Amphibious aircraft in CFS2 & invisible textures

[Padser]

~S~ all

I am currently working on an Fs2002 to CFS2  conversion of an Emily (Japanese flying boat) - in pure fs2002 form it can be found at: http://www.fsfreeware.com/dcd/FS2002/Ai ... dex-6.html - all credit due to the original authors, it really is a lovely aircraft!

The files need some organisation into their respective panel, sound, texture, model folders etc, but it does fly very nicely in CFS2 as is.

The problem I have is that it does not appear to be amphibious at present. Does anyone know how an aircraft can be set up to land on, float on and take-off from CFS2 water?  This version does have some invisible 'virtual' gear that allows it take off and land on land, but it sinks like a stone on the 'oggin.

An additional issue is that when viewed from inside the cockpit, certain of the aircraft's textures are invisible - the fuselage walls, pontoons, etc. Is there a way of fixing this, too?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer!

~S~

Pads

[Hagar]

Hi Pads. In my experience an FS2002 floatplane should "float" on the CFS2 water. Floats are defined in the [contact_points] section of Aircraft.cfg. If it's an amphibian it should have 2 sets of gear points. Class 1 is wheels & Class 4 is floats, both in CFS2 & FS2002.

Some

[Padser]

~S~ Hagar

Dang, you're quick!

I'll look into your suggestions - thanks a lot!

Maybe the sinking behaviour is due to my poor landing technique... (shurely shome mishtake... )

Pads

[Hagar]

If you have problems tell me exactly where to get the aircraft. I'll try it myself.

[Stratobat]

Hey Pads,

I think somebody's created a CFS2 conversion set for the Emily with a corrected aircraft.cfg file.

The files should be at SOH

If you have problems tell me exactly where to get the aircraft. I'll try it myself.

It's the first aircraft on the page

http://www.fsfreeware.com/dcd/FS2002/Aircraft/index-6.html

Regards,
Stratobat

[Hagar]

It's the first aircraft on the page

http://www.fsfreeware.com/dcd/FS2002/Aircraft/index-6.html

Regards,
Stratobat

Aha. [color=Blue]FS2000 Pro Kawanishi H8K2 Flying Boat

[Stratobat]

[quote]
Aha. [color=Blue]FS2000 Pro Kawanishi H8K2 Flying Boat

[Hagar]

Oops, silly me. I missed the link in Pads' original topic.

I'l download it & check it out when I get a moment. It's a very long time since I messed around with this stuff.

[Hagar]

OK. I gave it quick test flight. This will take a little work & it's been too long I'm afraid. The Emily is a flying boat, not an amphibian. Your best bet would be to find a proper CFS2 flying boat like the Sunderland & use the [contact_points] entries from that. This will make it float & they can be tweaked to fit afterwards.

From what I can make out the intenal views aren't complete. I can see the static panel, seats & wings but not the rest of the cabin interior. It might have been better with no internal views at all. IMHO
As I suspected it won't have a DVC with functional gauges.

[Padser]

~S~ all

Thanks for the interest in this - it has been a fascinating (if occasionally frustrating ) journey for me.

I've tried the texture conversion, but to no avail - I think I will have to live with that. It still looks great from the outside anyway - it really is a lovely looking aircraft!

I've been experimenting with adding float entries to the aircraft.cfg file, taking some from a Catalina that I know works and adapting them to fit the dimensions of the model.

The aircraft will now float for a while (an improvement) but then slowly sinks and explodes... Dang! I'll try with a Sunderland (bigger!) and see if that does the trick...

I'll also look further into the Simviation Out House fora for info on the conversion and see what I can come up with. We may have to live with the ground take -off using the virtual gear...

BTW - I've tried to contact the original creator (Aidan R McCaffrey) for permission to make the conversion available via my squad web site, but have not heard anything. It's a couple of years since he created it, so maybe he's moved on, but if you or anyone else knows how to contact him, I would appreciate the info.

