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

Hang in there.

I've developed models for far simpler and older versions of FS/CFS and sometimes you just spend SO MANY HOURS that you loose interest and your mojo. Developing models of the detail Gordon is doing is magnitudes ahead and exponentially more hours. That's not even taking into account real life that can interfere, it ALWAYS does. Sometimes it gets to much and devs just walk away, sometimes a break is enough and they come back refreshed, we are all human after all. Especially when it's freeware, the impetus to continue is not 'forced' like it is with sub-contractual payware devs.

Also, bear in mind that many developers reach a point of saturation with projects. They say a project is never really finished, but the developer gets fed up working on it and looses their passion for it and releases the best they can considering. There is always more you can do as a dev to make a project better, but at some point you have to call it 'done'. With Freeware this may well be sooner. With Gordon I detect a perfectionist, he is the opposite, freeware means nothing to him, results everything. He has a passion, let him roll with it. God forbid we dent his enthusiasm and drive as we will be the only losers (we all know this has happened prior).

Just my tupence,
Jamie
 
Update:

I haven't lost interest in any of my projects, in fact I have been wayyyy down the rabbit hole for the last year. I am working on the restoration of every aircraft I lost when MS borked 52,000 hours of my work. Sifting through the multiple Terrabytes of recovered metadata feels very much like re-building the Twin Towers...from the pile.

That said, I have re-built...from scratch...all of the Invaders, including re-mastering all of the artwork for every skin. In the process I decided to bite the bullet and learn the new P3Dv5 SDK, which requires re-mastering all of the art for dedicated use in V5. I have done this for all of my airplanes, my MJ Boeing Strato upgrades and Manfred's upcoming P3Dv5 DAK. It is most efficient for me to do bulk operations, due to the complexity of the mastering process for V5. The Stratos and DAK are on hold while MJ is on holiday, and I have been using that time for the Tigercat and Invader reconstructions. I have indeed been flying the B, C and K invaders all of this week.

Putting things into a real world perspective, I did two full knee replacements last year...September and November respectively, so the first half of this year was a ton of rest/rehab and very limited seat time for dev work. BTW, I highly recommend the procedure for those looking in that direction. On the heels of the knee work, the Covid1894 smack down eliminated over half of our income, so much of my time this spring and summer has been devoted to constructing a greenhouse to grow food. Currently we get by on a bowl of rice per day. I do appreciate the fact that things appear slow, but losing 1.2 million files would send most people into a tailspin. I don't quit...ever...so I just pulled up my man pants and started rebuilding. It's a process.

That said...here's a screen cap of the K Invader in P3Dv5 PBR metal. I have managed to master the new format and applied the new techniques to all of my recovered projects. The skins no longer go black at night and look absolutely stunning in every flight condition. I shot some raw video this AM and you can expect some video previews similar to the ones I did for the new MJ DAKv5 and PBR Boeing Stratos.



My priority at this time in order:

MJ Boeing Stratos for P3Dv3,4 and 5
Beta, nearly release ready. Pending shake out and sign off from MJ

MJ Dak skin conversions for P3Dv5...my entire collection including a V5 Paint Kit.
Release ready. Shown here is the Manfred Jahn Prepar3Dv5 PBR DAK I am shaking out in the video.

B, C and K Invaders
Beta, nearly release ready.

Lockheed Jetstar
Alpha model flying, currently updating the interior to FSX/P3D/P3D PBR compatible. PBRv5 skins in progress.

F7F Tigercats
Flyable, awaiting PBRv5 skins

Brewster Buffalo
Model recovery in in progress

Abrams P1 Explorer
Beta ready, PBRv5 skins needed

After the airplanes, I did recover my published scenery projects, but all of the GMAX, 3D Studio models and Photoshop layered files need to be re-built.

One other thing. I had developed a radical new autogen technology that dramatically improves performance in the sim. This was the biggest loss when the data went down the shifter, and re-building every bit of autogen from scratch is a mind bottling undertaking. I don't talk about it much because I keep things close to the vest, but the beta I was running in my sim was unbelievable. That's on the bucket list too, but kind of out in the weeds right now.


B-26 K Invader for PREPAR3dv5 basic polished metal skin
50175002072_c41bfb0a92_o.jpg
 
Last edited:
gman5250,

Can't wait for all of these! You should set up some kind of way to donate a few bucks for those of us who appreciate your efforts. I know many of these are based on improving others works so straight donationware is probably out, but a PayPal/Venmo/Patreon where could go "wow, these planes are bringing me such enjoyment, here's $20 towards the greenhouse project" is something I'd be happy to support. :)

 
DennyA said:
gman5250,

Can't wait for all of these! You should set up some kind of way to donate a few bucks for those of us who appreciate your efforts. I know many of these are based on improving others works so straight donationware is probably out, but a PayPal/Venmo/Patreon where could go "wow, these planes are bringing me such enjoyment, here's $20 towards the greenhouse project" is something I'd be happy to support. :)
Click to expand...

