AI BlackHawk

[Joecoastie]

Super work, John. Am working on the 42 USCG helos - numbering and flight plans.

[John Young]

Thanks Joe, those will be much appreciated I'm sure. Are you painting the converted texture? If you convert from the compressed texture to RGB for editing and back again, you will degrade the image. Do you want my 24 bit master for the Coast Guard aircraft ahead of the Paint Kit? We've just got to make sure no changes are needed on the texture sheet first, but I'm sure you would have told me if there are.

Will you be able to produce both FS9 and FSX texture sets? For FSX you just flip the .bmp material and the alpha vertically and save as .dds dxt5.

hermit, thanks for your points. I can fix the mapping and the strobe positions. I didn't include Nav lights in the FS9 models as I have in the FSX versions. The only option is to use default Nav lights in FS9 and they are far too bright and bulbous. I debated with myself for some time and eventually decided against using them. In FSX I have attached custom lights that are much smaller. You can't use conventional aircraft.cfg light entries because they won't rise with the animated lift.

John

[Ripcord]

Somewhere there is a handy bat file called DDS Converter, and this is what I use to convert textures from .bmp to .dds for FSX/P3D. Works great.

[hermit]

Checked all the other models in FSX and the underside strobes are all OK, so just the Navy R's to look at.

[Joecoastie]

Thanks Joe, those will be much appreciated I'm sure. Are you painting the converted texture? If you convert from the compressed texture to RGB for editing and back again, you will degrade the image. Do you want my 24 bit master for the Coast Guard aircraft ahead of the Paint Kit? We've just got to make sure no changes are needed on the texture sheet first, but I'm sure you would have told me if there are.

Will you be able to produce both FS9 and FSX texture sets? For FSX you just flip the .bmp material and the alpha vertically and save as .dds dxt5.

John

24 bit master - yes if in .psd
FS9 & FSX - Yes

I've a list of how many 'Jays' are at each CGAS. However the reg numbers assigned are always in a state of change as the aircraft rotate through various levels of depot maintenance at Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City.

You still have my email address from the B-24s ?

[John Young]

Joe, I've just PM'd you a link to the Coast Guard 24 bit .psp and .psd masters. The zipped file was too big to e-mail.

John

[Joecoastie]

Got it. Thanks.

[Reggie]

I'm doing frame rate tests in FSX with multiple aircraft. How do I display a screenshot here?

[John Young]

You need to upload the image to a photo storage server, like Photobucket, Reggie. The server will allocate an IMG code to the image. You copy that code to your clip board and post it into the MAIW forum post to link back to the image server.

John

[hermit]

The manual mentions 2 variations of R_sonar whereas there is only 1 in the package and it doesn't mention the S.

[John Young]

Thanks hermit.

There is an explanation of the second "R" sonar model in the text below the screen shot. It is not set up as a separate model folder or in the aircraft.cfg file, but the second model (with the dipping sonar) is in the "R" Sonar folder and users can swap this for the non-dipping one if they want to dispense with the realism.

You are right about the "S" model. I need to add that screen shot to the manual.

John

[MIKE JG]

John the only thing I can think of for the FS9 models would be to add a note in the readme file explaining why the model looks off center when viewing it in flight with an AI traffic viewer.

I think most people here understand why that is but someone new to this brand of helicopter AI may think there's something wrong with the models.

[John Young]

Yes, good point Mike. It's not as prominent as the Sea King, which has a 100ft lift and disappears completely from the traffic viewer window. I'll add a note as you suggest.

[Reggie]

John,
I'm having trouble with PhotoBucket, so I sent the photos to your direct e-mail. Please post on MAIW as you wish.

Reggie

[Reggie]

How about this......

[Reggie]

A couple of shots from my multi-aircraft trials in FSX. Frame rates are excellent!

Reggie

[MIKE JG]

Reggie, instead of attaching the images to your posts, you should link them to a hosting site.

A VERY easy to use site that I've used for years is Simviation's hosting site.

Here is the link to their hosting page: http://simviation.com/phpupload/phUploader.php

Allowed Types: jpg, gif, png
Max size per file: 250kb. 1800 pixels wide
Max size for all files combined: 1000kb.
Max size for Avatar images: 15kb/120 pixels wide
Max size for Signature images: 30kb/600 pixels wide

Just upload your images there and it spits out a url for you to link to.

There's an "Img" button at the top of the post page editor, just select that if you want and insert you image's url between the two tags.

[Reggie]

Thanks Mike. Just couldn't get Photobucket to work for me.

I used the Simviation site. Here's a trial:



Thanks again and sorry for any inconvenience,

Reggie

[aerogator]

Hi John,
First of all, great work! This is a dream come true! The model looks terrific in the sim and I can't wait to populate all the bases.
I have a question about the landing (and my knowledge of how helos work with the FS AI engine is limited). Is there a way to make it land not so tail-down. In my sim, FS9, the tail wheel hits hard and the a/c bounces a good bit and sometimes takes off again. Here's a pic landing at Eglin: (Again, this is probably nit-picking but was just wondering. It won't slow me down using the model)

[TheFoufure]

Just WOW !! for all these models.

Thanks to the authors.

I hope these models will be released soon.

My FS9 virtual sky is impatient lol