Pete_SMS

Hi, Time for another update for the vintage Beaver. The cockpit is almost finshed. The only thing missing is the vintage radio stack. So don't expect any LED displays. Texturing of the cockpit will start soon...so stay tuned for updates. I hope you like what you see

That's right. You can't fly both at the same time.

Hey there, Here is another WIP shot of the Vintage Beaver cockpit. The center panel and the co-pilot side is more or less finished now. The radio is still missing on the co-pilot panel, but it will be very basic anyway. The Vintage Beaver will be a pure aircraft, without any modern equipment in it. I hope you like the shot. Once the pilot panel is finished, I will show it of course. What else is new: - I am planning to have the regular tire version of modernized Beaver fully animated by the end of this week. - The flight model is making good progress. - I re-designed the architecture and framework of my plug-in code. This allows more efficient coding. I am a big fan of clearly structured and tidy code, which is easy to maintain and easy to extend. Stay tuned!

RyanCz, the liveries will not be directly interchangeable. The mesh for the different versions is different here and there and therefore the uv layout will not fit perfectly, if you don't use the correct layout. Also, my philosophy is, that a certain livery belongs to a certain version/setup of the Beaver. Therefore, it was not my plan to do so. There will be a paint kit, so people will have the chance to create their own liveries. There might be tip tanks too, yes. And no, I don't answer questions on ETA.

Hi, Just in case you thought the Beaver project is in idle mode ... nope it is not. Here are the first WIP shots of the old school vintage Beaver. Beside the 3D work, the flight model made some good progress too. Still work to do, but it is in much better shape now. Hope you enjoy!

Hello all, After some silence I just wanted to let you know that the Beaver is progressing nicely and that also the Vintage Beaver is on its way. I should be able to show some WIP shots soon. Pete

Steven, Thanks for the info and the link! Tailwheel 101 and 201 for sure look interesting and I will get these videos, most probably. Pete

Approaching Juneau (Alaska) in XP10 ...

I guess aircraft carriers will become pretty much obsolete pretty soon....and these F-18s will be on the step in no time.....

Nice! Thought about getting mine in a Piper Cub J-3 during vacation in Florida. http://www.brownsseaplane.com/

No, I didn't miss that. That was meant to be included in the more "modern" COM/NAV equipment sentence. Yip, saw that regular style flap indication on the dash as well, but it was also missing the pointer/needle, right? Which aircraft did you fly to get you float rating. Piper Cub J-3 or Super Cub?

Thanks for sharing. I have a good amount of pictures of the vintage cockpit, but it is never bad to have more. Too bad this lady can't fly at the moment and that it just sits there..... For non original parts, you are not talking about the more "modern" COM and NAV radios, right? New for me was the Flap indication. Haven't seen it at that location so far. Beside that the water rudder control handle doesn't look original. The manifold pressure gauge doesn't and also not the directional gyro. The Beechcraft clock is for sure not original.

Old vintage style cockpits and interiors are great. Did you take any pictures and care to share?

Congratulations on your float rating. This is something I want to do as well. However, I know about the problem you are talking about and it will get hard to actually do a lot of float flying after it. But, the experience will be worth it, I guess. Unfortunately not, as my liveries are already in place by now. Also, the Beaver on your pictures would not represent the type of Beaver for X-Plane. Yours is a pure float version, the windows are different, the air scoop is different etc. and I would like to stay as authentic as possible. However, the SoulMade Beaver will come with a neutral paint kit and you or anybody else can create his/her favorite livery.

Hi Jim, Things are all going fine. There hasn't been an update, because there is not a lot new to show at the moment. I am working on cockpit animations at the moment and there is not a lot to see on a static picture Beside that, there is research and prototyping for plug-ins going on and the flight model is getting a serious treatment. Also there will be a few slight changes to the amphibian Beaver cockpit….

Hey all, Today, I want to show you the WIP shot of the amphibian Beaver with the livery of N963DH. I hope you enjoy.... We are very close to finish the modeling and texturing work for the Beaver and then animations, the flight model, plugins and sounds will take off full steam. Sure work has started in these areas, but of course there is still some work to do. @Jim: Enjoy the process to learn Blender and thanks for your interest! If you have $30 to spare, I would highly recommend the following training to you: Vehicle Modeling

Here comes an artistic render of the Beaver cockpit in its final state from a modeling and texturing point of view. I did it in Blender using Cycles. I love that new renderer....

Made a flight to Price Rupert today and while waiting for some stuff, I took a few shots....

The old lady has been flying a lot lately and is showing a little wear and tear by now. I hope you don't mind...

Hello all, I know it has been quiet for some time, but of course the Beaver made progress in that time period. So no worries. I am happy that we can show you a few new WIP shots of the Beaver cargo version with tundra tires, alaska cargo doors, a slightly changed interior and a new livery. I hope you enjoy the WIP shots and the news. More soon....

40,000 faces is not too much for an exterior model. There are add-ons with a much higher poly count. However, that is not a problem. X-Plane has not really a problem with high poly count, but I still prefer to not go crazy or insane with the number of polys/faces. What really can affect fps though, is the number of textures and their size. So far everything is withing very reasonable limits and the aircraft performs nicely so far. So no worries. Development is based and done on XP9. So this will be the primary version at the moment. I will make sure that it runs on XP10 as well though, and there will be a native XP10 version in the future as well.

Hey, glad you like it. The exterior model, without the cockpit, has slightly less than 40,000 faces.

After fighting a flu during the last days, I feel a little better today and wanted to show you a small update on the texture maps. I removed the procedural texture from the spec map and the results look more realistic now. I am going to handpaint a few areas of less specularity, but overall I am quiet happy. Have a look...

Thanks! @Karingka Well, you have the autopilot in the cockpit. It is the STEC50, but it is sitting behind the control column in the shot above. ..and yes, I am planning to make the cockpit textures look a little different. At the moment it looks a little artificial. It is a little too shiny, but only a little. It should/will have a more used look in the final version. Not dirty though, only a more used look. This is a modernized Beaver and the owners take good care of her. The future vintage Beaver might look a little more "heavy duty" though.

...and a few more in-sim pictures, before it might get a little more quiet again. Since the mesh see-throughs and textures have been fixed, the mesh is in its final state now and I will continue with animations of the cockpit and the exterior. I will keep you updated on the progress.