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The Staff of SOH
Numbering system for bomb loads
- Thread starter mongoose
- Start date
here you are
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:
second number is the code in the xpd
1=1 2=3 3=7 4=15 5=31 6=63 7=127 8=255 9=511 10=1023 11=2047 12=4095 13=8191 14=16383 15=32767
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:
second number is the code in the xpd
1=1 2=3 3=7 4=15 5=31 6=63 7=127 8=255 9=511 10=1023 11=2047 12=4095 13=8191 14=16383 15=32767
MajorMagee
SOH-CM-2022
The formula is 2^n - 1. So for example 20 would be 2 ^20 = 1,048,576 -1 = 1,048,575
Some hacker nerdy stuff
It's binary.
Here's a pylon loadout to illustrate: this pylon can carry the maximum 16 items on nodes mount0 to mount15 and only positions 0, 1, 3, 4, 9, 13, 14 and 15 are loaded.
1 indicates there's a weapon hung from a mounting point, O means the mounting is empty and pay attention to the order shown when writing the resulting binary number down.
The example gives the binary number 1110001000011011 which is 57883 according to the Win10 Programmer's calculator, so the loadout for the relevant hardpoint would have Quantity="57833".
A more usual multiple-round loadout is rockets, with 4 mounts to each pylon, so the binary number is 1111, and Quantity="15". Hope this helps!
PS the SDK actually does mention mounts, but it's as clear as mud: most SDKs are less than explicit over some details, some obfuscate at will...
It's binary.
Here's a pylon loadout to illustrate: this pylon can carry the maximum 16 items on nodes mount0 to mount15 and only positions 0, 1, 3, 4, 9, 13, 14 and 15 are loaded.
1 indicates there's a weapon hung from a mounting point, O means the mounting is empty and pay attention to the order shown when writing the resulting binary number down.
The example gives the binary number 1110001000011011 which is 57883 according to the Win10 Programmer's calculator, so the loadout for the relevant hardpoint would have Quantity="57833".
A more usual multiple-round loadout is rockets, with 4 mounts to each pylon, so the binary number is 1111, and Quantity="15". Hope this helps!
PS the SDK actually does mention mounts, but it's as clear as mud: most SDKs are less than explicit over some details, some obfuscate at will...
mongoose
SOH-CM-2025
So I'm trying to see the relationship between the latter and the former by Andy.Also you seem to be implying that a pylon has multiple nodes, each of which can carry a weapon. I assume there is a limitation?
If I take a typical Lancaster loadout as below, there are also different types of pylons besides PylonType="pylon_null: in this case
PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15
ETO_pylon_radar_cookie_HP-12
Of course in addition, there are the hardpoints! What I have done in the past is just load up i at a time and see in QC what the result looks like with open bomb bay and bomb drop. Not an Issue with big bombs, but incendiariy and Falre/TI loading is less clear.
<Loadout MissionType="Strike" Name="USUAL (12)Incendiary 4lb SBC + (1)4000lbs Cookie">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="10" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="11" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="3" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="12" PylonType="ETO_pylon_radar_cookie_HP-12" Quantity="1" PayloadType="AvHistory_gb_Bomb_4000lb_hc_internal"/>
<Hardpoint ID="6" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="13" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="7" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="8" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="14" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
<Hardpoint ID="9" PylonType="SBC_Mk_IA_15" Quantity="32767" PayloadType="ETO_incendiary_stick_4lb"/>
</Loadout>
If a pylon has multiple mounts built in, it can carry multiple weapons: that’s where the Quantity= comes in and the maximum is 16 per pylon as Ted says. It does help to know if a pylon has more than one mount.
The hardpoints on a model determine where a pylon hangs; mounts determine how many weapons can hang on a pylon. That way you can have a droptank, or bomb rack, or rocket rails and they’ll hang at the right position and the bombs, rockets or tanks will hang off them correctly. For fun, try hanging four 500lb rounds from a rocket pylon - it will work, although it will look odd and might detonate unexpectedly!
Andy’s formula gives the right number for a fully loaded-up multiple-mount pylon, I’m just showing how that number works.
The hardpoints on a model determine where a pylon hangs; mounts determine how many weapons can hang on a pylon. That way you can have a droptank, or bomb rack, or rocket rails and they’ll hang at the right position and the bombs, rockets or tanks will hang off them correctly. For fun, try hanging four 500lb rounds from a rocket pylon - it will work, although it will look odd and might detonate unexpectedly!
Andy’s formula gives the right number for a fully loaded-up multiple-mount pylon, I’m just showing how that number works.
MajorMagee
SOH-CM-2022
Bump for doing loadouts again. 