Military AI Works

I was wondering if anyone has ever attempted, thought about, or successfully done a replacement of the aging static aircraft that populate the deck of the USS Enterprise? I'm wanting to modernize the population with more true to date aircraft. The Tomcat, Viking, and Intruder are all retired now and was wanting to replace them with (ideally) Hornets, Rhinos, and Prowlers.

As those of you who have the scenery know the static traffic and only the static traffic is built into three .blgs for example: CVN65_Norfolk_PlanesDualPurpose_Part1.bgl, CVN65_Norfolk_PlanesDualPurpose_Part2.bgl, and CVN65_Norfolk_PlanesDualPurpose_Part3.bgl. You can interchange or remove those to get the desired deck configuration either CLEAN (.blgs removed), DUAL PURPOSE (for deck open just enough for launch and recovery), LAUNCH (all traffic on the fan tail), or RECOVERY (all traffic on the bow). What I want to do is build my own .blgs that have my own aircraft (or available freeware static objects). BUT I've never done that before. Have any of you, or at the least could any of you point me in the right direction? What is it... EZScenery or something that allows you to quickly and easily place scenery objects? Also if any of you have references to scenery objects that could be placed including static aircraft that would be awesome. I've never seen a Super Hornet or a Prowler Static object, so I might have to start from scratch there. Any advise is welcome. Thanks folks,
-Adam

I would be interested in a replacement too, Adam. They look good on-deck, but aren't really as realistic anymore...

You could always make use of our AI Hornets as static AI which would basically be the same thing as static scenery objects.

Here's an afcad that I made for the freeware AS Carrier Enterprise, the one off the coast of PR.

Not sure how they "hardened" their carrier deck, whether they modeled it or just used an afcad file for it. I think it's "hardened" in Gmax in which case you wouldn't have to worry about creating a flatten surface for the AI to park on.

Either way, this option will work to place AI aircraft onto the deck, in this case in a line over top of the number one cat. This will also work for non hardened ships of any type.

**Side note. Generally ships designed using FSDS will not have hardened surfaces because it's a royal pain in the you know what to add them if they were designed in FSDS. Gmax can do it much easier.

Just add spaces where ever you want aircraft parked and make up a dummy flight plan for them. They will just appear as static aircraft and if they try to depart on their flight plan, they will just disappear since they have no taxi links. Just plan them to depart in the middle of the night when you won't be watching.

The added benefit of using AI aircraft for this is that they have multiple LOD's and will not hurt your performance as much as non LOD'd models would.

Too bad this just came out for the FSX users:

http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=136217

Damm! That's looks amazing! Wonder what kind of specs you would need to run that??

For PC specs, nothing special. The thing is that you cannot put your own AI planes on it.
If you are on FSX, go for a static FS9 carrier and put your own AI on it e.g. using the hornet AI's. Much better and more fun. And as for your own pilotable craft, you can use the FS9 Superhornet with Rob Barendregt's RCBCOv2 so that you can take off and land as if you were catapulted or trapped by the cables.

Roby

I'm new to editing scenery but managed to do this..using the Alphasim USS Enterprise and USS Stennis by P. Clawson (downloaded via avsim) I was able to make this carrier turnover scene off San Diego.





Looking forward to working on more scenery.

Dustoff,

Have you tried to tinker with the data on that scenery to see if you can get it to work with FS9 without crashing? That looks super clean.

MIKE JG,

Agreed, that's peretty much the way I did my Stennis groupe. Except all onboard aircraft flew somewhere.

SIMAF03,

Your looking good there Sir. Keep it up! Flying from land over sea for a period of time with this bird to the carrier is hairy business. It's so easy to get Vertigo. Hard core Instrument skills are a must, especially in fog at night.

This is a pucker factor 10 event on this proceedure.

I've messed up many times at night. This is the best part of FS, to perfect skills.

No I have not, my only sim shipboard landings besides real world are done in the real UH-60 sim, something I like to conclude the session with...some DLQ's

I am a member of the Virtual USN and have just about every shipboard landing out. The best I have come close to real world is X-plane(moving ship, sea state)...unless I get a machine that can run FSX!