swambast

OK, good luck - and as Russ says send to us via PM if you want a different perspective on things.. And Russ is right, your final modifier should really be editable mesh and the recommended way to export properly is to collapse the entire stack to editable mesh.

Russ, looking good. One suggestion though, it might just be the screenshot perspective,...some of the cockpit accessories esp. the switches look like they're out of scale (too big in my opinion). Not sure if that's the case but something to consider, it's nice to have this included and love the Pilot model

Well if you XFormed it and it had errors in it you're basically stuck as you can't really undo that - if the orig mesh has issues and you Xform it will definitely make your problem worse. Before Xform, go back to your original mesh and ensure you don't have issues such as open edges, unwelded verts, double-faces that kind of thing. Then I would suggest converting the wheel to editable mesh (not editable poly as there is a difference) - and see if that works. Or just upload your max file or just the wheel or whatever if you want and I'm sure between one of us we can take a quick look.

Yeah, if you've used modifiers like XForm esp. collapse your modifier stack so it's editable mesh only - and sometimes helpful is the Unify function.

Congrats Russ, know it was a long haul. And you're absolutely right - Logan's brain power on these kind of challenges is a God Send!

Wrench, if you're not in a hurry and no one else steps up I can add it to my to do list. I'm just really really backed up at the moment with other personal requests but can get to it eventually.

Russ, as Yakarov alluded two - there's basically two scenarios. One in which the gauge reflection is painted on and remains static and constant no matter what type of lighting hits it. It absolutely looks cool though. Another technique is to use a very high specular setting (white) on the glass dials and that will definitely allow the lighting to more dynamically (and realistically) interact - but man it will take a long time and experimentation to get it just right.

Sorry, I should know this by now - but anyone recall what the max allowable mesh poly/tri counts are for: 1) total model and 2) per individual mesh piece?

Russ, that is spot on m8 - superb job and love the fact you just killed off 6k polys - nicely done!

Love it - and good call on the bump map in this situation...

Russ, right on with this - this is an absolutely appropriate use case of leveraging a .tga texture! That being said, overall definitely suggest using tga to just limited and strategic use only. .Tgas under this game engine really hurt performance overall and can cause z-buffering/fighting issues. Also, another thing is that transparency in .tga /double-sided textures will not cast shadows so something else to keep in mind.

Baff, I totally agree with you. Gepard, this is absolutely awesome work, keep it up - and let me know if I can lend a hand (time permitting).

Awesome, congratulations and keep up the great work!

Russ, instrument panel reflections are freakin' awesome - nice!

guuruu, my sincere compliments to you and all who worked on this - this is fantastic work. And I love the fact that you're focused on continuous improvement efforts - great job and cheers to the entire team!

Gerwin, that's all well and good but it's not as easy as just buying a model as you know - and didn't want others to get the idea that it's "buy and fly." Someone needs to create all the animation slots, create the flight dynamics, update the textures, ensure the mesh pieces are linked/have proper hierarchy, perform the .ini/loadout work, etc. Just want others reading this to be aware. There is a lot of work to be done once a base mesh is finished - and for aircraft and carriers especially - I would argue getting the mesh done is by far the easiest part. Please don't take my reply the wrong way, just trying to bring some transparency into the amount of effort that's needed before others go off and consider spending money on such things.

Back in the day, it was a different story with a different answer - today more efforts around brute force converting other helo models. In my opinion, Jarek/Yakarov79 makes the best helos for this sim - period. My recommendation would be enjoy the helo experience he delivers - he offers the full package from great mesh/optimized models, texturing, flight dynamics/physics, etc. and also has a great selection to choose from.

LOL...And when an SF series player like me watches that video, I'm reminded exactly why DCS World is not my primary sim and probably won't ever be even years from now. Back in the day when I was younger and had more time, totally different probability. Now I'm just too old and too busy to spend days understanding the flight manual, 15 minutes getting through a cockpit start-up and clearance sequence and then finally I'm actually airborne - hopefully for more than 5 minutes - before I'm reminded that I forgot to press the aux pressure switch parked in the bottom cockpit panel and crash into the ground. LOL. Anyway, to each their own.

All, just curious to get some perspectives. I understand that IL-2 is still considered a World War 2 masterpiece and "go to" sim. And I know there is a separate but rather calm forum here. But I'm just sincerely wondering what specific reasons and limitations exist as to why that genre never really took off under the SF2 game engine?

Yes, that designation references a "Chief Warrant Officer." Here is one source definition that should be helpful: "Warrant Officers are recognized as the most technically and tactically competent soldiers of differing certain specialties in the Army. The base rank for Warrant Officers is Warrant Officer 1 (WO1). Still recognized as technical and tactical experts at this rank, WO1's serve from the team level (7 to 25 soldiers, depending on the type of team) thru the battalion level (around 800 soldiers)." And each subsequent rank of course has more expertise and governing authority up to CW5.

Keep at it Russ, will be great in the end. And get advice from @yakarov79 - he is the absolute best helo expert out there.

Not quite. You still need to make the proper selections in 3ds Max which includes exporting the model with decal support.

Erik, that is seriously some of the funniest shit I've seen in ages - cracks me up everytime, absolutely hilarious and great find...

Wilches, what are you talking about? There's no such thing as a "copywrite" law. I assume you meant "copyright"; but besides almost all of these are subject to licensing agreements - LOL - these are different. In almost all cases the licensing agreements declare and uphold protection of the copyright laws. How do I know? Because I was subject to software code and intellectual property piracy in the past both personally and professionally where lawyers had to get involved. I'm not going to say anything more on this topic - good luck.

Hi All, I think I started this very low-poly, "photoreal" fort years ago but it's somewhere stashed on one of my old hard drives. Are you guys all set on Forts? I thought Geezer put out a bunch of them and his stuff is of the highest quality already. Anyway, if there's still a need or interest I can try to hunt it down but if not that's perfectly fine too, just thought I'd check!