Learning AD2K

[smilo]

hello Ivan,
it is my understanding
that ad2k needs fs98, cfs1, fs2000 or cfs2
to be installed to provide a path for the compiled model.
obviously, one of the sims will provide a viewing platform.
i am curious what would happen
if a series of folder were created
to simulate a flight sim path.
of course, as i said above,
without a sim install,
the model can not be seen.

as for your flat screen issue,
i'm wondering if the wide screen is the problem.
as you know, wide screens create oval gauges.
which are annoying.
gauges can be reconfigured for wide screen
in the panel.cfg, but it is an arduous process.

just for fun, i did a little experiment today.
instead of using cfs full screen mode, (Alt+Enter)
i dragged the edges of the minimized view
to fill my 46" wide screen. naturally, the gauges were oval.
just for the heck of it, i dragged one edge in
until the gauges were round.
true, there is a gap on the edge,
exposing the desktop,
but the gauges are round.

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
I hope you can find a good way to get your development machine back in form!

Re. your question on the tutorials:
NoDice posted this recently on the other thread "New Aeroplanes in CFS Downloads":
>And we do have a tutorial on AD2000 Here:
>http://thefreeflightsite.com/Tutorials.htm

Enjoy... hopefully!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

 

[No Dice]

Not really sure,
I am an FSDS user and busy with my Vietnam Project for CFS2...BUT

Parts of these may help:

AF99 Plugins	7 plugins for AF99 by various authors, a must have ***
AF99 serv pk1	Add-on Service pack for AF99 by Abacus ****
AFX PACK	4 pack AFX Files for AF99 and AD2000 by John Cooper Hurricane, F4U-1d, B17F and a Spitfire ****
AFX files	2 pack AFX for AF99 and AD2000. A Ju87 and Lysander, go for it.

	AD2000 for CFS1 and FS2000 Create and distribute your own aircraft, this is the only Freeware aircraft creation software that really works, includes a complete tutorial, password is FREE-WARE **** Click image to download****also see the tutorials section see support forums below...
	AD2002 for CFS2 ,FS2000,2002 Create and distribute your own aircraft, this is the only Freeware aircraft creation software that really works, includes a complete tutorial, password is FREE-WARE **** Many of the planes on this site have been created using this. Click image to download**** also see ACT Data Fix below. see support forums below...
ACT data FIX	For AD2002 above, fixes compiling problems. By ACT

 

[Ivan]

Thanks Aleatorylamp,

I will pursue that when I have finished taking care of a few unrelated but nagging problems.
I had seen that post but didn't really process it.... Typical.


Hello No Dice,

You would not happen to have the source for a FS98 RPM Gauge, would you?
I need something to look at to get an idea of the Tokens I need to use.
The problem is that I KNOW I found something useful a couple years ago because my notes tell me so, but never noted it down as to where I found it because I wasn't working on gauges at the time..... Sheesh!

- Ivan.

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello NoDice, and thanks very much for the links!
Aleatorylamp

 

[aleatorylamp]

AD2k Prop disk with prop blurs

Hello Smilo,
My progress with AD2k is slow but nonetheless sure, you will be pleased to note, and my initial sensations of frustration are dwindling as the habit of doing things differently sets in. At the moment, after adding a narrowing nose to the tutorial flying box, I´m doing the animated prop.

As alpha transparency texturing for propdisks won´t work for FS98 or CFS1, these apparently have to be done only as glass. I believe this is correct - unless of course it isn´t, and there´s a better way I don´t know of...

This has also led me to believe that it is possible and convenient to implement Ivan´s rotating prop blurs, which is what I am experimenting with now!

More later!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp.

 

[smilo]

yes, i am glad you're making progress
and that frustration is dwindling.
trust me, there's plenty more where that came from.

as for prop blurs...the mind is a blur.
BUT, i do recall they are possible.
dang...i hate constant referring to the 196,
but, it's the only example i've got
and i believe it has variable prop blur.

how about a screen shot
of that narrowing nose flying box?

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
As yet, the prop-blur isn´t on yet, and neither is the prop animation nor the bleed-preventing sequencing.

But... One can see the altered nose. I added a sub-assembly with another square-cross-sectioned dice, and I edited the faces to slant all sides inwards toward the front, the top slant shallower than the bottom one - like an uneven truncated pyramid on its side.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

 

[smilo]

let's see...
when you assemble this beastie,
sequence first, the starboard wing and horizontal stabilizer,
then, the fore and aft fuselage,
finally, the port wing and horiz stabilizer.
everything will look correct from the port side view, right?
isn't this were jump lanes come in?
basically, reversing the assembly sequencing,
so it looks correct from the starboard view.
of course, then, there's the forward and aft views to jump plane.

it's been such a long time...
am i on the right track?

