Posts by stratospheric
-
-
I love the island of Kauai both VR & for real but Oahu is the VR heli gold standard. Can't wait to try out Maui.
-
It's from FlightGear !! Open is my favourite sauce
-
-
If you can use the model, it's obviously important to look at usage rights & permission requirements and/or credits. If it is useful, I'll search for the file source & post here. The Readme :
The real aircraft
=================
NC 18609 was a 314A, flown by Panam from 1941 to 1946, as Pacific Clipper (A).
The rudder has 3 fins, because the tests had not enough directional control with only 1 or 2.
The turret over the middle of the wing is for star navigation.
The windows just fowards the wing is the spacious flightdeck (navigator, radio and engineer),
closed from the cockpit by a curtain (G) during night flights (night vision).
Doors at the rear of the flightdeck, enabled to go inside the wings during the flight.
The price of a ticket was like the Concorde today.
The flag on the bow, the top of the wing, and below the sponsons was to identify itself
as neutral aircraft (war time) (B).
C-98 is the military designation of the 314 (C)(D).
Model
=====
The following proportions are respected :
- overall length, width, height and propeller diameter (14.5 ft).
- in length : cockpit windows 1/7 , wing 2/7 to 4/7, horizontal stabilizer 6/7.
- in height : middle rudder fin 11/27.
- in propeller diameter : engine 1/3.
- panel height = 1/2 of height to floor (below the panel).
This model can also be used as 314 (same dimensions).
VRP
---
The model is aligned vertically along the nose axis, but is still centered
horizontally on the center of gravity :
- that is more handy with the Blender grid.
- the alignment of VRP to the nose tip is finished by XML (horizontal offset).
Texturing
---------
The yellow strips are delimited by the mesh (except the rounded tip) :
- map the right texture on the right wing.
- mirror to the left wing, and map the registration below it.
The strips behind the engines seem dark exhaust wake (E).
Color of ground cockpit helps to contrast with the walls (F).
Windows (hull, door, cockpit) are extracted into a seperated object.
TO DO
=====
- improve wing door scale.
- finner wing tip and sponson.
- shape of hull behind the step (afterbody).
- grooves (sponsons, top of fuselage).
Known problems
==============
- the top of the vertical stabilizers is slightly too long.
Known problems Panam livery
---------------------------
- the livery is difficult to repaint (not a skin).
- the fuselage seemed to be a metallic grey blue.
- in absence of photography of NC 18609, the flag is only on the bow.
- the Boeing logo seems to be green.
- letters of "PAA" logo are reversed on the right bow.
References
==========
(A) http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/boeing314.html/
(C) http://washingtonhistory.org/wshs/columbia/…es/0203-a3.htm/
(D) http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevo…/C98BOEIN.html/
(E) http://www.rbogash.com/B314.html : orange wing color.
(F) http://www.mcguinnessonline.com/burt/flyingboat2.htm : cockpit color.
(G) http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php…ort_Flight_Deck : high resolution cockpit.
http://www.seawings.co.uk/ : plans.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmar…in/photostream/ : flag below sponson.
Credits
-------
http://www.usflag.org/ : the 49 stars flag.
http://www.panamair.org/History/earlydays.htm/ : the Panam logo.
http://www.commercemarketplace.com/home/CollectAir/ephemera.html/ : the Boeing logo.
GIMP font : Serif.
Made with Blender 2.68a.
AC3D export :
- Auto smooth is enabled (default is 30 degrees). Except tables and seats.
- AC3D groups are removed, to help import/export.
22 August 2015.
-
now if i had the model i can animate it
I found this although I can't recall the source now after downloading it. Scan it for malware in case but it seems fine to me. I'm just hoping it'll work !!
-
-
-
Thank you very much for the feedback.
Important for me to get a confirmation that there is nothing wrong with the product. Guess I need a long period of getting used to it - and that it will hopefully get better over time.
I will still wait for Sebastian's (MRTV) examination - whether the product is sold with two different lenses.
I've only been using the G2 for a bit more than 24 hours - still I can confirm there is nothing wrong which is a great starting point !! Compared to the Vive Cosmos Elite that I've been using, it's much lighter, slimmer, higher resolution & has higher frame rates. Not just slightly but orders of magnitude better in every way.
-
I have indeed done a comparison and agree with your findings. My system is what you may call average so its just my observations so far using Rift CV1
MSFS2020 VR. Visually superior but needs most of the details reducing to avoid frame stutter, even then it's still not good. Noticeable barn door
X-Plane 11 VR. Works well for the most part but still stutters occasionally. Kind of looks cartoonish at times. Cockpits tend to look smaller, tiny in some cases.
DCS VR. Works great, flies great, is great but it's a combat sim so not for everyone.
