Military AI Works

To pre-empt the impending question from the Buccaneer thread, my next project is a B-29:

Apart from the fact that it's number 6 on the Owl's Nest most wanted (having done the Buccaneer), it's an aircraft I have wanted to make for a while now. I've picked it for a few other reasons too. I wanted to have a go at a very complex cockpit framework and Perspex (seems to have gone OK) and texturing on a very long fuselage and wing span. I'll also not get bogged down on a whole raft of variations and loadouts that can be quite tedious particularly when designing both FS9 and FSX models.

At the moment I am aiming to do "Fifi" (Commemerative Air Force) and the "Hawg Wild" example that's in the museum at Duxford.

I started the build on Monday and the mesh is all done:



It's the design of the texture sheet and mapping that will take a bit more time, not to mention animation tagging on 4 prop engines in FSX.

John

WOW that looks sweet

Nice looking beastie, John.

I knew there was a reason I started working on my KADS scenery again this week.

Great!

What a great choice, John

Wow, fantastic project!

Giorgio

This is very much like a project I've been thinking about for some time now (ie 4 engine WWII heavy) and I notice that you have one or two of the main features I hope to have, if I proceed with the project.

I note that you have cowl flaps extended. Will these be animated? And what stages of flight will they open and close. I was thinking about from just prior to engine startup until shortly after t/o (keyed to altitude) and opening perhaps after turn off of the main onto taxiway after landing until shortly after engine shutdown.

Will you animate the gun turret and guns at some stage of flight? And pilots? Perhaps other crew members?

Nose gear tracking the centerlines? Rudder? Any special behavior (for example: heavyly loaded aircraft going to full power before break release causing the nose gear oleo to depress before break release and once released a sort of deminishing sine wave like behavior as the a/c excellerates down the runway before extended takeoff?

I've done a lot of thinking about how I would like such an ai a/c to behave, but haven't yet begun a project as of yet, while I continue to assemble information and resources. I am very encouraged to see your first image on your new project. I will be following very eagerly. Ron

It's an AI aircraft Ron and right on the limit of the polygon count I want to incur. Crew figures are 528 mesh triangles each so I just have to limit the number to two. They will have animated heads though. I don't know how to animate cowl flaps without a huge number of polygons. Animating the gun turrents will similarly consume frame rate, although it's easy to do. It has to be a balance between appearance and smooth performance.

The AI flight engine is not as sophisticated as the user flyable one, so I think you have to lower your expectations of sine wave performance down the runway. It would have been good to get the Buccaneer to take off realistically, but just not possible.

John

John Young wrote:It's an AI aircraft Ron and right on the limit of the polygon count I want to incur. Crew figures are 528 mesh triangles each so I just have to limit the number to two. They will have animated heads though. I don't know how to animate cowl flaps without a huge number of polygons. Animating the gun turrents will similarly consume frame rate, although it's easy to do. It has to be a balance between appearance and smooth performance.

The AI flight engine is not as sophisticated as the user flyable one, so I think you have to lower your expectations of sine wave performance down the runway. It would have been good to get the Buccaneer to take off realistically, but just not possible.

John

Thanks so much for your comments, John. This will lighten my load a bunch in planning and creating if I move forward. Mine would also be a bit high in polys for an AI a/c (can't be avoided, I think) and was/is intended to be a single example, for example a single a/c that would live at an air museum and only fly to a distant airport for imaginary airshows on Friday afternoons and return Sunday evenings. Still a lot of research to do before serious modeling can begin, but will be trying out ideas on individual sub assemblies which might be good enough to bring together for a complete a/c. I plan to start off trying to do this in FSDS, but am thinking I might have to use gMax (I sure hope not)! Anyway, thanks again for your comments. Ron

Great idea for a new model John. Looking forward to this when its finished.

Brian

I've mapped the textures now and done all the animation apart from the gear compression. This is "Fifi" with a reflective finish in FS9:







The polygon count in this first LOD is a tad high (4696 in FSDS terms and 10488 in mesh triangles/FS9 terms) but I can reduce that quite quickly through the following LODs. I'm also using two 1024 x 1024 pixel texture sheets to keep the resolution reasonable on the long fuselage and wings, but they are mipped to reduce the impact.

Next job is to set up the AI flight dynamics, make the gear compression, then the LODs and then the FSX models and alternative paint scheme(s).

John

That is impressive John.

Chris

You captured her heart and soul, John.

Looks fantastic! Looking oh so forward to this flying around the sim. Ron

Really good John.
Looking at the first shot, I'd ask you if the engines start one by one or all together?

Giorgio

WOW

The engines start one after the other in the flyable model Giorgio. Haven't tried them as AI yet.

John

Now whilst prop jobs are not really my cup of tea, I have to say that it looks a wonderful representation.

Awwww damn it, if somebody paints some Boeing Washington B.1 schemes for it I know I will end up putting some at Marham.