Elch's Vought F-119 Project

[CheckSixCharlie]

Hello! My name is Elchfisk and I am new to the COMBATACE forums in general, but I wanted to showcase something I designed and am in the process of working on.

The Vought F-119 Vanguard, influenced by designs within the TFX (Tactical Fighter eXperimental) Program, which led to the development of the F-111, was considered to be a tri-service answer to the project. A high power, variable sweep fighter aircraft that would essentially replace the mud moving roles of the Aardvark, and the standoff interception capability of the Tomcat.

I'm new to Strike Fighters 2 modding as a whole, and I would love for this to be the first project I undertake in that scene. Is there any documentation or anyone that could teach and assist me in how to mod in an entirely custom aircraft like this? I'll keep this thread full of work-in-progress photos in the meantime, but if any experienced modders could reach out to me, I'd really appreciate it.

Before I go for now, here's another image of one of the several models, specifically the J79 equipped variant, showcasing the very unique wing setup, and variable sweep:

[CheckSixCharlie]

My friend and I had a go at texturing, panel lines still need to be worked in all the way, but its definitely coming together!

[+EricJ]

It's definitely an interesting plane, though I would think the pylons on the glove would be bigger if you're going to mount Phoenixes on them, or  any sort of ordnance.

[CheckSixCharlie]

3 minutes ago, EricJ said:

It's definitely an interesting plane, though I would think the pylons on the glove would be bigger if you're going to mount Phoenixes on them, or  any sort of ordnance.

It has an internal bay for those as well :) The shots I'm showing off don't show the bay open at all whatsoever. At most you'd probably put some AIM-9s on there, maybe some slick bombs or anything if you didn't have any other place to put it.

[+EricJ]

Ahh I see, I thought it was going to be an interceptor, looks cool though.

[CheckSixCharlie]

2 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Ahh I see, I thought it was going to be an interceptor, looks cool though.

Yeahh, it is an interceptor in a similar vain to the F-14 serving with the USN.. For background its intended to be a tri-service fighter-bomber which sprouted from the TFX program. The design is a bit wacky but it would stow the Phoenixes internally, its a bit of an oddball but I enjoyed designing it.
At this point I'm just trying to figure out how I can start getting it into Strike Fighters 2... there isn't really much or any documentation I could find on that process whatsoever, so I'm honestly kinda stuck in the water right now.

[+EricJ]

Well, there are modders here that can lend a hand as I don't do 3D modeling or whatnot, just textures that's it. So I'm sure a modder would help you, just have to wait until one shows up. I mean there's the TW Exporter but I don't know how to set animations and the like, so you're going to have to wait until someone who does modeling says something. I mean you can ask guruuu to help  you out since he did work on the Tornados and that's obviously a swing-wing design. I'm assuming by the camo that it'll be "in service" when the Tomcat was?

[CheckSixCharlie]

Just now, EricJ said:

Well, there are modders here that can lend a hand as I don't do 3D modeling or whatnot, just textures that's it. So I'm sure a modder would help you, just have to wait until one shows up. I mean there's the TW Exporter but I don't know how to set animations and the like, so you're going to have to wait until someone who does modeling says something. I mean you can ask guruuu to help  you out since he did work on the Tornados and that's obviously a swing-wing design. I'm assuming by the camo that it'll be "in service" when the Tomcat was?

Right, it'd essentially be operating within the same time-frame pretty much, from the SEA Theatre's endgame to the onset of the Hornets. And yeah, I'll try and reach out to a couple of people, in the meantime I'll just wait obviously. I have four different models of this thing cooked up so I'm kinda excited to bring the entire F-119 family to bare on this.

[+EricJ]

Well all I can say is that it sounds interesting and much luck in getting it in-game though.

[+daddyairplanes]

do you have a copy of the Thirdwire exporter? also important, are you working in 3ds MAX 2009 or Blender 2.79 (in which case you would need Mues exporter)?

it does look pretty good if not a little unusual (most what ifs do tho so not a bad thing). few practical observations; for a naval interceptor (production version not paper proposal) i would think the wings a little longer and stabs abit bigger for better control and lower speed coming on the boat. look at the F-35C in real life, it has the biggest wings of the three and its directly because of needing a lower landing speed.

but.... if youre carrying Phoenix internally, you got hella internal space. enought tocbe a very viable alternative to hte real F-111. and as shown it would do well dashing down low i think  (high wing loading, doesnt buffet as much in the weeds). well and ditching the navy colors!

not trying to be a rivet counter, its your bird do as you want. just my observations on how programs that went on to full careers went (both in what worked and in how they looked in the beginning)

welcome the party, im one of many thats watching with interest

[CheckSixCharlie]

9 minutes ago, daddyairplanes said:

do you have a copy of the Thirdwire exporter? also important, are you working in 3ds MAX 2009 or Blender 2.79 (in which case you would need Mues exporter)?

it does look pretty good if not a little unusual (most what ifs do tho so not a bad thing). few practical observations; for a naval interceptor (production version not paper proposal) i would think the wings a little longer and stabs abit bigger for better control and lower speed coming on the boat. look at the F-35C in real life, it has the biggest wings of the three and its directly because of needing a lower landing speed.

but.... if youre carrying Phoenix internally, you got hella internal space. enought tocbe a very viable alternative to hte real F-111. and as shown it would do well dashing down low i think  (high wing loading, doesnt buffet as much in the weeds). well and ditching the navy colors!

not trying to be a rivet counter, its your bird do as you want. just my observations on how programs that went on to full careers went (both in what worked and in how they looked in the beginning)

welcome the party, im one of many thats watching with interest

Hi, thanks for the warm welcome! Where would I be able to get a copy of that exporter, and I'm also using Blender at the moment, UVs are being unwrapped and template textures are being attempted to be made in that. And yeah, it's pretty much a tri-service successor to the TFX Program, and subsequently replacing both the F-111 and the F-14 in their roles. It's a bit of a provocative and 'ugly' bird for sure, but I love it honestly. :) I know there's an LOD exporter for Blender..? I'm just essentially confused on the pipeline from how to go from external model, to animations and have it in-game to at least test its characteristics before completing the cockpit model and completing its textures.

