SF2 Atlas Impala Mk.II by Marcfighters V2

[+Wrench]

View File

SF2 Atlas Impala Mk.II by Marcfighters V2

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= For SF2, Any/All (Full 5 Merged RECCOMENDED!) =

This is the release of Marcfighters Atlas Impala Mk.2, single seat COIN/Attack jet as used by the South African Air Force.

This aircraft has/had languished for a considerable amount of time in that "hangar of forgotten & unfinished mods". I hope that this will correct that.

This mod represents the Atlas Impala MK2, single seat attack jets. The mod uses all stock 3W weapons (which may need further research/adjustments). 25 all new historically correct SAAF serial number decals are included, and Randomization is TRUE These decals are used for both included skins. This is the SAAF -ONLY-, non exported version. No user list was created; the aircraft is single nation only. There are 2 skins, and "Early" and "Late"; the late uses the SF2-date switch and starts in 1982

When in-game, you'll see

Atlas Impala MK.II (MB-326K SAAF)

on the aircraft drop down selection panel.

As is always reccomended, unzip to a temp folder or your desktop to give easy access to the rest of this readme for it's install instructions. The Uploader takes NO credit for the aircraft itself, only for those edits and adjustment to get it more in compliance with the SF2 Environment (tm). See "Notes" section for full change log and other VERy important statements.

= Please Note: is models is released "AS IS". Anything that cannot be corrected/adjusted via ini edits will remain so for all time =

Happy Landings!
Wrench
Kevin Stein

** Important Note: if you install this to the Angola Mod, be advised that there exists an aircraft named Impala Mk.II. This should NOT conflict with it, but you may have some editing to do, as theirs is labeled "Stand In". It is not advised to just drop this one into that mod without further editing. **
 

UPDATED: 3/7/2019

"Early" skin has been repainted to remove national markings. All have now been replaced with decals.
 

sf2_atlas_impala-mk2_v2_pack.7z

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• Submitter
  Wrench
• Submitted
  03/04/2019
• Category
  Other Origin

 

[+strahi]

Corrected decals ... 

 

[+Wrench]

I KNEW I should have painted them out, redrew the lines, and just used decals!

Which wing map is that? 

thanks man!!

Maybe I'll do a quick update for that skin map in a day or so

[+Wrench]

To all Involved:

A new, 'version 2', with repainted wings and fuselage for the "Early" skin has now been uploaded.

There is also a seperate 'Fix It" package of the "Early" skin for those that have already downloaded the full aircraft package. The link is below:

 

[+Menrva]

Ah, looks like I'm late to the party. This is what I've done: Early_v2.5.zip

I wanted to be more accurate so I reproduced texture patterns. This way, even without TW decals, the textures seem very fine. Feel free to use those in a future update, @Wrench

EDIT: I redid the fuselage, package above has been updated.

Edited March 8, 2019 by Menrva

[jeanba]

In my install, the plane is hard to fly : completly unstable laterally.

Is it happening to you ?

 

Actually, I had the same problem with Ceasar's F14 : they were unstable, but only "for me" and the problem disappeared, I could not figure out why ?

Any idea ?

 

Thank you in advance

[+baffmeister]

Jeanba, is the issue more noticeable when carrying external stores?  I've been testing it out and think there may be a model issue, probably an offset center point on the model.

[+Wrench]

I tested it on "Normal", and didn't notice any really adverse effects. I did move the CG slightly forward to counter a nose up drift. Like 0.10 or 0.25 -can't remember which!

If Baff is looking into it, I know he'll find a fix!!! 

[jeanba]

1 hour ago, baffmeister said:

Jeanba, is the issue more noticeable when carrying external stores? 

Yes, the issue is very noticable when heavily loaded and barely noticable in clean configuration

I am on "hard" flight model

Edited March 20, 2019 by jeanba
clarification

[+baffmeister]

50 minutes ago, Wrench said:

If Baff is looking into it, I know he'll find a fix!!! 

