p10ppy

New thread about decals So we don’t clutter up tex’s one on the plafz skin While you can (and should) do that for aircraft numbers and personal insignia using the built in numbering system (both decal.ini and the numbers.lst) I’m not sure what you would gain doing the national insignia that way I suppose you could use it like personal (squadron) decals and change them for different craft in the same flight, but it would be fixed (no changing with date) And if its only being used to change the national insignia from stock why not just paint it on the skin… same result and looks better imho (if ive not misunderstood you ) On the date changing thing… I expect there’s only one AlternateDecal=XXX/ActiveDate=XXX in each nations subsection …(mite be wrong) But maybe if you add another new nation to the nations.ini … [Nation020] Name=GERMANY_TRANS For example and referenced that from … [Nation019] Name=GERMANY_OLD ActiveDate=XXXX AlternateDecal=GERMANY_ TRANS And supplied a INSIGNIA020.TGA with the modded cross it may work… Where to put that .tga I’m not sure… (Either in the aircraft skins folder or straight under objects/aircraft I guess) YMMV There is a decal tutorial from TK floating around (it’s a bit old but still useful) Its worth a read if you haven’t already And why it’s so hard to find I’m not sure … Here http://www.bobsyouruncle.net/StrikeFighterSkins.htm have fun ps i can probably whip up a insignia tga if you guys need one but you will have to point me at a photo of what you want (im too lazy / hungover to look at the moment)

id be a little surprised if is hardcoded (not much seems to be) theres this in the nations.ini AlternateDecal=GERMANY_OLD don't know what it means tho the GERMANY_OLD must point to one of insignia0XX.tga i guess there may be another ini or lst file somewhere like the squadronlist.ini for national insignias Edit: was staring me in the face from the nations.ini [Nation004] Name=GERMANY --------Snip------- ActiveDate=03/20/1918 AlternateDecal=GERMANY_OLD --------Snip------- [Nation019] Name=GERMANY_OLD --------End------- so that means that... Nation004 = insignia004.tga Nation019 = insignia019.tga hope that helps

I tend to paint "most" of my marking on the skin you can make the skin much nicer imho better blending weathering and placement... Once you have a layered image file set up its not to much work to change the markings and make a new set of skins that said, for the generics i would/should use decals for the smaller bits (serialnumbers etc) How are you guys changing decals by date? (or skins for that matter) didn't know you can do that campaign file ?

we are all waiting for the updated (post addon) gun and weapon editor :( none of the 3rd party addon weapons can be updated till then i think

makes perfect sense JFM it was the reason that many German craft had the Tach outside the pit near the guns how ever the one clearish shot i have of a D5 tach "seems" to indicate it was upright... (its a pretty fuzzy pic) like you said maybe a field mod or only from some factories

extract ALB5_FACE_RPM.bmp from the ObjectData01.cat and rotate it 90 counterclockwise in a image editor save it back into the DVA and DV folders in a (probably new) cockpit folder i would post the file but I'm a little hesitant as its obviously TKs work...

The faired fuselage came in with the Nie17bis and was used in the 24 and 27 after that and numerous other variations that were all essentially related to the Nie17 which was in turn “pretty” similar to the 11(bebe) and the 16 Confusingly the Nie23 was made before the Nie17bis and had the unfaired fuselage (but other small changes) The 17 and its derivatives were being used on the A-H/Italian front in 1918 (I think) and given the unhomogenized state of unit aircraft in WW1 I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they were still around in 1918 on the western front… (especially given the later arrival of the US with no aircraft of its own….) pity we can't give the knownAce thingy their own aircraft type to reflect this... Its such a evocative feature of WW1 IMHO (dissimilar aircraft in the same unit) This site here has a great breakdown of the British airfields/aircraft/squadrons http://clubweb.interbaun.com/milesc/oob1.html I’ve never found an equivalent for the other nations :( hope that helped a little

not sure... but i don't think there is a "shadow" lod for pits... besides the person with the original max file would have to make it...if it were possible??? i asked about something similar a while ago and TK said paint it darker http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=4326

slightly OT The hud debug mode is improved in the addon (well its sort of a ini tweak) much more info about the forces at work... still wish it had a clock tho... :-)

