A-7D project switches to X-plane

[all-fired-up]

This is the "A-7D Pro" update, yes I know this is in X-plane.

There's been a lot of changeover about this model.

This model was intended to be placed in MSFSX. But plans have drastically changed. Why? Because it's much easier to get an aircraft into X-plane and have it perform like the real thing, than FSX. Sure FSX has great eye candy, but the new X-plane 9 does too, and in my opinion, even better eye candy.

I am now a fan of X-plane. And I just bought the latest. The level of detail that we are putting into this model will not do for FSX.

Attached are some screenies of one of the panels in the cockpit of this aircraft. We already have the dummy model in X-plane and it is looking sweet and even the high-poly count is not slowing down the frame rates - something that was not possible to pull off with FSX.

Having done a lot of study about Normal Mapping, we will use NM instead of the old bump mapping for this aircraft in X-plane.

Why did we go to Xplane over MSFS? For a lot of reasons. MSFS cannot handle accurate flight dynamics. We WANT this plane to fly like the real A-7. Also you cannot do proper ordinance with MSFS. We realize that even X-plane is a Civilian flight simulator, but there are many parameters that are for military payloads in Xplane that MSFS just can't touch. Also the ability for me to continue designing in C4D was critical. I don't have time to learn 3d Studio Max to get a plane into MSFS, and that's what it really takes. With Xplane I design totally in C4D, then we import into AC3D and work on the animation there and it goes right into X-plane, it's THAT easy, and Gecko and I are excited to see our dummy model flying in Xplane.

The following screenshots are of the NWD panel.

I'll post more screenshots when I have the chance. Very soon.

[Emohawk]

Looking good. Is there any other webpage to follow the project?
And is there any decent F-16 expansion for X Plane ?

As of now it is the only option for me, as I am running Linux instead of Windows again :)

[all-fired-up]

Looking good. Is there any other webpage to follow the project?
And is there any decent F-16 expansion for X Plane ?

As of now it is the only option for me, as I am running Linux instead of Windows again :)

We have a working site, but currently just a site that we use for ourselves. We've been busy developing than web design. I'll have to post something with my blog (see my blog link below), and we are working on something public.

Regarding the F-16, look at this: http://www.xplanefreeware.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=53

and

http://xplanefreeware.net/barry/index%20F16.html

If you want to see what someone is cooking up for X-plane, see the XB-70 project: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=31491

[BHawthorne]

Looks great. Love the panel detail. Hope to be eventually flying this in FO too. :)

[rjetster]

Great Stuff Dale!!!

[Redstormer]

Yep there are looking great !!!! :thumb:

[snacker]

...but you can't fly over satellite map services like Tile Proxy on X-plane can you?

[all-fired-up]

...but you can't fly over satellite map services like Tile Proxy on X-plane can you?

Tile Proxy is nice, I've tried it, I love the way it looks, but it takes forever to load up. One might as well go out to get dinner while it's loading.

Plus with tile proxy there is no night lighting, so it's only daytime. :nono:

I'd rather fly smooth, realistic flight with good scenery both day and night.

I was just going back and forth between Xplane and FSX and there just is much more aerodynamic realism in Xplane.

I was flying along some cliff's in X-plane and I really felt the wind shear there. I couldn't get that kind of realism with FS.

Sure FSX has some great eye candy, but so does X-plane.

Also the FS arena is saturated with developers. X-plane is a whole new world to play in, so there's not much competition.

I can't compete with payware aircraft and scenery for MSFS. In a way they've taken the fun out of developing. That's another reason why I'm switching to X-plane, because I'd love to model some old bases I used to grow up around.

I have my pilot's license for fixed wing aircraft land with the Cessna 150 Aerobat, 152, 172 and 182 - and flying the 172 in Xplane is much closer to flying the real thing than in FSX. And I've been flying with MSFS since it was Sublogic.

I'm not throwing away FSX, I just would like to see MSFS attempt better realism in the flight dynamics arena.

:smile:

[rjetster]

:bigsmile: More screens Dale!!!!

[T_Flight]

We have a working site, but currently just a site that we use for ourselves. We've been busy developing than web design. I'll have to post something with my blog (see my blog link below), and we are working on something public.

Regarding the F-16, look at this: http://www.xplanefreeware.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=53

and

http://xplanefreeware.net/barry/index%20F16.html

If you want to see what someone is cooking up for X-plane, see the XB-70 project: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=31491


Oh My! An XB-70?!? I Love That Airplane! It's one of the most awesome planes ever. I wish they had go into production. I know the reasons it didn't, but I still wish we had them today. It was such a beautiful airplane.

I also like that A7. Those always caught my eye for some reason. It's a neat airplane.

Hope you get the weapons working. That would be awesome.

[Zaggy]

GDay Guys... Sounds cool... So do you have screenies of the geometry IN X-Plane? And a slighty change in topic, does/can X-Plane do IFR, so you can cruise on up to the back of a KC and take some gas? That would be fun in a SLUF :)

[all-fired-up]

GDay Guys... Sounds cool... So do you have screenies of the geometry IN X-Plane? And a slighty change in topic, does/can X-Plane do IFR, so you can cruise on up to the back of a KC and take some gas? That would be fun in a SLUF :)

You can refuel in X-plane and actually transfer gas, yes. And you can transfer gas to the tanks, and even external tanks, and yes when you offload or onload gas, your weight will shift and change like the real thing.

