sophocles

Thanks for the encouragement. ... I wish I knew more; adjusting the pivot points on the control surfaces is killing me! Does anyone know how to perfectly align a pivot to a particular edge in Max? (not manually .. it's useless)

Hello cocas, I used to texture years ago for FSX projects and I know the "burn out" feeling, sometimes it'd take months to pick up the brushes again .. though I hope you're rested enough to want to get back into it. This is game is wonderful despite the various frustrations. Of course release won't be for a long way yet; there's the finishing off of little modelling details, the mapping of the remainder, the decal placement, the animating, the cockpit (....and its animations), the final texture templates, the planned paint schemes ...phew!

OMG!!!!! That can't have been there for long, this is the first I've heard about it.. and can''t say it's been that long since I went to the airport .. or has it? Guess whose going digital photo-taking this weekend?

I'm ok with drawings now (worked with poor drawings during modelling and had to rely on good photos; but Derk has already provided me with fantastic drawings). I'm pretty sure there are none on Crete, but would love the chance fto visit Salonica to see them up close .. but .. too little time, too little money

You mean bare .. bare metal? not silver painted? Gosh they would look marvelous!

To be honest I use photographs as much as possible since technical drawings on this particular aircraft are very difficult to find, so every bit helps. Derk has since sent me some fantastic drawings which I'm using to check the dimensions on the model .. thankfully it's very close but small small modifications will be necessary. Squid, your pics have been very useful and I'm wondering where the closest F-5 is to where I live (Herakleion, Crete), so that perhaps I could visit this summer to get some real close up shots .. not to mention I'd love to see one for real!! Thanks again

Soulfreak, those walkarounds were great! Thanks to all of you I have most of what I need I appreciate all of your input .. now I'm getting to the gritty parts like the flap and slat areas (where and how they fit the main wing) There's still plenty to do. Hope to have some in-game pics soon (thankfully it exports fine, just want to finish up some bits before I post ). Regards

Squid, thanks for porn.. I mean pics!! many of them I haven't seen before. It would be great If you have any close up pics of the external cockpit area, depicting the stencils(especially the ones in Greek) . Regards

Soulfreak, thanks JonathanRL, thanks for the comment and encouragement Derk has already sent me some excellent references so I'm committed to the Nf-5! Regards

checked .. thanks again

Bravo Bravo Ludo!! It looks epic!!

Thanks PureBlue I personally would like to see some TAF schemes done as well .. Cheers

Thanks tio .. you're right about the multi-nationality and longevity of this series of aircraft; hope once it's done that folks may want to do some re-paints. Cheers

Greek language forun would be great! .. and thanks for the comments

Hello all, just a small update. Fumbling about with bump and specular settings .. Derk sent me some fabulous references and hope to get to modelling the NF-5a soon. Comments welcome :) P.S ...και νικησανε οι Ελληνες

I'll try that, thanks

Hello Russouk2004, I've been using it for the F-5 and use default settings (scale of 1), which I'm not exactly happy with at the moment so I don't really have any suggestions of which to speak. However I too would be interested If someone has something in mind .. especially the panel ripple effects I see on some planes which are achieved through bumpmaps. Regards

I'm planning to do the Rf-5a recon version, the B(two-seater),C(shoshi tiger) and If I find some good references the CF-5a and the Dutch versions. I'm simply climbing the steep learning curve of getting the planes into the game with decals,animations etc.. not to mention the cockpit and all its respective animations. Regards

Do you mean cast shadows/catch shadow/specular glossiness etc..? If you're referring to these,you can rem them out in the aircraft.ini or textureset.ini files and this will result in the model not using any of these attributes. But perhaps I've not understood..?

hgbn, you're a life saver! It would never have occurred to me to try that (mine was in the skin folder). Now the bump maps show up in-game. Thanks a lot!! Regards

Yes, thanks .. I realized too that the bmps have to be at 24-bit. What I haven't had success at, is getting my bump maps to show in game. They're properly set up (and render in max beautifully too!) but no show in game .. are there any parameters that have to be included for bumps in the texture.ini files? Regards

My F-5a project will have 2 4096 textures for the entire external model; It still looks sweet at 2048, but the rivet and stenciling are not as clear. At any rate, the end user has the option of scaling that down himself should he so desire .. upscaling is impossible!

Hello Wrench, I've been experimenting and I've finally got my textures to show at 24 bit bmp (32-bit wouldn't show) I'm off to see now If the 4096 will work at 24-bit.. Thanks for the speedy reply

Hello all was wondering If someone knows what the texture limits are in this game. Can they be 24-bit and 32-bit? Can we go beyond 2048 to 4096X4096? And If so, can such large textures be 32-bit bmps? Thanks

Hello Centurion-1, I'm definitely going to do a cockpit. I'll be needing as many references as possible; though I've already got the CF-5a manual; I'd be eager to look at photos and drawings of other variants