Pete_SMS

Just another "In-Sim" shot of the Beaver and yes, that prop is spinning now and is properly sized. I came home from a testflight and thought you might want to see another picture. I will also show new cockpit shots soon, but there is still some clean-up work going on, but I should be able to show some more in the next days. Have a nice weekend.

Hey Osprey, Thanks for your interest. Of course the aircraft is still in the pipeline. Development is running full steam, but there wasn't a lot I could show in the last two weeks. Currently, the main work is fixing the 3d issues I discovered after exporting the full aircraft to X-Plane. Issues like mesh see throughs, higher texture resolution for instruments and placards/labels, fixing the prop size, improving instrument readability and a few other things. This is more or less done now and probably I will show a few new "in-game" shots later this week. Beside that, I made a few improvements to my plug-in code framework, ported all my code to the multi-platform environment QT and got it all up and running again for Windows and Linux and just ordered my Mac Mini (i7 with 2.8 GHz), so that I am able to compile my plugin code on a Mac as well. The great thing about QTCreator is that it is the same on each platform and I don't have to fight with different environments like MSVS, XCode etc. and of course the flight model is work in progress as well. So don't worry, even if it is a little quiet from time to time. Development is in full progress and you will for sure be able to fly the Beaver.

Here are the first "In Sim" shots of the cockpit and the cabin. Please keep in mind that this is an early stage and I know that there are still some problem areas, like see-through-mesh and some label textures which I think look a little too blurry in X-Plane. That will be fixed of course, but I wanted to show you the current state. Hope you enjoy! Oh, and that landing gear lever will be removed for the pure wheel version as well. This is only part of the amphibian version.

That was the plan.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys! Well, since I love simulated bush flying myself, there is a good chance that you might see another one in the future and I think I can not risk that derek's wife will get angry with me. However, first things first. As for an ETA, I don't want to be too specific right now, because I try to keep my promises and don't want to put myself under pressure if things take a little longer than planned. It will be worth the wait though, if this is going to happen. All I will say is, don't expect it to be available in the next two months, but you should be flying it at least in summer. Just be patient. I try to produce the best simulated Beaver you can get your hands on.

OK, here they come. The first "in sim" shots of the Beaver in its natural environment. I did the first real and serious Blender exports today and I am quiet happy with the results so far. Actually, I really had to smile. I hope you enjoy these first sim shots as well!

Glad you all like it! Just if you are wondering if I am asleep ... no I am not. I hope I can show you the first "in sim" shots this week. Currently, I am preparing the mesh and textures for the export. These will be static exports first. If I am happy with everything, I will start with animations and manipulators.

Here comes the first night lighting WIP. The lighting is baked into the LIT texture and this is the result. Of course, the warning lights and the lights for the landing gear(amphibian version) are just lit for demonstration purposes. I hope you don't see them during flight all that often Hope you like it ....

Hey bc ... damn I thought I could hide being a science fiction fan. Oooh, you are talking about Starwars and Jabba the Hutt. Yip, that's him. Thought nobody will notice. Good catch! ...and yeah you should get some more sleep....Star Trek = Star Wars and Bobba Fett = Jabba the Hutt

Yes, I am.

Just a few teaser pictures for today. The cockpit for the amphibian version is fully textured now. Enjoy!

Yip, I would try sim/cockpit2/controls datarefs, as the others are tied to the joystick. You can check with the dataref editor plugin, if the datarefs do what you expect them to do, when you move the yoke with the keyboard.

Hi danstefan, for the yoke use sim/joystick/yoke_roll_ratio where +1.0 full right; -1.0 full left; 0 center sim/joystick/yoke_pitch_ratio where +1.0 full back; -1.0 full forward; 0 center and for the throttle use sim/flightmodel/engine/ENGN_thro where 0 full back (idle); +1.0 full throttle Keep in mind that the throttle dataref if a float array with 8 elements, so you have to specify which engine you want to use. Use index "0" if you only have one throttle/engine. Pete

@derek: Yip, it will have a pilot. You will be able to see it in external view. @steven: Technology will get LOTS of attention. I coded my plug-in framework already, which is more or less an interface between X-Plane and my own physics and systems simulation engine, and I will soon move to some serious amd more advanced coding. More or less every system will be coded from scratch and I only use X-Plane default behaviour, if it is accurate enough and if it gives me all the flexibility I need. If it doesn't, it will be replaced by my own code. I have a lot of ideas on the physics side as well, with respect to plugin coding. However, first things first. First I will still spend my time to have the Beaver artwork working inside X-Plane and it needs to befully animated. When that is in place, serious plugin coding and flight modelling will takeoff in full afterburner.

OK, it is weekend and I thought I just show you another cockpit render as the texturing of this part is nearing its completion as well. Not fully completed, but almost there.

