Mike Stone's B-25 - Released!

Mike's return to sim aircraft development.

Hi Good people - the cat is now out of the bag and now you all know that Mike's back developing aircraft again for the Flight Sim Community.

Those that know Mike and his aircraft development methodology will know that he develops them as cleanly as possible with the aim that they will work in just about any environment. Therefore NO VC, often no Sounds (aliased to others wherever possible) and definately no bling and always frugal textures.

He graciously put this girl in the pot for development for a project need that I have and has hit the mark beautifully with a basic aircraft that will accommodate some seriously detailed textures and enable the aircraft to be used for buckets of AI work with little impact on the systems using it.

To Mike's credit he, for the first time ever, allowed me to accompany his release of this aircraft with a few fun textures and a detailed master set of the repaint blanks that I created.

I am glad that the majority seem to enjoy Mike's creations but a little disappointed that there is already nit pickers popping up - IT IS FREEWARE created over hundreds of hours of development, research and misc other tasks and passed on to the community without any obligations or expectations from the end user other than to either enjoy or discard/disregard - their choice.

If you like the model then enjoy it - if you don't like the FREE release textures then create your own. Whatever happened to "if you can't or don't appreciate a gift then just accept it gracefully and at least accept the graciousness that it was offered to you for FREE"

How can people be fussy when something is given to them for FREE? It strikes me like someone saying "thanks for the free money but I don't like or want it because some of the $20 notes are torn or dirty"

I appreciate that critiques are of value but jumping on a public forum and having a whine is not a critique - Mike has an e-mail address publicly declared and that is the media that should be used to address genuine concerns or bugs.

Sorry for getting on my soapbox - but nice to see that some appreciate this gift from Mike and I hope they enjoy the fruits of Mike's labours for our entertainment and enjoyment.


Regards and happy simming to all.
 
Mike's B-25

Made for FS2004 but it works in FSX w/Acceleration also. It does in mine!!

NO "bleedthrough" on the prop textures from the SPOT view that I can see. Very nice 2D panel with no VC. But you cannot have everything in a freeware project.

All in all, a EXCELLENT offering for the FS community. Thank you, Mike and Garry, for your efforts. :salute:
 
NO "bleedthrough" on the prop textures from the SPOT view that I can see
Click to expand...

I'm not under influence of any substances :jump: .. LOL and I see it .... under "tower view"
Even see it in some paywares planes .. !
Very small movie of "props flash"

http://www.mediafire.com/?wct50fk0buc885z

QNE86.jpg
 
sorry for pointing out a small thing

I knew I sould have kept my mouth shut about the invasion stripes ,I was in no way being critial about Mikes B-25.Just pointing out a small thing. I'll never do it again.
 
I'm very glad he's back - and what a great gift he brought with his return! :applause:

Concerning the "nit picking" (if there ever was one...):
In my eyes, facing up with one detail as posted above doesn't necessarily have to be understood as degrading criticism. She looks great with the stripes, and a possible "lack of accuracy" of this certain variant doesn't diminish the model's value at all!

Cheers,
Markus.
 
Pointing out historical inaccuracies should not be seen as nit-picking nor as criticism of the modeler/painter. It increases our knowledge base.

With so many types actually appearing in invasion stripes, it is natural to assume a type as widely used as the B-25 wore them too. It is interesting to find out they did not.

With USAAF B-26s based almost exclusively in the UK it makes sense that B-25s would be redundant there. They had most of the rest of the world to play in.

Back to the subject of the thread: Well Done Mike, and Welcome Back!
 
This tweak'd my curiosity and did a bit of sniffing, originally, the 8th airforce recived a whole bombardment wing of Mitchells in late 1942 flying out of Hardwick and Bungey but were eventially reasigned to North Africa by early 43, more where promissed for the UK but were diverted to the south Pacific, this left only one Mitchell, return'd from North Africa, flying operationally with the 8th in England, this plane found her way to Mount Farm flying for the 7th Photo Group and was nickname'd "Miss Nashville",
From mid 1944 onwards, she worked hard carrying out recon missions, esp V2 sites in France and Belgium untill October 44, damaged by anti aircraft fire, she crashed near Chalons-sur-Saone,
Ive only seen one photo of her in bare metal at the end of her career, but spent a lot of time in olive drab, so maybe this is the one, thanks Mike for a great plane :wavey:

Info from Mighty Eighth war manual by Roger A Freeman

cheers ian
 
This is little more than a shot in the dark here, but I seem to remember the prop flash issue one other time being related to something fixable in the aircraft.cfg file. I can't remember if the fix was as easy as lowering the prop_anim_ratio= value or if there was a more complex fix in the prop section itself. I'll try to play around with it later this evening.
 
I said I wouldn't but I am

I said I wouldn't say another word about historical inaccuracies ,but I felt that Garrys criticism of me was totally uncalled for. All I was tring to do was point out a small historical inaccuraciy , like that has never been done before in these forums.
I wasn't criticizeing Mike Stone or his excellent work,and I thought I made that clear in my post. I know I was nitpicking and said so.
I never said there were no B-25's with Invasion stripes ,there were British and B-25's flown by Allied countries that did fly in the D-Day invasion ,with invasion stripes just no U.S.A.A.F. B-25's. None were based in England ,(with the exception of the one,I freely admit I didn't know about ,mentioned by Ian.) You can see films and pictures of British and Allied B-25's dropping bombs with invasion stripes on D-Day.
Also there may have been, as I said, U.S.A.A.F. B-25's which carried invasion stripes in the invasion of southren France ,there were B-25's based in Italy at the time.This I don't know.
From reading the forums ,it seems everyone would like their planes to be historically accurate and thats all I was trying to do, not run down another's work. I'am sure I couldn't do what Mike Stone has done.
So forgive me for being a nitpicker.
 
Hey, a bit of artistic licence is allowable; Mike is, after all, a true artist.

Mike, if you're looking in at any point, any chance of a B-25C/D (the one with the turret further back), and even a turretless version, to complement this little beauty?

Now let's see who can be first to get some repaints published ......
 
It;s a very nice looking aircraft. I'm sure I'll have a large time flying it.
Many thanks to Mike for another great model:salute:
 
This is little more than a shot in the dark here, but I seem to remember the prop flash issue one other time being related to something fixable in the aircraft.cfg file. I can't remember if the fix was as easy as lowering the prop_anim_ratio= value or if there was a more complex fix in the prop section itself. I'll try to play around with it later this evening.
Click to expand...

I had also try the prop anim ratio ...
Seem's graphic glitch for me (from inside model ?)
One flash occur only .. always same view distance ...
Flash not show wen aircraft view from rear
I try all resolutions (with or without mips) .. but no cure
BTW when the two props BMP's are removed .. the plane stay shown a prop disk but no "flash" phenomena
 
Tom Clayton said:
It's Mike's! The pic I posted is with his basic paint. The model was a special request from Garry Smith, and he's also doing some high-detail paints for the model. It shouldn't be too much longer until it's out.
Click to expand...
thats wonderfull news
H
 
AndyG43 said:
Mike, if you're looking in at any point...
Click to expand...

He is! Seems he's having issues with permissions. But in the meantime, Mike sent me an email:

The prop animation thing always happens at the transition distance. What I mean is, if you notice on planes that have reflective textures, the reflections only show when viewed from a relatively short distance. Beyond that distance, the reflective textures become non-reflective. When it makes the transition across that distance, in either direction, there is a brief glitch in the graphics. This is also when the prop issue occurs. This isn't unique to my B-25. Happens on most, if not all of my planes. Been looking for a fix for a very long time. If anyone knows of one, I'd be more than gracious.
Click to expand...

This seems to verify what Navtech says about the flash occuring once and at the same distance each time.
 
Code: 
This seems to verify what Navtech says about the flash occuring once and at the same distance each time.

Seem's this one is for OBIO
He have more than some knowledge :applause: about changing reflective parts in a model with the software MDLMAT if this apply .......
 
One of the other textures with Mike's B25

Hi Simmers,

For those that might be interested I thought I would show one of the other textures that accompany Mike's B25 download. - there are a couple of Real World (still flying) liveries and a couple of Fictional ones and some blank textures for those that want to paint their own.


View attachment 46557

Regards and happy simming.
 
Mike, Garry,

You guys are awesome.

Mike, thank you so much for your new freeware aircraft, and thanks also for sharing your new flight sim creations with us again. :jump:


Garry -- the British fictional scheme is fantastic.

Makes me wonder what I'd do with the blank textures if, say... I was going to fly post WW2 packet freight around the Rockies and the Great Southwest in B-25s.

That would be fictional of course... ;-) Don't know what I'd do about the guns. :-D
:wiggle:
 
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