Thanks for the vote of confidence but nothing has worked so far. Some discrepancies noticeable in the bounding boxes when using Mue's lod viewer. The Left vs Right wing racks have some differences that may be an indication of the "offset" model center. From past experience I know it doesn't take much of a difference in weight or distance of external stores to cause a noticeable wing heaviness. In this case the position of the external stores and the rack weights are all symmetrical in the aircraft data.ini so it may be a case of making the weapon positions slightly unsymmetrical to accommodate the model issue. The model error seems to be very small, only about 2-3cm but it's enough to notice. 

[+Cliff7600]

I have a quick temporary fix :

----------------------------------------------------------

1) The rudder is too strong

[Rudder]
...
MaxDeflection=12.5
MinDeflection=-12.5

and maybe "ControlRate=1.0"

----------------------------------------------------------

2) The wing tip tanks capacity is 316 liters, so more or less 246 kg

[LeftWingFuelCell]
...
FuelTankID=2
MaxFuelAmount=246
 

[RightWingFuelCell]
...
FuelTankID=3
MaxFuelAmount=246

Edited March 20, 2019 by Cliff7600

[jeanba]

16 minutes ago, Cliff7600 said:

I have a quick temporary fix :

----------------------------------------------------------

1) The rudder is too strong

[Rudder]
...
MaxDeflection=12.5
MinDeflection=-12.5

and maybe "ControlRate=1.0"

----------------------------------------------------------

2) The wing tip tanks capacity is 316 liters, so more or less 246 kg

[LeftWingFuelCell]
...
FuelTankID=2
MaxFuelAmount=246
 

[RightWingFuelCell]
...
FuelTankID=3
MaxFuelAmount=246

I tried, but I did not notice any significant improvement

[+Cliff7600]

[File deleted (updated further below)]

 

I fully agree with the next post 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Cliff7600
Updated file

[+baffmeister]

After trying a few more things it seems the issue is very similar to one I had with the Hawker Typhoon. The Typhoon also had some issues with bounding box differences between the left and right sides. With the Typhoon, the wing heaviness varied when using racks to carry bombs or not using racks. I have absolutely no idea how this happens but it is a model issue and there is a "quick fix" for the Impala. Just disable all six racks like so and the issue is much improved:

[LeftWingStation01]
SystemType=WEAPON_STATION
StationID=1
StationGroupID=1
StationType=EXTERNAL
AttachmentPosition=-2.40,-0.52,-0.24
AttachmentAngles=0.0,0.0,0.0
LoadLimit=800
AllowedWeaponClass=BOMB,RP,GP
AttachmentType=USAF,NATO,UK,FRANCE
ModelNodeName=//LeftWingPylon2...................................................DO THIS FOR ALL SIX RACKS
PylonMass=25
PylonDragArea=0.03

After the edit the wing heaviness almost totally disappears. I still notice some slight right wing heaviness on departure but it goes away as the speed increases. With the rack edit, the racks are part of the model and will always be visible.

I've been doing some flight model edits to this plane over the last 5 days or so and have made some adjustments to the rudder behavior. Also, I found an online flight manual for the Australian MK-1 version so have adjusted fuel weights as well as gear and flap speeds, among other things. Might have a beta test FM ready in a week or so.

[+baffmeister]

Cliff,  I should have checked yours first but it seems we tried the same thing. Any idea why the racks cause that issue?

[+Cliff7600]

I think that the asymmetric model is not an issue as far as the MinMaxExtent values are symmetricals.

But with the pylon mesh display, the usual weapon station doesn't have MinMaxExtent entries, and then it's the mesh itself that set the location of the pylon mass and the drag effect (no certainty, it's a guess from me...)

The thing to try would be to use symmetrical MinMaxExtent values for each weapon station, and see if the game still use the mesh itself or the MinMaxExtent of the data.ini (?)
Fail !!!
-----------------------------------------
That won't work (either) :
PylonMass=0
PylonDragArea=0.0
I just tried it (all 6 weapon stations, pylon ModelNodeName= used as usual)
-----------------------------------------

The whole model needs symmetrical MinMaxExtent values (wings and stabs but also fuselage, nose and tail which are not centered)

As you're doing a full overhaul, I noticed the plane was not stable in the pitch axis as well, it keeps climbing.
I think there's too much lift but I didn't try to adress that.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Cliff7600

[+Cliff7600]

The use of symmetrical MinMaxExtent values for each weapon stations did not work.

