Platinum Wings - Christmas 2023 Beta Release.

Jorge

Jorge

Members +
Merry Christmas, everyone!

I've been away due to family issues, which will ALWAYS take priority. I've also been working on other stuff as well that had nothing to do with flightsim.

I finally did, however, have a chance to go through my files and I've uploaded what I thought was a good starting point for PW from the things I had. There are still MANY things that are not ready or not authorized yet for release since I haven't heard from the original authors, but this should be a good starting point.

I didn't get a chance to finish the installation instructions yet, so they are still a WIP. It should be enough, however, to get you started.

Some notes are in the "readme" which basically state -- very breifly -- part of the instructions that are still missing with regards to some of the default GW3 airfields and the GW3 scenery as a whole. There are also some other things in there you should be made aware of.

The two places you will have access to PW will be here at the Outhouse and over at CalClassics on the Vintage Flying forum.

Enjoy and if you have any feedback, please feel free to share!

My appologies ahead of time if I take another long "sabatical" from flightsim, but things have been going on at home that needed my attention.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jorge
Miami, FL

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/fdl2w1s1g4lhh/Platinum_Wings
 
Hi Jorge,

Thanks so much for this.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I can only download the zips, PDF & txt.
Mediafire will not let me download the other files, as it tells me the following...

[FONT=&quot]Bulk-Download multiple[/FONT][FONT=&quot]files and folders
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Do you need to download more than a few files at a time? No problem! Upgrade to a [/FONT]MediaFire Premium [FONT=&quot]account to gain access to features like Bulk-Download.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
Is it possible for you to zip those as well?


Regards,
Robin
 
Files fixed!

Sorry for the mixup, everybody.

All files are now either PDF, txt, or zip files. There shouldn't be any more issues trying to get the files.

Enjoy! :santahat:

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Update ...

Just a small update to the readme.txt file to include the fact you need to download the CalClassics Library V.4 from one of the major sites. You can get the from the main CalClassic website under the scenery section. You will need the "4a" file and the "File 2" file just underneath.

You'll need this massive library to get the buildings, hangars, vehicles, etc, in Platinum Wings.

The files are hosted at Flightsim.com and you would need to log in over there to download them.

Please forgive me for not mentioning this before.

You don't need to re-download the readme.txt if you don't wish to since mentioning the library is the only change in there.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL

PS: I haven't tried FSX at all, but you would concievably need the FSX/P3D version below those if you would like to try this type of thing with FSX. No guarantees, though. :encouragement:
 
Hi Jorge,

Is it posssible to combine all the airport files into a single file?
Also, any particular order to activate them in the library?

Thanks so much, Have a great New Year.:jump:
 
Update - 31 December 2023

I've uploaded a Lorenz gauge I'd done a while back. The zip has a PDF with instructions as well as PW-specific details regarding the airfields, since the airports that use the "beam" are basically using the default localizer with metric outer and inner markers.

As for the airfields, which ones were you asking about merging? I've made them separate just to keep everything organized. Each country has its own folder, and for the USA each state has its own folder based on the "K" designation (K4, K8, etc.) which is used for the navaids.

Once a country or state was complete, yes, I was planning on taking all the xml files and seeing about merging them into a single bgl to represent each country/state unless it got too out of hand size-wise. That would, at least, keep everything along the lines of the original bgl files with regards to airfields.

As for order, there really isn't any. I have mine done alphabetically using the country code (e.g. ED-Germany, EF-France, EG-Great_Britain, etc.) and state codes for the USA. As long as they are active, it doesn't matter.

Where order matters is when you're adding one of Ian's great airfields or one of the other FS9 fields. These airfields MUST be at a higher priority so they exclude the "default" airfields that were done for PW.

Let me know which ones you were speaking of and I'll take a look at them.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! :ernaehrung004:

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Just a small update for you folks regarding the project since it's been a while since I did any updates.

I made a splash screen and an icon that you can use to differentiate the sim from the other installations you may have on your system.

It's been uploaded to the mediafire site and can be found in the above link. Just go to the listing and you should see something for icons.

