HM-14 Squadron's MH-53 Sea Dragons

[Greg]

Looking great in P3D after removing the model=2 lines. Thanks Joe!

[Joecoastie]

Strange.
This is my 'Model".


and this is my "Model.2".

[ws.jones27]

I am having the same problem as Jim Rogers regarding the Tail and main rotor blades becoming complete black discs, anybody any ideas how this can be fixed.Would be much appreciated.
BJ

[Firebird]

That is an alpha thing. If you have some of Graham Kings props, most likely Herks, then load up a prop texture into DXTBmp. You will see that the image is a solid painted disc or circles and the alpha is mainly black with white and grey areas for the moving blades. Very effective. I know that JYs V-22s have the same system as well. Just for clarity Grham isn't the only person to do this but he was the first that I am aware of that used it.

Quite often what I do is replace the older type props with the new standard. It is so easy to do that even a paint-package challenged oik like myself can do it. What you do is find a painted disk that matches your colour needs and then overwrite the alpha with one that matches your blade needs (two, three, four, five, six etc.).
What you do is copy the prop circle bmp that you need to a working area and rename it to what you need, if a rename is necessary.
If the alpha of that bmp matches your needs then great you are finished. If not then load up a prop bmp with the required alpha type into DXTBmp. Then you export the alpha to somewhere like your desktop.
Then load up the coloured circle bmp and then import the saved alpha. This will replace the original alpha. Then all you do is save the updated texture to the same format (normally DXT3 16-bit).

Now you have a new prop texture so rename the original for safety sake and then copy the new one into that scheme folder and try it out.

If this works for you then I would suggest that you start storing alphas in their own folder somewhere and coloured discs in their own folder so that you build up a library to create any coloured prop with any blade config that you cna think of.

[volador]

ws.jones27: If you are in FS9, I suggest copy: Bblades.bmp, disc.bmp and MRotor.bmp, from file "texture" (not texture.1), from file: Sea_Stallion-Dragon.zip (of the link: http://www.hovercontrol.com/cgi-bin/ifo ... 189&tt=zip, provide by navychief88 in the post before) into each TEXTURE.HM-14_xxxx, and replace.
Its works form me.

[ws.jones27]

Hi Steve and Volador,thanks for the info' you both gave but after a few hours of trying just about everything I could think of, I actually thought of the same CH-53's I have installed at Miamar so I replaced the rotor textures with the Norfolk textures and yes it worked. So once again thanks to you both, it was the simplest of both the options.
Cheers
BJ

[Ripcord]

Joe Coastie, I'd bitch at you if I didn't already hold you in such high regard. Let's get some proper instructions added in this download, please!!! As it is, every other moron out there like me will be spending an hour of their quiet SAT am time searching for clues.

Thanks for doing this. I wouldn't say anything if I didn't care. This is a great contribution.

[jimrodger]

ws.jones27: If you are in FS9, I suggest copy: Bblades.bmp, disc.bmp and MRotor.bmp, from file "texture" (not texture.1), from file: Sea_Stallion-Dragon.zip (of the link: http://www.hovercontrol.com/cgi-bin/ifo ... 189&tt=zip, provide by navychief88 in the post before) into each TEXTURE.HM-14_xxxx, and replace.
Its works form me.

Sorted....many, many thanks

Jim

[Joecoastie]

Oh lord, I didn't mean to start a mess. Again forgetting that there is such a thing as FS9.
As the -53 showed up in my FSX I didn't realise that there was a difference in model and model.2 order in the config.
Also I should have said only tested in FSX.
Apologies to all.

Now how to address this in the three HM-12 paints.

Joe

[Ripcord]

Joe, a couple ways to go here.

1 -- post an instruction file.

2 -- I looked on Owls Next and MAIW sites for these models and didn't find them. It is my understand that Rory is no longer with us. I wonder if MAIW would carry these files here, and in doing so, perhaps honor the contribution that man has made for all our enjoyment.

For whatever reason, I had the aircraft showing up but invisible?!!! Bizarro, definitely a first for me! I think maybe now that I have added all the base textures, that might fix it -- testing now.

Thanks again sir for all you do!

[Ripcord]

OK, still getting the invisible AI on this model. I guess this is a DX10 thing? Never ran into any issues with other MAIW models, but this is one is pretty old, if I am not mistaken.

[Joecoastie]

2 -- I looked on Owls Next and MAIW sites for these models and didn't find them. It is my understand that Rory is no longer with us. I wonder if MAIW would carry these files here, and in doing so, perhaps honor the contribution that man has made for all our enjoyment.
For whatever reason, I had the aircraft showing up but invisible?!!! Bizarro, definitely a first for me! I think maybe now that I have added all the base textures, that might fix it -- testing now.

Ripcord, in the config file make sure that the entry for model reads "MODEL=". If model =2 it won't show. There is no model 2.

As to the hosting the AI model here on MAIW that would be up to the moderators. I read Rory Kelly's 'readme' from his original upload of the Sea Dragon/Sea Stallion and it appears to me he's given permission for the file to be hosted/uploaded.

Quote from his readme: " Legal stuff:
THIS IS FREEWARE.
THIS AIRCRAFT IS THE PROPERTY OF THE AUTHOR, AND CANNOT BE
RE-SOLD OR PACKAGED WITH ANY PRODUCT FOR SALE, WITHOUT THE
EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. THIS TEXT FILE MUST ALWAYS BE TRANSPORTED WITH THE AIRCRAFT IF IT IS RE-ZIPPED AND UPLOADED TO OTHER FORUMS/WEB SITES. . . . "

[Joecoastie]

Done.
To be zipped with expanded readme and flight plans.

[Greg]

Joe, feel free to include the required model with the text file. Could you also reupload your HM-14 paints with the same extras and corrections please?

[Ripcord]

You guys are really the best.

[Joecoastie]

Will do.

[stovepipe707]

Not to shabby..However, I re located the sqdn to KNUW. Nice repaints.

[jeanpy]

hi,

i love this job, did you think it's possible to put inside the model ?

Thx

[stovepipe707]

[Victory103]

Thanks again for putting these together and a small fleet of non-AI models shouldn't drop framerates too much, just need to adjust the NGU parking for these in FSX.