FSDreamTeam forum
General Category => Unofficial F/A-18 Acceleration Pack board => Topic started by: neutrino on April 18, 2010, 04:06:41 pm
-
Hi guys, I have been working on an In-Flight Refueling gauge recently and it is finally ready. The gauge can be installed on any aircraft and allows refueling in the air from any aircraft - in free flight or multiplayer. Thanks to everyone that helped me test it in the weekly multiplayer sessions! Andy Niko is the co-author of the gauge - without him I wouldn't have come up with the idea and the improvements that came in the development.
This is a short demo video of an in-flight refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker, where the gauge is integrated with the improved Acceleration Hornet HUD:
The gauge can be downloaded here:
http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=94&fname=ifr_gauge.zip
The KC-135 from the video can be downloaded from the link below, it is for FSX:
http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=89&fname=kc135t_navy_drogue.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=89&fname=kc135t_navy_drogue.zip)
-
Great work Jivko! ;D
Can't wait to fly and refuel :).
-
Pimp Daddy Payne... great job!!
-
Here are some quick screenshots I just made ;).
(http://i43.tinypic.com/21dn345.jpg)
(http://i40.tinypic.com/11j3y9z.jpg)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/vrrkgl.jpg)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/10qkxly.jpg)
-
JR...
Dont know if you thought or tried this, but would you be able to tie the Panel Activation ("Refuel ON/OFF") to the Refueling Switch that extends the probe? Or vise versa, that opening the Panel and clicking on Refuel ON extends the refuelling probe? And clicking it OFF retracts it? That would be the most realistic way to do it.
Later
Sludge
-
neutrino, thanks for gauge, have not been able to try it yet and the video is terrific. Here is a TomCat singing 'goodbye' to the KC-135 tanker for the last time:
http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/?action=view¤t=F14BOOMoperatorHiQ.flv
(http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/th_F14BOOMoperatorHiQ.jpg) (http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/?action=view¤t=F14BOOMoperatorHiQ.flv)
-
JR...
Dont know if you thought or tried this, but would you be able to tie the Panel Activation ("Refuel ON/OFF") to the Refueling Switch that extends the probe? Or vise versa, that opening the Panel and clicking on Refuel ON extends the refuelling probe? And clicking it OFF retracts it? That would be the most realistic way to do it.
Later
Sludge
Sludge, your idea is sound but I don't know which variable controls the boom animation in the Hornet - it is specific to the Hornet model and is not accessible.
-
neutrino, thanks for gauge, have not been able to try it yet and the video is terrific. Here is a TomCat singing 'goodbye' to the KC-135 tanker for the last time:
http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/?action=view¤t=F14BOOMoperatorHiQ.flv
That video is cool - I've seen it before but lost the link ;D
-
I think if you use FSUIPC you can actually have the probe connect to the basket using some addons BTW what exactly does this gauge do anyway because you can inflight refuel without a gauge just by flying up behind a tanker with just a stock acceleration Hornet. ???
The best modelling of inflight refuelling from the basket that I've seen was Flaming Cliffs 1.0 which featured a flexible hose which was quite cool ideally you also want TACAN for the tanker like in F4AF and also Tanker commands menu to allow refuelling of the entire flight. So if a 4 ship requests refuelling everyone tops up.
-
JR...
Hmm, that sucks. FSXNP doesnt know? Or maybe Virtuali knows? Gotta be something simple (ie. "A:REFUELING_PROBE_POSITION, percent" or "K:REFUELING_SWITCH_TOGGLE") in .xml. I mean every FSX Hornet switch that can be moved and has an action, should be readable or actionable thru an .xml gauge, right?
Later
Sludge
-
Sludge,
You're right, it's there. ;D This is (L:SWITCH_PROBE_REFUEL, bool) variable.
And this is how one can toggle refuel probe at any time - (L:SWITCH_PROBE_REFUEL, bool) ! (>L:SWITCH_PROBE_REFUEL, bool)
Just embedded this code into my gauge and it works like a charm. :) Get it from here http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=2881.msg25544#msg25544 (http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=2881.msg25544#msg25544)
-
Thanks Neutrino for the refuel gauge. It works well. I used it today and after a while,and a sore neck,I refueled from 20% to 100%. I found it easier not to use any flaps and pick a plane thats not flying at 30,000' or higher. I used the default F-18 with Sludges upgrades. Now if someone can figure how to refuel on any of the aircraft carriers used from ai2 carriers pac. Anyway great job ;D ;D
-
Hey guys,
I hope this doesn't meet with too much scorn but i was wondering if there is a way to extend the refuelling area behind the tanker [up down left and right!]for impatient people such as myself. I know practice makes perfect and all that but i dont have too much time to spare and it would be cool to not take an hour to get some gas. I found a way to edit the tanker mission and a facility in the vrs acm allows such cheating but this is a different ball game. Could you help at all?
Thanks. Paul.
....and Sludge if you can hear your hornets are the nuts! The flaps and power mods help carrier traps no end. Thanks man!
-
Well there's level 1 and 2, so you should go for level 2. Its pretty broad of an area.
-
Er, Level 1 is the easier of the two levels, at least according to the readme.
-
Yes, the default is Level 1, which is the easier (larger refueling zone), and Level 2 is for pros as it has a smaller refueling zone (actually twice as smaller). But there is no way to edit the zones as in the VRS ACM.
Frenchie88, is your tanker flying a steady course, altitude and speed ? Keep in mind that the ideal refueling position is a little behind the refueling boom to provide better visibility - you don't need to push the plane all the way to the basket to get fuel.
And here is a the most important part to fly good formation with the tanker - you must perfectly trim the aircraft for level flight at your desired airspeed. This means that if you let go of the joystick and hold your airspeed, the jet should continue to fly at the same altitude and the velocity vector should float on the horizon bar. I put my trim buttons on the joystick. I think I used about 2 degrees nose up trim, but you have to find the right setting and adjust as you take fuel and get heavier. If you are properly trimmed you wouldn't have to do a lot of work with the stick to hold altitude.
J.R.
-
Hi JR and thanks for the knowledge. I always tend to do too much with the stick when trim is the right way. Cant seem to get it right though keeping that level flight going. Always drifts away somehow! Saying that the Sludge hornet does seem to keep the speed consistent compared to the non mod version. I suppose putting your advice into practice and a touch more patience might get me there in the end...not to mention making sure the wife isn't loitering behind me waiting to go shopping. Always a concentration killer that y'know.
Cheers guys
Paul
-
Hey Neutrino, got the gauge working nicely - great tool BTW, thansk for this, you are a clever guy!
One question - I can mange brief periods of a few seconds in the zone, and take on fuel, but often I see a mesage saying "Transfer" and my fuel quantity actually goes down!! What is going on there and why?
Cheers, Mark
-
Hey Neutrino, got the gauge working nicely - great tool BTW, thansk for this, you are a clever guy!
One question - I can mange brief periods of a few seconds in the zone, and take on fuel, but often I see a message saying "Transfer" and my fuel quantity actually goes down!! What is going on there and why?
Cheers, Mark
Mark, let's say you see the red 'TRANSFER' message and immediately after that it says you have 75% fuel. If the gauge then shows the flashing 'REFUELING' message then your fuel percentage must continue to go up - 75%, 76%, 78%.... 80% etc. If at 80% you drift away from the refueling position and it stops showing 'REFUELING' then as you start burning fuel you will naturally see the fuel percentage go down albeit at a much slower pace. Is this what you see or is it something different? As long as 'REFUELING' is flashing - your fuel % must go up!
-
Are you hosting a multiplayer mission?
You could be refueling properly, but when you get the TRANSFER message, the refueling gauge's fuel percent goes down to the amount of fuel you actually have. Say, for example, you come to the tanker at 50% fuel, then take on 25% more, so when you get the transfer message at 75%, the fuel on the gauge goes back down to 50% minus however much fuel you burned while flying in formation with the tanker.
-
Hi Guys, no, i am not in a multiplayer session. Its difficult to say exactly, as my skillz dont allow me enough stable time at the boom yet, but at some point as I move back and forth, i get the refueling message, my %age increases, then I start moving around a bit, then ( but not always) The red "transfer " message pops up and my fuel %age drops say 10 or 15%, so I have less than when i started to refuel...