Regarding more screenies, right now we DO have the A-7 in X-plane, but it's kind of ugly because it's textureless, just a dummy at the moment just to see if we can indeed get it in there. But hey it is in there, Gecko is working on that part of the project, the developer part of getting it functional.

We also have to design the airfoil in Xplane too, as we are going to get the dynamics of this jet to be as close to the real thing as possible. We have to get all the data of the wing chord, upper camber, lower camber, aspect ratio. And that's what is exciting about Xplane, that we can actually work on these figures.

Regarding weapons, you can design all the data for individual weapons, weights, dynamics, etc... However Xplane is too a civilian sim so there's no actual combat going on, but Xplane is hackable so that you can see an explosion and smoke, just that the developer has to configure those, and Gecko will be in charge of that.

As soon as I get the A7 textured I'll send some in-game shots, hopefully really soon. I'm working more on the internal pit this weekend.

Right now I'm off to Long Beach static airshow, a KC-135R is going to be there, and I'd like to get a ton of pics of it, cause that's our next project.
:thumb:

[th3flyboy]

...but you can't fly over satellite map services like Tile Proxy on X-plane can you?

if you want that, you want to get G2XPL from:
http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=4783

[Gecko6]

Well the terrain is very well done as you can see in this pic. Of course this is just a plug model that shows me the scale and dimensions only. Nothing animated nor is there any real FM. It is a default one I use to test model importing.

This is default random terrain right out of the box. As you can see the cloud reflections in the Missouri River. This is me flying over my home plate Sioux City Iowa. 185th TFS back in the 80s.

As you can also see Dale has done a beauty of a job on the front of the Corsair, the intake and radome are key to the success of the Corsair being replicated.

Very early stages and a long road ahead but we are moving forward as always.

Gecko6

[all-fired-up]

Okay, I'm kind of rotating around the cockpit here, so bear with me. I tend to get bored easily so I try to do different things when modeling.

This is the B-8 control grip for the A-7D as well as the start of the control column.

The B-8 grip was/is also used with many helicopters such as the: AH-1T, AH-1W, UH-1B, UH-1H, TH-1L, UH-1M, SH-2G, HH-3, CH-3E, CH-46, CH-47B, CH-47D, CH-53D, MH-53E, MH-53J, and HH-60G.

The B-8 grip is also used with U.S. fighters such as the: F3H-1N, F4D-1, all F-4 models, all F-5 models, F-15A, F-15D, YF-17, F-80C, F-84 series, F-86 series, F-89 series, F-94 series, F-100 series, F-101 series, F-104 series, and F-105 series.

The B-8 grip was also used with a few U.S. Attack aircraft (other than the A-7 series) such as the: A-6 series, A-10A, A-37 series.

The B-8 grip was probably the most common control grip used in U.S. military aircraft from the 1960's till the 1980's, until the HOTAS took over.

When I modeled this control stick, I had to keep in mind that I am modeling for a flight simulator so I couldn't have the polygon count too high. At the moment the poly count is around 1,200-1,500 polygons.

These are pre-material shots. hat-switch ridging, hand grip ridges on the side, scratches, general wear-tear, will be normal mapped.

Thanks to "Gecko06" for his awesome photo references, without his knowledge of this plane, I couldn't have started work on this jet.

You can also see progression of this model at my blog: 3D Hangar (http://3dhangar.blogspot.com/)

[Emohawk]

Indeed very nice!!!! Thanks for the pics and the info.... Looking foreward to more screens and, if you can find it in your heart, the info of the current item :)

[mattskinner74]

Hey All-Fired-Up! Hows the A-7 coming along? I also have X-Plane 9 and would love to have that in my hanger someday. I guess your still working on it? or did Captain Sim bring you back to FSX?!?! lol

[all-fired-up]

Hey All-Fired-Up! Hows the A-7 coming along? I also have X-Plane 9 and would love to have that in my hanger someday. I guess your still working on it? or did Captain Sim bring you back to FSX?!?! lol

Hey mattskinner74, thanks for keeping tabs on the project.

It's on a kind of temporary hold. Mucho busy in life. My family is looking to buy our first home, and I've been swamped at work as well.

The project isn't dead, just stalled. I really want to get back on to it, but at the moment we are packing up the house to move.

We, Gecko and I, are still wanting to push forward on it. Both of us have been really swamped. And I got a tad burnt out on it due to family and work. As soon as we are in our new home in a few months I'm planning no getting back into it.

I'm also planning on purchasing Cinema 4D 11 and getting a 3D mouse for it at home. I use one at work and the workflow is 200% faster to use a 3D mouse to navigate around the model. But at home, I have an earlier version of C4D which doesn't support the 3D mouse so it makes navigation incredibly difficult - adding more tension to model building than needed.

But don't you worry, this project isn't dead, just on vacation for a few months till things settle down. :smile: