Mid7night

Unfortunately, it is not likely, I'm sorry to disappoint. Reason #1 is that I'm becoming ever-busier with learning to be a new father. Secondarily I'm also getting more and more back into RC-flying, which takes a good chunk of my hobby-time. Finally, the biggest reason I'm not likely to return to this project is that my laptop and external hard drive were recently stolen, and with them all the original models and associated files. I'm glad that it's out and being enjoyed though, I'm glad to have done it. However; there are others who have taken to adding updates, so I don't see this as the end of my Skyhawk. Most recently, an Org member has created a new livery with some new weapons. Check it out here: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=21117 Thanks again for all of you who have downloaded and enjoyed my Scooter!

Update: The Skyhawk is now free! I'm not actively supporting this plane anymore, other aspects of life have taken higher precedence (church planting, having a son...), but I just wanted to let you all know that it's out for free now. Enjoy! ~ M7 http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=20420

Thanks for your thoughts. I don't think there's any instruments that would require a plugin, I just haven't had the time to flesh out everything yet, like the radio and nav systems - which ARE on my to-do list. The blurb "focus on 3D Modeling" is in reference to the fact that I'm a leader of the 3D Modeling forum specifically. I began most of my contributions there, and in Custom Designs. My emphasis is more on the mechanics of 3D modeling, how to use the programs create and structure animations and such.

Thanks FlorianR, I appreciate your reassessment. While I'm here, I guess I'll let you know I just updated the Skyhawk with custom engine, starter and wind sounds! Check out the little demo vid I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mYuuxCMDFI If you have it already, you should have received an email-notification today. Enjoy! 8)

I presume this is in reference to the first-post's comment: I failed to respond to this in my original reply, so let me correct that here. I most certainly did NOT use 2D buttons or "default setups produced by Plane Maker", and unfortunately the single cockpit picture just doesn't tell the whole story. Now I'm not saying everything is animated in the cockpit, but there are no 2D-button/switch shortcuts here. All the buttons/switches/knobs ARE modeled, and the ones that DO stuff are animated. The attachments show the use of interior 3D lighting, and hopefully show you that it's not a cheated 2D-panel-in-3D. Keep in mind though that this video and these pics were taken during development, hence the lack of a stick in the 'pit. CLICK FOR VIDEO OF COCKPIT LIGHTING - - I don't know what it is - maybe I just suck at marketing - but I figure judgments like "the "3d" cockpit looks more like a brown pit with 2d buttons and display" should be made by someone who has actually inspected the cockpit, not just looked at screenshots. And yes, I do plan on keeping this up-to-date when XP10 finally hits. 8) ~ Mid7night

I get that it's not a 'traditional' review, and I'll be honest; I was hoping to get more exposure from it. So yeah, it was a bit of friendly advertising, but what's wrong with that? I didn't pay him to write it, and he's not getting a commission either; he could've said no just as easily as write it. I didn't feel like waiting for someone to spontaneously write a review - which is highly unlikely in the first place, given my no-name status in the Payware-world - so I asked my friend to help me out. Doesn't seem like a big deal to me... :-\ A shame yes, but please let's not got there in this thread.

Thanks for the kind words, and for enjoying my aircraft. I didn't jump in with the intention of "defending" my product, although I can certainly see how that comes across. I simply wanted to clarify a few points that I saw being misrepresented, or not fully explained. That's all. I'm one that believes in over-communication whenever in doubt, it pains me to see discussion or arguments start over misinformation; thus my reason for 'jumpin in.'

I don't really agree with your analogy, although I do understand what you're trying to say. My Skyhawk has all the features of an airplane model - if it were 'disabled' it wouldn't run at all, in my opinion - they're just not all "the best" in your assessment. Objectively, this is an opinion, and on top of that, "good" is entirely open for interpretation. So at this point, we're really just haggling about the price. All this is great discussion, and your opinions about quality are not that unfair; I never claimed it was the best X-Plane model out there. Although, to my knowledge, it is the only fully-3D Skyhawk for X-Plane at the moment. Just sayin... 8)