I see the transfer message shows after a certain time, but what are the parameters? does it show as well as the full message in the HUD? ( I am not using the Hornet BTW, butthe Iris F-16, so dont have the integrated HUD installed). Are the messages slightly different in that case - Just wondering why I get the transfer message when i have not filled right up and usuaaly, as I am so crap, only taken on a few seconds worth of fuel... orion, are you saying that the %age displayed on my screen is total value of the transferred fuel and my original fuel level? Sorry if I am missing something obvious here...
Cheers, Mark
-
Mark, what aircraft are you flying ?
-
see edit above!!
-
Thanks, Mark, I will look into this and will post what I find.
-
Cool, BTW, do you know what causes the AI tanker to jitter back and forth sometimes? Its really irritating...
-
Depends on what drives the tanker - is it a KC-135 that follows a flight plan, or an FSRecorder flight...
One more question - do you do anything specifically in the IRIS F-16D cockpit to prepare for refueling - like click switches or something ? I think their model has some built-in air-to-air refueling capabilities.
-
Hi Neutrino, I just open the refuel door, dont know about any refueling aids etc....
Cheers,, mark
-
Hornet Turbulent Tanking Video:
-
Hey Spaz, if only it was like that, its more of a flicker, where the model of the plane appears to move back and forth very quickly, perhaps twice a second. It usually only happens as you get close to the tanker and it does not happens always. Multiplayer is smoother generally.
I am using an AI plane and a flight plan made using PlanG. I use airtafficfx to insert the tanker ( a pretty cool programme BTW)
Cheers, Mark
-
Mark, did you try this:
http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=89&fname=kc135t_navy_drogue.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=89&fname=kc135t_navy_drogue.zip)
Inside that package there is a very nice bgl file (inside the 'Traffic' folder) with KC-135 flight plan from KSAN (San Diego) to KLAS (Las Vegas), leaving at 19:00 Local Pacific, alt 23,000 ft. Once it gets to 23,000 ft, it flies level at about 280 kts and you can refuel. It does not go back and forth as you describe.
If you want to use FSRecorder 2.0, I can also send you a recording with a KC-135 flying at 5,000 feet, 250 kts over San Diego, and you can start the recorded flight any time you want. I used this recording for my refueling video :D
-
Thanks for the tip, I have that but did not use the flight plan. Will look into it.
If you dont mind buying it, this: http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=airtrfcfx is a fantastic little programme that lets you set a tanker of your choice take off from your airpost or appear over head. You can make it fly a pre made plan ( I used PlanG, here: http://www.tasoftware.co.uk ) and it also does formations, parked traffic etc .
BTW, do you guys know of any reason why the gauge would not work properly with the VRS superbug? Jon Blum says he would not recommend it - I think because of the way the Bug models fuel transfer etc. But I get the feeling that they have not actualy looked into it in detail, as they have their own version coming out soon as a payware addon , sort of like the AIcarriers mod, but for tankers.
Cheers, Mark
-
BTW, do you guys know of any reason why the gauge would not work properly with the VRS superbug? Jon Blum says he would not recommend it - I think because of the way the Bug models fuel transfer etc. But I get the feeling that they have not actually looked into it in detail, as they have their own version coming out soon as a payware addon , sort of like the AIcarriers mod, but for tankers.
Cheers, Mark
The refueling gauge should work on any aircraft - it only adds fuel until all tanks are 100% full. I haven't tested it with the VRS Superbug. My guess as to why Jon would not recommend it, is because he hasn't tested it, so he can't be 100% sure that it will work properly. But as long as you have a backup of your Panel.cfg file, there is no problem to try it. If everything runs OK - keep it and have fun ;D
-
Hey Neutrino, here is a little video of me refueling. You can clearly see the problem i was describing with the amount of fuel going down, not up!!!
p/f
cheers, Mark
-
Hi, Mark, I found what is the problem 8) The model you are flying has external tanks. However it is not possible to add fuel to the external tanks. So in your video you have filled all your internal tanks and that gives you 84% of total fuel capacity, the other 16% is your external tank. The gauge tries to fill up the external tank (which is about 60% full) but cannot. So once you see that resetting action (the fuel percent goes down after 'TRANSFER' message), you have taken as much fuel as you could have and can press the 'REFUEL OFF' button on the gauge.
