Search the archive:
YaBB - Yet another Bulletin Board
 
   
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
Simple question (Read 162 times)
Dec 27th, 2003 at 9:51am

Sterk   Offline
Colonel

Posts: 316
*****
 
I am working on aircraft model now and has one trouble that is really unclear how to solve it.
So my question is how I should place my model in 3D program in order to have it standing exactly on the ground in the sim.
Currently my aircraft is standing on "ground" in the viewport but in the sim it hovers in air.
Generally are there any rules for placing aircraft correctly?

Oh,I have one more problem,now with the props of aircraft.
I made three versions of aircraft propellers and named them according to SDK rules:
one is "prop_still"
second is "prop_slow"
and third is "prop_blurred"
and the problem is when even I cut off the engine I still see the "prop_blurred"(a semitransparent disk) together with still prop...
Hope somebody can help me with it...
 

...&&&&
IP Logged
 
Reply #1 - Dec 27th, 2003 at 4:12pm

Milton   Offline
Colonel
Props forever!

Gender: male
Posts: 301
*****
 
The general practice in FS design is to place the model on the design grid so that the FS reference point is the same as the CoG (center of gravity).  The CoG and FS reference is at 0, 0, 0 longitude, latitude, vertical.

The CoG is typically at the waterline of the aircraft (or at the thrust line of the engines, or average height of the engines), 25% back from the leading edge of the wing (or 25% mean wing chord), and at the centerline of the aircraft longitudinally.

When you set your contact points in the aircraft.cfg (points 0,1,2)  The vertical distance to the ground will be from that reference point in a negative direction to the ground.  

Sorry I cannot find the excellent illustrated tutorial that Firestriker did (I think), but if I do, I'll post the link here.

EDIT: Here is the link: http://www.oregon-coast.net/Tutorials/CofG/index.htm

Whoops, forgot to mention that the props_blurred cannot have a suffix unless separated by an underscore.  Example:  props_blurred_01 is okay; props_blurred01 will not work.
 

Milton&&Dash 7, Aero Commanders, Howard 500, D18S, Spartan, XP47J, Beechcraft A28 (Grizzly)
IP Logged
 
Reply #2 - Dec 27th, 2003 at 6:34pm

Sterk   Offline
Colonel

Posts: 316
*****
 
Thanx, your info about aircraft placing is really valuable...
As for props,I have two engines and  names of their blurred versions are:
prop0_blurred and prop1_blurred-is it uncorrect,should I call them prop_blurred_0 and prop_blurred_1?
 

...&&&&
IP Logged
 
Reply #3 - Dec 27th, 2003 at 7:22pm

Milton   Offline
Colonel
Props forever!

Gender: male
Posts: 301
*****
 
The names appear correct to me.

I typically use  _01, _02, _03, etc. for multiple copies, but these are not required for a single use of prop0_blurred or prop1_blurred.

In the VC, you would use the _01, etc.

See the MakeMdl SDK for proper naming conventions for all tags.  You can get that here: http://zone.msn.com/flightsim/FS02DevDeskSDK00.asp

Also, Bruce Edge has a small Gmax script for gmax users to plug in proper names to gmax objects.
http://www.fsalpha.com/tutorials/tutorials.htm
 

Milton&&Dash 7, Aero Commanders, Howard 500, D18S, Spartan, XP47J, Beechcraft A28 (Grizzly)
IP Logged
 
Reply #4 - Dec 27th, 2003 at 7:39pm

Firestriker   Offline
Colonel
Gearhart, Oregon

Gender: male
Posts: 274
*****
 
Flight Sim recognizes 4 engines so far.

The normal usage is the engine furthest to the left in top view is engine0 then engine1, engine2, and engine3 from left to right.

Engine0 would have prop0_still, prop0_slow, and prop0_blurred as child objects.

Engine1 would have prop1_still, prop1_slow, and prop1_blurred as child objects.

Engine2 would have prop2_still, prop2_slow, and prop2_blurred as child objects.

Engine3 would have prop3_still, prop3_slow, and prop3_blurred as child objects.

Note, the part names of Engine0 and so on as well as fuselage, tail, l_wing and r_wing (just to mention a few), seem to have some importance and have to do with visibility tests, especially in FS2004. If you have FS2002Pro and investigate the sample files you will see  how they are used and how the heirachy is constructed. You may read in some of the threads that people are having display problems with transparent prop disc textures and parts behind them disappearing. I have had this problem myself but found that if the heirachy is setup properly the problem goes away. The parts with these names DO NOT have to have any polys and some of their placements seem way out of wack: ie the fuselage part in the sample md82 is out in from of the aircraft frame. I can't tell you exactly why, but they do make a difference.

Lou
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #5 - Jan 1st, 2004 at 2:00am

TheBladeRoden   Offline
Colonel

Posts: 56
*****
 
bookmarking this thread
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print