On the Merlin I used XML coding and the default prop animation. The biggest problem you will have is the hover taxi which is why no one at MAIW has done a skid copter. Also unless you have used key frames and some XML it won't take off like a copter. If you look at the Merlin it takes off hovers then noses down to start forward flight.
John
"That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The A-bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives." - Admiral William Leahy
Forgive me for butting in, I know nothing about what you want to do but John said above no one has done a skid copter, I may be off the mark here but when I use a skid as an AI I raise the skids slightly off the ground, in (most) cases it doesn't look too bad.
Han Min the helicopter 'effect' is a combination of model animation and XML trickery. There is not a default FSDS setting for that.
If you search the forums, the technique is discussed in several different threads. It requires quite a bit of planning ahead with the model or you end up doing a lot of work to make the effect work correctly.
But...... It can be done!
As the guys have mentioned, skidded helicopters are a bit more of a problem because in the AI system, they still have to 'taxi' to the runway.
Mins, sorry, a few questions so I can try and understand what you are trying to do:
- Is this to be a flyable helicopter or an AI one?
- Is it for FS9 or FSX?
- If it's to be an AI helicopter, are you intending to have a vertical lift, animated in the model and triggered by XML, or are you going to have a STOL FDE, eg by using a Stemme-based .air file to simulate a helicopter?
- Are you importing the 3DMax model via MCX to FSDS to compile? Is there not an easier way?
- Are you familiar with using xml triggers in AI aircraft?
We have the code that I developed with Kevin for an AI skidden helicopter, It worked fine for me in my test, but no one has used it to completion for real yet as far as I know.
The rotor animation is the same as for a fixed wing aircraft - just "prop0..." etc, unless you want something fancy like folding blades and tie downs.
The question in your first post seems to concern the rotor rotation itself. I am trying to build my first helicopter, too (Alouette III), and it was a long time before I learned that you have to treat the rotors as propellers, and that all propeller rotations (at least for FS9) are around the Z axis, so your have to rotate that axis for the main and tail rotors, and the Z axis therefore points upwards (in the usual Y axis) for the main rotor, and sideways (in the usual X axis) for the tail rotor. I hope that helps.
Now I still need to learn more about xml for lift and tilt, of which I know almost nothing..
