serverandenforcer

Will keep a mental note of that for the 2010 airshow.

Will be keeping a supply of Jack Daniels at my new place once I move in... that is once I get the new place. So come on over whenever you want... or at anytime we'll be having an airshow. And if anybody starts posting on me for having beer after that post I made.... I drink responsibly... I only gotten buzzed once, and that's because someone mischeviously added something to my drink that had a bit more of a kick than Bud Lite....

Oh, you just had to didn't you

As a military cop, I will say this. I have seen more harm done to people who are intoxicated from alcohol. Even one glass of beer can get a person buzzed, and being buzzed is being drunk. And you can easily over dose on alcohol. Very rarely have I ever encountered a situation where someone has gotten seriously injured due to the involvement of marijuana. Now what I don't know is how quickly one can get buzzed from marijuana, and how much it affects there perception and reasoing skills. But from what I've seen, it's danger level is lower than that of alcohol because you can not over dose on it. So havig the consumption of alcohol being legal, but the use of mairjuana illegal doesn't make much sense to me, which is why most cops don't really give a rat's ass about it. Infact, most cops (not me - that stuff stinks!) have done some weed prior to being a cop (and sometimes with a few while they have been in the department). Now, if marijuana has been legalized, it will do three things. One, it will put a massive dent to the illegal underground marijuana manufaturers that have ties to crimianl organizations. By legalizing marijuana, you will effectively shut down cirmianl organization's (such as the Mexican Mafia and white supremacy groups) main source of revenue. Without a main source of revenue, the more difficult it is for them to carry out their violent operations. Also, with the use of marijuana no longer being illegal, it will allow law-enforcement agencies to redirect their attention to more serious crimes, and allowing quicker responses to much more serious calls. Second, it will increase the number of jobs in a crippled economy. With the way things are going right now, jobs are very few and hard to come by. With the legalization of marijuana, this would open doors to employments at a wide range, and considering how addicts are, I don't think there would be any concern of a slow market. Third, it may possibly reduce the usage of other narcotics that DO have a history in which people have gotten seriously hurt and killed. If drug-A is easier to get becaue it has been legalized and more affordable than drug-B, then which one do you think the addict would go to? Now as a Christian, I am opposed to the abuse of any substance whether it being drug or non drug related. The good book does teach against the use of anything that facilitates an altered perception of reality. Infact, it discusses this as away of stepping into demonic possesion. However, I do have a realistic perception on the world, and that not everybody is a Christain nor do they share and accept Christain ideals. So I'm not going to force my faith down somebody elses's throat and say, "hey tough, I dont' care what your feelings are on it because my faith comes first before you." My faith does come first before a lot of things, but I don't think that shoving it in everybody else's life is the correct way of going about it. God gave us choices for a reason. Heck, he allowed the two morons that he first created a choice between two trees - one bad, one good. He didn't keep them from using the bad one, but did proclaim a consequence if they decide to go ahead and eat from it. Legalizing marijuana is allowing a choice for people to make. If there is a way to help reduce violent crimes, keep people from ODing, stop drunk driving, and make it difficult for gangs and mafias to do what they do best, I'm all for it. In this world, you sometimes are left with chosing the lesser of the two evils. Legalizing marijuana is unfortuantely the lesser of the two evils. I also think the concept of it being such a bad thing really has to do with state and federal fear based propaganda exagerating how bad it is when it really isn't compared to other things that have been legalized (alcohol). I would never smoke, as I said that I think it stinks, and I don't like having my perception of reality being altered. Yes, life sucks... deal with it, but deal with it like a man.