[+GKABS]

I would like to welcome you to the community and happy to help with what I know.

 Start with this file

Also this may help

 

[Spinners]

It looks fantastic!

Thanks to everyone who has given advice to the OP and let's hope it leads to an exciting new addition to the SF community.

[+daddyairplanes]

If Blender, look up Mues exporter, in the SF2 download section. Would link it, but on the phone in hospital wait room ATM ( no worries, planned procedure but still in a wait room)

Also, Blender 2.79 is the version that works with the exporter iirc

[kurdistan1]

you mean something like F-108 Rapier?

[CheckSixCharlie]

4 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

If Blender, look up Mues exporter, in the SF2 download section. Would link it, but on the phone in hospital wait room ATM ( no worries, planned procedure but still in a wait room)

Also, Blender 2.79 is the version that works with the exporter iirc

No worries! I have the .lod and .out exported. There's no animations and not really any texture applied, it's just the bare model so I can test and make sure I'm able to understand and implement it into the game. Now how would I make an aircraft folder with this custom .lod and .out?

[+EricJ]

You should download one of the airplanes here as they all generally follow the same layout.

[CheckSixCharlie]

3 minutes ago, EricJ said:

You should download one of the airplanes here as they all generally follow the same layout.

Gotcha, I tried replacing the .LOD of one I exported to see if it would show up untextured. Looking at the ini. files it shows that there are LODs for specific distances, is there any way I could just use one LOD file for all of those distances?
When I have the .LOD in the aircraft's folder, and have the .ini reference it, when I launch the game the aircraft itself shows up invisible, there's a material applied to the model itself so I don't think that would be any issue..

[+yakarov79]

Check existing model for example. Go to the download section  - get any model (example - latest Mirage F1) and see how it is built (structure). IMportant thing is to write correct ini files - so the model can be addressed correctly in game. 

Also, you should familiarize yourself with the model structure. Proper hierarchy of nodes, animations, all pivot points should be set, UV mapping, etc. Just emotionless, boring stuff (that perhaps many here are not aware of).

There is somewhere a file - Thidwire export notes. I have it somewhere but can not find it at the moment. Maybe someone has it also and can forward it to you. 

[+EricJ]

Well it's accepted practice to make distance LODs for games because it renders the plane better at longer ranges. As for the rest I don't know.

[Spinners]

2 hours ago, CheckSixCharlie said:

Looking at the ini. files it shows that there are LODs for specific distances, is there any way I could just use one LOD file for all of those distances?

Whilst I fully accept EricJ's earlier reply there is a work around solution if you've only (!) made one LOD and it looks like this;

[LOD001]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=125

[LOD002]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=500

[LOD003]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=1000

[LOD004]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=2000

[LOD005]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=8000

Or variations on that theme.

 

[CheckSixCharlie]

19 minutes ago, Spinners said:

Whilst I fully accept EricJ's earlier reply there is a work around solution if you've only (!) made one LOD and it looks like this;

[LOD001]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=125

[LOD002]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=500

[LOD003]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=1000

[LOD004]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=2000

[LOD005]
Filename=F-119.LOD
Distance=8000

Or variations on that theme.

 

Yup, that's what I ended up doing! Fiddled with it in Blender 2.79...

And honestly, there's no texture to really apply, but hey! It's in!

An F-119A Vanguard, untextured but still in for a fight nonetheless...

I need to get the rest of the hardpoints configured for A variant, but I'm glad the LOD is at least in! I'll get all the localization and figure out the F-119A's total armaments in the meantime.

[Nyghtfall]

You have to apply a material and the actual texture-files (Textures, Specular Maps and Bump Maps are possible, but only Texture is needed):

Values to start with are:

For the Texture:
check only --> Influence - Diffuse - Color = 1.00

For SpecMap:
check only --> Influence - Specular - Intensity: -0.5

For BumpMap:
check only --> Influence - Geometry - Normal: 1.0

All other values are default-values and other options are not supported (I think).

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Nyghtfall

[KJakker]

Be sure to get Mue's Toolbox and LODViewer from the SF2 utilities section if you are going to do modding.

[CheckSixCharlie]

14 minutes ago, Nyghtfall said:

You have to apply a material and the actual texture-files (Textures, Specular Maps and Bump Maps are possible, but only Texture is needed):

Values to start with are:

For the Texture:
check only --> Influence - Diffuse - Color = 1.00

For SpecMap:
check only --> Influence - Specular - Intensity: -0.5

For BumpMap:
check only --> Influence - Geometry - Normal: 1.0

All other values are default-values and other options are not supported (I think).

 

Does the texture HAVE to be segmented, as in specific ones for specific parts of the plane, or could I just use one texture? Because I have a UV map of the entire plane, I just want to make sure it'll be usable.