Every form of FS2004 (Classic, Golden Wings, etc.) has a "flag" or "representative" aircraft. For Golden Wings and the default installation of FS9 it was the DC-3. For the "Classic" version it is generally the iconic "Connie" as seen on CalClassics, although some folks have used the Boeing 377 and 707 as well.

I figured that for Platinum Wings we would need something that would be seen as "unique" for a symbol, so I chose the Handley Page H.P.42/45 (H.P.42E/W in some circles) as the "icon" of the era. The splash screen and the icon show this wonderful aircraft flying over the Giza Plateu on it's way to Cairo Almaza's airfield. I can't remember where I got the original image from, but it was one of the many sites with information on this fine aircraft.

I've also been working on several updates which I hope I can upload by the end of the year, if all goes well.

New York City
=============

I finally decided it was time to update some of the stuff in NYC. It was a MAJOR area for the era, and I figured photo-scenery was the way to go. I've been working with some USGS topographic maps which I then ran through the default "resample" tool to get the area. I'm using resample because I feel the resolution will better blend with the surrounding default scenery which is about 4.8 meters/pixels anyway. That way it's much more of a "smoother" transition.

I'm also working with ScenProc as well as other tools by Arno over at FSDeveloper so I can populate the area with autogen. I've come to realize, however, that the major issues I've been facing were not related to the programming, but rather to the limits of FS9. Since you can ONLY have 300 objects (i.e. non-vegitation) in a "cell" at one time, several "blocks" of NYC were not being populated.

I'm now slowly making "blocks" of buildings that will be added to the "default.xml" file so that NYC can be populated with buildings at a level that should at least be more realistic when flying over.

I've also used MCX to batch convert the "vintage" buildings found in the FSX default libraries for NYC. They need to get adjusted to their FS9 counterpart locations, but that can be done at a later date when I have more time. It's only a matter of adding some offsets to the xml file to adjust the positions to where they should be.

Paul Clawson's FSX Handley Page H.P.42/45
=========================================

Thanks to Arno's update of MCX, we now have the capability of converting aircraft to FS9 native format without necessarily losing all the animations. I say this because you have to go through the animation tab to see if there is an animation that makes sense, and in the case there isn't one available you assign the closest thing.

I'm still learning this, but I've been able to get the aircraft converted and into FS9 "as-is" for now just to see if this was possible. It even has the working VC and the interior as Mr. Clawson designed it.

I'm probably going to need to change a few things out, so I may have to import to GMAX as a 3ds file after all, but at least I now have something I can use to work on the air file so that it can handle somewhat like the one done so long ago by Derick Palmer. I've also changed the location of a few gauges Mr. Clawson put in, but no major changes yet.

In the works is a "loading chart" so the user can change the weights to the configuration they want (Eastern or Western) before flying. This is because I'm going to just max out the passengers and cargo in the cfg file and the user will have to adjust the weights prior to take off. Otherwise you'll be over 2,000 lbs over weight limits.

I'm not sure I'm going to make different versions of the interior yet, however. It depends on the amount of work that would entail, so for now it's just the interior Mr. Clawson did with some texture improvements.

Lighted Airway Beacons
======================

I've been working on trying to get airway beacons made as well. In order to do this I've downloaded a few of the sectional charts found online at the US Library of Congress and I've taught myself some basic QGIS to georeference them. It's not perfect, but good enough to get them lined up so I can just use the coordinates of the mouse as the coordinates of the towers.

The towers themselves are just an exported version of the default airport tower I have with new chrome-yellow and black bands in place of the red and white ones. I also changed out the "sea_base" beacon color from amber/yellow over to red since the airways had red/white beacons.

In the era I counldn't find a difference for sea and land airports, so it would appear they were using white/green anyway. That's why I figured to use the sea_base beacon for the airway towers.

The main issues I'm having, have to do with the white effects "washing out" the other colors -- even the default green one, so I'm trying to see how to fix that.

Still a lot of work to do with this.

Well, that about it for now. It's going to be a while before I can get anything uploaded other than the icons and splash screens, but at least I'm still doing stuff. I wanted to work with you guys in moving files, but my time has been limited with family and work. Because of this I figured it be better to put the small amount of time to PW instead since I didn't have the time to do entire sections. Sorry for that.

I'll upload new screenshots when I can.

