YAP2 Drag chute for F-4

[mppd 16]

John's Yankee Air Pirate 2 series now has a very neat feature - a drag chute deployed with the CTL + O bomb bay animation keypress, as an add-on to the existing game .LODs. Very clever. See the thread at Simhq:

 

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topi...tml#Post2726673

 

I am in the process of finalizing the first of a series of modified F-4 Phantom IIs, and I figured that I might as well add the drag chute door animation to go along with this neat feature for YAP2 users. I presently have the door animated with the Shift + 4 keypress, but I'd like to change it to have both my door open at the same time as John's drag chute deploying with the CTL + O keypress. Can anyone help me?

 

My current chutedoor data.ini entry is:

 

[Fuselage]

.....

SystemName[018]=Dragchutedoor

 

[Dragchutedoor]

;SystemType=

SystemType=ANIMATION

InputName=ANIMATION_4

DeploymentMethod=MANUAL

AnimationTime=1.0

AnimationID=2

MaxDeflection=120.0

Retractable=FALSE

ModelNodeName=chute_hatch

 

Oh, my door also closes with the repeat of Shift + 4 when it probably should remain open.

 

Please note that I have deliberately omitted John's data.ini entries here - you should purchase YAP2 to get this yourself.

 

Thanks,

Mike D.

[+ST0RM 145]

Mike,

 

The F-4 drag chute was one of the initial features of SFP1, but it never materialized.

 

In my search for the animation for the Phantom's wingfold, I tried all of the unused animations (using the 1-10). Through trial and error, I discovered the spoilers and hook, but never the chute door. Or even the wingfolds for that matter. Anyhow, when I activated the others, the animated parts functioned (opened) but disapeared.

 

-Jeff

[mppd 16]

Well, as I said, I made it animated already, but instead of two key press combos, I'd like to just make it as one (in the real bird, you yank the handle and it works, no two operations needed I don't think.

 

Mike

[+331Killerbee 840]

Also do a "Clear Aircraft" as far as Weapons goes and see what happens to John's Chute........

[FastCargo 412]

Actually, I figured out pretty quickly how this works...didn't even have to research the ini's.

 

It has to do with how the TW sim deals with internal bays. When a weapon station is designated as INTERNAL, any weapons do not appear when the bomb bays are closed. Therefore, you can make a chute in the 'deployed' condition as a weapon and mount it. As long as the bay remains 'closed', the weapon (ie chute or refueling probe) won't appear.

 

Then, when you 'drop' the weapon (ie drag chute), you activate the 'deflating chute' animation (weapons release animation) and the chute collaspes to the ground.

 

The downsides is that you have to load the chute (or refueling probe) and if you hit a 'jettison all' key, you'll lose them.

 

A very clever way to have a drag chute without making it part of the model.

 

Of course, this will cause some oddness with any aircraft with non-automatic internal bombbays...

 

FC

[+331Killerbee 840]

The key to it would be making it a Non-jettisonable Store.....ECM Pods and Gun Pods comes to mind......Able to be loaded at that Station, But not Emergency Jetted'.........

Edited May 23, 2009 by 331Killerbee

[FastCargo 412]

Problem with that method is then you can't 'fire' the weapon (ie detach the drag chute) when you clear the runway.

 

No, I suspect it's like any other weapon, able to be jettisioned so it can be 'fired'.

 

FC

[+331Killerbee 840]

One other Weapon that can be Fired but is not Jettisonable is On-Board ECM. Chaff and Flares. It would require a third Entry in the CounterMeasureObjects.INI.......Crab's Photo Flashes are another way, from the RF-4C. It has Flash Bays....

Edited May 23, 2009 by 331Killerbee

[mppd 16]

But it sounds like my question's answer is - no. I can stick with the double set of key presses. Any way that you look at it, I still think that it was a cool idea and am glad to see it in the sim. Eye candy it is, but so is the open canopy on an airplane.

Thanks for the comments folks.

 

Mike

[FastCargo 412]

Mike,

 

Why don't you just assign the animation to the bomb bay that holds the chute?

 

After all, it's not like the F-4 has a bomb bay...

 

FC

[mppd 16]

Well that's my question - is this a data.ini edit? How would it read - I poked thru some likely candidates like bomber types. The bomb bay already has an entry in the weapons section for the drag chute - my question is how do I tie my door to that? The weapon station bombbay entry does not ever have a ModelNodeName, so how do I tell it that the door is what I want to move??

 

For that matter, if I was making an airplane that HAD a bomb bay, how would I get it to do the animation I wanted with the CTL + O keys??

 

Sorry I seem to be such a dolt about this, but I'm still new at much of this...it wasn't very long ago I was asking for people to make small parts for me...!

 

Thanks

Edited May 23, 2009 by mppd

[FastCargo 412]

Add the following lines to any weapon station you plan to make a bomb bay:

 

BombBayAnimationID=X

BombBayOpenTime=X.XX

BombBayCloseTime=X.XX

 

Where X is the animation slot of your 'bomb bay'

 

And X.XX is the time it takes to open or close in seconds.

 

The sim doesn't care what part gets animated if the animation is hard coded...you don't have to designate a part at all. It DOES care for parts the TW engine has to animate (flight controls, etc).

 

FC

[mppd 16]

I guess I finally get it - if the door is using animation slot 4, then if I just change John's animation slot reference for the bombbay in the data.ini to slot 4, both items should work at the same time with keypress Ctl + O. Wish I knew why that concept seemed so difficult to me....

 

Thanks again folks