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Aircraft editor. (Read 259 times)

Jan 18^th, 2006 at 8:55pm

gijake Offline
Colonel

Posts: 1061

I am really really new at this whole "making your own aircrafts"thing. I have a 3D model and I need to know how I turn that into an AC in fs9. any help would be apreciated.

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Reply #1 - Jan 19^th, 2006 at 2:34am

Marlin Offline
Colonel
NEW Mexico

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Posts: 489

gijake you might want to post this in the design threads.

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Reply #2 - Jan 19^th, 2006 at 8:39am

garymbuska Offline
Colonel
I would rather be flying
Jacksonville, Florida

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Posts: 2850

GMAX is one way to do this though not recomended for anyone who has never used a 3D drawing before. While it is a great program it is not very user friendly if this is the first 3D program you have used.
If you put in disk 4 of the game and look under extras you will find GMAX you will have to register it and down load the needed gamepacks but they are all free. There are a couple of books you can find at any good bookstore that are a great help. If you are interested by all means make sure you do the tutorials first unless you are experienced in this kind of program other wise you will not know how to use this somewhat complex program. 8)

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Reply #3 - Jan 19^th, 2006 at 9:44am

Milton Offline
Colonel
Props forever!

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Posts: 301

gijake,

A completed and flyable FS Aircraft requires:
1. A visual model (what you created in gmax or other design program)
2. A panel and gauges
3. Sounds
4. Textures (mapped in your design program and textures converted for FS use)
5 A flight model

You have focused on step 1.
Before you export the model to FS for testing, you need to set up an aircraft folder in FS with a Model folder. This is the folder that contains the visual model you export (compile). The resulting file will be an .mdl file.

You can use another FS aircraft to show you the folder setups, copy from them if you wish then change to suit your needs. For testing, you do not need a Sound, texture or Panel folder. You will need the Model folder and its contents, and an .air file and aircraft.cfg file.

The aircraft.cfg names the model folder and the air file so you must do proper naming. The model.cfg names the xxx.mdl file so change that as well.

Now before you export, ensure you have set your CoG/ FS Reference to the proper place on the model. See Firestriker's site for more about that. http://www.oregon-coast.net/Tutorials/CofG/index.htm

With the FS Ref/CoG set correctly, a flight dynamics model needs to be done or adapted. You can use FSEdit to begin. See the FSEdit line item in your FS9 folder.

« Last Edit: Jan 20^th, 2006 at 12:31am by Milton »

Milton&&Dash 7, Aero Commanders, Howard 500, D18S, Spartan, XP47J, Beechcraft A28 (Grizzly)

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Reply #4 - Jan 20^th, 2006 at 12:38am

H Offline
Colonel
2003: the year NH couldn't
save face...
NH, USA

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Posts: 6837

Just a little added info:
If you incorporate a sound folder you must be sure it is viable or it may not be accessed as a flyable plane (I can't definately speak for FS9 but, in everything prior, it won't). For something simple, provide a panel.cfg with the entry,
"[fltsim]
alias=*aircraft*\*sound*"
Of course, the quotation marks and asterisks (usually) aren't part of the actual entries. *aircraft* will be the name of the aircraft folder in which you actually have usable, or "working" sound files and *sound* refers to that plane's sound folder in which they are located. To be honest, I have a seperate *phonics* folder in which I have individualized sound folders -- that's right folks, the sound folders don't have to be named sound for aliasing (not, at least, in CFS1 or CFS2)! In my case, the program rather considers phonics as an aircraft folder and it accesses the appropriate sound (by whatever name) folder as instructed; you must also be sure that each "working" sound folder has its own sound.cfg.
If you supply textures and any are in an incorrect format, the model will display but with that texture's section untextured (usually in a base color specified in the model).

« Last Edit: Jan 20^th, 2006 at 11:39pm by H »

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Reply #5 - Jan 20^th, 2006 at 12:48am

Katahu Offline
Colonel

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Posts: 6920

To sum up all of the above recommendations, I'll only say six words:

Get some aspirin for the headaches. Grin

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