PAD's DHC6 Short Nosed Twin Otter....and their other stuff too!

[OBIO]

PAD's DHC6 Short Nosed Twin Otter....and their other stuff too!

Been a long time since I have flown any of PAD's Twin Otters....in fact I did not have any of them installed. So I hauled my hard drive over to the PAD site and loaded up a folder full of their aircraft...even stuff that really isn't in my normal range of planes....just to give them a try...like the Do328T and J models. I installed the DHC6 Twin Otter Short Nose United Nations package and took it for a flight around Mansfield OH. I had forgotten just how nice this plane is....other than that annoying computer/co-pilot voice telling me altitudes and bank pitch warnings. I will have to unholster my grandpa's Colt .45 and shoot who ever it is that keeps giving me those warnings....I'm a bush pilot kind of flier and bank angle warnings are not something I want to hear as I stand a plane on its wing tips flying around Pine trees and such.

I read recently that the PAD site may be going away at some point in the not too distant future...following the passing of their modeler and the cost of the site going up....so if you do not have all of the PAD packages tucked away for future use...please do so soon. And while you are there...look to see if there is a contact link and send the fine folks at PAD a great big thank you, we appreciate everything you have done for the flight sim community type of message. Those fella's cranked out one heck of a library of FREEWARE planes for us to enjoy...the least we can do is tell them how much we appreciate their work.

I think tomorrow night I will head back to PAD and make sure I have every FS2004 package downloaded...even if they aren't something I would normally fly...sometimes it's good to step out of the norm and try something new. Like the Twin Otter...who knew that a plane with 2 garage heaters could be so fun to fly...other than that nagging voice that kept telling me I was flying like an idiot.

OBIO

 

[Daube]

Their amphibian twinotter is quite nice too. It would need better textures inside and out of course, but it's nicely modelled.

 

[Matt Wynn]

...other than that nagging voice that kept telling me I was flying like an idiot.

OBIO

your wife been watching you fly again buddy?

Downloading the Back Catalogue now! that TwOtter floatie is fun to fly around Greece, i regularly can be found playing "how small a water body can you land and take off again from.... not got stuck yet thanks to good judgement

 

[expat]

Have to agree. Been splashing around the PNW e.g. Orcas Island run up to Whistler, in SAR painted PAD Sea Otters. Great sounds, great plane, plain fun!

 

[OBIO]

Smoothie

I once landed the Alphasim C-141A on a short gravel runway out in the woods....maybe 1000 feet, if that. Landed with full flaps, brakes locked...and as soon as the wheels touched I went full reverse thrust on the engines. Stopped the plane with maybe 20 feet to spare. Could not turn around or take off again...but I did land that big bird on a strip best suited for the Piper Cub.

I am going to install all of the PAD aircraft into a dummy folder....that way I can combine some packages that use the same MDL file but just have different paint schemes, can rename the folders to better reflect what is in them (DHC6-300 Long Nose Amphib for example).

I already installed the Shorts C-23 Sherpa....the US Army one with the Jeep inside. Flew it around for a while...then began tweaking it...deshined the MDL file and have the main fuselage lines redone on the paint kit I started for it. I would get a lot more flying done if I uninstalled all of my painting and tweaking programs!

OBIO

 

[AndyG43]

You might want to look on the Pegasus website as well, for some nice repaints; Matt, couple of Airsealines repaints, just perfect for that run from Gouvia.

http://www.the-pegasus.com/

Hadn't heard that PAD was closing though; Bob has put a notice up on the front of the site saying that there will be no new models, following the sad passing of M. Brisard, but that it will remain open for downloads, support & repaints - in fact there have been over a dozen new repaints up this month.

 

[OBIO]

Andy

The last I heard, shortly after Mr. Brissard passed away, the closing of the PAD site was stated to happen when the server fees where due again...or something like that. Good to know that the site will remain up and running....it would be a shame to lose such a valuable source for those planes, tweaks and paints.

OBIO

 

[Sunny9850]

Hi Tim,
The sounds of the GPWS can get a little annoying, but they can be easily turned off on the little panel gauge. It resets on the next power cycle as I recall. Of course you could just eliminate that gauge permanently.

Aside from that the community can never thank the guys at PAD enough for all the great airplanes they have provided us with for so long. Like you I'll probably do a complete backup of the sites FS9 aircraft....even if I may not fly them all that much.

Cheers
Stefan

 

[AndyG43]

I'm much the same Stefan, I have a lot of the PAD stuff backed up, even though I don't necessarily fly them that often. And, like Tim, I'm trying to combine & sort packages, so they make some sense on my system.

