateral offset where I wanted.

This just happens to be the way I work. I don't see how I could do any of this working from SCASM code, which is why I prefer to use SCASM as just a final adjustment to the model to do things that can't be done any other way.

- Ivan.
 
I'm not trying to change the way you work, Ivan. I was simply dissipating the misconception that you - and probably others - had that I was SCASMing on raw disassembled SCX files.:173go1:
Johnny, I will return to the "cube project" once the jeep is released. I'm not sure yet if I will continue on this thread or make a fresh one. I will also start a thread on SCASMing (the spelling checker is still making a fuss about that word...:redf:) that will include texturing notions.

Per smilo's demand, I will start "from the ground up", assuming only that people know how to install and run the programs. The idea here is to help, not "show-off". When I embarked on AF99 train myself, I wished that something like this had been there for me, as AF99 help file was not helping much.
 
Hi Hubbabubba,

I never took this as a "showing off" type of demonstration. Let's hope no one took the texturing with AF99 discussion as "showing off" either. If there are some folks who want some more "Texturing with AF99 / AF5Paint" discussions, I might start another thread to describe the other 2/3 of the process. Please be prepared to suffer another half dozen or so only moderately related screenshots though. ;-)

I believe these "Tutorial" types of threads benefit others who may not have played with the tools as much as we have. You certainly have done more with SCASM than I have, so I get some benefit from it also.

Regarding AIR files, I do well enough with aircraft, but I don't know if I can help with other types of vehicles. I simply don't know enough to do it. I believe I have hit critical mass with AIR files as well. Up to this point, I have had two steno notebooks full of notes on how to create and adjust various performance parameters. The handwritten notes have gotten to be too difficult to search now. I have to create an electronic copy and organise, so perhaps it is time for a tutorial in that area.

- Ivan.
 
This is the final configuration. Earlier shots are on this thread also for comparision.

- Ivan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top