Author Topic: New FSXBA Hornet  (Read 1152794 times)

hd764jvgd843

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #495 on: November 11, 2014, 10:31:53 am »
Hello Jamal,

thanks for the insights and your opinion! So I guess a decompilation and recreation is out of the question, at least for me and my limited abilities in that area of expertise.

You mentioned working on a higher poly version of an A through D version for TacPac. Does this mean it is a commercial project, or do you just mean an integration of TacPac weapons functionality, like Dino Cattaneo has realized throughout his projects?

Peter

Jamal

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #496 on: November 11, 2014, 02:52:10 pm »
Heya Peter,
It'll be VRS Superbug level in detail and functionality.
Here's my Flickr photostream with some older pics of the Hornet that I'm working on:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27277424@N04/


Jamal

Sundog

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #497 on: November 11, 2014, 03:48:23 pm »
Hello Ken,

thanks for the updates on the dihedral and wing sweep discussion and how these impact flight dynamics! I guess a changed wing sweep angle for subsonic and supersonic speed could be realized via another gauge.
- Do you have more information regarding the transition between subsonic and supersonic flight or should we just assume a linear one for reasons of simplicity?

- Did you get the wing dihedral of -3.0 degrees by visual comparison or is that value specifically mentioned in the drawings? - You said the resource are McDonnell Douglas drawings, for which version do they apply - early A/B or upgraded C/D versions?
- Could you provide a (partial) scan/screenshot or upload of the source you have?

I know that some values were considerably changed between the older A/B versions and the updated C/D ones. A good comparison can be found here: http://www.dept.aoe.vt.edu/~mason/Mason_f/FA18.pdf
Regrettably, no dihedral values are mentioned in this resource.

Peter

Hi Peter,

FS definitely uses the subsonic wing sweep as it wasn't designed for supersonic aerodynamics. I've thought of making some models for fs and to handle the supersonic part of the flight envelope I was just thinking of making gauges to control the CL and CD for supersonic flight and creating a wave drag gauge.

As for the dihedral it's listed in the data table and didn't change from the a/b to the c/d. It's in there along with t/c, aspect ratio, chord lengths etc. it's not my drawing so I don't know that I can post it but I'll try and find a link to where I think I found the drawing later tonight when I get home from work.

jimi08

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #498 on: November 11, 2014, 05:02:39 pm »
Hey Everyone,

Has anyone been successful in getting this Hornet to work in P3Dv2 yet.  I've imported the aircraft, but none of the gauges that I've designed seem to work.  Any ideas?

Justin "Jimi" Hendrix
FSX Blue Angels
FSXBA F/A-18C Hornet Latest Download Link: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,6944.msg117011.html#msg1

hd764jvgd843

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #499 on: November 11, 2014, 06:46:06 pm »
Hey Everyone,

Has anyone been successful in getting this Hornet to work in P3Dv2 yet.  I've imported the aircraft, but none of the gauges that I've designed seem to work.  Any ideas?

Hello Jimi,

funny that you mention that, now. I have just last weekend installed the new P3D v2.4 and tested it with my AMD R9 270X I got a month earlier, because I was keen on testing DX11 effects. I've got everything working perfectly but was somewhat disappointed with the overall results.

Installation:
1) Installed P3D v2 and latest updates into a VM. Then, copied files, license, and necessary registry entries from VM into my real system. I have had in the past several bad experiences, where installers (P3D, Rex, etc.) screwed my system up so badly it took me weeks in order to get things fixed (uninstall failed and reinstall too). So, this proceeding is standard for me, now, each time I tryout something. I did NOT startup P3D v2 in the VM, because I wanted scenery indexes, etc. generated on my real system. Created Prepar3D v2 folders in ProgramData and AppData manually with files from VM. First startup was without problems, adjusted some of the graphics settings, screen resolution and closed P3D v2.

