SF2 Avionics Community Pack - - Alpha release v0.3

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone,

What took me long time to at least finish one aircraft:s avionics and cockpit is due to researching and searching for the data on the radar.  THe first step into any kind of projects is always the challenigng part.. When I get used to it, it will smoother.

What i realized is that, an airborne radar from early era of cold wars are almost impossible to find, the specs of it.  However, the only way I can find it is through aircraft manual.  Unfortunatley I do not have all aircraft manual, such as T.O. 1F-89H-1A and T.O. 1f-89J-1A, so any radar data not yet obtained is an educcated guess based on the evolutionary and understanding the base functions of the radar.  

I always ledarn new things everyday.  However, fortunately I am able to get the hand on  F-89D manual that have information on Hughes E-9 ~ AN/APG-40 ~ AN/APA-84 FCS / Radar / Computer.

This is WIP of F-89D with new N-9 optical sight and radar scope.

 

 

Please note, unlke A-1C gunsight, N-9 is stationary opitcal sight that is used as back up, in case the radar is not operational. 


Eagle114th
 

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone,

The first version of SF2 ACP  alpha v0.1 is now released. the link can be found in the first post.

I am continuing to work on F-89H / J and series of A-1.   I plan to work on F-102s and 106s series after that.  Please give me feedback on ACP mods.

Thank you for enjying the mods and cheers!


Eagle114th

Edited November 8, 2024 by Eagle114th

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone,

F-89J radar scope  new texture is now completed.  Please note that F-89H will use F-89D's radar scope texture  as placeholder.  Same thing with both F-89H and J using F-89D's N-9 optical sight as placeholder.  



The redar texture is based on this image from F-89J flight manual:


And the photo:




Eagle114th

[+Crusader 2,103]

On 4.11.2024 at 12:06 PM, Eagle114th said:

Here is information about N-9 Sight from flight manual:

The 30 mil 60° segments centered vertically - heres how Im interpreting the description:
- remove red-marke dlines
- add the 2 orange-marked segments, for 30 mil they are positioned halfway between the pipper and the outer 60 mil circle
  each segment covers a 60° arc

Regarding colors: some sights installed in night fighters have had a red-colored filter.
Another method was to turn the filament lighting way down for a very faint illumination of the reticle.

[+Eagle114th 757]

3 hours ago, Crusader said:

The 30 mil 60° segments centered vertically - heres how Im interpreting the description:
- remove red-marke dlines
- add the 2 orange-marked segments, for 30 mil they are positioned halfway between the pipper and the outer 60 mil circle
  each segment covers a 60° arc

Regarding colors: some sights installed in night fighters have had a red-colored filter.
Another method was to turn the filament lighting way down for a very faint illumination of the reticle.

Hello Crusader!

THank you for the feeedbck and guide.  I am looking forward fixing the N-9 Optical sight. The next version of alpha will have corrected N-9 Sights.  

Cheers!

[+Eagle114th 757]

 Hello everyone, here is corrected N-=9 optical sight:



In-game

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone,

MiG-15 new gunsight is being worked on, there are two colors.  I am still thinking of which one to go with.




Eagle114th
 

[Wrench 9,988]

Speaking as a old dude (nearing my 7th decade), with crappy eyesight, I personally go for the brightest yellow possible. No matter how good our monitors are, there is always some loss. So, I'd rather give up some historical accuracy for playability. I've repainted many a gunsight tga simply for that reason

[+EricJ 4,323]

Don't feel too old Wrench, I play with a 79 year old myself. He's a bit cranky too, so yeah all good.

[+daddyairplanes 10,642]

second to what the other Kevin said.

end of the day, its still a game and i dont think theres as many younger (teens to twenties) players for it . so the easier to see, the better

[+Eagle114th 757]

@Wrench @EricJ @daddyairplanes

That makes perfect sense.  Here is what I realized and decided to do this methods by default:

Use bright yellow like used on another gunsight.  This will be deafult for all sights.  For anyonoe who want more realistic gunsight colors, there will be an optional folder to replace deafult gunsight.  I, personally, prefer playability too.  All of your feedback are excellent and very helpful.  Ironically, I am in the same shoe as you all are, I have some challenges seeing certain things and I love the ywllow gunsight colors too.

by the way, Wrench, amY I ask for your advice on cockpits since you have tons of experiences with it. I posted it (how to clone instrunment and change posiiton).

