21st Century Crusade(er)

[mikeblaze]

The VF-132 bird has the "Constellation" text mirrored. And now that the nits have been picked. Great work!

That was one of the ones I was going to dress up the stripe a little bit anyways, but thanks for the extra catch. Better now than after the file upload........

[mikeblaze]

Just released Part 2 to AVSIM, covers the D-E-H models. With my Mirage released yesterday, I am averaging one new package per day in 2013. Have fun with it....

MP

[mikeblaze]

Okay, we're on the end run now for this project.....

Here is part 3 of the project, this covers the J-K-L models, and all of the RF-8s (A/G, five distinct variants). It has 25 models and 56 paints, and finishes off the USN/USMC portion of this project. This has been uploaded to AVSIM and will be available soon.

I am down to the Philippines F-8P and the French F-8EFN. The PhilAF project is done and ready to go, but I am going to finish off the French ones and release them together as an export package, hopefully in a few days. The F-8EFNs have a few little modeling add ons like different stabilizers and some different antenna options, so I am just finishing those up now.

More as it comes, but this thread is approaching its logical end soon.

MP

[mikeblaze]

.... and the RF-8s......

[Firebird]

Nicely done, as always.

[mikeblaze]

Here is the last part of this project. This is part 4, and includes the F-8P Philippine Air Force variant; and the F-8E(FN) for the Aeronavale (French Navy) with three distinct variants to go with three generations of paints. This package has 20 model options and 77 paints; and I included a universal paint kit which will serve all variants.

I have one last task for this project, to do a service pack upgrade. I will fix the ABC package wheel chocks as promised, and add some extra paints for some of the versions. I can already tell you I will add some ABC paints; and some more for the Philippines and French. I forgot to do the late blue scheme for the middle period models (late 80s/early 90s), as they started to use this scheme before the 'Prolonge' upgrade of the 90s represented in my late model. Also, I did all French serials in some time period, but I only did about half of the PhilAF paints, so I will probably just do all of those serials as well.

Have fun with this one..... as usual....

MP

[mikeblaze]

I found a known issue with package number 4.... I forgot to add the updated weapons texture for the Matra 530 IRM orange trainer variant, so the missile will be the background green color. I apologize for it, and it goes to number two on the fix-it list after the ABC wheel chocks.......

MP

[Bora]

Thanks a lot for these Mike !

Especially the French ones, they will fit nicely in my 1990 retro set-up...

[Chrisb]

Same here Mike. Been waiting a long time to have some French F.8s.

Chris

[mikeblaze]

I just released the service/expansion pack to AVSIM.....

Fixed: the ABC wheel chocks, the Matra 530 IRM drill textures, and the RF-8G base models, betcha thought I missed that one the second time around.....

For the compensation part, I lied a little bit (like I was only going to paint a dozen paints, lol.....).....

I added a new missile, the rare AIM-9C RHM unique to this aircraft, and it's on USN/USMC F-8C through K variants
I added the AIM-9B to the early F-8EFN variant
I added six dark blue paints to the intermediate F-8EFN; and upped the PhilAF early/late schemes to twelve serials each (eight more paints)

.... so I'm already over the dozen promised paints.... wait for it........

I added 36 more paints for the A/B/C and RF-8G, plus a very late RF-8G model with the painted exhaust shroud for the 1987 VFP-206 paint, the last Crusader in service for the USN.

So, that's eight new models and fifty paints in the expansion part.

I should screw up models more often (like I don't already

Have fun with it.

MP

[Firebird]

Thank you very much, as always, Mike.

[Firebird]

Mike,
Just noticed that your texture.NE_VF-211_1958 folder contains the same as your texture.DC_VMF-122_1958 folder i.e the VMF-122 texture, for the F-8A update.

[gsnde]

I think I will make an update to the AI Aircraft Editor - a kind of validate function that will give you a result such as:

13 aircrafts (no doubles)
--> you can see if you have messed up a title or there should be more or less aircraft
13 textures (all found)
--> you see that there is an error if it says "12 textures (all found)" or "13 textures (1 missing)"
5 * "model 1"
4 * "model 2"
4 * "model 3"
13 models (no error)
--> you see how often the models are assigned, if there is an model error it will tell you
13 airfiles (no error)
--> same thing for air file like for model

Does this make sense? Do you think this will help with the final checks?

[jimrodger]

A feature I've thought would be handy was to check the .mdl file for required bmp's against what is in the texture files.

I've had a few "OOPSES" where I've had the wrong model and end up with blank AI textures.

Jim

[mikeblaze]

I ran all of these textures through FSRepaint, my standard model viewer, if it renders in FSRepaint, it renders in the sim just fine. I probably missed the one texture Steve found during the final save process; and I have one more expansion planned for this aircraft; and will roll up any issues here with that expansion probably in the spring.

I have used the AI Aircraft Editor before, and it doesn't work with my aircraft, because it forces to look for the default _T identifier for textures, and a lot of designers don't use that any more. It will always automatically come up with error messages in this regard.

I installed this on my own system, over a clean install of my four packages, and had no issues except for the one texture I missed.

Sorry for the one missed texture, though.

MP

[gsnde]

Mike,

Are you sure that you are talking about my AI Aircraft Editor? Because what you said about the "_T identifier for textures" did not rang any bell (but I have to admit that is has been a while since I last looked into the code)

I just checked AIAE with your Crusader Part 1 package and it looks pretty functional.



Analyzing a config file for errors would come handy at least for me anyway. I messed up the last of my F-104 releases with such an error

[mikeblaze]

I might be mistaken too, Martin.... I think I might have another checker program that one of my beta-test guys gave me some time ago, and this program did have issues with non "_T" textures, or a central lightmap in the main folder; it would err on every folder that didn't have a corresponding lightmap in the aircraft texture folder.

Anyways, I have pursued imperfection my whole life, and have been perfect in that endeavor, lol. If I missed one paint in fifty, it falls within my acceptable margin of error, and I will most certainly fix it in the near future. The other program that has saved my backside more than I can remember, in terms of config entry sequence validation, is the FSRenum batch utility floating around in the internet heavens (whoever wrote it needs a knighthood).

I'll let everybody chew on what the next expansion will be, but it's gonna be something unique, if I can pull it off. The funny thing is it requires almost no modeling, and no painting whatsoever. The riddle has been set......

MP

[gsnde]

The funny thing is it requires almost ... no painting whatsoever. The riddle has been set......

MP

SR-71 ... yes, yes yes

The funny thing is it requires almost no modeling......

MP

Oh okay, no SR-71 then....

[mikeblaze]

Naw, Martin, it is a Crusader expansion...... that's all the hints you get......

MP

[phantomfreak]

If your talking about the Crusader, if I guess right your doing the F8U-3 that went up against the Phantom in the Navy's flyoff.