Jump to content

The Immortal DHC-2 Beaver

Pete_SMS

By Pete_SMS
in Aircraft Development

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 611
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Pete_SMS
Pete_SMS

Here comes a cockpit shot of the Beaver in XP10. Lighting looks good so far and 3D really comes alive now. This cockpit is still using modern radios with digital dispays  on the co-pilot panel, but th

Pete_SMS
Pete_SMS

Sunday Beaver Update 3   Hello,   It is Sunday and time for another update.    As you know, I created the View Control System for the Beaver this week and I hope you enjoyed the screenshots so far. In

Pete_SMS
Pete_SMS

Sunday Beaver Update 6   Hi all,   A new update today, however this week was a little slow. Lots of things going on besides X-Plane development, but there was progress.   Tuning of the cockpit lightin

Posted Images

Pete_SMS Newbie

Pete_SMS

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Really looking forward to this one, however, are you aware of this project? Two Beavers which might be released at roughly the same time, that will be interesting. :)

 

 

Yes, I am aware of this project, because it is still the SoulMade Simulations project. :) 

 

OK, I have to give a little bit of background information:

 

The Beaver project was already pretty far with respect to the 3D model and texturing, and it could have been easily released as payware. I guess my previous screenshot underline this fact. However, at the beginning of this year, I decided to completely redo the textures, as the interior had some minor blurry parts here and there, which I didn't like, and also the external textures were not up to today's high quality standard from my point of view. I wanted more detail. So the whole 3D model was reconstructed and so were the textures. However, the external model work slowed down significantly at some point and finally I asked Khamsin if he would help me finishing the Beaver. Gladly, he was willing to help.

 

So Khamsin will now take care of the external model (uv mapping and texturing, improvement of the current external mesh structure etc.). In addition to that, he will do the light textures and the 3D pilot model. He will also help with cargo modeling and texturing and with cockpit/cabin texture adjustments for the cargo version. In general, Khamsin will take care of all Beaver artwork issues from now on.

 

The cockpit itself, animations, the systems simulations, flight model and the general soul of the project remains on my desk. :) 

 

The screenshot you posted is the SoulMade Beaver 3D model which you have seen on my previous screenshots over the last two year. However, Khamsin did 3D mesh and uv map improvements and he also did the livery which you can see on the screenshot.

 

Again, I am happy that Khamsin is supporting me on this project, because it allows me to focus on the general simulation of the Beaver, in my limited free time. Especially systems coding, flight modeling, cockpit stuff and the general strategy of this project.

 

I can also annonuce a future partnership of Khamsin and me, and I am looking forward to it as it gives me more room to focus on the things I am really good at. ;) 

 

I have to thank you again for your patience and your continuous support and interest. This is what keeps me motivated.

 

Hopefully, this could clear up a few things and confusion.

 

Edited by Pete_SMS
  • Upvote 9
kerbaugh Newbie

kerbaugh

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hi Pete,

 

Wow! Collaboration with Khamsin is truly exciting news. I'm sure the news will spread like wildfire. I realize that it is the height of presumption to suggest something for the project at this late date but I've only come up with this theory recently.

 

Virtually every plane for X-Plane behaves unrealistically as it stalls. When the stall begins the entire wing stalls at once and the plane tries to roll into a spin. In most flying, pilots avoid getting anywhere near a stall but bush pilots must get really close to stalling in short field operations. Thus the wings of real bush planes must be spin resistant to some degree. For example, one common way of doing that is washout. That's where the angle of attack of the wing decreases from root to tip. Unfortunately, that must be difficult to model in X-Plane because most developers simply give their planes unrealistic roll control in a stall and leave it to the pilot to fight to keep the wings level.

 

I've only found planes from one developer that behave well in a stall and those are Carenado planes. It's my guess that Dan came upon his workaround by accident. Cessna wings look like they have two sections and so it was natural for Dan to model them with two sections. That makes it possible for the two sections to stall at different angles of attack and so I think that Dan arranged for the inboard section of the wing to stall before the outboard section. When you stall most Carenado planes (all of the ones I've tested) they simply lose lift with no tendency to roll or spin. Thus, his wings produce the same general behavior as wings with washout.

 

I know that the shape of the Beaver's wings hardly require two sections per wing but I'm suggesting that you model them that way anyway. Then you should decrease the angle of attack of the outboard section or change it's airfoil; whatever it takes to make that section stall at a higher angle of attack than the inboard section. Then only you and Dan would have bush planes with realistic stall characteristics. (I count Dan's C-185F as a bush plane)
--
Gary

Edited by kerbaugh
Pete_SMS Newbie

Pete_SMS

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Hi Gary,

 

Partnering with Khamsin is a great thing, because it allows both of us to concentrate at what we are really good at. Khamsin is a great artist, doing awesome 3D and texturing work and due to my background as a professional aerospace and flight simulation engineer I have a good knowledge and understanding of aicraft systems simulation, flight modeling and coding. So it will be a nice combination, because we complement each other.