My projects here are my gift to the community...I couldn't possibly consider donationware. When I rebuild my scenery projects I will give serious consideration to marketing those. :encouragement:
 
Good morning all

Thank you for these clarifications Gman!
I had followed your computer and health problems in your previous posts!
and congratulations on your pugnacity to rebuild everything!
I think having multiple models under construction at the same time increases the delay! (And my impatience)
However, for my part, I remain sad because I only have FSX and not P3D, and I will not therefore take advantage of your superb planes!
But that's life!
Have a good day

Alain
-
 
alain0568 said:
Good morning all

Thank you for these clarifications Gman!
I had followed your computer and health problems in your previous posts!
and congratulations on your pugnacity to rebuild everything!
I think having multiple models under construction at the same time increases the delay! (And my impatience)
However, for my part, I remain sad because I only have FSX and not P3D, and I will not therefore take advantage of your superb planes!
But that's life!
Have a good day

Alain
-
Click to expand...

I'm healthy as an ox, my knees were just plum wore out! Too much fun for a lot of years. lol

Don't worry...there will absolutely be FSX versions of all my models.
I wouldn't leave anyone out Alain.:wavey:
 
Hello Gman,

-Ah, this is great news for FSX users!:applause:
Thank you very much
So I'm impatiently waiting for the rest! ;)
Have a good day!:ernaehrung004:


Alain
-
 
Hi Gordon,

Thanks for the updates on all these wonderful projects. The C-47 vid looked stunning. The Jetstar being the one I’m most excited about, I appreciated it still being on your list. Thanks for keeping with it, and for planning multiple sim versions.

Take care,

Daniel
 
OK...as promised, here's a short video of the B & K Invaders. The C is not quite ready for the show.
These are the Prepar3Dv5 models with the new PBR texturing modality which is a far cry from anything we did before. It's a whole new thing.

I know it's been a long wait, but realize as you watch the video, it was necessary to re-build the exterior models, interior models, virtual cockpits, panels, custom gauge faces etc. indeed, everything you are looking at from an empty canvas. All of the modeling, animations, coding, and texturing were re-constructions including all new Photoshop master layered files for every aircraft. KRNO was a completely new construction including the geo-data, extensive water masking and LM texture mapping. All of the vegetation on and around the airport facility is from my vegetation library, which contained about 800 trees, bushes, grasses and volumetric ground covers. Those were a total loss, including all of the photographic source files I had gathered over 10 years. What is shown here is a handful I rebuilt for KRNO.

These models will be for FSX, P3D, P3Dv4 and P3Dv5. That means three dedicated sets of textures, only applicable for the sim in which they are intended.

Take a look at Reno from the air. Every industrial center, hotel, casino and point of interest model were lost in the crash. All of that is new. Every house and tree are hand annotated over an existing footprint...they are all placed individually. All of this re-construction takes cubic man hours and I'm one guy.

I just wanted ya'll to have a gander at how drop dead gorgeous these airplanes look in V5. The vid speaks for itself. Rest assured people...I do not abandon my commitments, my friends or my work.

Enjoy Ladies and Gentlemen...

 
Last edited:
gman5250 said:
OK...as promised, here's a short video of the B & K Invaders. The C is not quite ready for the show.
These are the Prepar3Dv5 models with the new PBR texturing modality which is a far cry from anything we did before. It's a whole new thing.

I know it's been a long wait, but realize as you watch the video, it was necessary to re-build the exteriors models, interior models, virtual cockpits, panels, custom gauge faces etc. indeed, everything you are looking at from an empty canvas. All of the modeling, animations, coding, and texturing were re-constructions including all new Photoshop master layered files for every aircraft. KRNO was a completely new construction including the geo-data, extensive water masking and LM texture mapping. All of the vegetation on and around the airport facility is from my vegetation library, which contained about 800 trees, bushes, grasses and volumetric ground covers. Those were a total loss, including all of the photographic source files I had gathered over 10 years. What is shown here is a handful I rebuilt for KRNO.

These models will be for FSX, P3D, P3Dv4 and P3Dv5. That means three dedicated sets of textures, only applicable for the sim in which they are intended.

Take a look at Reno from the air. Every industrial center, hotel, casino and point of interest model were lost in the crash. All of that is new. Every house and tree are hand annotated over an existing footprint...they are all placed individually. All of this re-construction takes cubic man hours and I'm one guy.

I just wanted ya'll to have a gander at how drop dead gorgeous these airplanes look in V5. The vid speaks for itself. Rest assured people...I do not abandon my commitments, my friends or my work.

Enjoy Ladies and Gentlemen...

Click to expand...


Looks absolutely amazing Gordon. I have no idea how you do so much work so quickly. And the fact you still are supporting FSX, I can't thank you enough. I know how much work you had to do to get the the P3Dv4 and 5 stuff done, to do the FSX stuff, too, is just incredible. I'm glad you've been able to get a lot of the work you lost rebuilt, that must feel especially good for you.

Tom
 
That's so cool. I hope some of these birds eventually make it into the new FS. Imagine flying low-level in that beautiful A-26 over the new FS terrain....
 
G,
when you post a video link, sometimes it shows as a picture of the start of the video complete with a clickable play button in the centre. But only sometimes - the one above is one of the exceptions, as all I can see is a big black rectangle with no links.

Any ideas how to fix this ?

:banghead:
 
Thank-you, Gordon, for all of the updates on your wonderful projects.
Most important, I'm glad to hear that your medical recovery has gone well.

You are truly a cornerstone of this great hobby.

Milan ....
 
I realize a lot of people are in total awe of the new sim on the block.
Hopefully this aircraft will also make it there (..... once the updated FSX version is released, of course). :encouragement:

images
 
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