Somebody has been watching way too much XXX State of the Union. -LINK HERE-

How low do I go?... so low that my aircraft is not only equiped with Terrain Following Radar, but also Hell Following Radar. I can pick up a pitch fork for ya as a suvenire if you want one and maybe some red hots while I'm at it. EDIT: I got Satan's autograph on my vertical stabilizer! Muwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

To add on to what FC said (it took me a while to write my previous post before he posted)... in the 3D rendering world, when you build a simple part... like a can (which is actually just a cylinder), it does not build the interior of the can, only the exterior. Now, there are techniques on how to get the interior of the can to render, but that is getting really involved into the discussion of making 3D objects when you don't even have a 3D rendering program. Get Gmax, mess around with making 3D objects like what FC suggested. You might figure out what is being discussed. It took me a while to figure this part out when I first started with making 3D objects... thought something was wrong with the program. Also, if you zoom in too closely, you will actually be zooming past the renderd parts, and you will get that "open space" that you maybe refering to. What you are actually doing is peering inside the 3D model, in which there will not be any 3D parts being rendered.... just like our example with the can. You are actually zooming into the interior of the can.

If the case is that the cockpit on the 3D model of the aircraft does not have a floor, then a solution to that problem can simply be by making a 3D object (more likely a square) and add it on to the aircraft using the "Pilot Method". I will explain what this is. In the data.ini file, under the section for the crew, there are several lines that call for 3D object outside of the specified aircraft folder to be implented into the 3D aircraft model. The first line should say: [Pilot]; 2nd line should say: SystemType=Pilot_Cockpit (this line tell the SF engine that a 3D object, outside of the specified aircraft folder, will be needed); 3rd line says: "PilotModelName=InsertNameHere (obviously the "InsertNameHere" would be replaced by whatever pilot .LOD file you would want in the aricraft. This line directs the SF engine on what the 3D object that is outside of the specified aircraft folder is); 4th line should also say: Position=x,y,z (x,y,z, would realy be reaplced by numbers that tell the SF engine where the 3D object would be positioned on the 3D aricraft model). Knowing what these three lines do can now allow us to get our square to be inserted into the floorless cockpit of the 3D aircraft. However, before we do that, we need to understand one more aspect of the "Pilote Method." Every major part of the aircraft has systems attached to it. The crew section in the data.ini file is a system that is part of a major 3D part of the aircraft. We need to find out what that part is and then add a new system to that part to install our new floor. Usually the crew system is located in the Nose section of the data.ini file. So what you do is add in a new system (let's call it... SystemName[***]=Floor). Now lets go down back to where the crew entries are located. Add in a new entry underneath the last crew entry. Let's have it setup like this... 1st line: [Floor] (remember that this is what we had called the new system?); 2nd line: SystemType=Pilot_Cockpit; 3rd line: PilotModelName=Floor; 4th line: Position=x,y,z (it would be relatively close to what the postions are for the previous crew entries). Now if the case is with the actual 3D cockpit, then you will need to have a whole new cockpit to be made. You can either contact the original model maker, or make one yourself.

Well, I doubt prisons carry shoulder mounted stinger launchers... but you would think that this prison would considering that these two have already done this kind of an escape before.

Nice!!! :yes:

Why yes, yes I have.

Spinache/Artichoke Cheese dip, Guacamolie, Salsa with some hot peppers, Cool Ranch, and maybe even some Bean dip goes well with my taste buds.

That's 25k polys? That kind of detail looks like it would range up to the 35+ range. Nice work.

I think what he meant was if the 3D cockpit that you sit in is positioned inside the 3D model of the aircraft. That is still a yes and no answer. The 3D cockpit only exists while you are in that view mode, and it's co-ordinates position it relatively where the cockpit should be for that aircraft. However, that cockpit is not part of the aircraft's 3D model. Once you go to an external view, you are seeing a different cockpit that is part of the aircraft model. You will notice that cockpit is significantly less detailed than the 3D cockpit. If you used the same 3D cockpit for the 3D aircraft model, the poly count for that model would be so high, that the sim would be a slide show.

Roger that. I'll try to do some more brain storming on how to solve that issue.