Transfer from P3D to P3D v2:
2) Copied the following folders from my P3D installation into the P3D v2 folder, WITHOUT replacing already existing files in P3D v2 folder (so nothing new gets deleted, but all missing files will all be added!)
- AICarriers
- A2A
- effects
- gauges
- modules
- scenery
- Simobjects (just copy the Hornets first, all other planes later)
- sound
- texture
In order to get A2A and AIcarriers or FSUIPC working, you need to copy from
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D ...to...
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2
some xml files (make sure to open them and check/adjust the paths for the P3D v2 version accordingly!)

In order to get your scenery (index) working you need to copy scenery.cfg from
C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D ...to...
C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2
(make sure to open them and check/adjust the paths for the P3D v2 version accordingly!)

Once you have done that everything should be working fine.

3) Results:
- Although my new DX11 graphics card should be 4 times as fast as my old DX10 ones, fps in P3D v2 was NOT fluent with the same mid range settings I currently run under DX9 with P3D v1.4. Maybe my pc is too old, or graphics drivers are not jet optimized for P3D v2/DX11 (tessellation enabled/disabled made no big difference in fps, visuals just looked better, still lagging). Maybe NVIDIA is the way to go for P3D v2, at least what I have read.
- Although running P3D 1.4/DX9 gave me around 20/30 fps more compared to my old graphics card HD3870.

What made me switch back to P3D v1.4 finally was the following:
- Bad FPS compared to DX9, unless you have real killer hardware
- Blurry overall look (with AA+Anisotropic maxed out)
- Hornet effects AB, vapor trails, etc. if present did not look as good as before, a lot of them missing/not working!
- Captain Sim Hornet, canopy showed major errors.
- Water under DX11 looks too dark and unrealistic, even with HDR lightning tweak applied
- A lot of visual glitches and inconsistencies, flickering and NO smooth fps (reflections are not positioned correctly under objects such as bridges and buildings - it is somewhat irritating)
- some AIcarrier objects seem to be misplaced, e.g. hovering over the carrier instead of being placed on the deck.

On the other hand the original fsx hornet model and the New FSXBA Hornet model seem to be working without any glitches under DX11.

If you put all that aside for a while, and max out visual settings and have a look around, the overall visual experience is simply stunning and P3D v2/vX's will be the thing to go in the future.

As I personally prefer fluent fps and realistic flight behavior/FCS over visual bloom and lightning effects, I will stick with P3D v1.4 and DX9 for the time being.

Peter
« Last Edit: November 11, 2014, 11:35:53 pm by hd764jvgd843 »

hd764jvgd843

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #500 on: November 11, 2014, 07:08:30 pm »
Heya Peter,
It'll be VRS Superbug level in detail and functionality.
Here's my Flickr photostream with some older pics of the Hornet that I'm working on:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27277424@N04/

Jamal

Nice to hear! Your models look awesome!

Is there an ETA?
Will the new model be compatible with the textures and the FCS we currently use and work on, or do we need to start from scratch?


rsgunner

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #501 on: November 11, 2014, 08:10:15 pm »
Hey Everyone,

Has anyone been successful in getting this Hornet to work in P3Dv2 yet.  I've imported the aircraft, but none of the gauges that I've designed seem to work.  Any ideas?

I use P3D 2.4 and have no problems that I am aware of with the gauges. I look forward to each release version of the Hornet.

Russ
Many may fly and some are rewarded
handsomely, but the wings of gold of a
United States Naval Aviator mean more
than flying. It is dearly bought, requires
sacrifice to keep and represents a way of life.

hd764jvgd843

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #502 on: November 11, 2014, 09:03:56 pm »
Need some help!

I am trying to create two new gauges, one that adjusts wing_dihedral to certain g loads present, and one that adjusts wing_sweep to subsonic and supersonic speed.

Here is what I have done so far.
1) I created in the panel.cfg two new gauges like this:

gauge61=FCS!Wing_Dihedral,
gauge62=FCS!Wing_Sweep,

2) I added the needed .xml files in the FCS folder and tried to put some code into them but I am missing information on how to address wing_dihedral and wing_speep values in the aircraft.cfg that will change the flight behavior according to current g forces respectively speed.

