SOH A-26 Invader, the story continues ...

[alain0568]

--DaveQ and JensOle, thanks for your answers!
Regards.


Alain
-

 

[MrZippy]

I have a working K already but I want to try a few things like taking the pilots out on the ground. I've added weapons but grabbed from payware so cannot share. If anyone has a source of Vietnam-era freeware ordnance I'd be really grateful! Will share soonest.

DaveQ

Don't know how much of this will be helpful but at least it's free/donationware.

http://www.taskforcefsx.com/wood.html

 

[MZee1960]

The issue with the textures are that they are by todays standard rather low res (the originals are a ), specially for getting crisp decals. I have slowly started with a new paintkit in HD, but it will be an big undertaking to get all textures done.
I have a 6 gun B-26B in the Farm Gate program scheme with VNAF roundels as a test subject and it is a big improvements for the decals to get a HD threatment.

I'm really looking forward to this one, Jens !

I also have the A-20 Havoc. Just downloaded Gordon's new bumps yesterday and installed. All Havoc paints looking very sharp now - crisp and neat ! Up until your comment here re the res with respect to the A-26, I have not noticed that much of a difference with the exception of the 'nose art' on a few, but now I see exactly what you mean. I have lots of Orbx scenery, REX textures, and HD addon aircraft, but still never feel the need to set the 'texture max load' any higher than 2048 as most textures are well within that parameter, plus I think going past this will just affect fps and bring on more oom's (yes, ...can't wait to move to P3D in the new year for that very reason) .

 

[DaveQ]

Dave, if we can't manage to get them you can give me the types of ordinance you need I can make some custom ones for this project! That's really not too complex, and I think the A-26 is worth it.


Cheers,
Mark

Thanks a lot Mark. I'll send you a pm in the morning (UK)

 

[MZee1960]

I'm going to look into the tire problem tonight. The image above suggests that the UV coordinates of the mapping do not correspond to the bitmap of the texture. From the pure looks it's totally off, and not merely a flipping problem. But as I said, I'm going to have an "in situ" look at it later.


Cheers,
Mark

Hi Mark,

I appreciate this very much. The A-20 Havoc has the 'plus' variant of the tire texture and I never thought something as small as this could make such a big difference in aircraft appearance, but it does.

 

[DaveQ]

Thanks everyone - I'll get together a list. Some are available with Tim Conrad's Sandy and I maybe could ask for permission to use them. The Task Force FSX bunch look very interesting also MrZippy. The main weapons were Mk 82's and napalm though the National Museum of the USAF example has two different rocket pods and a drop tank (I think).

DaveQ

 

[roger-wilco-66]

No problem, Dave. I can do these in no time. I just need a definite go! And the definite types, but you already gave them.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[MZee1960]

Tire tread change to 'plus' pattern experiment ...

The A-20C Havoc has a common texture folder to which all the added textures fall back on. It has a 'tiredtreadnew' BMP file in it which I gather corresponds to the 'plus' tire tread pattern seen on the model in sim.

Since the A-26 seems not to have a common texture folder, rather all textures are repeated for each repaint in the individual repaint folders, I chose the repaint 'Hard to Get' for the experiment below..

I copied this Havoc BMP file to the A-26 Avenger texture folder 'Hard to Get' ,which already had a 'tiretread' BMP file. Results are as follows :

1) With both 'tiretread' and the copied 'tiretreadnew' BMP files in the folder ---> get the original A-26 tire tread showing in sim.
2) With only the copied 'tiretreadnew' BMP file in the folder -------> get the original A-26 tire tread showing in sim.
3) Re-naming the copied 'tiretreadnew' BMP file to 'tiretread' ------> get the odd looking 'psychedelic' tire tread showing in sim (as the 2nd picture in my post #8 shows).
4) Deleting the 'tiretread' / 'tiretreadnew' BMP files altogether (so no such files in the folder whatsoever) --> get the original A-26 tire tread showing in sim, once again.

