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arno54

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Posts posted by arno54

    Skunk Works Projects...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    As I told someone not long ago... I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you afterward...

    All that is said here is not stupid.

    Not all that is said here is true.

    Not all that is said here is false.

    But you're all quite far away... or aren't you :-) ???

    I'd loooove to explain, but....Khamsin would cut me into pieces.

    Scratch your heads ;-)

    V1.1 [INVESTIGATING] A few minor points...

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    Thanks for your response.

    You welcome... I guess considering user's ( =customers, buyers) remarks is an absolute minimum !  :)

    In response to #2, my T-28 expert has stated "The Hydraulic Pump is absolutely engine-driven."  I am a bit of a middle man here, so I can not speak so resolutely myself... 

    I would tend to take it face value, due to the source. I probably have not spend enough time on this - I'm gonna check on the manual and correct this.

    Also, one other thing he mentioned that I forgot to say earlier:  They don't normally paint the backs of the prop blades as it is distracting to the pilot and not much use to ground personnel.

    Yes... comes with the anti-glare black painting on the noze. This is definitely historically exact, but well, it's simply nicer from cockpit view :-)

    Friendly

    Arnaud

    V1.1 [INVESTIGATING] A few minor points...

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    Hello!  I would like to start by saying "thank you" for this wonderful airplane!  It has become by far my favorite for X-Plane.  I do not want to be critical, only to help improve the model if possible.  As it is, it is excellent!

    Hi ! Sorry for the unusually late answer... And thanks for the vote of confidence :-)

    By way of background, I am a professional pilot and have flown in a real T-28 several times.
     

    Unfortunately I do not have this background... But note this on your flight log : LFSN ! If you ever come to France :-)

    I am not an expert with the airplane, but I have a good friend who is.  He owns a T-28 and has flown several of them.  He also regularly flies a P-51 and B-24 with one of the organizations here in the States.  I had an opportunity to let him fly your T-28 and he made a few observations:

    Let's see...

    1.  The first thing he noticed was that the Oil Temp is not calibrated correctly.  While the gauge says C, it looks like it is reading in F.  He said it should be C, but the temps should not get over about 90C.  I asked if all the T-28s he has flown were like this and he said yes.

    Two things here. First of all, the instrument panel is not a vintage C version, but a B version modified to fit with C requirements. It's no big deal, but it may have ended with some mistakes regarding scales or units : I'm gonna check this ASAP.

    This will eventually be strictly cosmetical, as the failures monitoring plugin actually focuses on cyl.heads temps, and not oil temps (simply because oil and heads cooling is triggered via a single switch that opens/closes both radiators/cowl flaps at once.)

    2.  He noticed a big movement on the GEN load gauge when the flaps were moved, but this should not happen because they are hydraulic.

    Mmm... Something I don't catch here. The hydraulic pump is not engine-driven but electric, so if a hydraulic item is activated it should put some load on the electric bus shouldn't it? Or there is something I have missed.

    3.  He also said all the T-28s he has flown only have one fuel gauge with total quantity as there is no way to move or balance fuel.

    True. When the panel was first drawn, we did consider enabling load of a droppable tank, hence the second gauge. When we aborted with this idea, re-drawing the panel was too complex - I decided to go for a one-wing-one-gauge configuration.

    4.  He said the roll rate was a bit too "sporty."  The real airplane has a roll rate (degrees per second) of maybe half your model.  (He said yours was closer to a Pitts biplane.)

    Interesting. I'm going to investigate on this one to see what I could do in order to make it more realistic - keeping fun altogether.

    5.  He also noted that the "Hook" handle has a different shape then the gear (not round).  He said it is shaped more like an arresting hook.

    True.

    The 2 first IRL planes that were used for modeling were modified for some reason - and when we realized they did not look as they should, it was too late to come back onto the very design.

    Also, a question:  What is the gauge between the Oil Press and Right Tank on the lower part of the panel?  It is unmarked and not referred too in the documentation (that I could find).

    It's supposed to be a probe for oil pipe on cylinder 9, when you're in the front cockpit, and for cylinder 3 when you're in the rear cockpit, so that there can be a cross-check between crew members.

