Beechcraft Sundowner C23

[-TheoGregory]

Thank you all for your feedback on the texturing!

We will see how it looks in the sim before making a final decision.

Cheers, Theo

[garrettm30]

That looks like a cracked LCD. If that's what it is, then many of the segments of the numbers would not work at all. It would read out gibberish. Unless you want to simulate one display not working, or at best only partially readable, then I would think you would want to get rid of it. That's probably something that would get replaced pretty quickly in a real plane unless a pilot just didn't care about that instrument. It could be an interesting failure, though. If you like the idea of a crack, I would suggest you put it in some other instrument where the crack does not affect its usage, such as any of the gauges with a glass cover.

[OlaHaldor]

Goran. I officially hate you. ;D Not because of your being, but because of this super fast production line of good looking models you just seem to create like any kind of food processed to sh*t. And I still believe you're alien. Your time spent doing all those vs. Earth time is unreal.

Have you started using Modo yet?

[Goran_M]

Goran. I officially hate you. ;D Not because of your being, but because of this super fast production line of good looking models you just seem to create like any kind of food processed to sh*t. And I still believe you're alien. Your time spent doing all those vs. Earth time is unreal.

Have you started using Modo yet?

I'm slowly learning Modo.  It certainly is a very groovy little program and has more shortcuts than Blender.  The problem is whenever I use it, I'm using Blenders mouse clicks.  I have to completely unlearn Blender and I can't do that yet because the missus ordered me to finish the Sundowner by the end of April.  That's kind of my incentive for working this fast.

Anyway, after all these tiny closeups of different panel sections, I got Theo to send me an entire panel screenshot.

We are aware of the "stretched" texturing issues on the left side and they are easily fixed.  I had to adjust the mesh and I did so AFTER Theo UV mapped and textured it.  There are other things we want to address first before we fix it.

Also, as this is a render, the dark appearance is a Blender light issue.  

Feedback welcome.  

And the original cockpit...

[Gjalp]

Man that is jsut fantastic!!!!

Question......who is going to model the chain and padlock?

Secondly, no need to appologise about the missed "PS" I am amazed you can answer this many emails, with the work load you guys have, is astounding!!!!

Thirdly......how the hell did you manage to get a vacation planned? Exactly what is it yoy are planning to do? No doubt waste your time on frivolous things like quality time with the family, or sightseeing or some such! Why not just put that silly notion out of your head and get back to making more great planes

Have you thought of making the classic British racers or the 1930's? The Corbin Super Ace, the Comper Swift (with Gypsy engine nit the PobJoy version....), or the Percival Mew Gull????? Easy to model, hardly any cockpit panel (apart from what is needed to fly safely....), and lots of great colour schemes for Theo to go crazy over!

just a thought and all else is in jest

Slainte,

Andy

[Goran_M]

Man that is jsut fantastic!!!!

Question......who is going to model the chain and padlock?

Secondly, no need to appologise about the missed "PS" I am amazed you can answer this many emails, with the work load you guys have, is astounding!!!!

Thirdly......how the hell did you manage to get a vacation planned? Exactly what is it yoy are planning to do? No doubt waste your time on frivolous things like quality time with the family, or sightseeing or some such! Why not just put that silly notion out of your head and get back to making more great planes

Have you thought of making the classic British racers or the 1930's? The Corbin Super Ace, the Comper Swift (with Gypsy engine nit the PobJoy version....), or the Percival Mew Gull????? Easy to model, hardly any cockpit panel (apart from what is needed to fly safely....), and lots of great colour schemes for Theo to go crazy over!

just a thought and all else is in jest

Slainte,

Andy

Chain and padlock?  That's Cameron's and Ben's Job.  (DRM)

The vacation?  That's all the missus.  She told me we haven't been on vacation in...wait for it...7 months.  But we stayed in the country so it doesn't really count.  Even though it was in the tropics.  She's been begging me to go to Paris for years.  I actually couldn't think of anything more fun to do than sit at home, behind my computer and watch the sun set and rise (in that order) without going to sleep, eating noodles and drinking black coffee, scratching the 2 week old facial hair that makes my face itch, while nudging vertices.

     

Regarding the air racers.  They're definitely an option but I am definitely going to be flat out until at least the end of this year (vacation included!) but I'll definitely consider them as a fun side project if I haven't got anything else to do.  However, considering the size of the 747 project, I doubt I'll have much time as that's going to be a mother of a job to get it looking and performing the way I want it to and that is going to start taking up a very large portion of my time.  Especially if I want it to come out by the end of this year. 

Goran

[Goran_M]

A small progress update on the Sundowner.  Theo and myself are both burning along with this one.  Theo is working on UV maps and finishing them at about 3-4 UV maps per day.