Agrees with Heck Add to all of this that the Germans certainly did fly at above 1400 Rpm (especially in combat) and it gets hard to model indeed (no "overpower" parametres that I'm aware of) A brief speed test of the stock addon D.VII (speed was never its strong point tho) Seems to indicate that it could use more power imho Climb seemed weak too but I never tested it in any rational way… so I may be mistaken:blink: The D.VII's big advantage was its cantilever wing with the thick high lift airfoil section…and its relatively viceless handling I haven't flown the Addon anywhere near enough to make balance judgments But the D.VII (both) should have the best sustained climb performance of all the stock Aircraft and be good at low speed maneuvers IMHO note: ive seen many differing performance figures for the D.VII Alt------KIAS----KTAS----KPH-IAS--KPH-TAS-----D.VII-"RL"----D.VIIf-"RL"- sl-------99.2----99.5----183.7----184.274--------185----------205---------- 500------98.2----101-----181.8----187.052---------------------------------- 1000-----95.5----100.5---176.8----186.126---------------------------------- 2000-----87.5----97.2----162.05---180.0144-------183----------200---------- 3000-----80.2----93.5----148.53---173.162---------------------------------- sorry about the horrible table

internet "research" YMMV http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/2000/838...ion-engine.html http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/2001/123...erformance.html http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/replica-...s-d-iiia-5.html and lots more there with a search...

I would have to respectfully (and gently) disagree with you Charles The engine was certainly (confusingly) called the Mercedes 160 hp (that according to a datafile is the Mercedes class name) But was continually improved through out its life (life starting from midish 1916 with the Albatross D.I) I don’t think the D.VII ever saw front line service with the old DIII engine (nor the D.V or D.Va or the D.III that stuck around for long) maybe in prototype form… I only have references (not that many ) referring to the latter types of engines in D.VII’s As an aside The Albatross D.III Oef was built till the end of the war by the Austro-Hungarians Powered by Austro-Daimler engines (heavier than the Mercedes) I don’t know if the Austro-Hungarians rated their engines at 1400rpm like the Germans (and the Mercedes engines are all capable of more then 1400rpm) Depending on the D.III Oef series number… Austro-Daimler 185 hp = 137954.5 watts 200 hp = 149140 watts 225 hp = 167782.5 watts @ Tex Yes of course, and I haven’t done any tests on the D.VII But there are many more subtle ways IMHO (and areas that are greyer in terms of published info) of adjusting those performance parametres (CD0, PropEfficiency etc) than depriving it of at least 12% of its power And considering engine power is used when estimating aerodynamic coefficients when published material is scarce, the whole plane could be out of whack… Whether it’s worth it if the D.VII is performing in balance with the other craft is another matter

weird numbers on TKs originals... from the pre-addon D.Va SLPowerDry=119312.0 D.VII SLPowerDry=119312.0 D.VIIf SLPowerDry=137954.5 maybe its a balance thing... but those aircraft never had a 160hp engine (even the alb D.III didn't i think) and why they would be lower now after the addon....? from a few sources... all rated at 1400Rpm (german rating system) most were capable of another 200ish rpm/40-50ish Hp for shortish periods/or at certain (high) altitudes Mercedes DIII = 160hp = 119312 watt Mercedes DIIIa = 170hp = 126769 watt....Albatros D.III and D.V (the engine was upgraded to DIIIaü spec when possible) Mercedes DIIIaü = 180hp = 134226 watt ....Most Fokker D.VII and most Albatros D.Va Mercedes DIIIaüv = 200hp = 149140 watt ....Very late production Fokker D.VII BMW IIIa = 185hp = 137954.5 watt ...Fokker D.VIIf BMW was lighter, had better high Alt performance, and better +1400rpm power (1600 rpm = 254hp)

good idea HecK :yes: keep us informed of your results the sooner we understand the new parametres the sooner the mods can be upgraded/new ones made if you get time (and are interested) theres all the new stall tables to play with too

Re the Clerget Camel try adding this to the Data.ini under [FlightControl] AutoTrimLimit=0.0 all the other Camels have it and it seems to calm it down a bit May be some control hack to make the rotarys useable.... and the fuelpump on the spar doesn't spin on any of them :( I had a quick go at hacking it with a engine data entry but it doesn't seem to be rigged that way... maybe with a patch

Alkan synchronizer I believe was the reason (so I have read) The early Alkan (Nie16) wasn’t reliable in testing by the RFC and there were a number of crashes from synchronizer failure So they gave up on it and stuck with the Forster French seem to have persisted and the later Alkans (Nie17+) were more reliable

agreed :yes: i note this from the "mars" link also "Nieuport 27 parts catalog. Not all drawings may be appropriate to the 27." (great catalog ) see this pic and info http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/npt27.htm i think some of this is terminolgy too they are squarer then the Nie17 (that has a dramatic slope/slant) but more rounded at the back especially anyway any Nie27 will be welcome :yes:

hmmm may not be that simple 'Nieuport Aces of WW1" (osprey) shows it with rounded (same as the 24) tho it appears from this discussion (rather long but with a few pics) to be a different airfoil atleast to the 24... http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/aircraft...7-airfoils.html a photo of a 27 showing the tips would be nice... :yes: good to see some old names back :)

not quite perfect but it is much better shame aladar never finished it (its such a great pit) after TK modded the game for it (which was pretty amazing of him) http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3493 what would be really nice would be away of adding another layer of lods to the models for these small changes... its kinda possible with the weapons editor but kinda clunky and VERY hard in the pit mesh.. thanks AD

if you can point me at a pic showing the mount i can probably wip one up (shouldnt take long) i've only ever seen mg's mounted that way at assumed the carbines were shoulder fired?

my bad if you have done the rest of the readme stuff heres the bit i forgot at the beginning of the soundlist.ini file is a list of the sounds under the following title [soundList]. Put the following entries at the end of the list and continue the sequence of numbers. SoundFileXXX=hotchkiss SoundFileXXX=lerhone hope you enjoy it ps heres the thread with other minor fixs and tweaks http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showt...=19508&st=0

Thank you all for all your kind encouragement :) As I said please don't get to excited… I don't get as much time to do this as I would like and they are a ways off @ Charles, yeah that's one of the many problems to solve, I had a quick look at the formation.ini a while ago and though I didn't quite grokk it, I thought it looked doable… Have you tried making single ship formations? I also have problems around lift (would prefer buoyancy ) that are similar to the helo FMs I would imagine… Was hoping to do it with continuous upwards thrust for each gas cell, but there seems no way to set up a thrust source not linked to the throttle I tried negative mass but the FM didn't like that (surprise surprise ) I was having all sorts of crazy ideas about jettisonable water ballast and reversible props but I've settled for trying to get the AI to fly it acceptably I've attenuated bank to almost nothing and the AI copes "ok"… still seems to get to a heading alright (and only occasionally gets stuck inverted ) AA is another problem … it kills it real fast and doesn't really miss(realistic probably) But it seem reasonably hard for a aircraft to bring it down So I'm not sure it would ever be suitable for normal campaigns The loadout is giving me problems as well 8 x PuW300, 40 x PuW100 and 120 x Bomb11kg I've got them in the 8 bays sort of… but I'm having endless problems with the door animations… Automatic isn't really working… and there seems to be no key for manual doors in FE… I wonder if the AI cares? Damage model also looks weird because of these huge hoops of polys (original node) plummeting to earth when a damage node appears, but there seems to be no way of just making a node vanish instead of falling… And the list goes on… I will have to make some compromises eventually And its thanks to this wonderfully moddable game engine that its even half possible Fun and games :yes:

pretty sure its not possible the SHD file is a simplifed version of the main meshes so even if you could get it to appear it would look different (especialy for a tri) and would have a different pivot point, different size etc.... The original modder has to supply one really and as Gambit said they ushally are more trouble than they are worth (shadows i mean, not modders )

WIP time I've been a little loathe to post WIP's because I'm so slow at finishing compared to everyone else… so don't hold your breath Since Norman was asking about a Voisin I thought I'd post an update (Welcome Norman BTW) These are still a ways off, and I will most likely wait till the FE add-on to see what improvements TK makes to the engine Voisin Stopped work on it a little while ago when I got additional info and realized I should really redo the whole underside of the fuselage (gearing back up to it when RL permits) L30 Been work on this for a long while The model and texture are almost finished But FM and Dam model are giving me conniptions (AI does kinda fly it ok…) and the loadout seems impossible to do in a accurate way… I will ask some more detailed questions about stuff when I get a chance though I suspect most answers will be no Far off in never never land I'd love to do a taube and a Macchi M5 but we shall see PS I had a look at doing some Adriatic terrain for FE (Venice and Trieste, bottom of the Alps) but realistically I just don't have the time, tho it didn't seem to hard to do just lots of work… I'd love an Italian vs Austro-Hungarian coastal theatre

Yeah it took me along time to dive in too But it is fun (if confusing) and I'm strictly amateur Try this if you are interested, (and haven't seen it before ) it helped me a lot with understanding some FE FM bits I never got up to jets with it tho…. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/...68/contents.htm this stuff here was very good for estimating CD0 CL0 etc from limited known dimensions/performance…(for the whole airframe) http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-468/app-c.htm Plugged into FE and it was pretty good at getting you in the ballpark for performance