Buecker 181 Bestmann / Gomhouria MK.6

    Hi Kai and Jan

    Having looked at the default aircraft I can confirm you are correct Kai. It would appear the alpha is part of the color, specular, glass etc maps as there are no separate alpha map. Would have been handy to know days ago, perhaps something else for the wiki.

    Many thanks to you both

    Steve

    Did somebody say "fast progress"..?

    Let me (almost) proudly present the achievement of the whole weekend:

    She's moving the flaps now..

    ..okay, the elevator as well..

    Actually, I had still to model some small parts (links, etc) and work out specular- and bump maps. But still...

    Cheers,

    Kai

    Well, one week hast pasted again..

    This time it's not so terribly much, as I was busy with other things.

    Anyway, the external animations are ready, except the linkage for the rudder

    And some light coming up (to the tmd file as well..)

    Otherwise I was busy with the "center console" (if you can call that little thing like this) and the fixing points for the seats.

    if you are wondering, the big handle is the height adustment for the seat.

    Both, the flap handle and the trim wheel are working in sim already. Somehow the ratio has moved from 80/15/5, (crashing the sim/not working as planned/success) to somewhere like 20/40/40. I have a some hope to understand the tmd some day.. :)

    One last picture I like to share. Whíle testing the ailerons I circled around the tower and took a few shots. I somehow like it..

    Cheers,

    Kai

    Alright, this time almost nothing to show. The time was limited as my daugther was sick (just a normal flu) and I had to take care of her. But I got almost all instruments working and some more small stuff done.

    More important, I got information I needed in order to get the visuals ready (thanks again to Jan and Michael!).

    Lets's say so; somebody is having an eye on what I'm doing:

    But I don't like that guy yet. I haven't been modeling any human for some years and he's appearance isn't to trustful. More like somebody who has just left the jail.. So, nobody I would let onto the pilot seat of my Bücker :D

    Let's see if I can still get some kindness into he's face, otherwise I'll start over once more.

    Cheers,

    Kai

    Edited once, last by kai503 (November 18, 2018 at 12:18 AM).

    Quote from larrylynx

    Eyes are too narrow, bit like Clint Eastwood in many of his westerns ;)

    Cue music

    Thanks, Steve. That's the feedback I need

    It goes so easlily the other way; too big eyes. The guys have eyes like they would be squeezed out or the devil itself would be standing in front of them. Pretty unlogic if the rest of the face is relaxed. :D

    Guess, that was my worry and I went too far/small. But that shouldn't be too hard to fix.

    Kai

    I wish I would be talented as you are. :) I remember my only try to create a human in FS2004 years ago and he looks like a Beagle Boy (Panzerknacker) crossed with a 3D-stick figure (Strichmännchen)

    And good luck for your daughter.

    Edit: Found it... the crazy thing is: This plane is still working in P3D and was created for FS9. :D

    I wish I would have the talent to put myself into the Aerofly.

    Wish for Aerofly FS 2/4:

    - Flightpath recording on hard drive and replay in sim from different view points

    - Smoke for aerobatic planes

    - Multiplayer or at least watching other people flying sitting on ground or inside tower

    Edited once, last by flightxtreme (November 18, 2018 at 5:20 PM).

    The biggest problems when modelling or painting humans is we are all experts, we know instantly when something is wrong, it can be a few millimetres but we just know. A very good reason why I started painting animals and not portraits.

    Kai, stick a helmet, a visor and an oxygen mask on him like I did, yep, I may be old but not stupid ;) unless it comes to the TMD file ||

    Come on, Micha, it looks pretty good! You have also to consider that Fs2004 was pretty limited on the polycount. We have nowadays a much bigger buget, so we can go more into details. The same with texture size. FS9 had maximum 1024x1024. Standard size is meanwhile 4096x4096.

    Steve, yes, that's the point. Actually, every human on this earth is unique, so you should have all the freedom when modeling a human out of fantasy. But noooo... I don't even want to show those things to my wife anymore. There comes anyway only "Yes, but...." :rolleyes:

    Hmm, a visor and a mask for the Bücker..? :/:S

    But you know I do it the same way. I was putting him already a headset on, so I don't have to model the ears. And he will simply get sunglasses, in case I don't get the eyes under control. Problem solved.

    Kai

    Edited once, last by kai503 (November 18, 2018 at 9:13 PM).

    Hi,

    Today I have again a bigger update. Maybe not so much to see, but I came quite a bit forward.

    One of the things what gives the Bestmann it's own character, is the glasshouse like canopy. It consists of 18 plexiglass parts, 5 welded steeltube frames and 11 welded metal sheet parts. Everything is bolted together. To make it worse, nothing is straight there, everything is somehow bended in some direction. So, I hesitated a long time to make it ready. But at one point I had to. Still some work to do, but I'm happy with it so far.

    Not a perfect render, but anyway. I think, it should give a bit an impression how the "feel" in the cockpit has changed. (Looks like I accidently deleted a polygon on the upper frame. Just noticed while posting..)

    The pilot is basically also ready and exported from Max. Some textures I might still change.

    To get him into the sim, I'll still need some more information how to convert him. Until then he's still grounded..

    No, I wasn't modeling 36 hours per day. I was thinking about an easier solution, rather than making him from ground up, what would have taken pretty long. I remembered that I had bought Poser a long time ago. It is a software to create and animate characters. I would have needed to update it for a lot of money, but I came accross the freeware "MakeHuman" It's pretty straight forward to create a human and to export the mesh. But at the end it was still 2 days work to make him ready for the sim. So, it's now half ready and half own made.

    Cheers,

    Kai

    Edited once, last by kai503 (November 24, 2018 at 11:23 AM).

    Thanks Jake and Phil!

    Quote from Spit40

    Amazing stuff. Is it too much to hope we might get to fly this by Christmas?

    Sounds like a great goal, but I doubt that it is possible.

    I see it now in three stages to get it ready.

    The first, the modeling and animation stage, is indeed slowly getting ready.

    The second will be for fixing the small problem areas and finalising the materials/textures. That shouldn't take too long.

    Third and last stage will be tuning the aerodynamics until she flies as she should. There I don't have any idea how long it will take. Jan made already a great job when stetting up the basics. Control input, flaps and speeds are pretty perfect already, but, for example, she stalls much too gently.

    Also, we are going at Christmas to Germany for one week. I want to record all the sounds from our real Bücker, so beside of the engine, also all switches, etc. With a bit of luck, I will finally be able to fly it as well, what will for sure benefit the virtual one.

    Cheers,

    Kai

    Hi,

    Heureka! The last big problem is solved! :)

    The guy is not in final position, but for me it's most important that I got it generally working.

    Other things, what I haven't shown yet:

    The rest of the lights are working and other small external parts are done. So, the external 3D model should be ready now.

    One of the last parts for the cockpit.

    Now are still the pedals and the compass missing.

    I have been buying meanwhile a better microphone. I'm already looking forward to escape from all the Christmas stress, head to the airfield and make the sound recordings.

    Cheers,

    Kai