SHESSI Conversions - the L'AZUR contact point fix.
The recent uploads to SimAviaiton (and elsewhere I guess) produced a few surprises. First time I have seen an upload without any contact details anywhere to contact the publishers and offer feedback.
The other thing is there is a readme concerning the " L'Azur" contact point changes which supposedly overcome a shortcoming in the way FSX and MS dealt with floats on the water and the need to generate a wake affect. The changes claim that resetting the contact points to represent a hypothetical undercarriage placement re the CoG allow the hull to get clear of the surface and begin to transfer the 'plane' thus improving the visuals but the take off performance.
Here is what I have found - the changes do appear to work but have obviously been configured for each of the models, S8, S5 and S25. The aircraft do come up and begin to adopt a planing attitude and do appear to take off more readily with less trim. However the reverse is also true on landing the ROD must be very low and the aircraft or model almost in a level attitude before touchdown anything else effectively results in a 'crash'. I do think the models get on the plane a little too quickly and perhaps just a little too much in terms of elevation, but it seems they have something there. The author(s) say they have not tried it with dynamic waves in P3D and yet nor have I. I do find all the models now very difficult to steer on the water and they require large amounts of assymetric power from one side to get to turn and they even then turn turn way too slowly. I think putting the water rudder command (Y/N) back in the config to these would fix that problem.
The Sunderland engines starter torque was set way to low and readjusted to 0.3035 will allow normal starting via the starter buttons, otherwise they will not start as is.
And try as I may the sim refuses to display the model for the Sunderland MK 1. You can see it cleanly shown in the select vehicle menu but when selected you get an error message- cannot display model it then loads with sound but no aeroplane at all. This does not happen for the MK III. No obvious reason I can see at the moment.
I have been unable to find any sim forum discussions elsewhere that talks about the L'Azur mod for float planes. It appears logical.
It does not adopt immediately to other flying boat models, on one I tried the aircraft sat very low in the water, stationary or on take off, actually dug the floats in and crashed. So obviously needs adjusting for that type.
The effects file changes I think are great and not sure what has been done there but it is a vast improvement on the get the right wake affect of the past.
Anyhow the S5 and the S8 work fine, so does the Sunderland MKIII some great liveries done there and well with different panels in that I did for the JBK boats and sound, they get a tick from me.
Anybody have any view on the this ' L'AZur' mod like to hear from you.
The JBK with the paste and copy of the contact points - um on take off no!
The Schessi or MKIII Sunderland on take off - yes this works here!