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Not much of an update, but some shots of the kneeboard interface I'm working on. I found I needed to take a step back from some of the other stuff.

New kneeboard interfaces will be more in line with the GW3 and PW "style" of "older" images. They'll also have options to install either a leather backing or a wood backing (like a navigation table or something along those lines). The leather interface has "paper tabs" that "slide" in and out when selected, while the wood one has the items you select "typed" on a sheet of paper. When you select the item you want, a red pencil mark in the form of a circle moves to where you click.

There is a generic, blank board in both cases in case you don't wish to fly with an airline logo or "pin" emblem. There are currently 12 emblems to choose from, but I plan on adding a few more to cover some of the classic era as well (1950's and 1960's, to include some of the early jet operators as well like British Caledonian, as an example).

Here is a collage of what I have so far:

collage_leather.jpg
Here is an example in-sim of the Imperial Airways option with the leather board above:

leather_iaw_01.jpg

And here is an example with the wood and paper option, again as Imperial Airways:

wood_paper_iaw_01.jpg

Still some work to do, but should be adding these to the PW mediafire site by the end of next weekend.

The S.17 is the JBK aircraft with just a few edits to the "reference" file to enable the use of other fonts. I also did some gramatical changes as well as added an image of a three-view with some data, but that was just to see if it was possible for me.

I still need to find the original download of the typewriter font since I'm not sure if it's one of those "use but don't distribute" things or not. Worst case scenario, I'll just put directions on how to get it. It's just a simple matter of putting the ttf file into the "Fonts" folder in the main PW installation or into your regular Windows folder where all the fonts go.

More info and shots for next weekend if all goes well.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Looking good, Jorge..
Love the S.17 and other similar aircraft from that era.
So much more interesting, for me, than the 'bus's & Boeings!
 
Small update.

Working on a "navigation desk" to add to the "Vintage Gauges" folder. This is the "basic":

nav_desk_screentest.jpg

This is the one where you have a little airplane thing "screwed" to the center which rotates to the heading:

nav_desk_screentest_airplane.jpg

And here is a screenshot from the sim. I'm at the Rutba Wells Ver2 which will be released with the next scenery update later on after the maps gauge:

screenshot_240815.jpg

The maps are cut from a composite of USAAF 1:5,000,000 Aeronautical Planning Charts. The Lat/Lon works, but this was an early xml so I still need to move the stuff over to the right a little and also add the heading as well.

Kudos to Martin and "Papi" who steered me in the right direction. The "window" is actually their gauge which has been "dressed up" with some layering of images in xml and then added to the code. I just replaced the polygon thing with a "top-down" silhouette of a Ju-52 for the airplane one since this was originally for O. Fischer's model's panel. I figured it would work all around, so I did the one without the little airplane thing as an option.

The "desk" will be available to add to any aircraft as a separate window in the panel.cfg file. I'm also going to do another background which will be geared towards propliners, starting with the DC-3.

The maps are the big thing since they're just shy of 20MB each, and there's about 72 of them. I may cut that down since there are areas of the Earth that probably won't be flown over or that didn't have any real coverage at the time (think North and South poles), but we'll see. I may just do the whole thing.

I'll post the "window" section by itself as an update to the Fw-189 "Uhu" (with appropriate little "Uhu" airplane thing) sometime later as well.

No timeframe, but soon.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Time has flown. It's a year since PW was released into the wild.
Any word on an update & the Handley Page H.P.42/45?
 
If you Google "imperial airways kuwait" the first link is to a Kuwait News Agency article - tried including a link but it doesn't want to work.

This article includes a photo of an HP42 outside the walls of what is now Kuwait city and a copy of a 1933 Imperial Airways timetable for London - Rangoon.

Its the only photo of the original airfield I can find - presumably near the Political Agency (now Embassy) site.
 
Stunning. I dont think that we realise how big these retro planes were.
I'm sure that in those early pioneering days, the pilots needed B@lls of steel to fly those things.
 
zswobbie1 said:
Stunning. I dont think that we realise how big these retro planes were.
I'm sure that in those early pioneering days, the pilots needed B@lls of steel to fly those things.
Click to expand...
No powered controls in those days either! So muscles of steel too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top