Either method would work, it just depends on your business model. In this case, Nicolas decided the price. I didn't have a price or $/aircraft in mind, being that this is my first outing into Payware. If I were to make a product, and take it to a retail store to sell, I would likely tell the store "here's the wholesale price I will sell to you at" and the store would add their markup to it and arrive at a retail price that way. With digital stuff like this, it's less clear-cut; there's no actual material cost to base the product wholesale price on, it's just my time. So it's really up to the retailer to price their products competitively. I honestly don't know what I would've priced it at if I had my own store, it's hard to make that call now that it's out there at $20. And just additional info; it's not just my time and effort - ddenn worked and made two of the included liveries - I'm not saying it was a ton of work, I'm just saying there's him to consider as well. I use AC3D pretty much 100%. Sometimes I use Blender for conversion, but that's it. AC3D has a texture-map-editor, tho not as powerful as Blender's (another reason I use Blender occasionally). I know of Ambient Occlusion, and I also use Photoshop for all my texturing. The problem is the time and effort - and artistic talent - needed to produce good maps...I don't always have enough of all those! Also, I have a fundamental bone to pick with graphics-engines; I personally don't like that Ambient Occlusion is even necessary. I fully understand its purpose, but in my head; there's no such thing as Ambient Occlusions in "real life", there's only light and shadows. So the engineer in me looks at the graphics-rendering people and says "get your act together! I've got the geometry, now LIGHT IT!" I realize there are software and hardware limitations, and thus the reason for Ambient Occlusion, and normal and bump and spec maps for that matter. Anyway, I digress.... Glad you're looking forward to the Scooter!

Haven't been round here in a while, but noticed this thread about my A-4, so I feel compelled to jump in... Re: Landing Gear Yeah the look long; they ARE! One of the design criteria was easy store-access; which is the main reason for the long gear. One problem with comparing to static-display photos is that when the Skyhawk is parked, they very often will compress the struts, which makes it appear shorter. I modeled mine from many many 3-view drawings (and reference photos too), so I am pretty confident in the physical proportions of the aircraft. Also, comparing the height of an unloaded Aggressor to a fully loaded one with wing tanks isn't exactly apples-to-apples. Re: Cockpit Quality & Price Don't know exactly what to say...I'm an aircraft designer, not a game-graphics guru, so if it's not up-to-snuff in your opinion then just vote with your wallet (as many of you have). The Store priced it at $20, which is pretty normal for a new product, and that price will likely come down in time, as all products do. My modeling focus is usually on flightmodel and kinematic animations, and the Skyhawk is no exception. Maybe that means I need to team up with a graphics-guy to do my cockpits in the future - Which I'm TOTALLY open to BTW! I don't particularly like interiors and texturing, I like to barrel down the Grand Canyon in the chase-view. Re: "FREE" tag on payware planes I really don't know why this is a huge deal on MY plane; it's true of EVERYthing on the Org DM, it's a glitch in the process and they're working to fix it. I've looked at many other Payware planes which also have "FREE" stamped on their thumbnail and no one bats an eye, but for some reason people were compelled to post comments and complain about mine. I don't know why I'm being singled out on this. It is in the PAYWARE category, with all the other PAYWARE planes. Re: The review by Voidhawk9 Yes, I asked him to write about it. Not the Org, ME. Void is a friend of mine and he beta-tested the early versions, so I asked him to write up his thoughts. Not to advertise or fluff it (he certainly didn't hide the shortcomings, in my opinion) but just to inform people of what's there before they decide to buy or not. Yes this is 2011, and yes there are X-Plane models out there that "have it all"; if this one doesn't have enough features for you, then don't buy it or wait 'til the price is more appropriate for you. While Leen de Jager may be angered by the lack of visual-shine; I myself get a little heated when people minimize the flight simulation aspects of X-Plane over graphic niceties! I use X-Plane at work to simulate and iterate thru aircraft configurations on a daily basis, so in my opinion the "real" power of X-Plane is its flightmodel capabilities. That may not be YOUR opinion, and that's great - we use the same tool for different things. But presuming that everyone wants what you do is a little naive. I didn't make my Skyhawk for everyone, and I know it's not for everyone. I made it for me, to have fun and fly around, and I put a LOT of work into it so I figured 'why not sell it?'. Maybe $20 wasn't the "right" price, but that wasn't my call. While you're busy complaining about the gear-length and lacking-graphics, I'm a little sad no one noticed the fact that I actually modeled the nosegear-compression-mechanism and steering actuator. Guess it's true; people never remember what you did right, but they never forget what you did wrong. :-\