3) I am not sure how to create the needed entries in the DataGauge.xml file in the Gauge folder? Is there a list for all variables in the .air and aircraft.cfg file, and how they can be addressed. I have had a look at Auto_Flaps.xml but could not reproduce how the flap values in aircraft.cfg are really addressed or where they are defined?

Peter

Jamal

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #503 on: November 11, 2014, 10:03:11 pm »


Nice to hear! Your models look awesome!

Is there an ETA?
Will the new model be compatible with the textures and the FCS we currently use and work on, or do we need to start from scratch?


[/quote]

Heya Peter,
Nope to both. I hope to have some more updates up on the Legacy Hornet soon-ish.

Jamal

jimi08

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #504 on: November 11, 2014, 10:13:00 pm »
Peter,

So all of the FCS gauges such as pitch auto-trim, auto rudder and auto flaps are working for you in P3Dv2?  Maybe I am missing something...

Justin "Jimi" Hendrix
FSX Blue Angels
FSXBA F/A-18C Hornet Latest Download Link: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,6944.msg117011.html#msg1

hd764jvgd843

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #505 on: November 11, 2014, 11:14:12 pm »
Peter,

So all of the FCS gauges such as pitch auto-trim, auto rudder and auto flaps are working for you in P3Dv2?  Maybe I am missing something...

Yep, everything seems ok for me!

I could lower the flaps, before the start, gear retracted/extracted, spoiler worked, flaps went into auto mode, as far as I remember and the plane had the same feel during the few flights I took. I did not notice any strange behavior so far. I still have the installation of P3D v2 on my system, just put the DX11 card back into my other system, so I can test v2 only under DX10 (with plane ground shadows missing) but functionality is the same. I have not yet tested your latest build 14.15 but I will report back in a few minutes.

Version: FA-18C_FSXBA2014 FLT14.15 is working fine, all gauges seem to be working!

AutoRudder behaviour is much better now, especially during slow speed! Thanks! Buy you forgot to fix the flaps positions, leading edge still is fully extracting while on ground/approach mode, as reported.

Peter
« Last Edit: November 11, 2014, 11:49:58 pm by hd764jvgd843 »

jimi08

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #506 on: November 11, 2014, 11:40:23 pm »
Very interesting....

None of my flight gauges seem to work for me...

Did you have to do something special to get them to work in P3Dv2?  Adjustments to the gauges or simconnect or anything like that?

Justin "Jimi" Hendrix
FSX Blue Angels
FSXBA F/A-18C Hornet Latest Download Link: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,6944.msg117011.html#msg1

Roller25

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #507 on: November 12, 2014, 12:01:01 am »
Hey Jimi

I'm on 2.4. Works fine here. All I did was drop the folder into the simobjects/airplanes folder as per FSX. The only other thing I had to do was bring the f18.dll file over from FSX and drop that into the main gauges folder.

Luke.

jimi08

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #508 on: November 12, 2014, 12:10:46 am »
Hmm...  So if you are in the Charlie, and you press Shift + 8 to see the gauges, and you take off, do you see the trim (upper right side) automatically adjusting once you let go of the stick?  Does it zero out once you push or pull on the stick?  Do your flaps automatically lower with increasing AOA?

I see my visual effects gauges work fine, just nothing that controls flight controls.

Justin "Jimi" Hendrix
FSX Blue Angels
FSXBA F/A-18C Hornet Latest Download Link: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,6944.msg117011.html#msg1

hd764jvgd843

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Re: New FSXBA Hornet
« Reply #509 on: November 12, 2014, 12:11:41 am »
Very interesting....

None of my flight gauges seem to work for me...

Did you have to do something special to get them to work in P3Dv2?  Adjustments to the gauges or simconnect or anything like that?

I remember that P3D v2 installed in my VM simconnect, which I did't transfer to my real system, because it was already installed. When comparing folders I adjusted in my FSUIPC4.ini the following lines:

FSVersionUsed="Lockheed MartinĀ® Prepar3DĀ®",2.4.11570.0
SimConnectUsed=2.4.0.0

but I currently do NOT even load FSUIPC.

Have you copied all the gauges, as I mentioned above?