First aircraft project...

[DanielF]

Well, I decided to start my first aircraft project for FSX.

[Falcon500]

if you mean those big squares, no , it will just make the side panels look flat rather than rounded

[SkyNoz]

Well, I decided to start my first aircraft project for FSX.  But I have a probably stupid question... On the side of the plane the edges of the polygons spread out a lot.  Is this going to cause problems down the road?

..No... It will benefit you in a way, those poly-surfaces are large and it will allow the aircraft to load quicker. All it does in the model is display really how fine the surface is, how much detail etc. 8-)

[DanielF]

Thanks for the replies.  I wasn't sure if it would make it look all distorted or whatever.  I'm working on redoing that sloppy rudder now... Way too many polygons for such a simple object.  

[SkyNoz]

Thanks for the replies.  I wasn't sure if it would make it look all distorted or whatever.  I'm working on redoing that sloppy rudder now... Way too many polygons for such a simple object.  

Actually experience on my part would say it's not too bad, it's 'average' with this type of design judging on structure and it will help with performance and detail if the rudder looked a bit more cleaner.-SN

[DanielF]

Well, here's an updated picture.

[DanielF]

Well, I fixed the animation problem... Turns out I forgot to check the "export animations" box.

[Felix/FFDS]

A yoke is no different.... you have a lever_stick_l_r that happens to rotate, and a lever_stick_fore_aft that happens to go forward and back.  ONE of those parts is a small box hidden inside the other, and parent of the larger (visible) part.

[Travis]

One of the primary rules for designing an aircraft is always, ALWAYS make multiple saves.  Save as something like "aircraft01" and then on the next save make it "aircraft02" and then 03, etc.  That way, when you do make a mistake, like deleting the windows, you can simply merge the missing part back into the scene and you're ready to continue.

[DanielF]

[quote]A yoke is no different.... you have a lever_stick_l_r that happens to rotate, and a lever_stick_fore_aft that happens to go forward and back.

[Falcon500]

lol my B-25 has somewhere around 45 saves  :o

[DanielF]

Arg, I've been trying for the last few days now, but I just can't get the propeller animation to work.  :-/  Here's what I've tried so far:

I tagged the three prop objects (prop0_still through _blurred) in both the animation and attach point tools.  For the animation, I set the prop objects to rotate 360 degrees (I've tried both CW and CCW).  I've named the objects the same as the animation tags just in case it decided to be pickey.  It looks like the attach point tool works because the objects change depending on the state the engine is in.  However, when the object should be animating, it just stays still.  Sometimes it vibrates like it's trying to do something, but it just can't.  Because of this, I tagging the animation but not keyframing it because I thought that maybe the gmax animation was interfereing with the FSX animation.  But when I did that it stopped vibrating.  ;D

I tried downloading the sample gmax aircraft on freeflightdesign.com, but as far as I can tell, I did the same thing to my objects as they did on the engine in the example.  Anyone know where I could be going wrong?

[aceronzo]

Sometimes I have to set the animation at 359.5 instead of 360 degrees (0 first frame

[N2744X]

I am just curious daniel, how much practice and familiarization did it take you to become that skilled with Gmax. I am considering giving it a shot.

[Travis]

I am just curious daniel, how much practice and familiarization did it take you to become that skilled with Gmax. I am considering giving it a shot.

Steep learning curve, simple follow-through.

Simply put, its difficult to learn, but once you get the basics, everything else seems to fall into place.

And it sounds as though aircraft creation with Gmax is becoming increasingly more complicated . . . :-?

I may have trouble adjusting . . .