How many people (not the IPACS Team) are working in aircrafts ?

  • Hello Friends,

    I wanted to know how many people out there (not the IPACS Team) are working in

    aircrafts for Aerofly FS 2 ?:/

    Sv Baker and me are two of them.

    We are Struggling to understand the TMD file and its relationship with the MAX file.

    Being happy when the plane loads and so sad and the screen fades white and the sim crashes.

    Dino and Lionheart are back to their projects in P3D, FSX, etc (I think).

    So we, my friends, are in the frontline of the struggle.

    So many talented people here creating sceneries and I don't hear anything about the people

    creating aircrafts.:?:

    TMD file is a wonderful beast as soons as we understand it.

    It can drive you crazy, sometimes.:cursing:

    But it's fun !:)

    And don't forget: use the KISS method.

    "Keep It Simple Stupid"8)

    We are not masters, like Dino or Lionheart, but we can make some aircrafts fly (Ours are).

    Thanks all.

    Good Flight !:thumbup:

    nuum - Rio

    Brazil

  • I know that Lionheart did learn a lot about the TMD file and the axis system for animation - I hope you can get some pointers from him. I'm sure that there was a thread between he and JetPak that had some explanation. If you can piece out some work, let me know. I only have AC3D for modeling (and MCX from Arno ) though, but I could be a debugger by trial and error if you need one.

    Dave W.

  • Hello Dave,

    JetPak is helping me a lot, but I don't like to do stupid questions to him so I try to find the answer by myself.

    It's not a good method but we can learn lots of thing this way ( and loose some hair, too).

    Why you don't start an aircraft ?

    You will learn a lot of things trying to creating one.

    And we can help you (if we know the answer)

    Lionheart must be busy with his work in P3D and I don't want to disturb him.

    Try it.

    Thanks.

  • HI

    I would love to make a Helicopter (Lynx AH1 of course) some time but at the moment I am trying to populate the UK with some airports but I applaud your efforts. EGGP waiting for upload and EGNM underway, yep a long way to go.

    If I may make a suggestion. As you are learning the ins and outs of the TMD file perhaps you could start a thread with your observations, tricks and tips. maybe then people might follow your lead and join you.

    Steve

  • Hello Steve,

    I don't know if your notice but I am trying to steal some creative people from the scenery field.

    A lot of brilliant minds out there.

    As soons as you finish your airports give a try.

    I think that the lead guy is Lionheart.

    Sv and me started our aircrafts after reading his threads and seeing his beautiful screenshots in 1917.

    Sad that he is no long with Aerofly ( as far as I know)

    If I can help the scenery guys that can start an aircraft we will do.

    TMD can be defeat we fight together.

    Waiting your airports.

  • Hi everybody,

    You're not on your own here, we at IPACS want to give you full support for your first couple of aircraft. Having users developing their own aircraft is very important to us and we don't want them to quit because of some minor problem in the tmd file. We know the tmd file is a bit tricky and we haven't documented that in the wiki yet. If you need help, even with little things and "stupid" questions (there are no stupid questions :) ), we are here for you, just ask questions. Open a new thread in the development section of this forum or write me in a conversation or e-mail (both of which you can find links to on my profile page). I'd even offer a skype call where you could screen share and we could go over the issues one by one and I'll try my best to explain how to implement that.

    If there are specific topics that we should add to the wiki first I'd be happy to write them too. For example, did you understand the whole output -> graphics_input deal? That is probably one of the more difficult topics to understand in the tmd file.

  • Hi

    it has been suggested a few times before that we should have a dedicated forum to scenery design and perhaps now another for aircraft design. Nothing worse than trawling though endless entries about things not connected with what you search for.

    Also, and I know you guys are busy, if you want more people to develop aircraft for you you really need to introduce some user friendly tools. Developing for p3d/fsx is relatively simple, set up animation in the 3D package apply some code ( or use the supplied modeldef.xml) and the compiler does the rest. Many talented people are going to be lost if you don't . What may seem obvious and easy to the developers (mostly coders) is like rocket science to the rest of us. Not a criticism just a cry for help we can understand.

