FSX F-18 Tinkering

[Sludge]

Spaz...

No worries.  Actually was surprised that it worked as well and as easy as it did.  And sure, let me give it a try... I think the Hornet files actually have a mirror background image, just like the indexer background I was able to use for this fix.  Let me see what I can do.

Laterz
Sludge

[SpazSinbad]

Thanks Sludge Old Chum.    Vaguely I recall in an Fsim version wayback with 'Flight Deck 1?' maybe (which was hopeless) there was an intention to have a 'flight deck style' mirror in a window on main screen but the whole system was useless (due to the nature of the Flight Sim all those years ago). Being able to see the mirror - or as you say something that looks like the mirror - at same zoom level at whatever distance will be terrific. Then with indexer one is set to look visually for all the cues.

I found that I'll probably have to change screen resolution to see the Virtual HUD more clearly but in most situations I can see the numbers required in the HUD until straightaway when looking only at? Meat Ball Line Up and Air Speed. But youse knew that. :-) Having the AoA indexer in the Virtual HUD is the best! Many thanks for that.

[Sludge]

Spaz...

OK, I just got done and the bad news is, I cant get it to work.  I got the Meatball background to come up by making a subpanel entry, then redrew a yellow "ball.bmp" for the middle light, saved it in my FA-18_HUD folder, but it was still dark doing carrier work?  I think it needs ILS input to work?  I confirmed this by flying with the meatball over land (KOKC, 17L, 110.90, DME/ILS), sure enough...  I was able to get the "lined up, high" green lights, and the "too low" red lights.   However, I couldnt get the ball to move other than just being visible on the lower part of the light track.  Not sure how or why, but it didnt work, so I think you may have to do the "brute force" workaround and just find a camera angle that shows the meatball as if you were a crewmember looking aft towards it from about 20 feet astern.

Anyway, if you do come up with this workaround, can you tell me how to do it?  I dont know how to manipulate/slew? the FSX set environment camera views so that I can have a "meatball" only view pulled up on my screen?  I am able to pull up a view in a view, and tried the LSO spot, but I cant move the viewpoint to behind the actual meatball assembly.

BTW, I know the FSX non-working carrier ILS is a factor, cause there are screen shots within the HUD package that shows "0.5 IC72" on the range and show a hornet lined up for a carrier landing with good needles as well, if you look its called "a07 - final.jpg" and its in the "HUD Docs,Pics" folder of the KBT SuperHornet HUD zip download.

[SpazSinbad]

YELLOW SNOW (as in 'don't eat the yellow snow') Sludge, (I'm in Australia so any kind of snow is a real novelty)    Thanks for your efforts. I cannot promise anything as my time is taken up making PDFs or editing PDFs adding new info to them (about A4G Skyhawk). When this work ends I may have more time for FSX etc. Still waiting for KAHU A4K Skyhawk FSX work to finish but don't know when (I'm not doing any work - only testing). This KAHU will be good with a proper KAHU HUD and AoA Indexer etc.

Yes I have seen the FSX Blue Angels get amazing camera angles but I guess they use other than FSX or the variation on it (forget name for moment). Perhaps enquiring via FSX Blues website might get you some good camera angle / view information?

What is the new 'panel.zip' by the way? Thanks again. Sludge and others have made some great improvements to the whole usability of the FSX Hornet IMHO.

[Sludge]

damn yellow snow anyway?!    Youre right, dont eat it...

Spaz,
Thanks for the appreciation, and gotta mention Doum too, he worked with me alot when I first started posting here.  Gotta throw in some good vibes to WilyCoyote for his inputs as well.  Thanks fellas!

And no worries, I just like messing around and figured you might know of how to get the view moved?  If figure it out, let me know, if not... Ill still be looking and send it to everyone here.  In the .zip file, there's the panel.cfg and a "ball.bmp" that you have to copy/paste into your FA18_HUD folder to bring up the meatball.

Just winding down for the nite and watching football.  I may go check the Blue Angels site and see what they have or talk to the fellas over there.

Take Care
Sludge

[Sludge]

Check this out.  Found that Youtube video with someone else landing with the new HUD and recording it.  Good landing too!

[sonofabeech]

Hey Sludge

Not so loud ..I think I saw SpazSinbad lurking around lol
I think my initial approach was a little left
Thanks for the kind words...loving the new hud mods.
For those of you that are interested the other carrier that i flew
over is the enterprise. I used it as a starting point to accurately place
the nimitz for a multiplayer game so that other players could place it by
using the same reference point...works like a charm. Also gives me an indication of how far
a mile from the carrier is.

Just want to take this opportunity to thank you and Doum76 and anybody else that has been
modding the hud and other parts of the acceleration hornet and of course the nimitz itself
amazing add ons which have made my wait for the FSX VRS superhornet that much more bearable 

[Sludge]

Sonofa...

Yeah, he's pretty harsh but I like that.  Glad you liked the HUD mods and Im surprised more people havent just jumped all over it recently.  I still see alot of videos with the ugly HUD, and I say ugly cause it has no other references (no energy caret, no bracket, no wings waterline) that help alot in setting up a good landing.

No worries, just trying to make this a better experience for everyone.  Honestly, I was surprised that more people havent tried to change the HUD before me.  Nor have more people done the manual trailing flaps mod, even though they complain bout the flaps barely deploying during landing (20deg max, even when at 130 kts).  I know its not true "auto/half/full" flaps logic, but plenty bout this plane isnt true to form as listed above.  Personally, I just try to get close to what I think a Hornet should do, look like, and sit then enjoy it.

Im with you on the FSX VRS Hornet.  Cannot wait to play that thing with all the looks, features, and flying characteristics it offers.

Laterz
Sludge

[tifosi77]

I spoke with a the modeler of the IRIS F-14 Pro series (Stephen V.) a long time ago about the F/A-18 nose being pitched down; he informed me, that they made it that way so that they wouldn't have to animate the model for the required kneel/squat that carrier aircraft have to do inorder to meet the catapult for the launch.

That's confusing to me for two reasons:

1) the Hornet does not kneel/squat to connect the launch bar to the cat shuttle;
2) the nose-down attitude does not come from the nose gear being compressed, but rather from the main mounts not being compressed as they normally would be on the real aircraft.  The default geometry makes the aircraft look like it's standing on its tippy toes when it's on the ground.

[Sludge]

Hey fellas, been a little while since Ive posted, but was messing around the last few days and came up with a good set of contact points that I really like, AND, figured out a way to keep the new HUD correlated to the actual horizon.  Ill post the new contact points when I get home.  No bumps, no carrier shot crashes on full realism w/detect crashes enabled, and no spin-outs/tip-overs on offline carrier traps.  Solid numbers so far.

With the new HUD, when I get home, Ill also download my latest panel.cfg file, so we are working from the same baseline, but once you get it installed, do the following "in-game" procedures while in-flight.  Preferably nose high ("W" symbol at 5 deg nose up, Vel Vector "-o-" on the Artificial Horizon) w/zero rate of decent.  Then pause, so you can make the changes and see the effects w/out having to worry about flying.

1.  Get your view to .60 zoom, and center it on the lower part of the HUD.  This can be done by opening up a "4 dot" red-colored axis
     indicator and centering your view axis on or below the angle of bank caret on the HUD.
2.  Press "CTRL-SpBar" to move the eyepoint to default zero up/down, zero fwd/aft.
3.  Press "CTRL-BackSp" x 22 to get your eyepoint zoomed-FWD twenty-two units.  When you are doing this, it should seem as though your moving your
     head/eyes closer to the HUD.
4.  Press "SHFT-BackSp" x 1 or 2 to get the Artificial Horizon matching the real Horizon.
5.  Set your regular zoom (+/- key) to get to whatever you like best for landing.  I use .60 zoom.

Now, unpause and set up for a landing.  Test out the new HUD by nosing up and down.  The HUD ladder and more importantly, the Artifical Horizon, should stay locked on the actual horizon where you set it, as above.  The only thing that should move up is the "W" and "-o-" when you bank or nose down or add/pull back power for landing.

Actually, if any of you want, you can try this out now w/out my panel.cfg file.  You may have to alter step 3 a bit.  If you are using .75 zoom HUD numbers (ie x-490, y-560), then it would be less, about x 15-18 fwd.  I base the "x 22" using the x-460, y-510 HUD.  To simplify, the smaller your HUD, the more you have to zoom.  And my setup is 1900 x 1600, widescreen.  I tried it non-widescreen (fsx.cfg, widescreen=false) and it was very clausterphobic, so I returned to widescreen.

Try it out and tell me what you think.
Laterz
Sludge

[wilycoyote4]

"..........I tried it non-widescreen (fsx.cfg, widescreen=false) and.........."

Sludge, my fsx cfg file reads "wideviewaspect" and is the last entry under [display].  Am I missing something?

[Sludge]

Wily...

Youre not missing a thing, Im at work and typing this out from memory.  You have the correct line.

Did you try it?  How did it work for you?

[wilycoyote4]

Thanks on the wide setting, makes a wonderful difference, I think.

 "4 dot" red-colored axis indicator and centering your view axis on or below the angle of bank caret on the HUD.

That part seems to ring a bell but I did the procedure just the same and flew touch and goes from the VC and I like it.  Must take a few more flights.  Must do carrier traps, too.  Much to learn here but so far I'm happy to find good results so I'll look for more knowledge on my part and apparently you may have a download for us.

[Sludge]

No problem Wily...  Glad to hear you liked it and had good results.  I will keep messing around with the Hornet til the VRS SuperBug comes out, then youll probly not see me play with this girl ever again.  If it is half as fun and realistic as the FS2004 version, I will fly the SuperBug and nothing else.
OK, since I finally got home tonite and am almost off to hit the rack, let me clarify for other reading this.  Please excuse my explanations if they seem that Im talking down.  I know that I was a noob and anyone venturing here for the first time might not understand what Im trying to convey, so Im doing my best say what needs to be said, for ALL POSSIBLE AUDIENCES.

If you want a widescreen view and feel comfortable modding your "fsx.cfg" file, first back it up (simply open, then save as... "fsx_bak.cfg"), then open up the orig fsx.cfg to modify.  Go down to the file and under [MAIN] there should be "wideviewaspect=false".  If you want to play in widescreen just change it to true.  Save it as "fsx.cfg", then run FSX.  The game will now widen within your current display size (ie 1600 x 1200).  This setting to me is highly valuable as I dont have to zoom quite as far out yet can still see my visual cues when needed (ie crossing the carrier wake on carrier touch-n-go's).
Also, here is my current "aircraft.cfg" file.  The mileage varies, but I know that for my system and setup, I get no crashes at the end of the cat stroke from any catapult shot.  However, for this to work, you have to be configured correctly with FULL FLAPS selected for the cat shot.  Nor do I get the tip-over/spin out problem even when on less than perfect line up.  IMO, this is far more realistic as plenty of youtubing will prove, real carrier pilots dont always land on the center of the angled deck, yet they dont tip over.  Throughout all of these fixes, my system has been running with all realism sliders to the max right w/"detect object collision" checked.  Plus, I have my flaps modded so I manually control them.  The default auto-flaps logic is too general and not based for the Hornet, so it doesnt lower FULL FLAPS (lead or trailing) til about 95 kts.  That doesnt work for me, and I have no problems manually raising and lowering them at the right speeds, so I took control of them.

Anyway, here is my "aircraft.cfg" file,its not alot different but it works well and looks good for me, so have fun and give me feedback.
Laterz
Sludge

[wilycoyote4]

I thought I should post early results but haven't been on a carrier for any flight as of this writing.  I'll do that in a bit.  Full realism and crash , stress detection.  Looks good, does taxi well and lands well as long as I am careful.  I'm keeping fuel high in weight on these land runways.