Problems with AI Phantoms

[bismarck]

Hi all, I've recently donwloaded all available AI Phantom files and I have a lot of problem with them.

For example, ANG series has "Sim=F-4C" in the aircraft.cfg and there is no "F-4C.air" anywhere, some other (US Navy series) has "model=C" and again there is no model.c files available.
These problems were solved changing the entry in the aircraft.cfg file (Sim=Lear45 and model= ).

Unsolved problem are with one pack for RAF Phantom and with new F4F model by Nick Black.
For RAF, the problem is with f4_43_ai.zip from Daryl Payne.
Five of ten models of this pack don't show the texture, I can see only the white aicraft.Tried to reinstall,check the entries in aircraft.cfg for Sim= ; Texture= ; Model= , manually re-enter the right texture entry in the cfg ; re-do the aircraft.txt for TTools.....
Nothing!!!! Just the white aircraft.

For Nick model the problem is different.
Four files for German AF,JG71;72;73;74 for a total of 24 different textures.I can't see any aircraft (not only the texture) excluded one from JG71: NBAI_F4F_Phantom_JG71_37+63
For these files I don't yet tried nothing more than a reinstall.

No problem with Nick's RF-4.

Is there someone out there with same problems?
Any ideas?

Thanks, Giorgio

[FlyEF]

Hey Giorgio,

what version do you use? fs9 or FSX?

I use FSX, and Nicks F-4F and RF-4E are working fine.

The f4_43_ai.zip package has (for FSX) 5 wrong textures. 5 textures are dxt3 format, they work fine, the other 5 are 24bit bitmaps. You have to convert them to dxt3, and the problem is solved.

Regards

Horst

[Firebird]

OK although they are not MAIW packs I will try and help.

Firstly for Daryls paints I found that 5 of them are in 24 bit format with no Alpha channel, my guess is that these are the problem. Try converting them to dxt3 and adding an alpha channel and your problem should be gone.

If I am right the 5 with the problem will be :-
XT860
XT875
XV575
XV581
XV586

Now for the F-4F,s if they don't show at all my guess is that its the same problem that we had in the beta testing. That is that the models have a chute and that alters the default model size in this case to 20m, greater than the 12m we released the Luftwaffe upgrade as. Not a problem in itself except that you probably have none or very few parking slots set to 20m or greater.

Use afcad's aircraft tool to check and reduce the model size to 12m and you will find that the aircraft appear.

Hope this helps.

[bismarck]

Thanks for the answer.

I use FS9.
Is there a free tool to convert texture? I have no experience with that...

Steve, for the F4F is not a parking problem, I use a fictious airport made by me just for test purpose.
In the mean time I did some other tests.
I noticed that the aircrafts appear when the flight starts, but immediatly sink under the airport level with nose,seem that they don't have the forward gear, and then disappear.
Watching them in flight,they have the forward gear down.When the aircraft lands, go to the parking spot and once it stops, it sinks...
BTW, I'll try to change their Radius.

Thanks again, Ciao.

[FlyEF]

Microsofts Imagetool.exe from the FS9 SDK (Terrain SDK) or FSX SDK

Regards

Horst

[delbydoo]

Hey Giorgio,
The f4_43_ai.zip package has (for FSX) 5 wrong textures. 5 textures are dxt3 format, they work fine, the other 5 are 24bit bitmaps. You have to convert them to dxt3, and the problem is solved.

Quite right - I did not realise that I had posted the paints as part 24-bit and part DXT3, until that was pointed out on this thread, so my apologies over the mix up on that, but I won't be re-uploading, as converting to DXT3 is a simple process using DXTbmp from

http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/

You'll find it in the program list on the left-hand side of the page.

As regards FSX - these textures were never intended for use in FSX, I do not have it, nor ever will have it, so I cannot test textures in FSX and why they are listed at Avsim under the "FS2004 AI Aircraft" banner.