    Steve

  • Jet-Pack,

    I know about the support of the IPACS team, but I don't want to waste the time

    of the team with things that I can find in the tmd file.

    It's just a matter of research a little more.

    And the best thing about looking through the tmd file is that we learn things

    that we weren't searching for and this is great.

    But sometimes I quit and send you an e-mail.

    I did this today:)

    Steve,

    The best advices I can give to the guys that are starting to create an aircraft is:

    Back-up the max file TOGETHER with the tmd file (very important !!!), make little changes and don't give up.

    Even if you cannot find the answer easily, the time you spent searching for it you will learn

    lots of things.

    Change and test. Change and test.

    This way the error is easily detected.

    If the tmd file is a normal sight for us, when the tools come we will be prepared for it.

    Another thing: Put lines among the parts of the tmd files

    //=========================================

    and //---------------------------------------------------------------------

    === for the main things and ---for the little parts inside the topic.

    This will help a lot to read the tmd.

    One last thing: Delete all the lines about the pilot.

    There are lots of them and the file become very hard to read.

    After you finish you can put them back.

    ( I hope that none of the IPACS guys read this )^^

    Thanks, guys.:!::)

  • ( I hope that none of the IPACS guys read this )

    Don't worry, we didn't see a thing 8o

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • ( I hope that none of the IPACS guys read this )^^

    Neither did I :D

    In the tmd file it's all about learning to read what is important and what isn't. Double click to select, Ctrl+F to search and then F3 your way through the file to follow the data flow. :) Also I find it helpful to turn on syntax highlighting for the selected words and identical matches. (double click to select and highlight a word and all occurrences throughout the file)

    If you get familiar with the settings of your text editor you might find that you can fold (collapse) blocks like the pilot graphics.

  • Hi,

    as some people have already noticed in the forum. For some time now I have also been trying to familiarize myself with aircraft development. One of the basics to convert a 3D model and load it into Aerofly Fs failed several times. I have now found my mistake and maybe this will help some of you.

    My problem was that despite all the steps Jan explained to me, I was not able to load the 3D model successfully. I always got the error message that this model is not supported by the current version (in Aerofly FS2). First I suspected the TMD file (I used the files from the template directory of a previous airplane workshop). Now it turns out it was the TMC file. Here you can see a version number (right at the beginning) , which was wrongly version 200 (template-file), but the current version is 210, after I changed it it was possible to load the model correctly. As you can see in the picture below

    Best regards,

    Thomas




    Successful trial

  • That Citabria is the most exciting development I have seen yet in AFS2. It is essential to have third party aircraft for this platform. The potential impact implied within this move is staggering.

    Well done Thomas, keep it up. And maybe when you have it all figured, you can help to teach some people who develop helicopters for the "other sims."

    - Kenneth

  • Hello, Kenneth,

    Thank you for your encouraging words. I must honestly say that this model was not built by me. I don't want to take the credit for somebody else's efforts. I am using a commercially available third-party model. The main reason for this is that, in my opinion, there are two major construction sites or pitfalls in aircraft development are: the modelling of 3D models (where a lot can be done wrong, see the wiki) and the generation of TMD files (flight dynamics, animation, system simulation and bring them all together etc.). I would like to focus more on the second point and look at this plane as a first attempt to familiarize myself with the subject with a not entirely unselfish background. The main motivation is that I have been flying this type of aircraft in real life for some years now and would like to bring it to life in the Aerofly Fs 2.

    I hope I have not now aroused too high expectations, which I have to disappoint for the time being. If it is possible under copyright law, I would like to make the finished aircraft available to the community here. But I still have to figure this out.

    Kind regards,

    Thomas

  • Well, maybe you can be the one that makes it to the finish line with a flyable aircraft. I can build a podium and someone should be able to come up with your national flag and we will google your national anthem for an mp3, then Jan or Jeff can place the Gold Medal on you.

    Then the user community can applaud.

    πŸ€“πŸ˜‡πŸ™‚πŸ˜³πŸ˜›

    Regards,

    Ray