Classic British Flight Sim

DaveG wrote: ↑

22 Jun 2018, 22:02

I did try that Jaguar in the demo sas it happens.

It does have potential, doesn't it?

Charlie Bravo wrote: ↑

22 Jun 2018, 23:32

Yep, tried the 3jfps thing and didn't like it much. It was fairly easy to see what was being taken away to bring the frames up and I thought, if I want to fly like that, I may as well just reduce those bits in the settings anyway.

Well, it's not a miracle fix, I agree, but it does work well if your base settings are sensible.

The HD Mesh is brilliant in places whereas some other areas don't seem to benefit much. I'll see how I get on.

It all depends on the source data, but elevation stuff is always a bit tough to get by.

Anybody who's remotely into helicopters should give the freeware Bell 429 a try. It's nothing short of brilliant!

Have you looked at anything on the dev side yet Bjoern?
Just wondering how easy it would be to convert my stuff over to XP.

DaveG wrote: ↑

23 Jun 2018, 18:49

Have you looked at anything on the dev side yet Bjoern?
Just wondering how easy it would be to convert my stuff over to XP.

Did some very mild scenery editing, but nothing aircraft related.


I think model files won't be much of a problem (unless they use multi materials), but anymations and gauges are still a bit of a mystery. The flight model also needs to be recreated in X-Plane's format.

Your Hunters and Beaufighters might port over fairly well though since they don't use glass gauges.

Dave, probably you might know this anyway but in X Plane there is a free software for aircraft called Plane Maker, you may be able to do some adjustments through that as it is quite a comprehensive tool or even use it to port over.

I know that the Manfred/Visser C-47v3 for FSX and P3D has actually been ported over for X Plane so don't think you will have any problems with your aircraft.

Regards
Nigel.

Thanks Nigel, I know about Plane Maker, at least the theory of it. I've glanced through the documentation but not actually used it yet. It seems a bit vague regarding importing of models. Guess I'll have to do some experimenting.

Plane Maker does NOT convert or port over anything! It's only used to define system and aerodynamical properties.

Models will have to be built from source files in 3DS Max, AC3D or Blender.


Any airplane that's to be ported over from MSFS, will have to be extensively remade.

As far as I can see when you design the aircraft in plane maker, that determines the aerodynamics and provides a basic 3d model. You can either uses that or replace it with another 3d object exported from 3ds Max etc. It's how to connect the two and the design properties of the exported mesh ( pivot points, hierarchy, animation, that sort of thing) that I haven't figured out yet. It may become obvious when (if) I start using it.

I think the .acf file governs (at least part) of the overall model; it at least references the .obj files in the "objects" folder.
What's a bit irritating is, that there's one .obj file for each exported material, making aircraft or scenery a bit of a jigsaw puzzle.

The first step in getting stuff from MSFS to X-Plane is coming to grips with Blender since it's the only exporter (next to AC3D, I guess) that seems to be regularly updated (from what I've read, the 3DS Max exporter only works till version 2017).

I tried out the Zibo 737-800 yesterday afternoon on a short hop from Manchester to Heathrow and it's certainly a beauty. On take off I left the flaps out too long with the result of overspeed damage. The subsequent approach to Heathrow was a bit more exciting than I wanted probably due to flap damage which resulted in a pronounced roll to the right when extending the flaps. Rudder and engine bias didn't work so a rather hurried retraction resulted in a flapless landing at 180 knots. What seriously impressed me though was that despite a rather systems heavy aircraft the flight over a heavily populated London was as smooth as.