Thanks and all the best

Pads

PS - my current version with my new float contact points can be found here if you are interested to see what I've done so far: http://www.caw15.com/downloads/aircraft/H8K2_Emily.zip

- sound aliased to the A6M2 & no gauges to save file size.

I'll not keep it there long because, as I mentioned, I have no permission yet and this is just to make it available to other developers for their interest.

[Hagar]

~S~ all

Thanks for the interest in this - it has been a fascinating (if occasionally frustrating ) journey for me.

I've tried the texture conversion, but to no avail - I think I will have to live with that. It still looks great from the outside anyway - it really is a lovely looking aircraft!

You threw me by originally saying this is an FS2002 aircraft. It's actually FS2000. Converting an FS2000 aircraft to work in CFS2 should not be difficult. It's a little more complicated with floatplanes as FS2000 doesn't feature the CFS2/FS2002 water or the extra Aircraft.cfg entries. FS2000 textures should work perfectly well in CFS2 without conversion. I don't think this aircraft has a full VC. Some parts of the interior seem to be missing, If I'm correct, no amount of texture conversion will fix that.

I've been experimenting with adding float entries to the aircraft.cfg file, taking some from a Catalina that I know works and adapting them to fit the dimensions of the model.

The aircraft will now float for a while (an improvement) but then slowly sinks and explodes... Dang! I'll try with a Sunderland (bigger!) and see if that does the trick...

I think the Sunderland entries should do it providing you add them properly & number them in sequence. You can make anything float. The Aircraft.cfg doesn't know what the visual model looks like. As it's a flying boat you don't need wheel entries at all. You might have to give it an extra water rudder entry (Class 5) to steer it on the water.

I'll take a look at your mod to check it out.

[Hagar]

Pads. I checked out your Aircraft.cfg & to be honest it looks a bit of a mess. I don't know what you need all those float points for. I had a punt round & found an FS2002 Sunderland. I pinched the [contact_points] entries out of it & they seem to fit quite well. This was a rush job so I didn't have time to tweak it. Try substituting your entries with these. Copy/paste them direct from my post. I've simplified them a bit to make it easier to understand. You will see there's only 4 float points. The rest are scrape points (Class 2).

[contact_points]
point.0=4,

[Padser]

~S~ Hagar,

I appreciate the help on this - sorry about the FS2002 thing, just didn't read it properly, I guess.

Re aircraft.cfg - well, I was working in the dark there, so assumed contact points on the three ribs of the main float at the front middle and back and one each for the side floats. I did tweak the viewpoint a little but it wasn't quite right still - thanks for the assist on that one.

Re VC - I guessed this was the case after the texture conversion didn't work. Never mind, eh? I've sourced some excellent engine gauges (MAPE) and will make the front panel look convincing at least...

Thanks for all the help - looking forward to trying these values out. I'll also look into the flight dynamics - it's a difficult aircraft to slow down (though it is quite heavy) and does seem a bit ground (water!) shy.

Not sure how to fix that - maybe the lift scalar values in the aircraft.cfg?

All the best

Pads

[Hagar]

Hi Pads. You can add further float points as you wish. These are often used on FS2002/FS9 floatplanes to give splash effects. The CFS2 water shows no wake like it does in FS & I don't think anyone fixed that. I'm not sure about splash effects.

Sorry but this is the limit of my capabilities. I'm useless at FS flight dynamics & leave that to the experts.

PS. If I'd read your original topic properly in the first place I would have spotted the link & soon found out it was for FS2000. This would have saved both of us a lot of time. LOL

[Stratobat]

Hi Guys,

I found the conversion files for the Emily that were posted at SOH a while back. If your interested, drop me a PM with your e-mail addy and I'll forward them to you



Regards,
Stratobat

Edit: Aircraft.cfg, Air and DP files included... Comes to roughly 8 Kb zipped