SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:58 pm Post subject:

There may be a way or two, to work with a gmax carrier source file in order to have it roll around a bit like in real life. Questions arise;

Is their a decent carrier source file out there for tinkering with?

What method would best simulate a big boat rolling around the waves? It might be animation in max that would pull it off.....would key-framed animations look realistic?
Would using the 'Tick18' naming convention do the trick? (I've heard of people using 'Tick18' tricks in gmax to have a 'scenery object' aircraft follow an invisible spline in order to do aerial acrobatics over an airfield...if that can be done, then maybe you can have a pitching carrier). I'm too swamped with my own pile of developing to even research this can 'o' worms, and even after I manage to kick my three or four add-ons out the door...I seem to remember promising someone some icebergs for their South Pole oceans. That would all have to happen before I take on anything else, but honestly, once I'm done with my first priorities, I will look at the whole thang if someone doesn't beat me to it. I suppose it would be cool to be able to say you were the one who figured out a realistic carrier deck dance for FS.

My thinking....If you have a good carrier...with a nice landable deck, that landable surface should move with the model, if you move the model in gmax with animations.
Possible snags; Does FS even recognize slanted landing surfaces other than terrain. Sure you can land your Cessna on a hill in FS, but are angled runway surfaces O.K.?, All scenery add-ons I've ever been able to land on are flat surfaces parallel to the earth's surface.
Remember as well that some hardened, landable surfaces featured in third-party add-ons such as carriers, or raised or buildingtop helipads, are coded in an .XML file - which I've looked quite hard at...many are hard decks that are attached in gmax or FSDS, but a bunch may be a simple few .XML lines defining the lat/long coordinates of the surface along with the height definition. These are immovable decks as far as I could imagine (the FS9 carriers, or oilfield helipads, or buildingtop pads, that don't move anywhere.... while the attached hard surface in gmax or FSDS may be how a carrier can move around in FSX.

Maybe someone can look at all this and pull it off, otherwise I'll be free to play in about 3 months.

Are you sure someone hasn't figured this out yet...sounds like a feature someone would be all over like Oprah on a baked ham. Wink

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject:

Well, I flew onto one of the carriers in a mission with an F-18, and the plane notice I said the plane bounces a little, but I don't think the actual carrier pitches. If it does, it is so slight that you don't really notice.
I want something that REALLY pitches. Who knows, maybe me fooling around without anybody telling me what CAN'T be done will be the solution Wink

Anyway, I'm gonna start looking into this, that I started F/A-18 can wait.
Especially since I started in with Naval aviation. It's no fun landing on a carrier that doesn't move.
Right now, I'm working with a model of the USS NIMITZ, I forget where I got it or who made it, but I'll look it up a little later and post that info up.
(Fokker is pressing me to get off I got on before he finished his supper, he had been on Laughing

)
Anyway, hope your projects finish up right for you, and feel free to have a go at carriers!

Cheers!
SU37Berkut

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:10 am Post subject:

Having seen carrier landings from less than 20 feet away on a number of occasions, I can tell you that the airplanes did sometimes bounce.

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:17 am Post subject:

Yep. But I mean when the plane is stopped.

Cheers!
SU37Berkut

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:08 am Post subject:

So did I... Smile

But really that is the contact points of the deck not totally matching the hard point of the "runway" in relation to the modeled contact point dynamics in the aircraft.

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:37 am Post subject:

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:47 am Post subject:

Whoa, whoa whoa... What was that Cat1, I really don't understand that. Could you please explain that more simply if there is a way?

Cheers!
SU37Berkut

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:04 pm Post subject: