TOW Pt.II Sept. 1942-May 1944 Progress report

mongoose

mongoose

SOH-CM-2023
NachPiloten, Bravo4, sdsbolt, and I are continuing work for this install. Don't expect it too soon; it might br 6 months or so at least! However, here is a summary of some of the work being done.

-New or upgraded RAF BC, FC, and 2nd TAF British airfilelds with Approach and runway lights, together with ILS approach in many cases.

-New global layer entries relating to the Luftwaffe defense system, such as light beacons for Night Fighters, and probably some radio beacons.

- There will be 3 types of missions.
Reworked older missions.
Brand new historical missions based on RAF ORBS and other data, for bombing, night fighter defense, and intruders, with corresponding LW NGJ, and LW intruder missions based on historical records from various books.
A whole section of 'what if' or shortened missions based on quick activity and combat.

- None of this would be any good without the aircraft!
Ted NachtPiloten is redoing or making new aircraft, together with Textures by Jon Bravo4, and some aircraft and much active radar input by Steve sdsbolt. Aircraft being worked on or on the list include:-
A new Stirling bomber
Updated Beaufighter
New or updated Mosquito Night Fighters.
New or updated Bf110 Nachtjagd
New or updated Ju88 Nachtjagd

Just for a start!
All older models will be updated to 2048 textures. All models will have ai versions.

We now have active aircraft radar consisting of
British AI Mk iv, AI Mk viii
German Fug. 202 Fug.220

The following aircraft types are fitted with radar now, using sdsbolt's AI Radar App undated to 1.3
Beaufighters with AI Mk iv
Mosquitos with either A.I.iv/v or A.I.viii
Fug.202 in Bf110G4 and Do215s
Fug 220 in Bf110Gs, and He219s

It is expected that the new Ju88s in progress will also have active Fug radar.

All RAF and Luftwaffe aircraft will have ILS beam capability for those airbases having ILS facilities, also through the AI Radar App

LW intruders will still be able to have beam navigation using the old knickebein system from the AI Radar app, although in reality, after Y-Gerät was blocked, the LW ceased to rely on beam navigation over England.

Below are some pics of the active radar added to Mosquitos , Bf110Gs, and He219s

Mosquito NFXIII 409sqn 1944 A.I.viii
https://ibb.co/XxPZV3D

BF110G-4 Fug.202
https://ibb.co/rfbnRvN

BF110G-4_R3 Zoerner Fug. 220
https://ibb.co/mN8zBfG

He219A-0_M2 Fug.220
https://ibb.co/vmNFdbc






 
Wonderful news ! Got part 1 up and going for a little while but still have anti-virus problems. Will try and get that sorted out hopefully because it is so outstanding. Thanks to you all for all the work done so far. Regards,Scott
 
Well Steve is the man for radar! Interesting video. I'm going to have to check out on a missions to see if the effects are similar to those described there; still not done that yet!
 
Other TOW II aircraft in the master builder NachtPiloten's pipeline include the Bf 110 F4 with Fug 212, Wellington bombers Mk III, IV, and X. BC Stirling Mk III plus maybe some other upgrades for Beaufighters and more. This means also more work for Bravo4!
Meanwhile, template missions for Orders of Battle in Autumn 1942, Spring 1943, and later are being put together to make it easier for when actual multi aircraft missions are made. Historical data for various missions continues to be gathered......:mixed-smiley-010:
 
and....

The bf110F4 is coming along nicely. It by no means will be my model, that is I am not texturing the cockpits and I intend to leave them just as Mathias did back in 2007 or so. I will add or have added FuG 212, 220 to all the bf110 G planes as James can attest to. The Wellington, it is Greg Law's excellent 2004-5 model. I am currently redoing the main cockpit to add 3d gauges, increase the detail, and use more modern texturing approaches. The exterior model could really stand for some revision too. It is taking all my will power to not add the detail that was not possible back when these planes were released. That being said, I will make the mkIII, X and others. They need carburetor and oil cooler intakes, new exhaust shrouds, and some other tweaks. They really could stand for revised ailerons and wing structures, hinges added for the elevators and rudder, working cowl flaps, and more detailed landing gear. Unfortunately, this would lead to a new texture map and the associated work. It would be better to start a new model from scratch given the effort needed.

The JU88's are being sent to John as they become ready, he has the C6 and Rs. Mostly complete with the early G1 and later G1. The G6s are near completion too except for the revised cockpits and radar stations. Speaking of radar stations, I use max and Steve uses gmax. Therefore, I need to port over my cockpits to gmax and add the radar. I have done this before, it just adds another step or two or three..... I just need to decide how much detail and realism I want to include in the pits when I add the radar stations.

What I need to do is look at the Lancasters and Halifaxes and add specular mapping to the pits and gauges, they appear rather flat and dull (not John's doing - the result of my choices).

The bad news it is spring in the Northern climes, and I need to get out to range to keep the old marksmanship up to snuff plus the wife's to do list. Oh yes and there is work.
 
Update.
Ted is working hard on a multitude of new and updated aircraft to be passed on the John for textures.
There is lots of work to be done on things like RAF airfield approach and runway lighting and ILS systems.
Meanwhile I am looking at all the historical mission data and squadron ORBS as well as Nachtjagd data, to make a variety of CFS3 missions for certain dates.

Which brings me to a ? of flight realism. While I make missions all the way from take off to landing with warping capability at the 'boring' way points, as well as shortened versions, I am thinking of greater realism.
Back in the past, I did make missions with way points hidden for the player, and gave navigation instructions on heading, distance, and speed to a certain Lat/Lon. In fact in CFS3, this is not easy. No accounting for winds, it's hard to keep the constant correct speed, and alt/heading require very accurate trimming. To some extent, one can 'cheat' a bit by using the map feature and 'z' being on, and I certainly would have no chance at all without those.

To make these missions requires more work also from me with the player having to refer to navigation notes while flying.

My ? is, who actually thinks it's worth doing a few of these, say for a Pathfinder and maybe one Nachjagd? Would there be many willing to have a go?
 
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Hmm...sounds like I need to put up a post on navigation in the flying thread at some point. Bomber missions would be the ideal scenario for trying out real navigation, and it could be very interesting. What did the bombers have in terms of autopilots? That might be a way to make it realistic but also not overwhelming or overly tiring.

Another thing to consider is that on pretty much everything expect the single seat night fighters, a crewman other than the pilot was responsible for navigation and the pilot just followed the information given by the navigator. This could conceivably be programmed similar to the radar intercept.
 
gecko said:
Hmm...sounds like I need to put up a post on navigation in the flying thread at some point. Bomber missions would be the ideal scenario for trying out real navigation, and it could be very interesting. What did the bombers have in terms of autopilots? That might be a way to make it realistic but also not overwhelming or overly tiring.

Another thing to consider is that on pretty much everything expect the single seat night fighters, a crewman other than the pilot was responsible for navigation and the pilot just followed the information given by the navigator. This could conceivably be programmed similar to the radar intercept.
Click to expand...

I suppose after setting up the course, speed, altitude, and trim, one could just activate the CFS3 autopilot.

Do you mean somehow similar to sdsbolt's app?
 
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