Does anybody know if any of them have been Shockwaved?

 

[OBIO]

Andy

Shockwaving planes is actually quite easy. Here's what I do:

I simply insert the following text into the existing light names when the planes use the stock light effects.

shockwave_

This will change light names from

FX_Navwhi to FX_Shockwave_Navwhi

The only time I run into issues is with strobes or planes that use lights supplied by the maker that have unique names...like FX_Piper_Navred. Then I have to replace the custom light name with a corresponding Shockwave light effect.

As I install, condense and tweak the PAD planes, I will be adding Shockwave lights to all of them. As I get them done, I will share the info.

Tim

 

[racartron]

These are the "Shockers" for the wheeled version. They work on most models.

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit
light.0=3, -30.72, 0.00, 0.90, fx_shockwave_navwhi ,
light.1=2, -0.276, -32.316, 5.154, fx_shockwave_strobe ,
light.2=2, -0.276, 32.316, 5.154, fx_shockwave_strobe_2 ,
light.3=1, -28.44, 0.00, 13.21, fx_shockwave_beacon ,
light.4=4, 6.00, 0.00, 2.0 , fx_vclightwhite,
light.5=4, 0.00, 0.00, 2.0 , fx_vclightwhite,
light.6=4, -6.00, 0.00, 2.0 , fx_vclightwhite,
light.7=1, -14.6, 0.00, -2.1 , fx_shockwave_beacon ,
light.8=3, 0.000, -32.416, 5.154, fx_shockwave_navred ,
light.9=3, 0.000, 32.416, 5.154, fx_shockwave_navgre
//----Landing Lights ----------
light.10 = 5, 3.60, -11.60, 4.00, fx_Shockwave_landing_light
light.11 = 5, 3.60, 11.60, 4.00, fx_Shockwave_landing_light
//----Taxi Light ---------
light.12 = 6, 14.00, -0.50, -2.8, fx_Shockwave_landing_light_small

 

[racartron]

I checked out the floats and the lights work fine except there is no taxi light so just add "//" in front of the taxi light entry.

Also since most versions have no retracting gear there is no need to add a panel entry. if there is an amphib version(can't remember at the moment) then add the following to the panel.cfg

[Vcockpit01]
..
..
gaugeXX=shockwave_lights!SW Lights_gear, 1,1,1,1
gaugeXX=shockwave_lights!SW Lights_taxi_gear, 1,1,1,1

 

[AndyG43]

Andy

Shockwaving planes is actually quite easy. Here's what I do:

I simply insert the following text into the existing light names when the planes use the stock light effects.

shockwave_

This will change light names from

FX_Navwhi to FX_Shockwave_Navwhi

The only time I run into issues is with strobes or planes that use lights supplied by the maker that have unique names...like FX_Piper_Navred. Then I have to replace the custom light name with a corresponding Shockwave light effect.

As I install, condense and tweak the PAD planes, I will be adding Shockwave lights to all of them. As I get them done, I will share the info.

Tim

I've done a couple, I tend to do them from within ACM which makes it a lot easier; but I look forward to your configs, it will save me time which can be used for other projects ..... and Racartron stepped up to the mark as well!!

 

[racartron]

Here are the bits for the Dornier Seastar.

Aircraft.cfg Entries:

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit
light.0=3, -2.795000, -29.248000, -0.289000, fx_shockwave_navred
light.1=3, -2.795000, 29.248000, -0.289000, fx_shockwave_navgre
light.2=1, -21.300000, 0.000000, 4.132000, fx_shockwave_beacon
light.3=4, 8.000000, 0.000000, -4.370000, fx_shockwave_vclight,
light.4=2, -3.000000, -29.248000, -0.289000, fx_shockwave_strobe
light.5=2, -3.000000, 29.248000, -0.289000, fx_shockwave_strobe_3
light.6=3, -24.500000, 0.000000, -2.840000, fx_shockwave_navwhi_nl

//---------- Landing Lights --------------------
light.7 = 5, 2.60, 24.20, -0.28, fx_Shockwave_landing_light
light.8 = 5, 2.60, -24.20, -0.28, fx_Shockwave_landing_light

//---------- Taxi Lights ------------
light.9 = 6, 2.60, 23.70, -0.28, fx_Shockwave_landing_light_small
light.10 = 6, 2.60, -23.70, -0.28, fx_Shockwave_landing_light_small


[EFFECTS]
wake=fx_wakeg
water=fx_bowcub
;water=fx_spray
dirt=fx_tchdrt
concrete=fx_sparks
touchdown=fx_tchdwn_s, 1

[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0 = -10.00, 8.00, 0.00, FX_B17_Smoke_BLK_OUTSIDE,

Panel.cfg Entries:

[Vcockpit01]
..
..

gauge28=shockwave_lights!SW Lights_gear, 1,1,1,1
gauge29=shockwave_lights!SW Lights_taxi_gear, 1,1,1,1

 

[racartron]

One of my favorite little PAD toys, the Republic Seabee. Settings wotk for the regular and Super Bee.

