Loadouts InternalPylons
- Thread starter gosd
- Start date
These are pylons only visible – and useable – when the bomb bay doors are open. They will be different between aircraft since a Lancaster carries a different bomb load to a B-17 for example, both in number and how the load is distributed.
The ETO Lancaster AJA has fifteen internal hardpoints: ID="0" to ID="14" and these are flagged with a binary value. All are used, so all are set to 1 and the whole lot are represented as 111111111111111 in binary – the equivalent of 32,767 in normal numbers. So in this case <Loadouts InternalPylons="32767">
If the third pylon (ID="2", confusingly) was not used it would be flagged 0 so the full set would be 111111111111011, equivalent to 32,763.
Hope this helps.
The ETO Lancaster AJA has fifteen internal hardpoints: ID="0" to ID="14" and these are flagged with a binary value. All are used, so all are set to 1 and the whole lot are represented as 111111111111111 in binary – the equivalent of 32,767 in normal numbers. So in this case <Loadouts InternalPylons="32767">
If the third pylon (ID="2", confusingly) was not used it would be flagged 0 so the full set would be 111111111111011, equivalent to 32,763.
Hope this helps.
A bit more
Pylon help
The gMax model has to have pylon mounting points, named "pylon1", "pylon2", ... etc. These are just points, you
can use dummy helpers for them. If you draw them and give them these names, they won't show in the game. If
you want permanent pylons, name them something else and use dummy helpers for the mounting points.
Pylon0 goes on the centerline. Even numbers go on the left side of aircraft; odd numbers on the right side. The
pylon numbers should get larger as you move outward from the centerline.
The tricky parts are the pylons themselves. What follows isn't documented in the SDK.
The pylons should be drawn in separate gMax source files. Create a dummy helper point in the drawing with the
pylon name, like "pylon_85gal". Put this dummy helper point where you want the pylon to attach to the plane.
Link all other parts in the pylon to this point.
You also need to create mounting points in the pylon. These are where the bombs, rockets or tanks to the pylon
will be attached to the pylon in the game. Again, these should be dummy helper points, named "mount0",
"mount1", etc. up to "mount15". There has to be at least "mount0". The pivot point of each mount is also
important, because it determines which direction the weapon is pointing when it's on the mount. In the pylon I
did for the F8F-2, the green arrow points forward and the blue arrow points up.
I won't go into the xdp file for now, since that's pretty well documented. I can send a complete gMax pylon
source file to anyone who wants it.
This is the formula for internal or external quanity counts for each pylon. remember that you have either internal or external
pylons. Internal are in the bombbays and external are on wings. Allocate the internal first. So for German bombers with wing
ordianance and bombays you need to have pylons for both. The internal count is only for the bombays.
Numbers:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 (number of internal pylons)
1 3 7 15 31 63 127 255 511 1023 2047 4095 8191 16383 32767
This binary numbering system also goes for the number of bombs allocated to each pylon. A model can only have 15 pylons in total regardless if internal or external. The above was sent to me from Mathias some time back.
<Loadouts InternalPylons="4095">
<Loadout Name="Clean" MissionType="Escort,CAP,Intercept,Sweep,Nothing,Bomber_Intercept"/>
<Loadout Name="(26)50kg Bombs" MissionType="Strike,Escort,CAP,Intercept,Sweep,Nothing,Bomber_Intercept">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_3a" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="63"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_3a" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="63"/>
<Hardpoint ID="4" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_3a" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="63"/>
<Hardpoint ID="6" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_2" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="8" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_2" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="15"/>
So in the example above this plane has 12 internal pylons and numbered (0-11 in the model) and I think 2 external that do not need to be accounted for in the internalpylons count as CFS3 will count the internal numbers first and then assumes the other pylons (if any) are external and the external bombs can be dropped without the bomb bay doors opening. So back to the above on pylon 0, you see Quantity = 63 meaning that 6 50kg bombs are loaded to this pylon. In this loadout the plane is carrying 26 bombs on five pylons.
In the above example the pylon named pylon_217_SC50_3a it has six mounts number 0-5, one for each bomb, while pylon_217_SC50_2 only has 4 mounts.
Pylon help
The gMax model has to have pylon mounting points, named "pylon1", "pylon2", ... etc. These are just points, you
can use dummy helpers for them. If you draw them and give them these names, they won't show in the game. If
you want permanent pylons, name them something else and use dummy helpers for the mounting points.
Pylon0 goes on the centerline. Even numbers go on the left side of aircraft; odd numbers on the right side. The
pylon numbers should get larger as you move outward from the centerline.
The tricky parts are the pylons themselves. What follows isn't documented in the SDK.
The pylons should be drawn in separate gMax source files. Create a dummy helper point in the drawing with the
pylon name, like "pylon_85gal". Put this dummy helper point where you want the pylon to attach to the plane.
Link all other parts in the pylon to this point.
You also need to create mounting points in the pylon. These are where the bombs, rockets or tanks to the pylon
will be attached to the pylon in the game. Again, these should be dummy helper points, named "mount0",
"mount1", etc. up to "mount15". There has to be at least "mount0". The pivot point of each mount is also
important, because it determines which direction the weapon is pointing when it's on the mount. In the pylon I
did for the F8F-2, the green arrow points forward and the blue arrow points up.
I won't go into the xdp file for now, since that's pretty well documented. I can send a complete gMax pylon
source file to anyone who wants it.
This is the formula for internal or external quanity counts for each pylon. remember that you have either internal or external
pylons. Internal are in the bombbays and external are on wings. Allocate the internal first. So for German bombers with wing
ordianance and bombays you need to have pylons for both. The internal count is only for the bombays.
Numbers:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 (number of internal pylons)
1 3 7 15 31 63 127 255 511 1023 2047 4095 8191 16383 32767
This binary numbering system also goes for the number of bombs allocated to each pylon. A model can only have 15 pylons in total regardless if internal or external. The above was sent to me from Mathias some time back.
<Loadouts InternalPylons="4095">
<Loadout Name="Clean" MissionType="Escort,CAP,Intercept,Sweep,Nothing,Bomber_Intercept"/>
<Loadout Name="(26)50kg Bombs" MissionType="Strike,Escort,CAP,Intercept,Sweep,Nothing,Bomber_Intercept">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_3a" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="63"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_3a" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="63"/>
<Hardpoint ID="4" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_3a" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="63"/>
<Hardpoint ID="6" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_2" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="8" PylonType="pylon_217_SC50_2" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_bomb_sc__50_Internal" Quantity="15"/>
So in the example above this plane has 12 internal pylons and numbered (0-11 in the model) and I think 2 external that do not need to be accounted for in the internalpylons count as CFS3 will count the internal numbers first and then assumes the other pylons (if any) are external and the external bombs can be dropped without the bomb bay doors opening. So back to the above on pylon 0, you see Quantity = 63 meaning that 6 50kg bombs are loaded to this pylon. In this loadout the plane is carrying 26 bombs on five pylons.
In the above example the pylon named pylon_217_SC50_3a it has six mounts number 0-5, one for each bomb, while pylon_217_SC50_2 only has 4 mounts.