South Carolina ANG Block 52 F-16's

[Greg]

MAIW is proud to present the USAF Block 52 F-16CM and F-16DM AI model for FS2004. This series of AI models is the first release of the Block 52 version of the USAF’s F-16CM and F-16DM aircraft.

Read the full article right here.

[Christopher Barbas]

Hi,

Greg, those are the new ones right?

[Weescotty]

They are the brand new Block 52's.
If you have the Misawa pack with the new Block 50's you will be able to spot the differences....

If these are good Mike is going to roll the changes to the Misawa Block 50's, then we can get on with the rest.

These will become the two 'base' models from which the other Blocks will flow.


So everyone is aware -
These aren't a single model painted up as Block 50 or 52.
The actual differences are there, look at the intake, the number of feathers in the exhaust, the angle of the ECS intake, etc etc.

[John Young]

Great job Mike and Kevin. Just did a quick test of the aircraft in FS9 at KMMT (what a nice scenery) and they look fine. The LODs are much smoother and less fierce than the Misawa release and I had no instances of canopy transparency bleed through with objects behind them as I did previously. Perhaps it was the hangar model and not the canopy that was causing the problem there.

I also tried the scenery and aircraft in FSX. The scenery is absolutely fine with the FSX version of the Global Objects library with no transparency issues with the objects. With the F-16s installed I got a very healthy frame rate of 30fps at FSX Maximum quality settings. The only problem I found was with the canopies - they do have a drawing order problem with anything behind them in this case.

John

[Christopher Barbas]

Great, but I'll have to wait for an FSX/P3D package to be released, I dont use FS9 anymore!

[Weescotty]

Great job Mike and Kevin. Just did a quick test of the aircraft in FS9 at KMMT (what a nice scenery) and they look fine. The LODs are much smoother and less fierce than the Misawa release and I had no instances of canopy transparency bleed through with objects behind them as I did previously. Perhaps it was the hangar model and not the canopy that was causing the problem there.

I also tried the scenery and aircraft in FSX. The scenery is absolutely fine with the FSX version of the Global Objects library with no transparency issues with the objects. With the F-16s installed I got a very healthy frame rate of 30fps at FSX Maximum quality settings. The only problem I found was with the canopies - they do have a drawing order problem with anything behind them in this case.

John

Thanks John.

Mike - I think the drawing order can be fixed by cutting the transparent parts then pasting them straight back.
This puts them at the end of the parts list, before compiling.
Or is this an FSX issue?
Seem to remember an FS9 issue with transparent parts and clouds that there is no fix for?

[John Young]

Kevin, I've just tried my FS9 Osprey glass in FSX and that has exactly the same drawing order problem. I'm not sure why the fix that Martin normally applies to FS9 canopies in FSX is not working, or believe is not working.

If you pop a copy of the re-compiled models in my folder after you have bumped the glass up the order, I'll gladly test again.

John

[MIKE JG]

Mike - I think the drawing order can be fixed by cutting the transparent parts then pasting them straight back.
This puts them at the end of the parts list, before compiling.

That's it! I KNEW there was something that we had done to address that in the past. I will do that with the Misawa birds and that should prove once and for all if that is the fix.

[MIKE JG]

And I forgot to mention that yes, John Stinstrom did a very nice job with this little scenery for KMMT.

The scenery is not part of this package but if you don't have the MAIW McEntire JNGB package by Des Burrell, it is worth the download.

[Weescotty]

John....
Something you can try....
Copy the material you are using for the glass...
Rename it with a ! In front, so for eg glass becomes !glass
Apply that material to the inner glass, then recompile.

[John Young]

Kevin, I don't normally use an inner glass, but a double sided material on the outer glass. My theory is that it saves polygons, but I'm not totally sure about that.

[swp53]

A couple of questions for Mike or Kevin.
AIFP returns the message "parking radius not known" for "model=Bk52_USAF_Air2Air_2" ?

In the lights section there are two sections with a locked out duplicate but with no explanation in the readme but I am assuming for one of the models not available yet?
//LIGHT.9 = 3, -4.96, -14.89, -0.67, fx_f16_navredm
LIGHT.9 = 2, -4.96, 14.89, -0.34, fx_f16_strobegreen

//LIGHT.12= 3, -4.96, 14.89, -0.69, fx_f16_navgrem
LIGHT.12= 2, -17.08, 0.00, 2.26, fx_f16_strobewhite

Regards and thank you for the superb models released so far.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Edit:
I would also suggest that in the lights section the following entries should be type 1=BEACON even though they are strobes FS uses the beacon command for anti collision lights during aircraft power up and taxi and video on youtube shows these 4 lights are normally on during taxi out. 2=STROBE only come on when cleared for takeoff at the threshold.

LIGHT.1 = 2, -17.55, -0.00, 10.52, FX_F16_STROBEH //TAIL ANTI-COLLISION STROBE
LIGHT.2 = 2, 12.10, -2.20, -2.31, FX_F16_STROBERED //Port FUSE RED NAV STROBE
LIGHT.4 = 2, 12.10, 2.20, -2.31, FX_F16_STROBEGREEN //Stbd FUSE GREEN NAV STROBE
LIGHT.12= 2, -17.08, 0.00, 2.26, FX_F16_STROBEWHITE //TAIL WHITE NAV STROBE

[Weescotty]

Mike will know the answer to those two queries.

[Jon]

A couple of questions for Mike or Kevin.
AIFP returns the message "parking radius not known" for "model=Bk52_USAF_Air2Air_2" ?

Check that the configuration file is in the model=Bk52_USAF_Air2Air_2

If your download was corrupted that may be why AIFP threw the error.

[swp53]

Thanks Jon, I had not thought to check the model=Bk52_USAF_Air2Air_2, sorted now.

[Weescotty]

Anyone watched the exhaust on take-off?
Blood, sweat, tears, and snot went into it!

[MIKE JG]

Steve they are set up that way because the max number of light entries is 18 or 19 'I think', don't quote me on that but those two entries that are remarked out, are for the bottom side of the wing steady nav lights which depending on how a user wants to set up the lights, may be more than allowable. IOW, there are not enough entries allowable for the number of light effects on the model. So those two were sacrificed but remain there in case the user wants to go with steady lighting instead.

Either way, there seems to be no one correct configuration for the lights. Some F-16 units seem to use the strobing nav lights from the moment of startup all the way through the flight, while others use them only below 10,000'. Honestly it probably depends on each unit's standard operating procedures which typically are going to be based on what the unit commander believes to be the correct way to do things. Which again means different from one squadron to the next.

Fortunately the lights are one of the easiest things to change and I encourage everyone to set the lights up the way they think they should be set up.

We're happy to talk people through that if they want help altering the lighting effects.

[swp53]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the lights explanation.
Regards,
Steve

[C-130H]

Great job to all involved! Awesome package!
Merry Christmas & Thanks for all that you all have done!

[MIKE JG]

Actually here is a bit I wrote about light entries a few years back, should explain how to edit them if anyone wants to:
http://www.militaryaiworks.com/forums/10/4754