Pete_SMS

Way too many to remember them all, but I of course remember the highlights: Flight Simulator Flight Simulator II Chucky Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer F-14 Tomcat Interceptor F-16 Combat Pilot Flight Simulator III - FSX F/A-18 Hornet Korea Falcon 4.0 IL-2 X-Plane 9 I is really stunning what simulators look like these day. Man, I was having fun as well when graphics looked like a bunch of lines on a black screen. ..but still too many Sims to remember them all.

Hi, Blender 2.57 has been released and is no longer beta. It has so many new features and I just can't believe that this software is free. I know I repeat myself, but I just have to say it again This makes it finally easy for me to leave Autodesk products. Have a look here: http://www.blendercookie.com/2011/04/13/blender-2-57-is-released-video-overview/ http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-257/

As I am getting more and more impressed by Blenders capabilities and the new interface and workflow, I will make the change from 3ds Max to Blender. That also means no more expensive update costs, no subscription and actually Blender will offer me all things I need. The reason for this post is that I want to make all Blender users aware that there will be free upcoming training series from 3dBuzz for Blender. If you don't know 3DBuzz, check it out here www.3dbuzz.com. My opinion is, that they offer the best 3D training out there. It's is thorough, to the point, very detailed, entertaining and fun. I have a lot of their training products like 3ds Max Fundamentals, Maya Fundamentals, C++, C#, Unity and I am a member sponsor. The blender training will be completely free and you can check out the details in this thread http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?188332-Blender-Fundamentals-Update&p=1540543 and the first batch of videos is already available for member sponsors, and I can tell you, they are absolutely great and I am really looking forward for more. I think the first batch will also be available soon for no-sponsor users. I had the feeling that this info might especially interesting for people starting with Blender, or even seasoned users might get a new trick and workflow here and there. http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?188374 So go ahead and check it out yourself, if you are interested.

Hey Goran, are you sleeping at all? The Saab will perform great on my new PC. I am really looking forward to it.

A very funny Rod Machado

What aircraft were you flying Cameron and who allowed you to come that close when you took these pictures? Oh wait a second.....is this X-Plane? *just kidding* Looks great!

Oh c'mon, stop teasing. I will use this scenery with my new PC and it is just not here yet. This makes waiting even harder!

I bet it can and don't forget the "if" statement to start the passenger_moaning.wav file after 50 minutes ;D

Wow, awesome scenery! My new PC is on its way and I am looking forward to fly in this area. Especially flying from Wheeler Army Airfield

Very nice!

Thank you. Well, the tank project was the first model I ever worked on. I was a complete modelling noob before. It was soooo much fun. I liked the texturing part too. UW unwrapping was not my favorite part of the work, but after modelling, creating textures, lighting and the general scene setup was nice creative work. This is in contrast to my engineering job, but I love it. Best of two world's.

Sorry, that's no .blend file. I did all the modelling in 3ds Max. Also I can't give the source, because I did that as a project during my modelling training.

A few things I did in the recent past.

No problem and good answer.

Nice Goran. Did you do that in Blender or are you using also another modelling program for that?

