PTO Night Fighters

MajorMagee

MajorMagee

SOH-CM-2022
I see a couple of new night fighter skins are posted.

It turns out I just finished a mod a couple of days ago that changes the Tactical Display into an Airborne Intercept Radar. I'm on the road this week but when I get home I'll see about getting it posted Essentially it makes it so the only objects displayed are ones that lie within the main forward radar beam, and the two smaller side lobes.


Sorry, no pictures until I get back to the computer that has everything on it.
 
It'll be interesting to see if is similar to the one Frosty did for the original ETO ages ago.

Beau
 
What ever happened to the 40mm Havoc for MAW?? Methinks 'twas to be a Hurricane w/ not only the 2 big cannons but a pair of .303's to aim with and conserve ammo....:confused:
 
BeauBrummie said:
It'll be interesting to see if is similar to the one Frosty did for the original ETO ages ago.

Beau
Click to expand...

Are you thinking about the H2S version? If so, it's a little different than that, but the same concept. One thing I discovered while doing this was that the pixel at the top left corner of the tactical display controls the way that the icons colors are combined when they're overlaid on the underlying template. This allows for a dark geen radar screen with a light section where the radar beam has coverage that reveals the target. I've also been thinking about a verrsion reversing that so the target will show up as light on dark more like they really did.

The problem with using the tactical display as an AI Radar is that in WWII you got a line with a hump that you had to interpret as a signal, and not something that's already been processed into a target with the range, and azimith resolved for you. The other limitation is that there's no altitude information. For example the Lichtenstine unit presented the operator with three screens, and the "human computer" had to combine the information into a 3D view of where their quarry was.

The AI Radar was good for something like 200 - 2,000 m, depending on the conditions, at which point the Mk2 Eyball could come into play for the final attack. GCI of course was used to get them close enough for this to work, but we really don't have a way to do that in CFS3 either.
 
Radar

I have a radar FuG212 set that actually tracks azimuth and elevation but range is a little more complicated so I have not finished it yet. The two screens (azimuth and elevation) work great. At about 3 km they start to track a target. I have an idea about range that should work, just too busy with real life right now.
 
PTo nightfighters

Oh,

I have meshes for a Geckko and Dianna that are well on their way to being completed. I'll show you in a few days what they can do to those B-29's....
 
Hi Ted

I think that You don't eat or sleep for sure, if it is not so the only explanation is that your days are made of more than 24 hours. LOL

Once more thank You (and John of course) for your marvelous aircrafts.
Cheers :ernae: and have always good flying......if You find time.
Cris "Astore"
 
Flying, what's that???

That's it. I make all these models but don't fly much anymore. So as you guys are shooting up the world I make these so you have something to shoot with/at.
 
Hey Ted
It is a right thing that someone makes all those a/c, if not, our poor flyer would be relegated to the ground.
Someone makes things and some others use them, it's the way the world works but sometimes You would leave the building bench and take a fly with your creatures ......what a satisfaction !!!!
Cheers :ernae: and HAVE some flying.
Cris "Astore"
 
AI_tactical_displaycopy.jpg


Here's a first shot of the AI Panel
 
MajorMagee,

That is interesting, sir!
I don't want to pry but does your mod dispense with the changing of icon colours in the viewui.xml, as the one Mongoose and I did? If so, I'd be very interested in the workings of your radar set!

The H2S set we did, is actually a groundradar set, used to blind bomb a target. But I don't think either of us finished the tables for height/speed combinations that are needed for that. But I also did an Air-to-Air set similar to yours that shielded the icons on rest of the radar screen. They are only visible when flying into a lighter coloured cone much like your 'lobes' because the screen and icon colours are the same. I gather from your description that you have found a different way of blocking the icons? Very interesting!! Below I have added the very old WIP piccies of A-A radar sets

@Ted; have you really cracked the secret to WWII radar in CFS3?? :woot:
 
Frosty,

Evidently great minds think alike. I didn't know about your earlier work, but yes it uses the same idea of masking the areas outside of the radar coverage. I did discover the controlling pixel for the screen overlay, but it still requires a change in the ViewUI to properly tune the colors to match. The only real advantage of what I've done over your original work is that the area of the screen that's not being painted by the beam can be some color (dark green) other than black.

The primary return was from a cone directly ahead, but because of the way the transmitter worked they also generated secondary beams to either side as well. Some of the sets could take advantage of this and "stear" the radar's focus left or right into those lobes. Since the frequency of these sets precluded them for resolving a return closer than about 200m I masked out the area just ahead, and along the wing line.

It's also possible to set this up as a tail warning radar for bombers like Fishpond, or Monica.
 
Radar

Frosty said:
MajorMagee,

That is interesting, sir!
I don't want to pry but does your mod dispense with the changing of icon colours in the viewui.xml, as the one Mongoose and I did? If so, I'd be very interested in the workings of your radar set!

The H2S set we did, is actually a groundradar set, used to blind bomb a target. But I don't think either of us finished the tables for height/speed combinations that are needed for that. But I also did an Air-to-Air set similar to yours that shielded the icons on rest of the radar screen. They are only visible when flying into a lighter coloured cone much like your 'lobes' because the screen and icon colours are the same. I gather from your description that you have found a different way of blocking the icons? Very interesting!! Below I have added the very old WIP piccies of A-A radar sets

@Ted; have you really cracked the secret to WWII radar in CFS3?? :woot:
Click to expand...

Sort of. I can get azimuth and elevation to work. Range is more difficult. The way I have tried to make this work is I have made a gun for each of the the three vectors . The gun is limited in motion and range. Once the target comes into range and is within the limits of the radar the appropriate gun acquires the target and tracks it. You then maneuver your plane to get the blips into the center and you should be level with and behind the target. Range is more of a challenge and I have not found what I like for a solution. Azimuth and elevation do work just fine. I do need help with eliminating the muzzle flash of the radar guns and range. I think O-1 can help there or maybe someone else.

The blips are jerky and sporadic just as I would assume they would have been with the early sets. I wanted to get a solution for elevation since the ms one lacks that feature and makes night interceptions nearly impossible unless you use the targeting cone (rookie approach) or targeting brackets. I'll keep on trying out possible solutions and I think I'll have something workable.

Oh, this idea can also work for radio beacons too and I thought that we could at least for landings place a target at an airfield and use the gun to locate. If you name your target a ship, and set the guns to shoot at only ships from a range of 15000 meters lets say then the indicator arrows would move to line you up at night. Now this is a great deal of work but it is very workable solution.

See you guys later I am off to train young minds in the way of the ivory tower and such ...
 
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