Military AI Works

Oh, I forgot, I meant to pic a link to a photo of our of VA-155's planes from the 1992 cruise, here's the link: https://www.aviationphotocompany.com/p1 ... #h7eccb9c2

Thanks Dave. Yes indeed, from all that I've read, the A-6 surely packed a punch - so much so that I'm fighting polygons to keep the loadouts manageable. I've just finished painting up 10 Intruders from VA-196, including 501 and 506 from the film and got them into FS9. I'm using 3 models for the earlier Intruders - 12 Snakeye's, or 2 AGM-78's or 2 wing tanks. Now I have to do the same for FSX/P3D. VA-34 is done for the 3 sims with a later set of load-outs.

I'll open an Intruder thread shortly and show you what I have done so far.

John

Hi John this has probably been suggested before but what about the Corsair A-7. There are many different types ..A-7A B C E for the navy and A-7D's for the airforce .Plus were used by other Air Forces Greece and Portugal .With well over 1561 airframes built got to be in there for consideration ..

f47420 wrote: ↑05 Jan 2022, 11:39 Hi John this has probably been suggested before but what about the Corsair A-7. There are many different types ..A-7A B C E for the navy and A-7D's for the airforce .Plus were used by other Air Forces Greece and Portugal .With well over 1561 airframes built got to be in there for consideration ..

Already in MAIW inventory.

Giorgio

I thought it was. In any case, I want to take some time next to explore MSFS after the Intruders are completed.

I was working on repaints for A-7s but lost my everything when my main hard drive crashed in December. I managed to find my VA-125 squadron in 1970s form.

what A-7 model you working on ..
I think there is only one AI model out there..

MW

I was using the A-7 model from Jake Burrus. I had a series of .psd layers for repaints. I did an extensive amount of research on unit locations and Air Wing and Carrier assignments for the individual paints. I also had a running list of BuNos and Serial numbers found on ARMARC and various images online. No more. I had that repository until a hard drive crash.

Gents, to be honest - this is not a models discussion threat and your suggestions are diluting John's thoughts in my opinion

John's thoughts are on MSFS at the moment.

Already excited

Since I was asked the question elsewhere, I just wanted to report that I have nothing new at all planned at the moment.

Having purchased MSFS 12 days ago, I have been happily exploring the sim and have been busy working with other members here to learn to convert FSX native aircraft for use in it. I have to say that I like MSFS very much and that it has more than cemented my decision to cease modelling for FS9.

My intention is to continue to model in FSX code so the work can be used, not only for that sim, but for P3D also, as well as providing the basis for conversion into MSFS, if all works well.

John

John, how does working in GMax square with using PBR textures? Or are you going to steer clear of those for now?

We haven't quite reached that stage yet Tim, but Pete has directed us to "Materialize" to produce the PBR textures and looking at it, it seems reasonably straight forward. They are set up in the conversion process, not in Gmax. What I don't understand yet is how, for example, "Materialize" produces the Ambient Occlusion element without reference to the model, whereas "XNormal" throws light rays at it to produce the shading. Similarly for the "Metalic" element. Why is that needed when Gmax can produce a reflective material for shinny metal, using an alpha channel in the texture?

John

I can't answer those questions - I've never looked at Materialize or XNormal, and I'm not up to speed on PBR. I was just interested in whether you could do it. Ambient Occlusion is something I'd dearly love to do in SketchUp, but it's pretty much impossible. That's why I promised myself I'd learn Blender, but the process is not exactly entertaining, and as a technical-minded creator I hate producing stuff just by 'that looks about right' but doing it by measured dimensions isn't intuitive at all!

I know there's a great deal of help over at FSDeveloper in creating PBR materials, and I've lost count of how many times I've read the explanation for the various channels and how they create elements of the material but really it goes in one eye and out the other!

Ambient Occlusion is quite easy with XNormal Tim. I wrote a short tutorial somewhere. I'll dig it out and check it over and then send it to you.

John

Thanks John!

Just to let you know what I am doing at the moment.

I've spent several months now, with Pete's help, learning how to convert FSX native AI aircraft for use in MSFS. It hasn't been easy, but I'm getting more and more confident now that I have 4 under my belt - my Tornado GR1, F-35A, The F-15E and A-10C. I'm really pleased with the result.

The Lakenheath/F-35A/F-15E MSFS package is about to enter the final test phase, now that Ian has managed to set up the parking for both types.

My MSFS A-10C is from Selfridge ANG Base Michigan and I have also successfully converted the scenery I had made previously in FSX. However, the base is also home to KC-135R tankers. I did try a test conversion of Mike and Kevin's model in MSFS, but unfortunately, with just a 1024 x 1024 texture sheet and a painted cockpit window, it didn't really compare with the 2048 x 2048 rendering of the A-10C's, even with PBR textures on the both types. I'm at the moment building a new KC-135R model from scratch for Selfridge and most of the Gmax modelling is now done. I should be starting texture design and mapping shortly.

It's been great to get back into new modelling. While I want to continue working with MSFS conversion, I want to continue to create new models. These need to be for FSX/P3D in the first place, followed by a conversion, because Gmax has no MSFS game pack. I could learn Blender, but I'd rather not do that.

John

So in a nutshell, you want candidates to be currently unavailable in FSX/P3D.

My initial thought went to the KC-390. I know that Miljan started work two years ago on an fs9 one but so far it has not made it to the production line.
I also thought of the T-7 Red Hawk. One aircraft that I do like the look of is the JF-17 Thunder.

Probably a bit too early for the B-21.

Thinking back to aircraft we couldn't convert because of rights, maybe the Mirage 2000 is a good candidate.

I'm rather glad you've elected not to learn Blender if it means we'll get more (or more updated) models for FSX/P3D, John! Having started down the Blender road, I can quite understand why you'd rather not go there. The learning curve is steep - and appears to steepen as the arrival of new versions and features accelerates. Every time I pick up one of the various tutorials I have, I find that it is now out of date (it doesn't help that I'm knee-deep in real rather than virtual construction work at home).

I can also see that the priority will be re-making popular subjects that are of a high enough quality for MSFS rather than new subjects that haven't been covered in the older sims.