    Actually, it's connected to EGT in the sim - simply to have a cosmetical animated display, once again the plugin focuses on head cylinder temps.

    Thanks.  Honestly, if you change nothing, it will still be my favorite!

    Good  ;D But it doesn't mean we won't try and improve. I'm considering V1.2 but nothing is decided yet.

    GIZMO FMS

    in General Discussion

    Posted 

    function distance(lat_a, lon_a, lat_b, lon_  
    a = math.pi / 180
    lat1 = lat_a * a
    lat2 = lat_b * a
    lon1 = lon_a * a
    lon2 = lon_b * a
    t1 = math.sin(lat1) * math.sin(lat2)
    t2 = math.cos(lat1) * math.cos(lat2)
    t3 = math.cos(lon1 - lon2)
    t4 = t2 * t3
    t5 = t1 + t4
    rad_dist = math.atan(-t5/math.sqrt(-t5 * t5 +1)) + 2 * math.atan(1)
    route_distance = rad_dist * 3437.74677 * 1.1508 * 1.6093470878864446
    return route_distance
    end

    Here you are.

    distance(lat_a, lon_a, lat_b, lon_B)  returns distance in km, and the calculation is right.

    Multiple "branches" from init

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi to all,

    For purely organisational reasons, I wonder if it's possible to have several branches of thread launched from init.lua (which mean several main functions, several ondrawwindows and so on.)

    If no - just simple answer "no" ;-) so that I don't loose time trying to solve something that can't be, if yes, what is (are) the main downsides?

    thx by advance !

    Arnaud

    V1.1 [1/2 SOLVED , 2/2 PROCESSING] Initial Glitches

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    I use FOV-Loader 1.2.2 frequently. It conflicts with the FOV panel on the Trojan, rendering the Trojan's system inoperative. Solution: Disable FOV-Loader 1.2.2 when flying Trojan.

    Yes, this was pointed at since V1.0 release. Unfortunately, you gave the only solution.

    In 2D view, use of the down arrow yanks the pilot's view down to the seat base and off the instruments. Could this be adjusted?

    Probably yes, tweaking the acf itself. I did not pay much attention to this as I assumed (falsely, it seems) that 3D view was used 99.99% of the time. But that is not very complicated, I'll give a detailed process for that, soon.

    The most annoying of all is that Trojan essentially disables X-Plane's atc system. Any response to atc system is only on the screen for a second, and syn voice is simply a whoosh. I disabled all other plugins with no positive result. Only affects Trojan; switching to another plane restores correct atc function. My system is X-P 9.70, Mac OS 10.6.8. 

    First, I wondered how it was possible that such a thing happened without any of the testers/users noted it. Then came the light.

    Believe it or not... You must  turn your radio on to be able to talk into the radio. :-D Avionics are "off" by default, even though you loaded the plane with engine runnings.

    (I love to be meanly kidding when I discover I'm not faulty ! It's not that often...)

    Seriously : at the very bottom of the navigation console, close to the transpondeur, biggest button.

    NB : needs to be powered AND inverter on (in case you loaded the plane cold&dark)

    Let me know when it's ok for you and if you have any other question / issues.

    Cheers,

    Arnaud.

    V1.1 [SOLVED]Touchdown Sound

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    As far as I am concerned, not really, because :

    -all tracks are submitted to a global gain factor, so tuning this factor will change all gains : that's the "slider" (without a handle to slide it!)

    -as things go, I'm recording "blank" sounds to override ALL default sounds and manage ALL sounds through Gizmo, what will make mixing definitively unusefull. (the slider would become a 2nd headset gain button).

    Obviously, as always, users opinion sound more important than mine. (sound more... gain factor... slider for headset.... ok, never mind. That was a joke. Pathetic, I know.)

    V1.1 [SOLVED]Touchdown Sound

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    Ok, very simple :

    get the tire-sound-patch.zip file, unzip whereever you want, you will end up with a folder called "contact", that contains 2 sounds.

