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RCS B-25J for FSX

Cactuskid said:
It looks like they're also going to release a USAAF livery for this freeware gem in the next few weeks! A Doolittle Raiders paint would be awesome! I love flying this airplane and was hoping that Roy would release a US version! :applause:
Click to expand...

I completed the first set of USA textures yesterday and they will be released in the next week or so as Roy is away for a few days.

The first USA set are bare metal, based on a few pictures I have of an actual aircraft. Although bare metal, it is not as polished (reflective) as the original textures. They are in fact a completely new set of 'bare metal' textures, which is ironic as the reason I chose to do the bare metal USA version first is because I thought I could use the original textures and 'doctor' them to save time. A new set of textures takes me close on 3 weeks (approx 100 hours) to complete. As it turned out, I could not and I landed up doing the textures from scratch :icon_lol:

screenshots of Beta
View attachment 25189

View attachment 25190



I am now busy with a 2nd set of USA textures, in camo 'layout' - similar colors to the old Rusell's Raiders aircraft.

Now that you have mentioned the Doolittle raid, once all of the planned updates have been completed, I will look at doing a 3rd set of USA textures in the standard "Olive Drab" and US markings of the period.


Regards

Steve
 
Keep them coming Steve, between Roy's aircraft and your paints, this is one of my favorites, still can't believe it is not payware. I have purchased a few a/c as of late that are no where near the quality and accuracy of this B-25. Thanks for all your hard work. It is really appreciated. Say hello to Roy for me, Don
 
Very nice! Thanks Steve.

We have a B-25 locally that operates out of KSET called "Show Me!" It's owned by the local CAF chapter.

My son just loves crawling around inside her. He got his greatest thrill when they let him sit in the pilot seat as they towed her out to the fuel pumps in preparation for a flight.

-G-
 
dharris said:
Keep them coming Steve, between Roy's aircraft and your paints, this is one of my favorites, still can't believe it is not payware. I have purchased a few a/c as of late that are no where near the quality and accuracy of this B-25. Thanks for all your hard work. It is really appreciated. Say hello to Roy for me, Don
Click to expand...

Thanks you for the support and kind words Don. I have passed on your greetings to Roy.

Just so you know, I also do all of the Gmax model work on the B25. I took over from Brian a number of years ago to allow him the time to concentrate on other things. The current B25 model is still Brian's 'base model' with new tail turret, mid turret, nacelles, landing gear, wheels, side-gun pods, a few other adjustments here and of course the addition of the very basic VC and the external "eye candy".

The new model I am working will have an updated VC with yokes, throttle quadrant, rudder pedals and some other items - although I don't think there will be any changes to the resolution of the gauges in the VC because of the huge amount of work it will require from Roy to re programme all of the special "multi gauges" used in the VC. There is no way of increasing the resolution without reprogramming the multi-gauges - we tried before releasing the original freeware model.

As mentioned in other posts, the VC was never intended to be a proper "VC" but only enough to replace the old cockpit interior views of FS8 and FS9 which were done away with in FSX. I for one did not anticipate the huge response we have had for the FS-X compatible version of the model.

However, to do a fully functional version of the VC along with a FS-X native model is a monumental job both for Roy and for myself, and will require much of the existing model to be redone. Nothing has been decided yet as to whether this will be done.

For now, I am upgrading the existing model to put in the missing components.


Regards

Steve
 
audixaudix said:
I am now busy with a 2nd set of USA textures, in camo 'layout' - similar colors to the old Rusell's Raiders aircraft.

Now that you have mentioned the Doolittle raid, once all of the planned updates have been completed, I will look at doing a 3rd set of USA textures in the standard "Olive Drab" and US markings of the period.


Regards

Steve
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the hard work you and Roy have put into this project Steve! :applause::applause::applause: The bare skin livery looks excellent! I'll be sure to collect all your paints as they become available. An upgraded VC too?!! Outstanding! It's still hard for me to believe that this beauty is freeware! It blows away a lot of add-on aircraft that I paid good money for! A standard OD livery would be nice, as I have the FSX USS Hornet package and would love to join the AI Doolittle mission all the way to Tokyo and then on to China. Your efforts are very much appreciated! :ernae:
 
Aargh. After all the talk on his page about how they started to update the plane for FSX and then essentially rebuilt it completely, and the warning to only use FSX SP2, I assumed this was a true FSX plane.

Nope. Loaded it in FSX (which I run using DX10) and no textures.

Check the model... FS8.

Just a heads-up to save anyone else who runs in DX10 the trouble.

(Not negating the effort that went into it, but I really wish that people who do portovers would label them as such.)
 
Steve, if you are looking for more suggestions how about this one from the Yankee Air Museum. LInks to utubes you can book flights on her and her sister b-17 in the summer...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJr06JPr7ck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjT54QYHbSY

b-25yankeeairmuseum.jpg
 
DennyA said:
Aargh. After all the talk on his page about how they started to update the plane for FSX and then essentially rebuilt it completely, and the warning to only use FSX SP2, I assumed this was a true FSX plane.

Nope. Loaded it in FSX (which I run using DX10) and no textures.

Check the model... FS8.

