Military AI Works

Thanks Pete but, just hold for a moment if you wouldn't mind. Tim has managed to remove the trees and is in the process of replacing them with FSX native ones.

John

No probs

Haha - I've done something similar (in FSX format), but hand-placed the trees using the default FSX vegetation library. John has that too now, and that one uses Giorgio's revised AFCADs. I'll leave it up to John to decide which version he wants to use. I do also have a revised P3Dv4 LIRS in progress which is mapped to an up-to-date and accurate photoreal background, so it's essentially a new airfield. It does use the JS buildings, so it looks somewhat similar. I'm going to have a look at the textures to see if I can do something about the Z-fighting. This isn't my area of expertise, so it's going to be one step forward and a couple back from time to time. However, if - as you say - we have the appropriate permissions, it would be nice to have a detailed, modern background.

It s a pity that Taif and Coningsby are not availible for FS9.

A huge thank to all who were involved in this project. Especially for making it also work in FS9.

If you read what John wrote properly then you will see that both Taif and Coningsby are already available for FS9 and will work quite adequately with his Typhoons when they are released.

I red that for Taif is only an Afcad availible or did i miss something?

I wrote: "There is a simple FS9 AFCAD for Taif in the MAIW_RSAF_Eagles package".

That's it Asdro, nothing more than that.

John

It's definitely coming together now.

This weekend, Ian has delivered his latest RAF Coningsby for P3D and Dale and Mark have delivered an enhanced RAF Mount Pleasant for FSX and P3D.

I have written the German package manual and I only need to complete the adding of anti-push-back nodes to the FSX/P3D versions of the scenery AFCADs to have everything in place for that package. Tim has solved a few problems with Grosseto in FSX/P3D so the Italian package is nearly ready for writing up and assembling too, as are the Saudi packages.

The UK and Spanish packages just need a couple of sceneries finishing and they can have the assembly treatment, but I'll leave those till last to give the designers the time to do their work.

John

The Austrian, German and Italian manuals are now written as is the bulk of the UK one. While I was working on that, Ray kindly sent through an additional German paint. It's probably not in service now, but there is an alternative standard grey texture included as an alternative. Here's the painted tail:



I've also added Ray's paints of the RAF P8A's to the Lossimouth FSX and P3D scenery and included a link in the manual so users can do the same:



For FS9, Tim has added his P8 hangar to the existing Lossimouth scenery and I have added the apron, taxiway and parking spots to the AFCAD file. Ray's P8A RAF paints are not compatible with FS9, but has anyone converted them and the traffic flle for use in FS9 please? It would be good to be able to link to those too.

John

PM sent.

i did do the P-8's for FS9 you can find them here : https://rayparkerrepaints.weebly.com/downloads.html

Thanks Steve and Ray. All sorted now. The amended Lossimouth AFCAD, the P-8 hangar, P-8 paints and traffic file, will be in the UK Typhoon zip for all 3 sim versions.

John

I'm just completing the UK Typhoons manual and I just want to be sure I haven't missed something. I will be including scenery for RAF Mount Pleasant (EGYP), Falkland Islands in the upload for FSX and P3D, courtesy of Dale and Mark (Tranquil). This is for the 1435 Flt Typhoons.

Has anyone found any suitable freeware scenery of that airfield for FS9 please that we could link to, to complete the sim trio?

John

Looks great guys!

You planning to include the new pan in the 3 Sqn HAS site at Coningsby?

lowlevelRAF wrote: 08 Sep 2020, 09:28 Looks great guys!

You planning to include the new pan in the 3 Sqn HAS site at Coningsby?

I chose to leave it out because there is no sat imagery to add this. Once this is available I will add it to the P3D version.

Same goes with the 12 squadron buildings, without high res photos from all sides I wont add them as they will not blend with the photo real buildings around it. I added the ASP shelters as I had good photos plus I had a sat image of the new ground markings.

I can ask to get some info/pictures if that helps? I have a friend on base who is air side

Interesting discovery yesterday that was a bit worrying for a time.

The two landing lights on the FSX Typhoons, when the viewpoint is slewed away, split into top and bottom facets and progressively move apart (upwards and downwards). The animation is quite simple, the lights are just the same effects files that I've always used, attached to the gear doors so the lights retract into the wheel wells after take-off. After trying various tweaks without solving the problem, I wondered if other of my AI aircraft did the same thing and to my surprise they did:



There is no problem with the same models in P3Dv4. FS9 models use a different technique and they are working fine too.

Luckily, I still have my old PC upstairs so I tried the FSX Typhoon on that. I found no problem at all, with the lights all behaving themselves. I half expected that because I'm pretty sure users here of my Poseidon, Tornado GR4 and C-130 that I used for the tests, would have flagged any problem over the past couple of years. Has anyone experienced this problem with those aircraft in FSX please?

My old PC (7 years old) has an earlier GeForce graphics card and a monitor with a different resolution. I did try that resolution on my new PC (6 months old with a much later GeForce card) but still the lights separated.

Not only are we trying to design for 4 sim versions, but maybe graphics cards are a variable too. We know that P3Dv5 is problematical with AMD cards.

I'm inclined to release the FSX models as is in view of what I've found. I wouldn't know what to do differently in any case. If users experience a problem, the only course would be to delete the landing lights from the FSX models, but I'll only contemplate that after some wider feedback.

We only have one other problem to solve and that's the issue of traffic freezes in the overlaid AFCADs for the QRA Typhoons in two of Giorgio's sceneries that have been converted for FSX and P3D. Tim is trying to solve that.

In the meantime, I have completed all the manuals and taken all the upload screen shots.

John

John Young wrote: 10 Sep 2020, 08:57 We only have one other problem to solve and that's the issue of traffic freezes in the overlaid AFCADs for the QRA Typhoons in two of Giorgio's sceneries that have been converted for FSX and P3D. Tim is trying to solve that.

John

The creation of the overlaid AFDs for Grosseto caused me more than one problem, never encountered before, for example with LIRE (3 AFD) or IDF Ramon (LLRM - 4 AFD)
For example, once created the first overlaid LLIR, the main runway disappeared. When sorted out and added the DLIR, same problem as before, plus aircraft coming from certain airports, landed on the closed runway!!!
I think there were some problem related to the layer assigned to the three AFDs.
I can't help with FSX, I can only suggest to try to rebuild LLIR and DLIR from scratch.

Regards, Giorgio

Black is the new grey

that will please John