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
Sheesh! like Ivan would say... a sequence for every viewing direction whenever a string of parts is involved...
Sounds very logical, I suppose, and then, from above (pilot´s head, canopy and such) and below (landing gear struts, fairings and wheels and the under-wing we have yet 2 more - a total of 6 sequences.
I don´t know what I´ve let myself in for!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

 

[smilo]

in a word...tedium.

although, i'm not sure if it's all that bad.
again, as i recall, there is a copy/paste feature
that is a very helpful time saver.
remember, backup, backup, backup.
the last thing you want is to loose everything
because of a compilation error or some such.
been there, done that...more than once.

as i said before, it gets easier as you go along.
granted, it requires a certain anal retentive,
excessive compulsive personality,
but, the reward is well worth the effort.
a high quality, complex model with no bleeds.
who here could ask for more?

of course, after building one,
there's always the milo option,
walk off into the wilderness,
never to build again.

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
Ha ha! I wasn´t complaining - thanks for your comment. Yes, I´ve got into the habit of saving 2 or 3 previous steps with backups to avoid problems.
I didn´t know the paste option, and also, that the vertices in a polygon chain are mouseable.
Anyway, it´s getting to be fun, which is most important.
Today I´ll probably start with the sequencing.
Cheers, and many thanks for your helpful comments!
Aleatorylamp

 

[aleatorylamp]

Question on null vectors

Hello Smilo,
I´m running into trouble with the propeller turning axis.
The tutorial uses a null vector, but it is on the 0,0,0 centreline, and my propeller is 1.5 upwards.

A null vector for the propeller axis makes the prop rotate off centre, and no matter what I enter into the propeller axis vector, I cannot correct it. It always puts it to one side and too low, and when I change it, it never puts it where I need, even if I define the 2 points of the vector.

I´m trying to define a straight line vector for the centre of the propeller, which is at 14.700 forwards, 1.500 up and 0.000 sideways.

Anyway, for the moment I´ve bent the nose and moved the propeller down so that it accepts the null vector, and it´s turning around the 0,0,0 axis.ç

So the question is, whether the propeller rotation needs an instruction different from RUN PROP when the axis is not on the 0,0,0 aircraft line. I tried the Translate/Rotate instruction, but it doesn´t shoe the prop animation.

I hope all this questioining is not too tedious for you.
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

 

[smilo]

no, the questions are not tedious.
i just woke up and haven't had my coffee, yet.
sorry, i'm drawing a total blank.

i guess i'm going to have to dig out
196 construction screen shots, aren't i?
i wonder if the answer is there?

i have some errands to run today,
so, i might not get to it until later this afternoon.


off topic;
yesterday, i played around with a new layout
for the do17 nose/bomb aimer view.
it's very basic, but, it's a start.
i've never done one from scratch before.

coffeeee.......


hang on...
why does building a 0,0,0 and vectoring ring a bell?

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo!
Ha ha! Good morning. ...I´ve just had lunch.

No hurry!

I suppose a null vector is aligned with the aircraft´s 0,0,0 axis, and if one wants a higher engine, the vector has to be raised.
The funny thing is that it won´t accept it and does all sorts of wierd positions.

If anything, I´ll keep the propeller on the 0,0,0 axis pf the plane. At least that works.
The tutorial does mention, however, that the null vector is not a good solution sometimes, and that the rotation/translation option can be used, but it is not so straight forward, so they leave it for later.

So, I suppose I shouldn´t jump the gun and be patient as things develop. When I finish the RFO tutorial, I´ll do the Ugly100 one, which seems a little more explicit. Probably it´s good to absorb things bit by bit.

I can see that AF99 has automated A LOT of things, and I suppose that it is not possible to automate everything perfectly, hence its limitations. Then, on the other hand, the greater possibilities offered by AD2k do entail a far greater input of detail on the part of the builder, and this has to be assimilated in chewable chunks for the learner.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

 

[smilo]

remember i said, i found a folder
of the 196 project screen shots?
well, after digging around for an hour yesterday,
i finally found it....again.
i decided to get smart and moved it
to an easy to access location.
that's the good news.
there are shots showing calls
like jump prop, range, glass textures,
fore and aft prop, seals and run prop,
and vector, all for the ugly100.
more, good news.