You are very welcome Simon and thank you for the feedback. I already thought that I posted something, and nobody is interested in it. *just joking* Yip, the learning curve for any serious modelling program is quite steep. I had the same feeling, when I started 3ds Max for the first time. All these buttons, options, menues etc. However, I had a very good training and after a short while, I was able to move around and find stuff and also knew the short cuts and mouse clicks and I could concentrate on the modelling procedures and techniques. After that uw unwrapping, texturing, lighting, rendering and animation. That training was fun and I learned a lot. I did different projects during that time, from basics, to character modelling, car modelling and animations. Practice is everything, I agree with you. You have to stay in the process to not get rusty and improve on your techniques. I did a break after character modelling, and when I did car modelling, it started a little rusty, but it all came back. I even bought 3d Max and was lucky that I was able to buy it for less than the original price, because I did that training and could get it with a student discount. After that I got a subscription and use Max since version 2009 (2011 now). I would love to use 3ds Max for X-Plane modelling, but unfortunately there are no official and documented export scripts available. I know some people are working on Max export scripts, but nothing is really easily available. I mean I would even pay for a stable and documented export script, but unfortunately there isn't anything like that, yet. Maybe we see something soon. Who knows Because of that, I thought about switching to Blender. When someone is used to 3ds Max, Blender looks horrible with respect to workflow und user interface, but this is just because you are used to something else. The "old" user interface and workflow scared me away, but with Blender 2.5 I regained interest again. I thought about doing my modelling in 3ds Max, export it to Blender and do the animations and export from there. However, the exported mesh (3ds Max -> Blender) is not always the same as in Max and you have to spend time on the mesh in Blender to fix export errors, and tweak here and there. So I thought about starting directly with Blender, without all this extra work. The good thing is, that I already have a good knowledge about modelling techniques, texturing, lighting, animations and so on in general and have to find out how to do it in Blender. So it is more or less learning a new interface and workflow. The general concepts stays the same and Blender is free, which is amazing. Time will tell what approach works best for me. It is very hard to leave a modelling program which is VERY good, you know well and for which you paid a lot of money. Why do you think the picture is awful? It is not, and everybody started like that. Nobody created a masterpiece right from the beginning. Just like you said, it takes a lot of practice to get into the workflow and improve on the techniques, but EVERYBODY can do it with practice, time and dedication. So stay with it and have fun with all the modelling stuff. Pete

Hi everybody, As a 3ds Max user, I am seriously thinking about switching to Blender, especially after the introduction of the new user interface. Blender seems to be the 3d modelling tool for X-Plane and more are less all export scrips are written for Blender, as far as I know. After checking out Blender's functionality, I find it amazing that one is getting such a piece of software for free. Even better, because I don't like to pay the anual subscription for my Max software anymore. So I bought myself a Blender 2.5 training DVD, which is extremly good. However, it is in german, so probably not useful for a lot of you guys. But after searching for more training material on the internet, I came across a very neat internet page, where they offer free Blender 2.5 training and the videos are very nice. All people new to Blender or are thinking about learning Blender will find it very helpful. I just wanted to share the link, so you can have a look yourself. http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html Also, for the people who are already familiar with Blender and/or Blender 2.5, here is a very nice car modelling tutorial. Car modelling is basically as complex as aicraft modelling, so the techniques can directly transfered to aicraft. So here is is and probably more useful stuff on the site. http://www.blendercookie.com/2009/12/05/modeling-a-porsche-911-gt3-rs-part-01/ Enjoy! Best regards, Pete

One of my favorite U2 songs.

Hi, I wish all of you a happy, successful and healthy new year 2011. Let it also be a great year for X-Plane, the users and the developers. Have fun partying or whatever you prefer to do. Best, Pete

Great job Goran and Theo. This looks really really nice! Looking forward to it.

Merry Christmas to you and Chip as well. Have a good time, even without a PC

Hi, still one day to go for me, but I will not be able to be on the PC tomorrow. I wish you all and your families a Merry Christmas. Have a great time, relax and enjoy the time with nice people around you. All the best, Pete

Hey, there is no generic algorithm for V1, V2 and Vr. These speeds will be different for every aircraft. Developers might have "internal" equations for calculating V1, V2 and Vr, in order to produce aircraft specific data tables, charts etc. or they might even have computer programs which pilots can use before a flight. However, this data is only related to that particular aircraft. As you probably know, V1 is the maximum speed for a rejected takeoff or the minimum speed at which you could continue the takeoff, if you have an engine failure. So therefore V1 strongly depends on the acceleration-stopping performance of the aircraft. Vr will be a speed that is selected in a way that the aircraft will be able to reach V2 before it will arrive at a height of 35 ft abouve ground level. This also strongly depends on specific aircraft performance. V2 considered as the T/O safety speed, will be used for the initial climb in case an engine is lost before reaching V2 and as V1 and Vr strongly aircraft dependent. So there is no generic algorithm valid for any kind of aircraft. Pilots often use rules of thumb to memorize these numbers for different T/O weights, runway and wind conditions etc., but not really something you are looking for. I hope this helps. If not, please be a little more specific with your question. -Pete

"So, you want to be a test pilot?" Could it be that the Sim was "Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer"? One of my favorite Flight Sims, back in the days on the C64 ;D

Great job!