Aircraft.cfg Entries:

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit
light.0=3,1.4, -18.5580, 0.5410, fx_shockwave_navred
light.1=3,1.4, 18.5580, 0.5410, fx_shockwave_navgre
light.2=1, -13.8, 0.000000, 5.10, fx_shockwave_beacon
light.3=4, 5.750000, 0.000000, -1.000000, fx_shockwave_vclight,
light.4=2, 1.900000, -18.5580, 0.541000, fx_shockwave_strobe
light.5=2, 1.900000, 18.5580, 0.541000, fx_shockwave_strobe_3
light.6 = 5, 3.4, -11.2, .1, fx_Shockwave_landing_light
light.7 = 6, 3.4, -10.6, .1, fx_Shockwave_landing_light_small

[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0 = -10.00, 4.00, 0.00, FX_B17_Smoke_BLK_OUTSIDE,

[EFFECTS]
wake=fx_wakeg
water=fx_bowcub
dirt=fx_nicks_tchdirt
concrete=fx_sparks
touchdown=fx_tchdwn_s, 1
windshield_rain_effect_available = 1
startup=fx_engstrt_p149

Panel.cfg Entries:

[Vcockpit01]
..
..
gauge49=shockwave_lights!SW Lights, 1,1,1,1
gauge50=shockwave_lights!SW Lights_taxi_gear, 1,1,1,1

 

[Fleet Canuck]

Funny You Should Mention That...

I was just flying the PAD Twin Otter into Lukla in Nepal last night. It's not quite as terrifying in FS9 as it appears to be in real life. Some good youtube videos showing the experience.

Anyway, the interior textures were mentioned, and I noticed the VC instrument panel looks a little pixelated. I tried using DXTBMP to see if I could improve on it, but I don't really know what I'm doing. Is there anyway to make that just a little sharper, or are we confined by the size of the BMP?

And yes, PAD is owed a huge debt of thanks for their prodigious work over all these years!

 

[falcon409]

I was just flying the PAD Twin Otter into Lukla in Nepal last night. It's not quite as terrifying in FS9 as it appears to be in real life. Some good youtube videos showing the experience.

Anyway, the interior textures were mentioned, and I noticed the VC instrument panel looks a little pixelated. I tried using DXTBMP to see if I could improve on it, but I don't really know what I'm doing. Is there anyway to make that just a little sharper, or are we confined by the size of the BMP?

And yes, PAD is owed a huge debt of thanks for their prodigious work over all these years!

I did probably half a dozen of the VC panels for PAD and when I did them I enlarged everything to 4096x4096, built the panels and then reduced them to 2048x2048 for FS9 and left them at 4096x4096 for FSX. That's the only way to remove the pixelation (redo them). If it's the gauges that are a problem, those can be adjusted in the panel.cfg file like this:

[Vcockpit01]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=1
pixel_size=512,512. . .(change this to pixel_size=1024,1024)
texture=$VCL

There are instances where that won't work, but it's a good place to start.:salute:

 

[OBIO]

Spent the last couple days worth of freetime working on the PAD Short 330/C-23. Have paint kits done for the C-23 with much more refined panel lines. Also have paintkits done for the Short 330...one for the cargo version and one for the passenger version. I have the first "new" skin done for the C-23...still need to add the Nat Guard markings on the tail surfaces. Also have the stock air ecosse skin about done for the Shorts 330. It's amazing how well these birds clean up. Not much variety for the C-23.....can't do the few camo schemes I have found due to the way that the airelons and flaps are mapped. But there is a TON of variety for the bird from the civilian side of life.

Was going to post some screenshots of the birds after their recent freshening up...but I got an error when trying to attach pics. So you folks will just have to wait until I get them done and uploaded to the PAD site...perhaps along with some tweaked MDL files for the birds..removed a ton of specular shine so they look more realistic. But all that will have to wait until we get into our new place and get our internet hooked up there....hopefully in a couple of weeks....as tonight my system will be taken down and tomorrow it gets moved to my sis-in-law's house to join the rest of our worldly goods.

OBIO