Buecker 181 Bestmann / Gomhouria MK.6

  • It's like building a real plane.

    looking fantastic. Yes, that's the impression i have formed about the challenge of building aircraft - it does seem to be as complex as a real one.

  • Thanks again for your help!

    Jan was so kind and looked into the problem with the sounds, what was at the end only one missing "]" in the tmd. He was also so kind to set up the aerodynamics. Looking now at the tmd, I think, I would have needed 4 weeks to get there..

    One little story about my big plans "I fly it, when it's ready". While Jan was working on the tmd, I started to convert my own sound files (I first used those from the DR400). She still likes to flip over when setting the brakes and giving too much trottle, so I was letting her taxi down the runway while testing the new sounds.

    In between Jan sent the new files and I converted them with the last sounds. Again, same story, throttle and down the runway. And, ups, suddenly she was off the ground. "Oh well, whatever, now I can also fly once around the pattern" 8)

    Phil hit the nail on the head, we do have to build everything, every nut, screw, panel, instrument, needle and the list goes on.... and on

    Thank you, Steve!

    Do you know something? I had exactly the same thought. I was modeling the switches and fuses for the centre section and had Phil's and Ray's posts in mind. I really thought "At a real plane you simply order those parts, build them in and that's it."

    Cheers,

    Kai

  • Hi!

    Time for the "weekly update"

    As she's flying now, it would be nice to be able to sit down, so..

    I was trying to model it in a bit more detail and wasting some texture space, as it's one of the parts you see from really short distance.

    Please be aware that it's only the Diffuse texture. It should look pretty okay, once the specular- and bump maps are applied.


    The upholstery will also get a bit "pressed in", to give them a used impression. But I'll do it when both seats are ready, as the pilot seat should look more used than the one for the copilot.

    Otherwise is the panel still under work and the cockpit growing:

    Greetings,

    Kai

    Edited once, last by kai503 (November 3, 2018 at 1:16 AM).

  • Thanks, Guys :)

    Is this Bu 181 development your full time employment ? The project is really moving forward quickly.

    Regards,

    Ray

    Smile, not really (unfortunately). I have workwise indeed a bit more free time and more flexibility than most people. I guess, I have also the advantage that I don't need much sleep and I love to do those things in the late evening / night.

    Many parts I have been making some 2 years ago already, so finishing them doesn't take long.

    EDIT

    Ray, you made me to think the half evening if I maybe spend too much time with the Bücker... :/ It's not so, that I wouldn't have anything else to do in my free time. I have a 4 years old lovely princess, who comes in first place, together with my wife.

    But I have a couple of advantages, which comes just perfectly together, so it goes pretty fast forward.

    - I know the real plane down to the last screw and I have about 1000 pictures of the restoration. So, no time wasted for reseaching or guessing. That is a huge advantage when you exactly know how a part sould look like when it's ready.

    - I have meanwhile some experience in 3ds max and Photoshop. Things what took me like 5 years ago one hour I do meanwhile in 5 min.

    - We have here in Finland almost winter already. It's just dark, cold and rainy. So, anyway onthing to do outside anymore.

    - Last, but not least FS2 itself. I have really fallen in love with the sim. Since I have done both, scenery and aircraft development, I certainly believe FS2 has a huge potential. That gives quite some motivation to continue the development.

    Regards,

    Kai

    Edited once, last by kai503 (November 3, 2018 at 1:08 AM).

  • Hi Kai

    Keep up the great work its looking first class

    A quick question if I may as you have experience with max. I needed to add specular alpha to all my materials. I did this in the material editor and then re-applied all the materials to the model parts. The aircraft converter fails to register this and throws up errors which I have posted elsewhere. From a max standpoint is there anything you can suggest as I'm stumped.

    If you have a spare Martin Baker mk7 ejector seat doing nothing it would be helpful, yet more things to model :(.

    Steve

  • Hi Steve,

    Thanks for your kind words :)

    You don't have to worry about the xx_color_alpha and xx_specular_alpha in Max, so no need to apply them to the material. Just put those alpha textures into the intermediate folder and the converter will find it.

    Example of one material in Max (without self ilumination):

    Hope it helps!

    Regards,

    Kai

  • Hi Jan and Kai

    Managed to sort some of the problems.

    Some color maps had somehow been resized to not powers of 2, ie 2042 and 2046.. perhaps finger trouble at my end but I hadn't adjusted any colour maps as they are 4096, weird.

    I removed the specular maps from the intermediate folder which I think was the main cause of the converter not working, quite why it should not convert the color maps is a mystery to me, only thing I could think of was the specular is burned into the color map. The wiki mentions alpha channels when talking about specular, perhaps this should be looked at as it seems confusing as your not saving the specular map with an alpha channel but a separate map named alpha, unless I'm wrong.

    Still unable to get any alpha maps to be converted. Have included them in the intermediate folder as glass_color_alpha.bmp for example but they do not appear in the aircraft folder

    My elderly brain is fried so that's my till monday

    Thanks Steve

  • Hi Steve, alpha maps require a png format or tif or other formats that have a transparency.

    Sure..? I agree when you have an normal alpha channel, like for runway decals. But since we are using an extra texture for the alpha, it doesn't seem to matter. At least I have all my color_alpha and specular_alpha as .bmp and haven't seen any problems yet.

    Kai

  • Still unable to get any alpha maps to be converted. Have included them in the intermediate folder as glass_color_alpha.bmp for example but they do not appear in the aircraft folder

    Hi Steve,

    The alpha maps doesn't show in the aircraft folder. I can just guess, but I'm pretty sure that the alpha information is writen into the appropriate _color or _specular texture. Like P3D, which is using the DDS format. It includes the RGB channels plus the alpha channel in one file.

    The glass is indeed a big pain. It took me hours to get the external glass working. If you want, I can send you a Max file, which includes a small object with the glass material applied. You simply merge it into your scene, pick up the material and apply it to your own object. Just send me your email address by pm.

    Cheers,

    Kai

  • Sure..? I agree when you have an normal alpha channel, like for runway decals. But since we are using an extra texture for the alpha, it doesn't seem to matter. At least I have all my color_alpha and specular_alpha as .bmp and haven't seen any problems yet.

    Kai

    Not sure :)