Sludge Hornet Modifications

[Paddles]

I've been looking around to try and find weathered textures and ways to make them, but no such luck so far. The next guy would probably know much better than me about the matter anyhow in terms of how to make them. I just thought it would be a neat and unique thing to have on top of the cake.
...
I will continue to see what can be done about the weathered textures, but i understand that in general, the HUD is the most important item on topic.

Just curious, what do you mean by speaking 'weathered textures'? The ones that dynamically change during aircraft's life? Or the ones that are representing a weary and dirty aircraft? AFAIK, the former are gonna be first implemented in Storm of War series, but in FSX there are just 'static' textures. The latter is easy, just a matter of some artistic abilities and time...

[Orion]

Just curious, what do you mean by speaking 'weathered textures'? The ones that dynamically change during aircraft's life? Or the ones that are representing a weary and dirty aircraft? AFAIK, the former are gonna be first implemented in Storm of War series, but in FSX there are just 'static' textures. The latter is easy, just a matter of some artistic abilities and time...

I took it he meant the latter, but now that you mention it, it would make a lot more sense if he was talking about the former, since pre-weathered textures are easy (assuming you're good with graphics, unlike me).

[Afterburn93]

fsxnavypilot,

By weathered, I mean how the aircraft over its time of life being used gets to appear dirty, making it look like it's been around a significant period of time, not like the default where it looks brand new out of the factory.

A/B

[Afterburn93]

I want something close to this effect: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Spanish_Air_Force_EF-18_DD-SD-00-02833.JPEG

Something like this is a bit much, but brings the overall point across.

A/B

[neutrino]

There are two guys at fsxblueangels website - 'wingmate' and 'svicar' - who are really good at textures and liveries for the Hornet. They have made some of the best I've seen. You can send them a pm or just post a thread about the 'weathered textures'...

[Afterburn93]

There are two guys at fsxblueangels website - 'wingmate' and 'svicar' - who are really good at textures and liveries for the Hornet. They have made some of the best I've seen. You can send them a pm or just post a thread about the 'weathered textures'...

Thanks JR, I'll see what I can do.

A/B

[Sludge]

A/B...

I mean JR's HUD on the F/A-18 model like the aerosoft HUD is on the F-16.  Right now, the "default" UGLY HUD is hard-coded on the model, and if we get permission, would get some help to hard-code JR's HUD on the model at a fixed attachpoint that would ensure collimation along with correllation.  If Im understanding Virtuali correctly?

And yeah, the weathered textures would look cool.  Im not against it at all.  If you find more people to help, keep the thread going in that direction.  IF the permission comes, then it comes....

BTW, on that note, I just got a reply email from Microsoft and they gave me a phone number to move my request up their corporate chain, so I guess we will see what happens from here.  Ill try to call tomorrow.  Got tornadoes to deal with here in Okieland tonite.

Later
Sludge

[SpazSinbad]

Sludge, Good Luck with the TORNADOES (and I'm not referring to Microsoft here). :-)

[svicar]

There are two guys at fsxblueangels website - 'wingmate' and 'svicar' - who are really good at textures and liveries for the Hornet. They have made some of the best I've seen. You can send them a pm or just post a thread about the 'weathered textures'...

Many thanks for the compliment neutrino. Very kind words from someone who's work I really admire and appreciate.

[Afterburn93]

There are two guys at fsxblueangels website - 'wingmate' and 'svicar' - who are really good at textures and liveries for the Hornet. They have made some of the best I've seen. You can send them a pm or just post a thread about the 'weathered textures'...

Many thanks for the compliment neutrino. Very kind words from someone who's work I really admire and appreciate.

Hey svicar,

I'm curious, just to what extent would it be possible to carry out a texture to be weathered? It is true that the default hornets are very *slightly* weathered, but not nearly to the extent of what we are looking for. I mean, I just want it to look like it's been flying, and through quite a few of traps and launches. Basically, like a real airplane. That photo of the Spanish F-18 in my other post is fairly close to this.

A/B

[svicar]

You can weather them as much as you like. When I do repaints I start with the plain white scheme that comes with the default acceleration pack, (texture.13). I then make a duplicate layer of the original texture panel I'm editing and in the layers window set it to "linear burn". This makes the duplicate texture panel somewhat transparent while retaining the details of the rivets and seams. By adjusting various parameters such as brightness or contrast ect., you can enhance or impair the weathered effects. That's basically it an a nutshell. Oh, and of course, I'm using Adobe Photoshop as my editor.

[Sludge]

A/B...

I think what your trying to say is you want to know if someone has the skillz to make the F-18s paints look like this?!  I think you mean more than just simple weathering, you want engine grime and SLUDGE (yes, I know that's me) on the lower engine panels, and all the stuff that makes a Hornet look like its come back from a strike mission?!  A Hornet with some frickin' testosterone...!!!

I dont have the artistic skill, nor do I have Photoshop to touch up the textures or layer them as svicar was saying.

If anybody can come up with this, please give it a try and put the new textures up... or if you can give tutorials to a rock like me, Im game, just hope you have some patience.

Later
Sludge

[Afterburn93]

Sludge, I second that... I cannot make these textures either, I would need someone with the "skillz" for it.

[Paddles]

A helpful excerpt from plastic model painting guide

[Sludge]

To all...

A new Sludge (v1.1) is on the way... currently in final testing phase and re-writing the README.txt.

Already testing out a new BlackBox UFC gauge (thanks FSXNP), and might include the updated ALA lights, as they now work within the F-18's default light structure without taking away the light functions as the previous version did.  Also, I have reworked the drag values so that the gear is the main source of drag, then the flaps, then the airframe.  The engine is fully powered (11k static) but still maintains the classic Sludge landing profile, meaning one needs to be up (85-88 percent) on the RPMs in approach, just that now there is enough engine power to "bail out" of a bad low approach without needing 'blower.  Additionally, the new Sludge will include Ray Gagnon's paint "Grunge Sludge" VMFA-323 as the fifth selectable paint.  Only bad news is that the collimated HUD is hitting a brick wall that I dont have the skills or knowledge to go around.  If anybody KNOWS or can get me in touch with a good, no-BS 3D modeler, send them my way, as I have a big task for them, that I would PAY THEM to complete.  However, as I said... if this ever gets done and we get a collimated HUD, it will cost nothing.  Also, for some of the gauges (ie, BB UFC, 2D HUD Indexer), I'm computing alternate values for users that have wideaspectview=false in their fsx.cfg (non-widescreen) and 16:9 ratio will have pre-computed values to use for the 2D HUD, Indexer, and BB UFC.   By putting them on a rem "//" line, all one has to do is remove the old values and the "//" and their new values will be used.

Believe it or not, the biggest pain is rewriting the README.txt, and making sure all the needed files for install.  Such as .gau files or .fx files are where they need to be for the everyday user to install w/out problems.  In giving out the new Sludge, Ive run into a few problems where I missed some obvious install files being included in the right place and also, some errors in my instructions.  Please bear with me as this is a pain staking process that is sometimes done at 1-2am.

Later
Sludge