Hauksbee

Reinhold Platz: hired as a welder in Fokker's earliest days, unschooled as an engineer, rose to be Tony Fokker's head designer.

Thanks, Rooster. Too bad it's not importable into OFF. We'll have to work on that.

Yes. Named for the over-abundance of bracing wires. Looked like an airborne spider web.

I couldn't get back on until I deleted the bookmarks in my Favorites File. The confusion between my machine and the Forum site changed the little OFF icons to a little server w/ a doc. beside it. Took me to some place called Parallel. After I deleted the bookmarks this morning and entered the address manually, my machine found you. [i can breath again.]

Yeah, it's got the Roger Waters melancholy.

What a strange obsession. Let's us hope there is no known cure. Keep 'em comin', Jammer.

A few days back somebody mentioned that the gMax modeling program is included on the MS Flight Simulator. I hope I am remembering correctly. I have MS Flight Simulator X (DeLuxe Edt.) 2006. I've scanned both discs and don't see it. Can someone point me in the right direction? EDIT: I downloaded Gmax from TurboSquid.

Thanks for the heads-up. However; I don't use 3D Max these days. My experience with it was on one short-lived [shorter-than-expected, anyway] job while I was a graphic designer in California. [Had to build hundreds of tiny, clik-on icons for an on-line application.] But that was nigh onto ten years ago, so I'm rather starting fresh. Probably best I just hang in with G-Max. I remember 3D Max for the over-whelming plethora of tools. Once you figured out how to do something, you had to nearly re-do it over and over because you'd forget where the tool was. I'll just take it low and slow until I get through the tutorial.

The good news is: you'll be on your feet before you know it. Of course, that's the bad news too: 'Means you'll be back on the ground before you know it. Good Luck to y'.

This will be the blind leading the blind. Not normally a good situation for two pilots. (LOL)

The plane I'm building is for generating images, not gameplay. But I could see building something like a Voisin [when the time comes] as it's pretty simple. However; I'd better get through the first tutorial on G-Max before I start taking requests. [LOL]

In this case, where actual dimensions matter, I did import a Top/Side & Front view and built the model over the art. I used the drawings I mentioned in another thread. [scale Aircraft Drawings / Air Age] I Photoshoped out all the extraenous detail. Modeling an object really isn't that hard. When you get to human(oid) modeling and animation it can get complex...and 'way more complex than I want to deal with. I've read accounts of character models with 500+ 'bones'. But animating an airplane can be done with a 'bone' in each control surface, one in the prop, one in the wheels, and there you are. Also, bones are simple to add, and then you assign the Control Points [the red dots] to each bone. My D.VIII is built in Animation:Master because that's the program I've used for the last three years. It's what I used for the Albatros/DH-2 pictures on my Blog. And I'm doing the same here: I'll render the model over a suitable cloud pic. and see what I can get. Plus it's a good excercise in shaping a D.VIII [current pic. attached] Here's the URL for G-Max. They tucked it away in a sub-basement. http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

Absolutely!

VII's? VIII's? Jaysus! Numbers all look alike. And, of course, you're right. The D.VIII is a elegant looking plane, the D.VII was designed simply to lift a pair of Spandau's to 13,000' and back again. The G-Max Forums can be found at TurboSquid.com Oddly enough, I started building a D.VIII yesterday in Animation:Master, but this will not be importable into a game. EDIT: I've seen the photos of people standing on the wing. Fokker liked that kind of pic. But then, he needed them. The Dr.I had main spar problems at first, and I've seen references that claim the early D.VIII's were shoddily built and suffered multiple failures.

Olham? Can this be the same 'Olham' who has been telling us what an ugly aiplane the D.VII is? A 'railroad box-car' of a plane? A 'soap-box racer' of an airplane? [i'm quoting from memory here.] Can it be? Don't let GMAX scare you off. If you can turn the computer on, you can handle 3D applicatrions. The first is the worst. [After the first one, they all work in similar ways.] Download the article above that StumpJumper posted. Lots of good stuff in it. The tutorial I'm using you can find at www.simviation.com/gryphon/tutorials/gMax_02.htm He starts you off building a WWII German jet [Me-334] Not exactly our cup of tea, but, just this once, I'm going to follow the tutorial and NOT jump into my pet project at once and try to adapt the tutorial to it. One good piece of advice, [i believe it was in Stump's posting], the author says 'For your first plane, build something very basic, even rudimentary. Same with the second'. Don't try to make some that looks really hot. Get the basics under your belt...then go for 'pretty'. Also, I found 'The G-Max Bible' on amazon.com [i always buy Used copies.] There are other sources. I've got a bunch in my Favorites file. I'll dig them out later and post them. Among them: a G-Max Forum where you can question experienced people. And then, there's us. I'm sure the three of us can get one airplane off the ground. EDIT: 'Checked the Favorites file. The best entries are the ones I've already posted here.

While cruising the 'net this morning, I ran across a flight sim. [by a nameless rival] that had this handle [?] hanging down. I don't see it on 'our' Albatros's, but then, I didn't open them all up in QC, just the D.II, D.III and one of the D.V's. What did it do? Adjust aileron trim?

81 Kb is still less than 2 Mb. Are your .jpeg's by any chance 81 Mb? That would be an upload problem. And if they're that high after conversion, you've got the resolution 'way high somewhere. Perhaps when you pasted the screen cap. into a new Photoshop document.

Got it. Looks like a small college degree's worth of information in there. THanks.

81 Kb? That's not much. Why is it a problem?

I'm not seeing it right off hand. What's the title? Thanks.

{LOL} It rarely is. I've got the Simviation/gryphon tutorial on the Me-334 and I'll start on that to get the feel of GMAX. I haven't a clue as to how to get models into games, etc., but we'll tackle that a step at a time. It's heartening that StumpJumper feels GMAX is easier than 3D Max.

Yes. I'm new to GMAX, but have some experience with 3D Studio Max [from which it derives] Compare notes? I'm all for it.

Yes! Great film. Made even more poignant by the fact that Rudyard had to stand by all his fine rhetoric, and worse yet, he was on the Propaganda Board and was briefed by the Army liason officer who would explain in stark detail all the cock-ups after each battle. Then the board had to put the best face on it. And Rudyard sent Jack to it.

Hot damn!

If only... But don't commercial sites maintain back-up files? Or did the hack manage to take that out too?