I'll have to test if this is an FSX problem or just IRIS model specific. If it is an FSX issue, then I can rewrite the gauge to recognize external tanks and show you the 'FULL' message as soon as you fill the internal tanks. Thanks anyway for the detailed bug report and video!
If you try the refueling procedure with a model that does not have external tanks, you will be able to get to 100% and see the 'FULL' message.
-
That sounds like a good explanation! But I am not sure if it is 100% correct - here is why : Just one question, why does my initial percentage read higher than 84% ?
Last night I was practicing again, and took off right behind the tanker. By the time I got lined up behind, and turned on the gauge, my fuel percentage projected on the HUD by the gauge read 91%. I started refueling, got the transfer message and it went down to 81%
I carried on practicing and using fuel, had several other attempts, with my fuel lower, but each time, I ended up with less than when I started the attempt. It usually bumps you down approx 10%
I will retry tonight with a lower initial fuel load. My experimentation is hampered somewhat by my ability at refueling, the longest I have been able to stay connected is about 10 or 12 seconds !
Will also try with a different loadout, IE no external tanks.
Cheers, Mark
Thanks for the help!
-
Hi Neutrino, well, I can confirm after testing with a clean loadout on the Viper, that it works exactly as you said and very well ! So that solves that little riddle! Thanks for your help and interest and for making the thing as well,
Best, Mark
-
Hi Guys
I installed the Gauge as explinated in the readme (Adding the RefulingGauge.Cab file to the panel folder of the F-18 and changing the panel.cfg) but it doesent work. I can`t open the Window. What did I do wrong.
Tomahawk
-
Hi Guys
I installed the Gauge as explinated in the readme (Adding the RefulingGauge.Cab file to the panel folder of the F-18 and changing the panel.cfg) but it doesent work. I can`t open the Window. What did I do wrong.
Tomahawk
Can you paste or attach your panel.cfg here?
-
Here it is. By the way, I have the same probleme with the plat cam for the carrier.
Tomahawk
-
JR...
Im sure you got this one, as I looked at the panel.cfg and it looks like an easy fix.
Tomahawk...
Cool name, btw. You should download/install the Sludge Hornet. To download/install the Sludge Hornet, just click on the link on my signature to get the .zip file. JR's (neutrino) refueling gauge and PLAT CAM are included.
Later
Sludge
-
Hey Spaz, if only it was like that, its more of a flicker, where the model of the plane appears to move back and forth very quickly, perhaps twice a second. It usually only happens as you get close to the tanker and it does not happens always. Multiplayer is smoother generally.
I am using an AI plane and a flight plan made using PlanG. I use airtafficfx to insert the tanker ( a pretty cool programme BTW)
Cheers, Mark
That happens because your framerate is set to unlimited, try throttling it and it'll go away. Happened to a lot of guys on the VRS forums when A-A with the K135T using AI flight plans and unlimited FPS setting. My jittering went away once I throttled framerates to 50.
-
Here it is. By the way, I have the same probleme with the plat cam for the carrier.
Tomahawk
Hi, in your panel.cfg after the line:
Window03=Radio Stack
add the following two lines:
Window07=PLAT Camera
Window08=Refueling Gauge
So it should look like this:
[Window Titles]
Window00=Main panel
Window01=HUD Switches
Window02=GPS
Window03=Radio Stack
Window07=PLAT Camera
Window08=Refueling Gauge
This will fix the problem :)
-
Thank you now it works
mfG Tomahawk
-
This is how to fill your cockpit with fuel. Just cant seem to keep the speed steady.
-
Hello,
Thanks to Neutrino for this fantastic gauge!
Need some help please, just beginner in xml.
I would like to have the possibility to refuel behind other aircrafts with pods under each wings. I placed a selector showing witch pod on wich aircraft I would like to be under, changing a routine called (L:ACFT_SEL, enum) and I don't know the syntax to assign the right value according my acft_sel routine value for this macro:
<Macro Name="Probe_Hor_Asp">1.0</Macro>
I just want to say;
If (L:ACFT_SEL, enum) 0 == macro is 1.0, If (L:ACFT_SEL, enum) 1 == macro is 2.3, etc...
Sure it's basic for all of xml writers, but I have no this base...
Thanks in advance for your help.
Philippe