the bad news is,
i don't know what it means.
i can only guess, there is more information
in the ugly100 tutorial.
...looking closer, i see aftprop and foreprop sub assemblies,
which are parts views and jump planes for sequencing calls,
the proprun sub assembly seems to deal with the disk.
sorry, that's all i've got so far.
i guess i could dig into the 196 project files
and send you that stuff if you would like.
who knows, you might be able to glean something of use.

a couple other things...
i'm reminded of my dissatisfaction
with the ad2k wing build feature.
in a word, the templates sucked.
as it turned out, Ivan sent a better wing,
which i gladly used.

also, be careful with the number
of sub assemblies used in a master project.
not only does it get confusing,
but, as i recall, there was a glitch
if there got to be too many.
all of a sudden, the names disappeared...fun.
i ended up doing several master projects.
for example, wings, tail, struts, floats,
cowl, et cetera, all to be joined later.
not only did it keep the build visually cleaner,
it solved the disappearing names glitch.

i guess, at this point, i'd recommend
moving on to the ugly100 tutorial,
unless you want to work on
jump plane sequencing.

i think i'll go look through some 196 project files.

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
Thanks for your comments! Similar to your recommendation, I immediately followed the tutorial suggestion of inserting whole separate sections, each with their own animated parts. This way I don´t get to the maximum sub-assembly number.

With the RFO (I called it CubeFly) I decided to continue with putting in moving ailerons, rudder and elevators just to get the hang of usind the vectors for hinges, which had me completely stumped at the beginning.

The same problems had occurred with the texture support templates, so I textured the whole plane with my own textures - all except the ailerons, and I´m getting the hang of that too.

Here´s a screenshot - it doesn´t look very good... I haven´t been able to do anything with the jump plane sequencing yet, as I got into trouble with simpler things first! I´m also going to do the landing gear for it, to get some more practice with vectors for the hinges and the wheels.

Incidentally, in theory I can understand the jump plane sequencing code, but applying it to the CubeFly model is going to be too hard for me as yet, so I´ll follow your suggestion and move on to the Ugly100 tutorial before I attempt to eliminate the bleeds from the CubeFly.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

 

[smilo]

when you get to doing textures,
remind me to send a nifty grid bmp
that hubba created.
it really helps visualizing texture layouts.

as a personal preference,
i like the odd colored parts when building,
as it makes for easier parts alignment visibility.

thinking about it a little more,
it might not be a bad idea,
to stick with the cubefly
when learning the jumpplane process
because it's such a simpler model.

ps...i found the 196 cowl/spinner/prop.3dm.
let me know if you would like me to send a copy.
funny, i'm almost curious enough
to fire up ad2k and have a look at them.

 

[smilo]

okay, i couldn't resist...
i fired up ad2k.
it doesn't seem to matter
that i have other things to do.
first noticed, so much has been lost
to inactivity and time.

by chance, have you clicked on the help button?
there's a hell of a lot of information in the index.
so much so, it might be overwhelming.
take your time, you can do it.
(the help file is also opened, in french or english,
by clicking on the ? GRAPHEDIT.HLP file,
located in the main AD2000.5 folder)

first, i looked at propeller and all related calls.
then, i scrolled down to tutorial.
most, if not all, questions will be answered there,
including keyboard short cuts...a real time saver.

i just noticed something i'd forgotten.
see the icons bellow the menu bar,
notice the fourth and fifth icons,
create new chain and edit chain,
followed closely by a delete button.
as i recall, i used the edit chain button quite a lot.
BE CAREFUL!! that delete button is very close.
when in a hurry, i've accidentally clicked it many times.
if i had the source code to this program,
i'd move that damned button to the end of the line,
somewhere way out of the way.

 

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
Yes, thanks, it´s a dangerous button, the delete button! Also the X in the Model Editor!
...and, OK, it may be a good idea to implement the jump plane sequence for the CubeFly project.

Yes, the help file is quite comprehensive. At first, it wasn´t working through the top menu bar in the Graphic Editor, but now it does! I copied the 3 files English help files from the main AD2k directory to the specific working aircraft directory.

You are right, there´s a lot of information there, and I´m slowly progressing. I still have to see how the cut and paste thing works in the Model Directory so that one won´t have to write everything so many times for the jump plane sequences.

Fopr the moment, I don´t think you have to send me anything - there´s a lot to do and inspect with the info at hand.

At the moment I´m trying to sort the Gear door, which instead of having assigned the left and right Oy axis, automatically gets the Ox axis, and moves badly, although the vector is good. For the moment I´ve included them in the Gear assemblies, although they share those hinges instead of having their own.

Anyway... I´ll keep you posted!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp