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I think it's about time i started a thread here on X-Pilot to showcase my development of a high detail Sepecat Jaguar Strike Aircraft. I started trying to make this in 2007, and since then development has been somewhat hit and miss. I have collected a HUGE library of reference material over the years, which includes Aircrew Manuals, Operating Data Manuals and a Maintenance Manual, so i have no excuses for getting something wrong! Since my first attempts at building a 3d model for it, my ability has grown somewhat, and taking a break from the development to create the Hypo WWII follow me truck for Mr3D's HMS Jackdaw scenery helped my modelling skills progress even more. I plan to use the excellent Gizmo plugin to refine the flightmodel, and to provide some nice effects and to bring some new functionality to the sim. Some working weapons, and target designation would be a fun thing to have with this aircraft, so those are some things i hope to achieve with Gizmo. I'm currently using Gizmo to develop a suite of flight testing and evaluation tools, so i can quickly and effortlessly verify aircraft in performance in all key areas. I have the data, so it seems daft to not make my model match the real world one. I cannot thank Ben enough for his amazing plugin. His efforts with coding in 'real' languages to provide a tool for us minions to modify the sim with such ease are really great for the simulator as a whole. I am striving to achieve very accurate dimensional accuracy, and with the help of the man in charge of restoration at the RAF Bentwaters Cold War Museum, an RAF Armourer, who helps to keep old jets in a working condition suitable for Fast Taxi runs at Bruntingthorpe in his spare time, and a visit to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, i so far have a very accurate model. Some might say the detail i am including is over the top, by i am building this aircraft primarily for myself to enjoy, and i really want a super high detail aircraft, and making all the detail is what makes the simulator model seem more real to me. Also, I cant abide by low poly and low resolution models in the sim these days. It's 2013, and products that would have been cutting edge in 1999 don't really do it for me! I primarily model in AC3D, but i dip in and out of Blender to unwrap some parts, and to do all my Ambient Occlusion baking. Baked textures are prevalent on the detailed areas, and this process adds so much to a model that it really can't be overlooked in my opinion. An accurate flight model is very important for this project, as, like so many other people, i doubt i'll ever have the chance to experience flying a fast jet 50ft from the ground through a valley, so getting a feel for it in the sim is desirable. The Jaguar, which has some 'interesting' high alpha traits, and supersonic performance is not the kind of aircraft that X-Plane simulates well, so lots of tuning is being done, and will continue to be done, to try and replicate the real world handling characteristics. I have no fixed estimate for release yet, but i do know this will be a payware offering. It'll be released when i'm happy with it, and not before! The main areas i have left to complete are the 3D cockpit, and the UV layout for the main exterior model. The flight model work will be done alongside those two tasks, and final scripting will be done when everything else is complete. I mainly use v9 at the moment, but will be releasing a v10 model in the end. I'm not going to waste time trying to tune a flightmodel to v10 yet, as the goalposts are always changing! I have a blog running that i post development updates and pictures to, and i'll post here whenever i make an update. Enough typing, its pretty picture time!

We take all criticism and feedback seriously. I think you'll be very pleased with what's coming.

http://www.martinlindstrom.com/religious-branding/

I forgot to change the livery before heading off to Martinique in an IcelandAir DC-3, so... yeah, not a very likely shot. I saw no reason to ditch this gorgeous sunset shot over such a small detail. The view from the office with the lights of Le Lamentin in the distance was spectacular. And another "fish out of water", so to speak. Pretty far from the Pacific, this one, but the Goose is my all-around go-to Bush or generally "poke around" aircraft. I love the colors in this one.

With the release of the HD mesh and SkyMAXXX, X-Plane has become even more photogenic than before, and more and more non-X-Plane types are starting to take notice. I'm seeing this over in Avsim, but there's something about this newfound interest that bothers me. Now, those of us who have been using X-Plane for a long time through many versions, along with those of us who have come to embrace X-Plane since version 10 (I fit in this slot) are very familiar with the quality developers for the platform. We know of LES and JRollon. We fly Flight Factor Boeings. We're getting our glass cockpit mileage with JARDesigns' Airbus. We're salivating at the chance to get yoke time in the IXEG 737 Classic. Simply put, we know that we've got some quality players in our arena, and they're only going to get better the more they develop. So what's bothering me is a common comment among the MSFS-entrenched that "X-Plane looks like it has potential, but they need PMDG quality aircraft before it'll take off." What. Don't get me wrong, PMDG make quality products and I'm happy to see them make a move towards X-Plane development, but for the rabble to completely ignore, discount, and discard the efforts of developers who have already shown they're up to the task seems almost like a slap in the face. Hell, we've got people putting out amazing work with teams a fraction of the size of MSFS addon developers. In fact, Fly J Sim is ONE PERSON, and the 727 is heralded as a triumph by those who own and fly her, including a major MSFS product reviewer, Froogle. I dunno... I'm glad X-Plane is getting attention, and I'm glad people are taking notice. What I'm leery about is this idea that X-Plane somehow needs to be "fixed" before it's considered "worthy" by the high and mighty Flight Sim Elite. What do you guys think?

So after taking a 5 month break from development (disadvantage of using 3D panoramas you get sick of them fast) I finally was able to look at my reference photos without just wanting to give up and modeled some more details in the back of the cockpit

Check Sabach's work at the org.

I have a long customer history with PMDG. Their first product was a B747-400 manual for the B747-400 PS1 sim. If you ever wondered where the name comes from. Next in line were some Boeings for FLY!, 757, 767, 777. They had a strictly MSFS-never attitude. After FLY! vanished the went the MSFS ways. I think they are smart. The products are good but they sell very good because they produce what the virtual pilots are after. It's more easy to sell planes that "we have flown on" in real life. Who ever did an airplane vaccation, PMDG has the vitual counterpart. I guess that is what makes them so famous. Currently we have planes in our X-World with the same quality, or even better. And many of them sell because of pure quality, not because they are famous in the real world. Two planes I fly ae good examples, the Jetstream and the MU-2, never flew on them or even walked close to them. I think it's important to know that PMDG does not want to serve the X Plane community. They want to sell products and they will always be where the money is. Same about their groupies. They don't care about the sim, they want PMDG. Like many others I'm an FSX convert. I had their 737NGX installed. It's a nice plane but nothing special. Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100 mit Tapatalk 2

Oh, you thought that was it? Low alt over Nice in the BK-117 heli. Such an awesome cockpit.

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 ...

just love this shot

Already been addressed. See my thread in the SkyMaxx screenshot forum.

We're still investigating. Nothing has changed with regards to animations in the cockpit, so it's either in the reworked scripts or the new version of Gizmo. We're still looking into it and we'll have a fix very soon. Again, my personal apologies.

We're on it!

You guys are probably getting sick of these.. but Im not. And this is my only outlet! Just departing Geneva.. For this one I tried putting the cumulus layer much higher, at like 20-25k. That way my FPS would still be decent around the heavy Geneva area..and then once I got up into the clouds it was fine because It wasnt drawing so many ground textures. Still using Very High res.. some cockpits are just too detailed for Extreme. Also an important note with HD mesh my VRAM jumps up to 3000 easily even in mountain areas.

Enjoy. Love all the possibilities! Version 1.1 coming soon.

Hi... I just bought it and even if my graphic card is the latest Nvidia on the market (GTX TITAN) I have a HUGE impact on framerate. And I also noticed that could at dawn or sunset are completely BLACK. Why is this happening? There is no transition in color for the clouds. I am a bit disappointed cause I have read that there would have been a framerate improvement compared to the default clouds, but I had the opposite result. And the black clouds are so unreal, above all if you look at the sky and you see the yellow/red color and completely black clouds! Please let me know if it is the way it is supposed to be or if I am doing something wrong. Thanks

100 is FL100 so (almost) 10000ft. 95 is FL95 so (almost) 9500ft. I use this and the plugin goes quite well... if you put 5 you are assuming you switch weather at 500ft. 50 to 5000ft and so on.

Completely remodeled the Engines today And here's one of the entire plane with the new engines