Contact points: All wheels on ground?

[Jehovah_of_Jive]

Greetings.

I've d/l'd Krzysztof Malinowski's P-40 series and some skins; I notice that the tailwheel sits a few inches above the ground. What do I do to change? I've searched for
"contact points", but can't find anything here on the forum or in the FAQ... I'm sure it can be done...

Any suggestions?

Thanks guys,

J_o_J

[Hagar]

Hi J_o_J. I used to specialise in this but it's some time since I've done it. You need to tweak the tailwheel entry in Aircraft.cfg. Open it in Notepad & find the [contact_points] header. The tailwheel entry is usually point.0. I've copied this from the default Wildcat.

point.0=1, -16.80,

[Jehovah_of_Jive]

[quote]You need to tweak the tailwheel entry in Aircraft.cfg. Open it in Notepad & find the [contact_points] header. The tailwheel entry is usually point.0. I've copied this from the default Wildcat.

point.0=1, -16.80,

[Hagar]

OK. I'll check it out.

I've tried a number of entries from -3.25 to -3.75 and the result is the same.

You misunderstood me. That would raise it even more. When I said reduce it I meant reduce the actual number. I would start off with something like -3.00 & take it from there.

I always exit CFS2 before tweaking anything & restart it again each time I want to check it out. This way you're certain you're seeing the changes.

PS. The static height & static pitch are often set wrong on 3rd party aircraft. If this is too far out it would cause the aircraft to drop noticeably when it first loads in CFS2. On some aircraft it's enough to make it blow up before you get the chance to start the engine.

[Hagar]

-3.00 should do it. Here's the modified point.0 line.

point.0 = 1, -15.9, 0, -3.00, 2000, 0, 0.525, 25, 0.3, 2, 0.7, 1, 4, 0, 150, 350

I changed the value in red from -3.325. This is what it looks like now.


This one wasn't far out at all. You can play around to get it just right in your own time. The static height & static pitch are about right so leave them alone.

[jimski]

Thanks for the tip on this one. I've been busy fixing my fleet and getting all wheels on the ground. I think in some cases a floating tail wheel results in a low take off angle of attack on the runway, then take off can be long and difficult.

As for restarting csf2 each time for testing, I found that was not needed for this contact point change. I would test in free flight and before making changes would switch to another aircraft in the program, then switch to the desktop and use notepad to change the .cfg file. Then back to csf2 which is still running and then back to my topic aircraft for a test fly. Back and forth this way usually works very quickly without ever exiting csf2 for testing. If you don't choose a different aircraft before making the changes, csf2 won't upload the changes immediately.

Jimski

[Hagar]

Thanks for the tip on this one. I've been busy fixing my fleet and getting all wheels on the ground. I think in some cases a floating tail wheel results in a low take off angle of attack on the runway, then take off can be long and difficult.

As for restarting csf2 each time for testing, I found that was not needed for this contact point change. I would test in free flight and before making changes would switch to another aircraft in the program, then switch to the desktop and use notepad to change the .cfg file. Then back to csf2 which is still running and then back to my topic aircraft for a test fly. Back and forth this way usually works very quickly without ever exiting csf2 for testing. If you don't choose a different aircraft before making the changes, csf2 won't upload the changes immediately.

Jimski

Glad to help. I find that my way of exiting CFS2 or any other sim takes no longer & involves less messing around than yours. As always, you must work in the way that suits you.

PS. I'm not convinced of your reasoning on the tailwheels. Many of these earlier FS98/CFS aircraft suffer from this problem & some are far worse than this one. In most cases it's down to the experience or inexperience of the original author in setting them up.

[jimski]

I can exit csf2 fast enough, but when I restart it I think it takes a few minutes before it is ready even if I skip the opening movie. How are you getting it up and running from scratch so quickly?

Jimski

[Hagar]

I can exit csf2 fast enough, but when I restart it I think it takes a few minutes before it is ready even if I skip the opening movie. How are you getting it up and running from scratch so quickly?

Jimski

Disabling the opening movie is the first thing I do after running a new install of CFS1 or CFS2 for the first time. I think it's the same simple CFG tweak for both. This is copied from my own CFS2.CFG.

[LANGUAGE]
DLL=english.fll
[MAIN]
ShowLogo=0

It then only takes a few seconds to load the opening screen & another few seconds after clicking Free Flight/Fly Now to check out the aircraft. I've always done it this way so I'm used to it.

[jimski]

Tried your method and yes it works well. My PC is about five years old and csf2 takes over a minute to load on the first go but after that I can exit, edit a model, and the return to csf2 free flight is less than 15 seconds.

On the same subject, can one speed up the "mission builder" startup? Acutally I have never found a mission builder execute file anywhere. Must be under a very different name.

Jimski

[Corsair Freak]

the Mission builder is built into your cfs2.exe

[Jehovah_of_Jive]

Thanks Hagar, you're a star. Works perfectly - patiently explained.

J_o_J

[Hagar]

Thanks Hagar, you're a star. Works perfectly - patiently explained.

J_o_J

Great. Another satisfied customer.

On the same subject, can one speed up the "mission builder" startup? Acutally I have never found a mission builder execute file anywhere. Must be under a very different name.

Jimski

I don't know about speeding it up as it takes a while to load. You can create a desktop shortcut to the MB if you wish. This might save a little time. Start/Programs/Microsoft Games/Combat Flight Simulator 2 then right-click the MB icon & select Create Shortcut. Drag the shortcut onto the desktop.