Well, another way of going about it is to build a seperate A2A pylon for it in the actual model in max, and have a weapon station specifically for that pylon setup in the data.ini file which would call for that part when armed with Sidewinders and AMRAAMs. That is the only time that when I don't see pylons dropping off. Example from the F-35 data.ini [LeftOuterStation] SystemType=WEAPON_STATION StationID=2 StationGroupID=5 StationType=EXTERNAL AttachmentPosition=-5.013,-2.568,-0.141 AttachmentAngles=0.0,0.0,45.0 NumWeapons=1 LoadLimit=300.00 DiameterLimit=0.18 LengthLimit=3.656 AllowedWeaponClass=IRM,AHM AttachmentType=NATO,USAF ModelNodeName=LeftOuterPylon <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< This is the part modeled in 3D max that is part of the model. It does not appear unless a weapon, under the allowed weapon class, that meets the load limit, diameter limit, length limit, and number of weapons is armed. I don't know how to go about it when you have two weapons loaded up. Perhaps you have two attachment positions and two attachment angles. PylonMass=72.58 PylonDragArea=0.02

Ya know what I see from this... the gun cam for the Apache and possibly the helmet mounted optics. This is uber cool!

Would this line (NoJettisionWeapon=TRUE) work to keep the pylons from jettisoning after the last missile was fired? It's sort of the same as what the F-16I has for the CFTs except their's say: NoJettisionTank=TRUE

Well, I don't think I could do any better. Matching things up really has to do with renaming the nodes (which are basically the names of the parts of the aircraft - which are given to them in 3D Max by the model maker and can be found in the .OUT file) and making sure that the x,y,z coordinates for those parts are matched up correctly as well (the main ones to be concerned of would probably be the center of gravity, center of pivot, and collision points). Then there's animation key sets that are assigned to specific parts that operate with a complex animation (for instance, the collective on the Apache, which involves 17 moving parts for a single animation key). If you throw in the wrong animation key for the part, you're not going to get the part to animate (but may incidentally get another part to animate with the function). Aero-dynamic data is another matter, in which I have no idea on how to construct.

Well, so far only AleDucat has stepped up to take a crack at it. The only skill I have with FM is just minor tweak work. I do not have the knowledge or the expertise on how to build one up - even from an existing FM. I don't mind if others want to try building one with a different way of doing it. However, my main objective is for the player to be able to control the aircraft like a real helicopter. Essentially you can with the thrust vectoring capabilities with the harrier. On a regular helicopter, the handle of the collective does two things: as you rotate it, you increase engine speed, and as you pull it up, you increase positive collective (or in this case, rotating the imaginary exhaust nozzles down). Definately the AI wouldn't be able to do it, so I am going to have a seperate FM for the AI. However, for the time being, the primary goal is to get a FM setup for the player. After that, I'll focus on building a FM for the AI... which can probably be made from a minor alteration to the player's FM.

Just bought Max Payne Unrated yesterday on DVD. Haven't watched it yet, but was wondering if anybody here saw it and if it's any good?

Well, I've never played the game... I kind of had a feeling that they would make a movie out of it, and that it probably wouldn't stay true to the game. Waiting on them to make a movie out of Strangle Hold and Half Life.

Actually, Stary, your effect is probably the best that I've ever seen from a combat sim.

I can see where you're comming at, but the thing is, in law-enforcement, the official is placed in a position that carries a heavy level of trust and expectations of professionalism, probably more than what should be expected from a human being. Unfortunately, because these officials are human beings, they are probably going to be prone to do something really stupid... such as covering up evidence. However, because of the position that they're in, and the fact that as a law-enforcement officers, they should know way better than the average joe on how bad it is to do such a thing. They are essentially violating a serious level of trust placed upon them and are opening themselves up to the severiest of ridicule and scrutiny. They need to be set as a severe example of such actions to encourage others from doing the same. Is it harsh, yes. Is it cruel or unusual, to the average citizen, yes, but to a cop, it should be expected. Cops are not average citizens. Once you swear in, you're essentially placing yourself at a higher level of expectations than the average American citizen, and failing to meet those expectations can come with a price that is just as high. You are essentially no longer the American citizen that you once were. You're supposed to be better, you're trained to be better, and swore to be better, and if you're not, you get the boot a lot harder.