The best fix is to let the pylon meshes visible all the time by deleting them from the data.ini, as you suggest !

[+Cliff7600]

I took some time to have a better version. Use it as you like !

[See next page for Data.ini file]
(updated)

 

- Cl0, Cla and Cd0 Mach table datas from another plane. It's not climbing all the time. It depends on the load and the throttle applied.

- Collision points checked

- Landing gear shocks working <- this part worths the try 

-------------------------------------

In the cockpit file :

[G_AirBrake]
Type=EXTERNAL_ANIMATION_LINK
NodeName=AIRBRAKE_Aguja
MovementType=ROTATION_Y
Set[01].Position=0.0
Set[01].Value=0
Set[02].Position=-192.68
Set[02].Value=1
ItemNumber=2

- - -

DELETE this part (it's the ball at the end of the landing gear lever) :

[L_Gear02]
Type=LANDING_GEAR_INDICATOR
NodeName=L_Gear_02
MovementType=LIGHT

- - -

The weapon panel would require some care as well...

Edited March 23, 2019 by Cliff7600

[+Cliff7600]

For the cockpit :

Cockpit Improvement.rar

Weapon station lights
Ripple Inteval knob
Weapon selector (guns, rockets, missile, bomb)

[jeanba]

Great, that's ok now

There is a tendancy to pitch up, but it is acceptable.

I alos noticed that the planes were equipped with jammers and chaffs and flares, is it historical ?

[+Wrench]

yes, it was

[jeanba]

Thank you for the answer

[+baffmeister]

Thanks Cliff, I'm busy this weekend but will check out your fixes next week.

[+Crusader]

Here are my textures for the gunsight used by the SAAF, the R332Z SIGHT_R332Z.zip

To be used with following cockpit entries:

[CockpitData]
Directory=Cockpit
HUDMode=CAGED,AA,AG
RippleQuantity=1,2,4,6
RippleInterval=70,100,150,300

[GunsightFront]
HasGunsight=TRUE
GunsightMilSize=100
GunsightName=Sight_R332Z_moving.tga
GunsightFixedImageName=Sight_R332Z_fixed.tga
LeadComputing=TRUE
MinLeadRange=250
MaxLeadRange=500
DefaultLeadRange=250
MaxDepression=100
DefaultDepression=50
GunDepression=10
RocketDepression=50

[CockpitSeat001]
ModelName=MB-326_Cabina
...
Offset=0.0,0.0,0.020
ViewAngles=0.0,0.0,0.0

...

[+Cliff7600]

10 hours ago, baffmeister said:

[...] will check out your fixes next week.

There's a big pitch up tendency issue, as Jeanba said. It's between 150 and 180 knots. Slower, it's ok, faster it's ok.
I think it's an XacMachtableData (wings/outerwings/horizontal stabs) + Cl0 / Cla Machtabledata issue.
To be honest, I really look forward your overhaul because that particular point is an issue I don't know to fix a simple way. It always takes days to find some significant improvement.
Part of this problem is the Cl0/Cla Machtabledatas I used in this file (I changed them without further checking, the terrible "copy/paste"), so don't take it as a reliable point lol
The XacMachtableData values for the horizontal stabs seem out of the 3D model shape also.

And I deleted the fake component "Tail", maybe you would like to keep it ^^

 

10 hours ago, Crusader said:

Offset=0.0,0.0,0.020

Thanks for the gunsight and the new entries for the cockpit !

But if you change the Offset values without changing the Position values (Position=0.0,1.7,0.90) the cockpit is not at the same place.
Checking by using OpenCockpit=TRUE (in the cockpit) and ShowFromCockpit=TRUE (in the Data.ini / nose part) will reveal the pilot is now a bit in the fuselage.
Just my 2 centimes... rivetcounting