[Ford Friendly]

That's the program I routinely use to convert things to dds format for FSX. Works like a charm.

[Firebird]

Thanks for the answer.
Steve, for the F4F is not a parking problem, I use a fictious airport made by me just for test purpose.
In the mean time I did some other tests.
I noticed that the aircrafts appear when the flight starts, but immediatly sink under the airport level with nose,seem that they don't have the forward gear, and then disappear.
Watching them in flight,they have the forward gear down.When the aircraft lands, go to the parking spot and once it stops, it sinks...
BTW, I'll try to change their Radius.

Thanks again, Ciao.

Giorgio, I tested Nick's F-4s throughout its development at the MAIW airfield and never saw this behaviour. I was also involved in the package testing of Luftwaffe update package, again with no hint of these problems.
I am not saying that there isn't a problem but nobody has so far reported one at any base so at this time we are unable to re-produce the problem.

Try using the MAIW airfield, from the anniversary package to see if the problem re-occurs. Also see if it happens in the update package.

At this moment my thinking is either its an airfield issue or its an afcad surface issue. If you can give us more details maybe we can help more. If an aircraft sinks on startup it sounds like a balance problem that nobody else has discovered.

[bismarck]

Hi all.
For the RAF model, I'll give it a try, it seems to be very easy to do.

For the NB F4F....

All of the following tests are done with nbai_f4f_jg71.zip file, because is the only one where there is a working F4.The aircraft working is: NBAI_F4F_Phantom_JG71_37+63
No problem with GAF pack.

1)Assigned the same model of the 37+63 to the other five.Same problem
2)Copy "model" directories from GAF pack to JG71 dir.Same problem
3)Copy/paste the aircraft.cfg from GAF pack to the new one.Same problem
4)Copy/paste the ".air" file.Same problem
5)Start the flight from another airport (LIPI).Same problem x5
6)Move "texture" directories from JG71 dir to GAF pack. x6
Nothing to do..... I always see only one of the aircrafts....the other five,sink

I'm desperate...

[bismarck]

YEAHHHHH!!!!
PROBLEM SOLVED

I re-do some tests. Now, I have "model" directories and .air file from GAF pack. Also copied only the text, from [GENERAL] section to the end of the aircraft.cfg file, into the new one, and now I have my F-4F

Test already done, but I don't know why it didn't work.

I think it's something related to aircraft.cfg, but now, it's time to go to bed.....

Good night

Tomorrow,I'll work on RAF Phantom.

[bismarck]

OK, completely sorted out.

Found some differences between some lines in aircraft.cfg from new packages,and the one used and copied from MAIW GAF package.

These are the differences:

[contact_points]
NEW : point.0 = 1, 16.95, 0.0, -8.95, 1181.1, 0, 0.6349, 46.8, 0.texture=, 2.500, 0.9100, 5.000, 5.000, 0.000,260.000,260.000
GAF : point.0 = 1, 16.95, 0.0, -8.95, 1181.1, 0, 0.6349, 46.8, 0.2000, 2.500, 0.9100, 5.000, 5.000, 0.000,260.000,260.000

[lights]
NEW : light.9 = 7, -20.35, -2.10, -2.20, fx_nicksmokeAI_sm_lear
GAF : light.9 = 7, -20.35, -2.10, -2.20, fx_nicksmokelear

NEW : light.10 = 7,-20.35, 2.10, -2.20, fx_nicksmokeAI_sm_lear
GAF : light.10 = 7,-20.35, 2.10, -2.20, fx_nicksmokelear

[autopilot]
NEW : max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=texture=0.0
GAF : max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.0

I'm sure that the problem is related to [contact_points] and not to [lights].Don't kwon for [autopilot].

Last but not least, the only one F4-F working was the only one that has a TITLE= line equal to one from GAF pack.

Thanks to all.

Ciao, Giorgio

[Firebird]

Glad its sorted out, and well done for working it out.

[bismarck]

Resolved the RAF texture problem too.

Ciao