[K&A] De Havilland Canada DHC-1 "CHIPMUNK"

[arno54]

anti-piracy protocol, when you have to register to make a product work.

[arno54]

And now comes the interesting part... Khamsin has achieved an incredibly highly detailed interior, yet amazingly low-ressource requiring...This gives you now a good glimpse of what this one is gonna be like... And I guess this is gonna be a great, great little bird ! ... even by my own standards...

Edited November 15, 2011 by arno54

[Gjalp]

my god......that is just breathtaking! Cant wait to see it textured

Slainte,

Andy

NZCH

[RojanTrojan]

And now comes the interesting part... Khamsin has achieved an incredibly highly detailed interior, yet amazingly low-ressource requiring...This gives you now a good glimpse of what this one is gonna be like... And I guess this is gonna be a great, great little bird ! ... even by my own standards...

Fantastic work. I can't wait to fly this in a simulator again. It brings me back to very good memories of Rick Piper's model for FS2004. Does anyone remember that? Great model, great fun to fly.

Superb work.

Rhydian

[arno54]

The Chipmunk now enters the one-before-last stage of her developpement. Here is what she looks like (even though one or two details such as the hobbsmeter or the card-holder are still missing)

She's modeled from blueprint up to the least screw, and she carries an exhaustive, fonctionnal copy of her real-life systems (down to the fuses!) . No need to say, I begin to get proud of this will-be born baby. Khamsin did an incredible work on that, that bird is gonna fly with as less ressources as, for instance, our previous Ercoupe, with max high FPS and yet, 100% real-life systems... not to speak, as usual, of some never-seen before features that indeed could change the way you fly in Xplane !

[Bamboo Cougar]

Gents, this is just beautiful!

I don't know what it is about DeHavilland aircraft, but my pulse picks up everytime someone brings one of their craft to life.

And by the looks so far, and the dialogue, this one will be exquisitely alive.

oh yeah... and in my Elite Craft Hangar.

Thanks for your work and passion for such a lovely aircraft!

bc

edits: faster mind than fingers

Edited November 19, 2011 by Bamboo Cougar

[Gjalp]

I agree with Bamboo Cougar, there is something about the DH designs that span the centuries and still has a look and feel about them, that says "this is quality."

This will sit nicely in my hangar along with all the other great payware planes I have bought over the years

Congrats gents

Slainte,

Andy

NZCH

[arno54]

The previous picture was updated, in particular with the radio comm1 installed, as well as some details such has marked tablets. Enjoy !

[Pete_SMS]

This looks extremely nice Arnaud. You and your team are doing a fantastic job!

Now, I am interested in how many faces this lovely lady has?

[arno54]

Well, at the present moment we are on a 50K budget. The hard part now begins as for optimization, as the 2D artwork is obviously much more difficult and technically tricky than the 3D work, and the way systems are dealt with have indeed a huge impact on frame-rate. The interest in vertices count is, to us, quite important, because, a bit like as for the beaver, these are mainly (if no exclusively) vfr planes, and the hability to display a very detailed scenery is a major request for a "good" vfr plane (vertices count is probably not a big deal when a A330 flies at 36000ft, above clouds, but at 2500ft, all that is used for the plane is not for the sceneries.)

That's why some very well-known aircrafts by famous xplane manufacturers are, in my mind, ridiculously heavy ( 250 000-vtx/16x2K-textured ) a plane vfr flying in the mist... that's not an option :-) A plane MUST fly on MY netbook with 64Mb Vram and 666mhtz single core celeron.

Yes, I'm definitely an extremist and Khamsin is negociating every vertex he's allowed to use, and every bit of texture step by step ! I dream of tying him to his armchair untill he supplies a perfect 10K-vtx plane with a single 1024 png.

Well, let's be honest : low vtx count is not the only, nor the major part, of optimization. But I guess it helps quite a lot.

[Pete_SMS]

I hear you, and have kind of the same attitude with respect to poly count and textures. Producing "low" poly aircraft that still look great is an art itself and being efficient with textures as well. It's not easy and needs a good amount of experience. I admire people who are able to do it and Khamsin for sure knows his stuff.

I am happy with the approximately 90K count for the Beaver so far and X-Plane should be able to handle that easily. However, textures should stay at a reasonable number and size as well in the end and I have to make sure that it does. I also hope that I can get rid of the panel.png and cockpit_3d folder for the vintage Beaver, as it doesn't need any digital displays. That should free up some VRAM as well.

Anyway, keep up the great work and I am looking forward to the Chippy, while still enjoying the T-28

[Carlos Garcia]

Two of the great "Gurus" "Craftsmen" of X-plane in a nice Talk... Wow ... I dont see this all days ... Saludos Arnaud and Pete.

Edited November 22, 2011 by Carlos Garcia

[Pete_SMS]

Carlos, you must be talking about Arnaud and Khamsin here.

I am still a greenhorn, learning every day. I might have solo'ed, but still have to work hard to earn my wings.