By the way, I am also looking into adding the 'tilt' color to gunsight glasses.  If it works well, I can consdier appplying it on another plane, if it helps wwith seeing gunisght even better, any thoughts on that?

Cheers!


Eagle114th

[Wrench 9,988]

ask away, brother, we're here to help!

I'm trying o remember how I swapped out the secondary ADI on the F-104 pit and turned it into an RWR. I know it was a simple text edit of the cockpit ini, and adding the RWR bmp

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone!

Here is updated gunsight, one is realistic and another is bright version, based on A-4s and F-8s gunsights:



And based on the actual picture, noticed htat the gunsight is tilted a little darker



Here is the result with deafult (bright) gunsight



Anothe version with realistic gunsight


Inside the cockpits, there are two options to choose for gunsights while it is defaulted to bright recticle.

Thank you Wrench, EricJ, and Daddy airplanes for the advice>

From now on, for any gunisghts that seem difficult to see with realistic colors / brightness, I will make two version, one with default (bright) and realistic.


Cheers!

Edited November 12, 2024 by Eagle114th

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone!

the A-4s and F-8s HUD with missile firing cue is successfully implemented.  You can see it in this link:

F-89D, H, and J accessiblity HUD is working perfectly now.  Instead of using inner circle, the outer circle is used for firing cue since it much easier to see it.  If using inner circle and adot, it i smore difficult to see, unlike Mark 8 gunisght.   However, F-89B and C with A-1CM gunsight are being worked on for firing cue verison.

Deafult N-9 Optical sight


N--9 Optical Sight with firing cue when switching to AAM:



I am going to release the next version of SF2 - ACP in combatace download section as next vesion of alpha.  the next version wilb e posetd in that place from now on.


Eagle114th
 

Edited November 14, 2024 by Eagle114th

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone,

The new version of SF2 - ACP v0.2 is now rele3ased in combatace download.  The link is posted in the first post.

I am currenlty researching on F-102s and F-106s for avionics overhaul. I am still trying to find the color and  desigsn they ahve on F-102s and F-106s radar scope.  What I relearend is that F-102A started with Hughes MG-3 FCS, then upgraded to Hughes MG-10 FCS.  F-106, in other hand, uses Hughes MA-1 FCS.

What I noticed from Rambam's F-102 mdos for both SF2 and DCS uses oragne CRT scope.  Veltro2K, at the same itme, uses orange CRT screen too.  I awnt to find the sources of that too.  The flight manual of F-102s always is in black and white color,s o Ican't tell the actual colros of radar scope.   The actual picture of Ff-102 does not help either since there is alwyas radarr scope hood which blocks the direct view of radar scope.

Anyone who have the information or pictures, please share here.

I aim to work on F-102s, F-106s, and F-101 that uses Hughes FCS as well carries AIM-4 series AAMs.

Thank you for enjoying the mods and for the supports!


Eagle114th

[FANATIC MODDER 123]

Hello, I did some work myself for the F-102s looong time ago which I never released it and afterwards I forgot about it. It was as complete as it could had been....avionics, performance specs, everything...

Also, please check this

all this work is inside dragon's packs, I first presented avionics rework for the F-8s back in 2016.

[FANATIC MODDER 123]

I checked the F-89s first impressions are excellent

[+Eagle114th 757]

7 hours ago, FANATIC MODDER said:

Hello, I did some work myself for the F-102s looong time ago which I never released it and afterwards I forgot about it. It was as complete as it could had been....avionics, performance specs, everything...

Thank you fofr the link!  I appreciate all the files and supports!  I am giong to look into the files.

By the way, we can work togehter ot finish the F-102s proejct you worked on.  You can use avonics that is being created for SF2 - ACP.  

I also would like to request to work with you on F-106s projects too, if you are interested.  I am almost donewith the new texture scope for MG-3 and MG-10 for F-102s.  I will post the spictures of it soon.
 

7 hours ago, FANATIC MODDER said:

I checked the F-89s first impressions are excellent

 I am happy that you like F-89 avioonics!


Cheers!


Eagle114th

Edited November 17, 2024 by Eagle114th

[+Eagle114th 757]

Hello everyone!

The works on F-102's MG-3 and MG-10 FCS radar scope is almost completed. It is one of most challenging research, after being unable to find the exact color fo scope.  If the color is incorrect, please let me know and I will fix it.

What gave me clues about MG-3 and MG-10 is by tracking back to the older technology of Hughes E and MG series FCS used by F-89s and F-94s.

By seeing how F-89A / B / C and F-94s used Hughes' E-1 FCS paired with An/APG-33 radar.  The scope is gray.  (I am starting to realize that the radar scope may be glowing grayish green when powered ??? I am stil learning more about radar.)

Then F-89D, with more advanced E-6 paired iwth AN/APG-33 and another system, still shows gray radar scope.

Then comes F-89H, which uses E-9 FCS, still show , which seems to be gray scope (I can be wrong, due to the an ture of black - white pictures from manual)).  However, what is noted is that FCS after E-9, such as MG-3 and MG-12 is modified version of E_9.  I noticed that MG-12 have dark olive-greenish gray scope while MG-3 used by F-102, shows dark gray ccovered by a radar lid that shows lines on top of it.

Here is picture of what I think, could be MG-3.  Because it makes sense, MG-3 is modifeid E-9 FCS while MG-10 is digitalized, more advanced that comes after MG-3. 



Then found next images, which I believe is MG-10 FCS:


From flight manual: 


And based on what is seen form Rambam F-102s for DCS trailers, it makes sense that it looks like this:



Finally, here is the MG-10 and MG-3 radar scope (WIP):



Feedback nare always helpful and appreciated.


Eagle114th

[FANATIC MODDER 123]

 

[FANATIC MODDER 123]

I plan to rework the veltro's F-102A too. Actually I had made a few years ago a reworked version that also remained in my folder, however this needs an update with the latest skins and some other minor improvements that I did for the RAZBAM's but I didn't bother for the veltro's.  Be aware that Veltro's is a case X version.

Now as it is now, it's almost perfect. Whatever improvements you can do in the cockpit/avionics, they are welcome. My only issue as it is now are the attachment angle of the SUU-11s. Also another problem is the pilot.LOD if someone can modify the LOD to be correct for protruding visors like the ones that existed between the period '55 - '65 and then from '85 onwards.

[+daddyairplanes 10,642]

1 hour ago, FANATIC MODDER said:

I Also another problem is the pilot.LOD if someone can modify the LOD to be correct for protruding visors like the ones that existed between the period '55 - '65 and then from '85 onwards.

v2k is pretty much retired from modding due to health

what we got from him is what we got

[FANATIC MODDER 123]

3 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

v2k is pretty much retired from modding due to health

what we got from him is what we got

I am really sorry I hope that he recovers, I am not asking anything from him, to be honest I have no idea who is the person who created this pilot LOD.

[+daddyairplanes 10,642]

pilot lod should be in the readme for his Duece, i dont know who did it off top of my head

but if the pilot was also was veltro, retired unfortuneatly means retired. not coming back after healing

[+Eagle114th 757]

9 hours ago, FANATIC MODDER said:

I plan to rework the veltro's F-102A too. Actually I had made a few years ago a reworked version that also remained in my folder, however this needs an update with the latest skins and some other minor improvements that I did for the RAZBAM's but I didn't bother for the veltro's.  Be aware that Veltro's is a case X version.

Now as it is now, it's almost perfect. Whatever improvements you can do in the cockpit/avionics, they are welcome. My only issue as it is now are the attachment angle of the SUU-11s. Also another problem is the pilot.LOD if someone can modify the LOD to be correct for protruding visors like the ones that existed between the period '55 - '65 and then from '85 onwards.

PERFECT!  you have the picture what I NEEDED for more accruate radar scope overhaul!  Here is what is included in Rambam F-102 update pack:



You bought me a HUGE joys!  I am now re-working on the MG-10 radar scope!  The next version of SF2; ACP will have MG-3 and MG-10 radar scope for F-102s!  You just made my day!

By the way, when you said it is 'almost perfect'.  With the fixes of gunpod and accurate radar scope (MG-3 and MG-10), it will become 100 percent perfect within the limitatino of SF2 sim.  Do you have any plans on updating F-106s too because F-106s deserve to be polished and ujpdated like F-102s for SF2.

And noteda bout V2K's F-102s.


Eagle114th


Cheers!