    Take that folder, and copy it into

    (~/T28C)/sounds/ so that you have

    (~/T28C)/sounds/fx

    (~/T28C)/sounds/engine

    (~/T28C)/sounds/alert

    (~/T28C)/sounds/contact

    (~/T28C)/sounds/contact/skid_wet.wav

    (~/T28C)/sounds/contact/skid_dry.wav

    This will have no effect on other planes. Both sounds are +10db louder (more than twice the gain). It will be difficult to have them louder yet, because default sounds are so low quality...  

    Let me know.

    NB : require XP restarted once for the change to be accounted.

    tire-sound-patch.zip

    V1.1 [SOLVED]Touchdown Sound

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    Maybe you're a god of kiss-landing :)

    No, seriously,

    tire2ground sounds are ones of the very last that are "default".

    As the custom sound-engine plays all sounds much louder than XPcore sound-engine, it's very likely that you just don't hear the tires.

    Here is how you can make sure :

    locate the sounds/fx folder and rename it fx_ (or whatever). This will prevent the T28-sound-engine to lauch properly, enabling you to hear default game sounds.

    Try in game and confirm - then rename fx_ into fx to  fix the sounds back.

    I may provide you with a louder gear2ground sound if it's really ennoying.

    V1.1 [SOLVED] Gizmo issues

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    I don't know how but the plugins should be released ONLY when they are compatible to all actual plugins aviable arround, so, the devs cannot say " this is not our faults "

    Kinda ridiculous assumption. It's just like trying to forbid diesel engines because your own car is on Benzina, for the sake that "we won't mistake carburants any longer". Or willing that all computers run Mac to avoid OS-related software incompatibilities.

    Giving months or years of further and unusefull work to prevent the user from restarting the sim once in the afternoon is a very clever way to make sure the third-party production will stop shortly.

    V1.1 [SOLVED] Gizmo issues

    in North American T-28 Trojan

    Posted

    Hello blizzard84,

    you're actually experiencing a known flaw of Xplane, its unhability to properly reset some overrides  it carries.

    This subject is explained here :

    http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=2692.0

    and it's 99.99% sure you are in this case.

    So, the "simple" solution for you is to FIRST load the plane you want, THEN to restart Xplane.

    The only other solution would be to make "fake" plane intended to force some overrides to "off", but this would be far to long, to fix a flaw we're not responsible of... Even if I take this option, it would not be ready before some times, so I'm affraid the "reload and restart" option is by far the best.

    Flying From Nimitz

    in USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier

    Posted

    It's out of the box. Go to menu "file", choose entry "load situation". In the windows that pops-up, on the right, you have a column of buttons and one of these buttons is labelled "carrier catshot". Pressing this button will load a situation where you are stuck onto the catshot.

    Half flaps, 52MP, hit the brakes...and fly the bird.

  24. Propellers no longer move - anyone got a clue?

    in Help!?!

    Posted

    Much more more complicated than it sounds, because event acfunload is called when you reload your own plane. So if the new plane you would load after yours uses gizmo to, the "unset-overrides function" would simply not kick-off.

    For it to work, it would be necessary to have a super-global function in gizmo's core that check if the plane uses gizmo or not, and if not, lauch a special script in the previous plane (kinda "un-init.lua").

    I guess this is not gonna happen.

    Anyway, it's globally a good thing to get used to load the new plane, then restart xplane, then fly, because there are soooo many variables that keeps alive... And if you change your plane twice or three times in the game session, the end result of the last plane is very likely not to resemble what the author did work on!

    TrackIR detection

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Ok, so no need to test because I already did it.

    The short answer is : no, it's not getting confused.

    As always, there is a "but".

    "it's not getting confused, BUT, it has a hard time spotting ONE face when you load the engine if several poeple are side by side" (happened while trying to demonstrate how it works)

    Once the face detection gets "hooked", it doesn't try to find a face, it just tracks it, so if someone enters the field of view it doesn't matter at all.

    the only downside I could find until now (but it's really minor), is that yaw and pitch have to be set to unproportionnal values, because the face detection is limited by seeing both eyes at once, what reduces the max angles to a rough 40° while 90/100° are necessary in flight. 

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