Just a heads-up to save anyone else who runs in DX10 the trouble.

(Not negating the effort that went into it, but I really wish that people who do portovers would label them as such.)
Click to expand...


Hi DennyA

I understand your frustrations- you have the top of the range PC, with the latest OS and latest graphics capabilities and you want to be able to make use of those features and cannot because the B25 model/textures are not FS-X/DX10 'native'.

In order to explain the current status of the B25, I need to mention how and why things have been developed the way they have.

Unfortunately, I am not in your position ... I do not have the latest or greatest PC. I have an old Pentium4 processor, I gig of mem and a Radeon 6600 Pro graphics card running on XP SP2.

I use the PC for both FS and my work - it is not a dedicated FS machine.

FS is a hobby, and it costs me (and the rest of the team) plenty from our own pockets in order to do the aircraft/panels etc.

When the decision was made to do an FS-X version of the B25, I realised that in order for me to do a proper FS-X aircraft I would need:
  • A brand new PC which is capable of running FS-X. This would include a proper top of the range DX10 compatible graphics card, not a built in graphics chip.

  • A new Pro sound card which will work on Vista or Windows 7 - as my current Yamaha DS2416 PCI card which I use for doing recordings and mixing of music (I am a sound engineer/musician by trade) will not work on Vista or later OS's as no drivers are available

  • A New operating system as DX10 only comes with and works on Vista and Windows 7

  • FS-X
As I did not have the 25 grand (in Rands -... $3500 US - 2800 Pounds Sterling ) laying around to purchase and upgrade everything that needed to be upgraded ... and as Microsoft had just announced that FS was no more - the choice was simple - find a way to get the model to work in FS-X using my existing equipment/OS and FS versions - or the B25 would never ever be available for FS-X.

The original FS9 model was therefore changed, modified and compiled with the FS8 compiler (which allows models to work in FS-X - the FS9 compiler does not - technical reasons not mentioned here) and Roy reprogrammed all of the gauges from scratch for FS-X - which is all that was ever claimed. Nowhere (as far as I am aware) has anyone ever said that the model was a native FS-X model.

The way the entire FS-X version has been put together is as follows:

I did all the development on my system using FS8 and FS9 - I would then upload all the files for Roy to test in FS-X - he would then send me feedback and screenshots of the problems in FS-X and I would do mods - in the dark - with no way of testing anything myself ... and then repeat the entire process over and over until we got it working. It took forever and a day.

The SP2 only warning is not anything to do with the way the model was done, but the differences in Sp1 and Sp2 and the decision that was made to do the aircraft specifically for SP2. We spent weeks trying to get a version which would work in SP1, SP2 and the standard no-service pack FS-X - and we could not - so it was decided to go for the SP2 version.

The current model will therefore work in FS8, FS9 and FS-X and the textures will work in FS8, FS9 and FS-X SP2.

The FS-X gauges will only work in FS-X.

I am seriously considering upgrading my system and doing proper FS-X development - but please understand the high cost for me to do that and that there are many other factors which could prevent the upgrade too.

If you have a spare top-end PC with proper graphics card and all the software laying around which you want to donate- well that's another story :)

Until I get upgraded however, I cannot do anything more than I am doing

Regards

Steve
 
Steve,

No slight was intended. It's a stunning model, and the work to make it compatible with FSX is appreciated! My forum whining was due to the web page not making it clear it wasn't an FSX model.

The good news is that nowadays you can get an FSX-capable system complete with a fast DX10 card for under $600 in the US; not sure how much of a premium they add in South Africa, but any Core 2 Duo or Quad system with even a $75 DX10 card (virtually any GeForce/Radeon card released in the past 2 years) will do great with FSX. You don't need a top-end system at all. Today's "entry level" Core 2 Duo or Quad systems and sub-$100 graphics cards are super-fast. (Not saying "go buy a new PC!" Just in case you thought you still needed a $2K system...)

Anyway, apologies if it seemed like I was knocking your efforts. I was just disappointed because I was excited about flying it but due to performance issues I keep my FSX installation free of FS8/FS9 models.

But the efforts you guys made for the folks who do choose to run DX9 are definitely appreciated!

Best,
Denny
 
Hi Denny

No slight was taken, I just wanted to let you know the situation as it was when the FS-X version was decided upon and that there must have been some miscommunication/misunderstanding somewhere with regards to what the model is and what versions etc. it is compatible with. According to Roy, the model is DX10 and FS-X SP2 compatible.

With regards to PC costs today - at the time, core 2 duo was relatively new (quad's did not exist :) ) so the cost for such was extremely high. Unfortunately, with the other work I do on the PC, I need a top end system graphics and sound wise - which is where a lot of the cost comes in. As FS was canned by MS at the same time we were looking at the FS-X version, it was anybodies guess as to what would happen and I was not prepared to splash out just to get a new PC etc. for FS-X.

Anyway - as mentioned I am looking at upgrading and if there are any plans for FS-X native aircraft it will be announced on the RCS website.

Regards

Steve
 
Hi Steve...
Appreciate your explanation of the difficulties involved and the effort required to get the B25 out the door to us simmers. FSX has been a real blessing/curse!
Thanks for your efforts :applause:
Roy
 
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