I animated the exterior yesterday in about 3 hours and spent the rest of the day getting the flight model accurately made.  Today I started the interior animations and have 4 of the gauges done.  Also, today I did a test flight with it from Mittagong to Hoxton Park airport.  (albeit with a 2D panel I made purely for testing the flight model)

This one will definitely be finished before the end of the month. 

[Goran_M]

A small video to show the animations that have been on the panel.

This is purely a TEST to compare the 3D animations with the planemaker gauges and make sure they all line up with each other.

Apologies for the low quality.  It's my very first video upload, ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aflZGI9As4g&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aflZGI9As4g&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aflZGI9As4g&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

[tgunr]

Having owned a 1976 Sundowner (N9214S) and put over 1800 hours in one, I would very much be interested in helping out on this project. Please email me at davec@mac.com.

[Jack Skieczius]

very nice gauge animation there Goran. btw how did you get that vertical speed indicator to stop from going all the way round? (inside joke)

[Goran_M]

I'll keep you in mind, Dave.

Jack.........

I'll just say "LOL"

[Goran_M]

Animations of the exterior and panel gauges are just about finished.  Have to go through clickspots and manipulators and mapping the Garmin on the the 3D object of the GPS.  However, it seems I'm animating faster than Theo is texturing (understandably as the texturing is quite tedious), so might be a little while longer.  And I cannot animate some things without textures from Theo as some textures have indicator markings on them.  I'll throw up another video soon.

Goran

[Goran_M]

And some more screenshots.  More videos coming soon.

These are all "in sim" screenshots.

Perhaps a little tweaking here and there will be done on the textures to adjust contrast/brightness/color saturation.  But it looks like I'm finally going to release something!.

[MdMax]

It's looking awesome ! Great work ! 

[Simmo W]

Looking better every day Goran. Love the Beechcraft logo on the VSI!, great attention to detail. Happy to offer video hints too. Try to upload @ 1280 by 720, that's the most efficient res. Also, please post the YouTube hotlink for us iPhone users. More detail in one of your gauges than any whole vanilla xplane model. 

[Kesomir]

Question: Why is it that x-plane models on curves obviously show the straight edges and in FSX they look smoother and rounded? (guage circles) Is it a rendering effect done in the sim, but not in x-plane, or are fsx models just higher poly?

[Goran_M]

Question: Why is it that x-plane models on curves obviously show the straight edges and in FSX they look smoother and rounded? (guage circles) Is it a rendering effect done in the sim, but not in x-plane, or are fsx models just higher poly?

It depends on what gauges are being used in FSX.

SOME of the gauges used in FSX (true 3D mesh) use enough polys to make it look like a nice rounded circle, and those are used sparingly, but MOST gauges are the equivalent of Planemaker default gauges.  Flat textured surfaces with animated textures.  And those can be made to look extremely high res.  A texture doesn't use nearly enough resources as a 3D mesh so it gives the illusion of a high res gauge.

You can see this in a 2D panel made entirely with Planemaker.

Comparisons screenshots...

[WombatBoy]

Looking really nice Goran I'm loving the 3D gauges, and Theo's texture work is fantastic

[Kesomir]

Captain sim guages and round knobs to illustrate what I mean. I'm not criticising x-plane models at all, I prefer the smoother frames I get in the sim, just wondered if there was a magic 'smooth circle' option in FSX.

[Cameron]

No smooth option in FS X. The same can be easily achieved in X-Plane, but extra polys in the wrong places can cost you, and using them on knobs when you can get them to look relatively good already is not where they should be spent.

[Goran_M]

Captain sim guages and round knobs to illustrate what I mean. I'm not criticising x-plane models at all, I prefer the smoother frames I get in the sim, just wondered if there was a magic 'smooth circle' option in FSX.

There's always a trade off somewhere.  Where they add detail, some detail must be taken away from somewhere else to maintain good fps.  ESPECIALLY for FS9 and FSX.  Looking at those screenshots, I can see they textured the holes for the switches, fire handles and digital displays instead of modelling them (Holes actually use up quite a few polygons).  

The gauges... I try to find some kind of middle ground between performance and appearance.  Keep in mind, those screenshots I put up are extreme closeups.  No one will fly with their viewpoints THAT close and from that angle.  

Not bashing their work, by any means, (Although I have heard their planes don't work properly) but to each their own.

[Goran_M]

Coming together rather quickly now.

All gauges and controls are working nicely. 

[max_mts]

Wow!

Looks like real plane! I love a General aviation without MFC and displays. Respect for your work!

[Jack Skieczius]

lovin it Goran, really do.

[WombatBoy]

Lookin' awesome Gotta love those full 3D instruments!

How did you animate your altitude gauge? I've been working on my Trident Trigull which will have full 3D instruments and I'm having some problems getting it right. Any chance you could tell me?