I can for sure understand the disappointment of the serious FSX users who had some hopes for a new great simming platform and I was following it with interest as well, because I have been using Flight Simulator since version 2, running it on a C64. However, from my point of view, serious or hardcore FSX users make only a fraction of total sales. Most people who bought FSX are not all that serious and don't want to go through detailed flight manuals and checklist and are also not interested in all too deep system simulations. They just want to take an aircraft for a spin and have some fun. My feeling is that Microsoft clearly recognized this trend or fact and this is the reason why Flight is what it is. A casual platform for all kind of "pilots", but if this leads to more people getting interested in aviation and are inspired by simulated flight, I am all for it, because the people who want to get serious will move to other platforms after it, like XP10. I don't see all that big of a loss there, with respect to Flight. We have a nice XP9 and now XP10, which I hope will become an awesome development and flying platform. Beside that, we still have FSX and in the hands of a talented developer (ORBX, A2A Simulations etc.) it is great. To be honest, I didn't expect anything new from Microsoft after they axed the Aces team. Now they have something called Flight, which could be a great tool to win new serious aviators in the long run. If not, nothing is lost and it is free to start using it. I would have loved that with the age of 12, when I started using flight simulators.

Don't worry Michael. I am a professional flight simulation engineer and real world pilot and replicating real aircraft behaviour and systems is key for me. Like I said before, great artwork and technology have to coexist in harmony. If you have a great looking aircraft, but bad technology, it will kill all the immersion and fun. If you have great technology, but a bad looking aircraft, it will kill the immersion as well, because your mind will be constantly reminded that you are flying a 3d model. Same is true for sound. Bad sound can kill a lot of the immersion factor, while great sound can add tremendously to the feeling of being there. I am not a big fan of the X-Plane default sound, but fortunately there are ways to improve sound by using plugins.

First of all I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year, and take the opportunity to show you some progress on the cockpit texturing. There is still work left, but I thought you might be interested to see what the Beaver office looks like so far. Beside the modelling and texturing, I continued to work on my plugin framework code, which makes it very easy now to add modules for systems and physics simulations and I can almost treat it as a standalone simulation, which is pretty cool, because it gives me lots of freedom. OK, here are some WIP shots of the Beaver cockpit. Enjoy!

Cameron is right. The specular level in the sim will be lower. However, some specular highlights are baked into the texture to make it look like real leather. If the overall specularity is too high in the sim, it will be reduced of course. That is no problem. ...But since this is a modernized Beaver, new looking seats are not out of place.

OK, here come the leather seats and some other cabin detail in the background.

I want to give you a sneak peek of the interior today, before the leather seats move in. About 8 weeks ago I started this thread and it already has around 9,400 views. Wow, I was never expecting such an interest in the Beaver. Well, for me it is an awesome and gorgeous aircraft, but I would have never thought that so many of you seem to like it as well. That is really motivating and I would like to thank you for your interest so far! Hope you enjoy the interior shots.

Hey guys, Thanks for the livery request. However, even they look nice and I had a look at them myself before, I want to keep the livery authentic. That means, I will use real world liveries which fit to my aircraft setup of the modernized Beaver. Beavers with a three blade prop, same spinner type and two passenger windows behind the passenger door will fit and I more or less made my selection already. However, you are getting a neutral color paint kit for the SoulMade Simulations Beaver and you can create any livery you like for yourself and others. Like eaglewing said, this is not really a Beaver. I looks pretty much different in the details. However, I could imagine that they were inspired by the Beaver shape and created a cartoon model for it. So you have to try a little harder to win that free Beaver copy. Watch out when the Beaver is close to release, though. There WILL be the chance to win 5 free Beaver copies. How? That is something I will talk about when the time has come.

Hi Joe, Yes, but it was lots of trial and error until I got it right, playing with wing incidence, fuselage drag and airfoil lift and drag. The project is on hold right now though, because I am working on the Beaver. When I will continue with it, the flight model will be done from scratch again. As for the fuselage drag, I had a quick chat with Austin, but he didn't want to reveal how X-Plane is calculating fuselage drag. However, at zero AOA it is related to your frontal area and at AOA other than zero, I could imagine that X-Plane is using the projected area, plus some other "black magic".

I am glad you all like it! After looking at hundreds of pictures on airlinersnet, I decided for this livery, because I like earth like colors. The other versions will feature their own liveries, but this one was one of my favorites. With respect to the prop twist, I will have another look. However,the 3d model is not really flat . If somebody has some info about prop twist for a HC-B3 Hartzell prop, I am happy to use it. Texturing is done in photoshop. The key is having a good and efficient uv unwrap of the 3d mesh. If you are interested in it, here is a good starting point to understand the basics and more advanced things. http://cgcookie.com/...ntro_uvmapping/ http://www.military-...thread.php?t=61 Progress is nice so far, but like I said before, there will be times when there is not much progress to show. I will report about it, but showing will not be easy. Unless you would be interested in software design pictures and screenshots of my source code editor Nice picture of the Beaver near Richardson Bay! Colors look very intense. Thought that you might like to see another angle...

The weekend is around the corner. Are you ready for the first shots with a livery? OK, here they come.