FS2 VR. Fantastic in VR but lacks a lot of features. Perhaps the introduction of better weather, ATC and AI may well reduce this but time will tell. Apache looks great in VR, yes I'm biased
Just my two pence worth
Steve
Really informative and exactly right Steve. Also your choppers are a massive contribution & are one of the many reasons why FS2 is the helo sim.
-
For me it's Aerofly FS2 90% of the time and some DCS for rain and thunderstorms, great water animation and to fly the Huey and Mi-8...
Aerofly FS2 would even be better with a Huey or Chinook, animated water, dynamic weather and more traffic animation (if possible without too much of a framerate hit...) though we have great freeware traffic for some scenery right now....That really sums it up. So many observations that are, in my opinion, spot on. Thank you!
-
No not a complaint about cockpit shadows or excessive luminance or whatever I've now logged many hours with:
FS2 VR
X-Plane 11 VR
DCS VR - and -
MSFS 2020 VR
So the daylight I'm talking about is the enormous difference measurable in light years between the massively superior Aerofly FS2 VR - and everything else.
Frame rates in FS2 are superior by a magnitude of up 10 i.e. up to 1000%. That number sounds like an exaggeration but it isn't.
MSFS 2024 or 2025 may eventually be acceptable on a half affordable setup with rendering scaled back to 50%. Meanwhile there is only FS2.
One day it'll be good but FS2 will be even better by then I think. Has anyone else tried MSFS 2020 in VR? It'd be very interesting to hear other opinions.
-
I never saw a darker sky than in Australia, the only place where I saw water pouring down the inside of a door. For some turbulence though northern Europe in stormy winter is as good as anywhere.
You need to have your head violently swung say hard left and instantly need to put in a bootful of rudder hard right, kick the pedal on the side of the up-going wing! This would really be for the inner ears more than the visuals.
Perhaps a servo actuated helmet and neck brace with age related safety limits? No need to fling the entire pilot, seat, pedals, panel and display assembly about, leave something for the imagination.
I've flown cross-country a fair bit although trans-continental is a more appropriate term given the size of Australia and it is best viewed at low level. Problem: guaranteed severe turbulence with big wings. That's a problem in an aircraft with massive exposed titanium spars above your head. So padding on the spars and your head are essential, even in winter.
-
Great job and THANKS A LOT Steve for this wonderful achievement!
Only small regret for the Lynx, it would also have been good to have the 2 modes, either Auto or Cold and dark
so that novices and lazy like me can enjoy it without having to read.
Have a good rest and take care of all of you.
Totally agree it's a detailed masterpiece. The only other things missing are kinetic systems but this demonstrates the massive complexity without considering firepower. It also frees the mind to concentrate on flight and that's a lot.
I also agree - an auto step by step cold & dark startup especially for VR - that would take it to another level.
😎👍🏼👍🏼
-
Well, is that really a relatively low priced gaming notebook?
Well...no but still lower priced than any real flying machine.
MSFS 50 FPS
FS2 about 450 FPS
-
Now flying with RTX 3090 & seeing constant 144 fps over Amsterdam using G-Sync. It'll interesting to overclock & use the Reverb G2. It really impresses that you can spend a fraction of that on a laptop, HMD & still get perfectly acceptable frame rates .
-
There are definitely are a lot of very good free aircraft available. Here are some of them:
-
You probably still had an addon aircraft selected and now it can't find the last aircraft on startup.
Please delete your main.mcf file in your user documents folder so that it loads the default c172 again on startup.
Spot on! I know this is the second time you've had to tell me so multiply that by x and the number could be frustrating. That worked of course and I just copied & pasted all the aircraft into the correct folder no problem. The EC135 is wow.
There seems to be a lot of improvements. Can't quite spell it out but there's a lot of good under the hood. Can you list the main changes in your blog?
-
Ironically after moving all add-on aircraft, now no plane works, FS2 crashes back to Steam without fail. I could probably fallback using Time Machine although I probably won't bother since some next week I'll be setting up a maxed out Alienware Aurora 3090 & Reverb G2.
Since I'm going overboard, I should do a proper job with the Ryan Aerospace Helimod III & practise long lines. Heavy lift chopper like a Boeing Vertol, Chinook or King Stallion maybe even a Mi-26 would be incredible. Whichever one, including a working winch in FS2 heavy lift would add a whole other dimension of reality.
-
That is the default installation folder, do not add files to that unless you want Steam to delete these files at some point without question.
As far as I know the correct path is:
Macintosh HD/Users/…/Library/Containers/com.aerofly.aerofly-fs-2-mac/Data/Library/Application Support/Aerofly FS 2
as stated in our wiki: https://www.aerofly.com/dokuwiki/doku.php/simulator:path
There's one or 2 that I wouldn't mind being deleted - maybe only 1 I think my mistake stretched back to my App Store install and I never corrected it. Thanks for the correction !