It now seems to me as if the original tire tread texture may be baked into another folder ( a model folder, or ?) as it does not seem to matter whether or not a 'tiretread' / 'tiretreadnew' BMP file is even present inside the repaint texture folder in

order for the original A-26 tire tread to show up in sim. The only thing is why in point 3) above, the 'psychedelic' tire tread shows up in sim ? Perhaps there is another 'tiretread' entry elsewhere which was not changed/renamed and hence some confusion re what texture to display in the sim occurred ?

 

[JensOle]

Dave,

The loadout on the bird in the USAF museum is as follows:

-BLU-27 (finned and painted black underside)
-MK-82 snake
-CBU-14 (cluster bomb dispenser)
-LAU-3 (rocket pod)

Symmetrical on both sides, LAU nose fairing has been removed on the right side LAU-3.

A bit like the Skyraider loads from the time, gives you something for all types of targets..

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Would the cbu-14 dispenser then be the SUU-14/A unit?

 

[JensOle]

That is absolutely correct, my bad. Cbu-14 in the suu-14 dispenser  kind of a very strange system compared to the other cluster Bombs!

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Yeah, the CBUs were ejected out of the end of the tubes.

 

[gman5250]

Thought I'd add a bit of clarity on the tire tread conversation. The attached photo shows the A-26 Invader tiretread.bmp (left) and A-20 Havoc tiretreadnew.bmp (right) side by side.

The UVW mapping for each airplane is different as shown in the comparison. Changing out and re-naming the tiretreadnew bitmap and putting it in the A-26 texture files will result in the psychedelic tire because the tread is not aligned to the UVW map. To display correctly, the tread needs to be located vertically and to the left, exactly as in the tiretread.bmp that comes with the original A-26.

 

[gman5250]

I did a quick modification on the tiretread.bmp file, superimposing the Havoc tread pattern onto the Invader file. It's not the same as real world, but could be used as an alternate just for artistic whimsy.

I should also note that my skins were arranged to take advantage of a common texture file on airplanes that qualified. The structure is more complex than the original model and can cause some confusion when trying to exchange files. The file structure is designed to work with the original set of files without conflict, but modifications to my files need to be approached with an understanding of the structure.

Also, going back and looking, the PK I used was 1024 x 1024, and the panel and bump details were fairly vague. This airplane would benefit greatly from a 4K paint kit. I think I'll go have a look at that. My texture sets were compiled at 2048 x 2048 and are a bit higher resolution, but the bump maps were originally 1K, so that limits the bump resolution. I guess I'll go look at that too. lol

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Does anyone know that website where all those mil color codes were listed? I seemed to have lost the link...


Anyway, here's the first weapon for the A-26k, a MK-82 bomb, but I'm not sure the colors are right:

 

[gray eagle]

Does anyone know that website where all those mil color codes were listed? I seemed to have lost the link...


Anyway, here's the first weapon for the A-26k, a MK-82 bomb, but I'm not sure the colors are right:

The colors are spot on, I've loaded many of them long ago during many viet-nam west-pac cruises. The nose fuse was usually a MK 904E2 fuse, I've armed and dearmed them too. An arming wire goes through where the fuse prop is and is secured with two fanstock clips.

 

[roger-wilco-66]

The colors are spot on, I've loaded many of them long ago during many viet-nam west-pac cruises. The nose fuse was usually a MK 904E2 fuse, I've armed and dearmed them too.

Always good to have someone around who's been there I think I need to add the propeller to the tip of the fuse...


Cheers,
Mark

 

[gray eagle]

Here is a pic with a fully armed MK 82

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Ahh great, now I can stop wondering about the stencils Thank a lot!!

Cheers,
Mark

 

[gray eagle]

Not to ask a dumb question, I was wondering if the A26 is ready for us peons to fly? I would use it in P3D V3.4. I've notice many paint variations on it and just wondering if it still in testing stage and not
ready for release. If it is avail, where can I get it?
Thanks.