[arno54]

Well, it happens that neither K nor I do like the word "guru" very much, even though it had here no offending intend. We tend to consider ourselves as "craftsmen" (I hope google-translate was efficient on this one), because Guru (at least in french?) sounds a bit like some bad, mean magician or a sect leader. In the xplane-word use of this word, it refers too as someone who in a way "holds the truth", "knows", where our work is more like the one of students, inventing, re-inventing wheel sometimes, learning and in anycase, trying to have a "scientific" angle on things, while in the same time, trying to imagine new tricks (such as the Flight Instructor mode or the bombing sessions of the T28).

Yes, I guess craftsmen is the right word to describe us. Or at least, that's the way we'd be pleased to be considered as.

Edited November 22, 2011 by arno54

[Carlos Garcia]

Hello Arnaud, sorry about that.

For me : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru , http://www.thefreedictionary.com/guru

Guru :

"a teacher and especially intellectual guide in matters of fundamental concern" [X]

"one who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent" [X]

"a teacher or guide that you trust" [X]

"a person who has a lot of experience in or knowledge about a particular subject " [X]

[X] Thats what I trying to say....

Sorry, post edited.

Carlos

Edited November 22, 2011 by Carlos Garcia

[arno54]

Don't be sorry, I know there was no bad meanning as far as you're concerned :-)

[arno54]

How could we have done otherwise? We tested the Chipmunk on XP10... Well, she passes the testing session successfully ! running as expected, no bug, and over 100FPS on Khamsin's test machine. Now we're giving the very last hand to the bird herself, choosing a programming platform, sorting out the features that will be or not present in the V1.0.

In some days we should be able to publish in-game pics and videos. Stay tuned :-)

[auster]

I am a confirmed fan of Arnaud & Khamsin's creations and look forward to purchasing their DHC1 Chipmunk. I love classic, tail-draggers and hope that they will find time to build others like the DH Tiger Moth - maybe even an Auster or two? (special favourite because I learned to fly in that type!).

Please, please put my mind at rest and confirm that the Chipmunk will be compatible with X-Plane 9 - I have looked at the XP10 demo and find that it will not run on my iMac 20", even at the lowest resolution and weather settings! Aargh!! They call it progress!

I have resigned myself to the fact that I shall only be able to fly aircraft which make small demands on my 256 MB graphics,( which cannot be upgraded on the iMac), so I shall be especially delighted to have this beautiful aircraft at my disposal. Can't wait!

Autocrat

[Carlos Garcia]

@Auster :

Take a look Here:

From Arnaud Words :

"That's why some very well-known aircrafts by famous xplane manufacturers are, in my mind, ridiculously heavy ( 250 000-vtx/16x2K-textured ) a plane vfr flying in the mist... that's not an option :-) A plane MUST fly on MY netbook with 64Mb Vram and 666mhtz single core celeron."

I think this answer your question. I dont think right now any designer make a Exclusive Xplane 10 Acf.

Regards

Carlos

[auster]

Carlos,

Thanks for drawing my attention to those re-assuring words by Arnaud!

Regards,

Auster

[arno54]

Hi Auster,

let's be clear about this : the Chip is definitely a V9 plane. And it's definitely intended for low-end computers : actually, if I can use it, everyone else can (as I had to seriously tweak my XP folder simply to be able to run the sim!).

Right now, we have no plan for biplane nor high-winged plane, but who knows? Our current main concern is to get the Chip ready , one bird at a time !

[arno54]

While I'm coding the Chipmunk to have it has realistic as it gets (I'm mimicing real life failures, one by one...), khamsin is now texturing the bird. The result, even at this very early stage, is... well... I let you find the right words ! And remember, this is only the first layer... it's even not really "textured" yet !

[Carlos Garcia]

Wow....

[Gjalp]

Holy Snappers!!!! And all that in Blender as well! I think Carlos said it all....Wow.

Slainte,

Andy

NZCH

[Dozer]

That looks incredible. I'm most excited by what you've said about systems simulation! Hopefully by the time you're done I'll have a PC which can run XP9/10 with VFR-suitable scenery! My current system is useless except for completely IFR flights...

I remember Rick Piper's excellent Chipmunk for MSFS9, years and years and YEARS ago. I liked to fly IFR then, too, and launched confidently across northern England, heading confidently in the approximate direction of my destination. Once I was out of sight of the starting airfield, I started looking around the cockpit for the VOR tuner. At that point I realised this Chipmunk had no VOR. I think it might have had an ADF but I'm not even sure of that!

I don't remember how that flight turned out. I think that was the flight when I realised that, by default, all the FS9 AI aircraft's strobe lights will flash at the same time. It looks very strange when there's ten aircraft in the sky in front of you. I might have followed the lights of the AI aircraft to find an airfield somewhere. Those were the days, when I could see for hundreds of miles - the AI aircraft and ATC was pretty pointless though.