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The Classic Warbirds Design Team Hellcat conversion v2

G

gavinc

SOH-CM-2022
Hi,
Thanks to some awesome work by Rob Barendregt there is a new version of the CWDT Hellcat available for FSX. It also works in 64 bit P3D with some adjustments.
By using his XML gauge magic Rob has enhanced the Hellcat. In V2 there is a configuration tool to set the load outs and adding bombs, rockets, etc will affect the weight and the drag of the aircraft. In addition he has added proper wingtip contrail management and as a totally free bonus (only available if you purchase in the next 36 minutes) machine gun effects.

Please read the readme.

Gavin
 
I like the new loadout panel, but the plane is still broken in P3D4.5. I spent my morning flying session trying to debug the plane instead of flying, but didn't solve it.

Contrary to the documentation, deleting the fx_CWDT_Hellcat.fx file does not fix the blue glow on the engine. The effect is still there.

Besides being unsightly from outside, on my system it causes a massive frame rate drop when looking down towards the engine in the VC. I'm talking about a 30 fps drop, taking me down from my usual about 50 fps to about 20 fps. Obviously not acceptable.

The fact that the bug causes the frame rate drop from within the VC means that it must be a feature of the VC mdl, not just the external mdl. Since the VC mdl does not call the fx_CWDT_Hellcat.fx file, we know that is not the problem.

My suspicions currently center on the engine parts and materials - ones that are rendered in both the external and VC mdls. The parts of the engine that exhibit the blue glow are specific. They include the cylinders and wiring harness, but not the reduction gear housing. As near as I can tell, the problematic parts seem to be those painted with details_2.bmp. At first I thought the problem might be that there actually is no details_2.bmp, it is a dds file, but converting it to a 32-bit bmp did not help. I also thought it was odd that some of the parts use details.bmp, details_2.bmp, and details_3.bmp as specular maps, not just diffuse maps. They don't look like appropriate specular map textures. But, deleting them as specular maps using ModelConverterX also did not solve the problem.

I have a few more ideas, but it took all of my before-work "fun" time to get this far in the debugging, so I haven't tried them yet. Maybe these notes will give Gavin some ideas.

August
 
Here is something else I learned about this bug - it is contagious! After appearing on your CWDT Hellcat, it will also appear on the next plane you load, if you use the Select Aircraft menu from within the sim. If it is a single engine plane, the interior of the engine cowling or intakes will be painted with the same blue glow. This happened with every plane I tried, including the Vertigo F6F and F8F, Milviz Corsair, Scrub's Corsair, Piglet's Skyraider and SBU, Iris P-40, etc. etc. If you load a multi-engine plane, the interior of the fuselage/cockpit will take on the blue glow. So the Virtavia B-24 has a glowing blue cockpit, whether viewed from the outside or the VC. Basically this plane infects every subsequent airplane you load.

So it seems the problem is not with a material or texture in the CWDT Hellcat as such, but with some parameter that it sets with respect to interior cowling lighting. This parameter is then passed to later airplanes that aren't expecting it and don't reset it. And it has the same unwanted effect on all planes.

The intensity of the blue glow varies over time, and it appears that it may be linked to engine temperature. If you spawn cold and dark, it is very subtle or absent. After you start, it gets brighter over the course of a few minutes, and it seems to get brighter faster at higher throttle settings. Then if you turn off the engine, it is brightest of all, like a hot engine that is no longer being cooled.

August
 
It is, but my "infection" discovery led me to an acceptable workaround.

If you start with a different plane, get the engine running, then switch to the Hellcat using "Vehicle/Select," the blue glow never appears, as far as I can determine. Just don't shut the Hellcat engine down and start it up again. Then the blue glow and the frame rate hit will return.

August
 
August, I'm sorry you are having those issues.
When I tested in P3D v4.5 I didn't see the sorts of issues you noticed.

I don't see the "blue glow" in the VC at all - even if fx_CWDT_Hellcat is enabled. In the exterior view the "blue glow" only appears if fx_CWDT_Hellcat is enabled, deleting the file removes the glow.

I did come across a couple of other issues in re-testing in P3D tho.
1) I forgot to mention in the docs that there is a separate panel.cfg file for P3D (hopefully you found this in the panel folder)
2) the VC night light effect ( fx_vclight_red ) doesn't seem to work in P3D - you need to change it for one of the standard P3D effects - I know fx_vclight works.

Gavin
 
Hi Gavin,

Thank you for the tips. I had not noticed the P3D panel.cfg and have now switched to that

As for the blue glow, yes it is there in VC view, but you won't see it sitting in the pilot's seat because the instrument panel and things are between you and the engine. If you use the eyepoint movement keys to take yourself outside the plane in VC view and look into the front of the cowling, you'll see the glow. More importantly, the frame rate drop when looking in the direction of the blue glow from the pilot's seat occurs even though you can't see the glow from there. Your system may be fast enough that you don't notice the frame rate hit.

My experience regarding fx_CWDT_Hellcat.fx is different from yours. I deleted it and the blue glow was still there. However, when I discovered that the blue glow doesn't appear as long as you don't start up the engine, I realized that the fx_CWDT_F6F_START.FX file may be at least part of the problem. So I commented out the line in the aircraft.cfg that calls that effect, and that seems to have resolved the problem completely. So my advice to other P3D4.5 users would be to do both of those things. I'll continue to test, but for now, I think I am all fixed.

August
 
Hi August,
I did more testing at night in P3D and did notice the blue glow in the front of the engine (even if the fx_CWDT_Hellcat.fx file is deleted) although I haven't seen any framerate issues in the VC. My test rig isn't fast, a 10 year old I5 (3.2 GHz) 12 GB ram & Nvidia 970, but frame rates are a very personal thing, different machines behave very differently.

Let me do some more testing - I may have to compile a separate P3D model with the flame effects deleted from the model.

Gavin
 
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