Blackfin Sailfish (My "X" Plane)

[Travis]

I'd say 50% done . . .



https://www.simviation.com/phpupload/upl ... 963026.jpg
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(Left those without img tags so I wouldn't bog down this thread.)

[Krispy1001]

Travis!

That looks very good. Nice modeling!!!!!

Kris

[Travis]

Thank you very much, Krispy! It's a hard road of disastrous booleans and confusing rotations, but I'm slowly getting it where I want it.

These are new shots, featuring lots of added details and a crude coloring that is what I'm thinking of (in general) for the final color scheme. I might do some military upgrades later, but I want to get the prototype version finished first.

Other Renders:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

[Jetranger]

Whewwwww , I wouldn't know where to even start

and those Booley'Beans thingys ma Jobbers

don't think I'd like those Booley'Beans, watch ya ma call izts'

[Travis]

Lol! Booly'Beans . . .

All of these things are part of the learning curve, and I have at least four aircraft that have never made it even to the stage I'm at right now, for one reason or another. However, with each iteration and each new aircraft I build I learn something valuable. I started the racer with a set of splines outlining the fuselage and then "skinned" it by various modifiers (mostly resizing and reshaping) to get a smoothish tube that would later be refined and become the fuselage. A lot of modeling seems to be getting your own workflow to function with the tools at hand. If I were using Blender or Maya or something else, I'm sure I would progress differently.

Right now I'm going to focus on finding a decent pilot model, or if that doesn't work I'm gonna try my own (which should result in some loss of hair on my part).

[Shane Stachwick]

Whewwwww , I wouldn't know where to even start

and those Booley'Beans thingys ma Jobbers

don't think I'd like those Booley'Beans, watch ya ma call izts'

Boolean data (BOO-lee-en) is any data for which the only possible values are "true" or "false." This concept, somewhere halfway between mathematics and logic, was pioneered by George Boole in the mid-19th Century. Since computers work using mathematics (binary code, which can represent Boolean true/false values in 1s and 0s) and logic (programming), Boolean variables are ideal for electronic computer processors.

[Travis]

Thanks for that, Shane. Never knew why they were named that.

So I got the pilot thing sorted. Autodesk has a subscription site that allows you to specify some character traits and create an FBX file complete with skin and clothes, easily-manipulated bones, textures, alphas, and all sorts of other stuff that you could want. Male, female, orcish types, ogres, panther-women, etc . . . I'm using one that I received looking like THIS and within about 15 minutes I had it looking like THIS.

Perfect for fitting into aircraft and in pretty much anything else you want posable, unique people in an environment. They come in FBX format, and can convert into Max (not sure which versions at the moment) with a script, although I chose not to use it. All in all there's quite a bit of stuff, but you can just trim it all away and then leave what you want in the model. The lowest LOD consists of about 26k polys with a 2048 map, so it's a bit hefty for a sim but it's a great place to start.

Autodesk Character Creator

[pete]

VERY impressive!!

[Travis]

Thanks, Pete!

Workflow is slowing, simply because the minor details are becoming more important and I'm having to restructure some stuff whilst trying to keep the mapping correct.

Other than that, here are a few new renders with the pilot (she's not the final) in the cockpit along with a handy-guy showing us how to enter the aircraft. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

[Travis]

And now a technical question:

When setting up the interior (VC) is it of any use to include the entire aircraft exterior as part of the interior model? I remember in FS9 that if you did such a thing it would allow 3rd party software (such as ActiveCamera) to give you unique views of the aircraft that weren't very accessible in FS8 or 9. I guess the actual question is "Do the extra views found in the aircraft.cfg utilize the VC or the exterior model?".

[Krispy1001]

And now a technical question:

When setting up the interior (VC) is it of any use to include the entire aircraft exterior as part of the interior model? I remember in FS9 that if you did such a thing it would allow 3rd party software (such as ActiveCamera) to give you unique views of the aircraft that weren't very accessible in FS8 or 9. I guess the actual question is "Do the extra views found in the aircraft.cfg utilize the VC or the exterior model?".

Hi Travis!

Your aircraft is looking incredible good. For the question on including the entire aircraft exterior in the interior model. No, I would only put the exterior parts that would be seen from within the cockpit. This will cut down your poly count and increase FPS.

Thanks, Kris

[Travis]

Okay, so here's a quick VC render. The parts aren't labeled, but you can pretty much tell what is what. The handle in the center of the panel is the gear lever. Just below that is a rotational switch for the flaps. The two cleats just aft of the pedals are the rudder trim and there will be a resistance knob and modeled indicators for all trim components. Obviously switches are not yet modeled and I still have to construct a gauge layout. But this is basically what you will see in the VC when I'm done.

[pete]

Wow ....

Hopefully the switches will be pretty standard so you won't have to model more than 1 or 2 different versions?

[Travis]

That's my intention, Pete. Many of them will be standard types of switches, but there will be a few more unique ones in there, too.

[Travis]

So nearly a month later, here's an update. Gotten a lot done and fleshed out, and I'm getting ready to start conversions (by far what I'm dreading the most). Won't be long before I'm getting it up in the air.