Modelling question

Frosty

Frosty

SOH-CM-2022
Seeing the cockpit of the Spitfire in the 'Screenshot'-thread reminded me that the Spit also has a single landing gear warning light. The aircraft that I am modelling has the same thing but I can't work out how to set up the three-part naming convention in the SDK (gear_indicator_l, gear_indicator_r, gear_indicator_c) as a single light.

I went through a Spit's cockpit model file and I noticed the '_r' and '_c' part names being used (I didn't see '_l') and came across some naming conventions that I did not encounter in the gmax exporter (eg. 'gear_indicator_coff'). But I still can't figure it out. Could someone shed some light on this - or even better, send me a gmax file with just such a warning light animation setup, if possible?

Much appreciated!
 
landing gear

Well, I think that is a bit of a tricky question. Just waxing a little today, since the lights are actually polygons textured as up/down etc, and using one light to do this for all three really posses a question. Stacking the lights would not work since if the order they flash a status change does not align with a damage incident then you could have a gear malfunction say left, but if the left was the first light to cycle the right and center lights would be layered on top of the broken on and give a false safe. So to have one light serve as an indicator for three means that it cannot show safe unless all three gear have cycled properly. Seems like a good riddle to me...Steve let us know how you are doing this...

PS- Will CFS3 let you call all the gear say l_gear (I think it does since in the He177 you have two l gear and r gear working ) in the mesh and have the light only for l_gear in the gauge and if all do not cycle will the light not indicate a down/up status?
 
Has anyone ever had only a single gear fail? I've always had them all get stuck. If you watch videos of the real aircraft taking off and landing, most will consistently have the same wheel be the slowest to retract and lower. If you set the indicator to this wheel, and define the retraction and lowing speeds to match the real aircraft in the aircraft.cfg then that wheel is the one which will define whether the entire gear system is up and locked or down and locked since it will be the last one to reach either state.
 
NachtPiloten said:
... PS- Will CFS3 let you call all the gear say l_gear (I think it does since in the He177 you have two l gear and r gear working ) in the mesh and have the light only for l_gear in the gauge and if all do not cycle will the light not indicate a down/up status?
Click to expand...

Yes, I think so - but will this still enable different retraction/extension times (through the aircraft.cfg file) or will this result in both main gears retracting per the 'left' settings? Also, will a steerable center wheel still be possible? I thought this only worked for c_gear?
 
xdp

The retraction times are in the contact section of the xdp. Now that being said, not sure if that would still define the different times. Gecko has a good point and I have never seen gear damage modeled in CFS3. I imagine if one side is shot up it could impact the lone gear in the systems, but the systems are defined l_gear, r_gear I think (not able to get to my files). If they are l_ r_ then gecko's idea may be the best solution. Picky this game and limited too.....
 
One suggestion Joost, would be to have a poly hiding the light and each gear_indicator_ animation would rotate the hiding poly by 90degrees, so only if all three animations completed would the light be revealed. The hierarchy would have each indicator animation linked to the next in the sequence.
gear_indicator_l
​
gear_indicator_r
​
gear_indicator_c
​
hiding_poly

​
Have fun!
 
Some models I've seen have the difference in retraction times animated in Gmax.

Now what I'd really like to see is on some LW bombers, the HE111 for sure, the undercart flopping down when the hydraulics get hit. BoB2 had this modelled in.
 
The main spitfire gear indicator is linked to the right gear only which is not perfect but I have never seen a single gear failure.


'gear_indicator_coff' is just a static part on the indicator. The name could be anything.


The animation sequence Tom has laid out would probably work best though I personally like to add a master switch control to the system. That way the gauge does not light up til the master switch is turned on.
 
Thank you all - interesting stuff brought up here!

@ Steve: with a master switch, do you mean linking any lights and other electrical parts, like the gunsight, to eg. the battery switch?

OK, I'll see what I can do with all your suggestions. I 'll let you know.
 
@ Steve: with a master switch, do you mean linking any lights and other electrical parts, like the gunsight, to eg. the battery switch?
Click to expand...

yeah, a bit more work but it looks nice when you power everything up before takeoff.

BTW, how does the p-47 landing indicator work?
 
sdsbolt said:
yeah, a bit more work but it looks nice when you power everything up before takeoff.

BTW, how does the p-47 landing indicator work?
Click to expand...

I agree - now to see how to set up that...

In the real thing you mean? It's a single red 'in transition' light and a green 'locked' one - just as with a Spit. Still have to get that to work too...
 
Okay, I got the general principle working according to Tom's and Steve's suggestions. So both the gear indicators and the electrical master switch thingie are working. Very nice! The rest is a matter of dress-up to make it convincing.

Thanks again guys!

@ Clive, thanks for sharing the model but I have to find my login first... :stupid:
 
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