 

Also my opinion is, that for a one man development team it will get harder and harder to keep up with the quality and fidelity demands of current and future customers. So also here, me partnering with Khamsin is a step in the right direction, considering future development. And what is also important, we are interested in the same types of aircraft. :)

 

Concerning your input on the wing setup, of course the Beaver wing is split up into several sections and I will try to make the stall and the general flight characteristics as close as possible to the real aicraft. I am in touch with several Beaver pilots, who have actually flown the Beaver for a good amount of time or are still flying it and there is also a former Beaver pilot in the test team. So far the high level comment on the flight model is "Yes, she feels and flies like a Beaver". ;)

 

Bush flying is one of my main interests when it comes to PC flight simulation, so you can be sure that I will try my best to make it as realistic as possible.

 

Pete

Edited by Pete_SMS
  • Upvote 4
Pete_SMS Newbie

Pete_SMS

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Having good sound recordings, coming from Arti, me or somebody else is one side of the story. Having a good sound engine that can make use of these high quality recordings is another story.

 

I guess we all know that the default X-Plane sound engine is very poor, which means one has to either use one of the available 3rd party X-Plane sound engines or you code one yourself, in order to make use of high quality sound recordings.

 

The Beaver is not using the default X-Plane sound engine and I got my hands dirty in sound plugin code so far.

 

I fully agree that proper sounds can make a huge difference and can a lot of realism and the feeling of being there. So having a proper sound engine is one of the main points on my list, but it will evolve over time. 

  • Upvote 1
  • 4 weeks later...
Pete_SMS Newbie

Pete_SMS

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I wasn't really able to work on the Beaver for the last ten months due to other life contraints, but things are picking up speed again. My plan is to release frequent development updates until the Beaver gets released. Probably, there will be an update on here every week from now on. 

 

As alway,s I have to thank you all for your patience and support, and I know it must be painful for all of you interested in the Beaver.

 

One update I can give you though. In a few of my previous posts I mentioned that I am partnering with Khamsin. This is no longer the case. Please don't ask why or about details, because I won't talk about it. Communication issues, especially a language barrier and different philosophies can create contraints which do not help anybody in the end. So we both go our own way and this is absolutely OK. Khamsin is a great artist and I am sure he will continue to create beautiful looking add-ons. 

 

Does this mean a slow down for the Beaver again. Absolutely not!

 

I promise, updates will come very soon! Stay tuned ...

  • Upvote 2
Pete_SMS Newbie

Pete_SMS

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
Sunday Beaver Update 1

 

Hello all, as promised I will provide development updates more frequently now until the release. I plan to do it at least once per week and most probably on Sunday. So here it comes:

 

This week work on the external model continued. A few objects had to be re-organized to make animations more easy and the normal and spec maps had their first iteration. They look good so far, but a few cosmetic changes need to be done here and there for the rivets. When this work is finished, the Beaver high resolution maps will get the first livery. I hope I can present the first picture in my update next week. If not it will come very soon after it.

 

Besides that, I continued with cockpit and cabin animations and I would say that aprroximately 80% of the cockpit and cabin animations are done.

 

The main work was on plug-in coding this week. I am coding the engine start-up behaviour so it will be as real as possible. So yes, you can count the blades until you switch the mags to both. :)

 

In addition to that, I am coding my own physical models for Cylinder Head Temperature, Oil Pressure and Oil Temperature. I don't like the way it is handled in standard X-Plane/Planemaker. Inside Planemaker you can play with some numbers in order to get the instruments to show some reasonable numbers, but this has nothing to do with the specifc engine you simulate and it is also kind of a blackbox thing and I don't like that. I want to have full control in all conditions, and I can only have it by using a plug-in. So I am writing my own simulation here. You have too be careful to not run your engines hot on ground, while using too much power on a hot day. Also angle of attack will have in impact on the airflow which is cooling the engine etc. Not fully done, but I am getting there.

 

My standalone electrical system is also almost finished. The X-Plane standard electrical system is not used anymore. I also implemented a more realistc battery charging behaviour. The only thing missing is the temperature effect on the battery. I am currently doing some research here and I am planning to simulate this effect as well. So you have to be careful if you run your starter on a cold day. The battery might drain quickly. ;)

 

Another thing I did was going through a few big audio recording files. A friend of mine did a recording session on a real Beaver for me and I am going through the material in order to extract and create some proper sound files, which can be used for the simulated Beaver and yes, I have that typical engine idle sound of the Beaver. :)

 

Hope this was interesting for you and stay tuned for more...

Edited by Pete_SMS
  • Upvote 9

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...