Goran_M

1 quick update. I may have some very interesting, BIG news to share in the next few days but no details on that just yet. If/when it becomes final, I will definitely post back. Put it this way. Emails have been sent out and responses have been made. Also, 1st real full flight was done with the object model in X Plane. YSSY-NZAA 400 000 polys and fps didn't drop below 21 at the major airports with max detail on. Flying over landscape and ocean, I was able to get fps in the 60's-80's. I'll do some more testing at a few other airports to see what kind of fps I get and depending on the results, I may increase or decrease detail in the cockpit. I'm not going to bother too much with the cabin detail, because honestly, we don't fly from the cabin. After I polish it a bit, I'll post some screenshots. Goran

Don't you just LOVE crunching numbers??!! :-\ 9 test flights in the last 3 days. 300nm@FL430@M0.84 600nm@FL430@M0.84 1000nm@FL430@M0.84 Then at M0.82 Then at M0.78 Next, Doing it all again at FL450. All this to make sure it matches performance figures in the POH. I actually had an issue with the landing gear. Believe it or not, when outputting the flight model, the landing gear, which was slightly out of the wingbox, was producing drag!!?? So that was fixed. At least I'm finally flying in X Plane! BTW, Theo will be doing a custom panel for the freeware version. The screenshot above is the freeware version with 2D panel. obj version has NOT been exported yet. But it soon will be.

Small delay in the Project. I found a much better, more efficient way to model the wheels and the holes that are cut into them. Originally I boolean cut them but it was always bugging me that I had to do that. Now I found a pretty good way so I'm starting them again. Wireframe coming when I'm done.

I changed the sofa in the back of the aircraft to look more like a sofa. Happy with how it looks now. Today I have a mission to create the entire interior and fix the front landing gear. Hopefully I start UV mapping either today or tomorrow. Goran

I might make a separate set of low poly seats as an alternative. Goran

Cabin under construction. Unfortunately, it will be a somewhat higher than expected poly count. I'll see how I go with it. Goran

Hawker 4000 flight model is COMPLETE for X-Plane 9.31. I just spent 2 days making the flight model (using some info I got from Hawker Raytheon) and making a new Planemaker version. And it flies BETTER than the 9.22 version I made. I might tweak some settings because the autopilot can't capture the flight level "cleanly" but handling, takeoff roll, landing, all the good stuff is working beautifully. The shapes of all the parts of the aircraft have been made cleaner and I made every effort to create all planemaker parts as accurately as possible so the flight model can reflect that accuracy. I'm half thinking to make the planemaker model "donationware" but it'll probably be freeware. We'll see. Anyway, more updates soon. Goran

very soon.

Cockpit was modified slightly modified since this screenshot was taken. Cockpit is still a WIP. More modifications and rebuilding will be done.

I decided to wait for 9.30. See my post in the Hawker forum. Goran

A quick bit of news on something I was doing. I was working on the PM version of the Hawker updating it for 9.30 and I thought about something. I'm going to start the PM version from scratch with a completely new flight model and better exterior modelling. I got my hands on some new data (from Raytheon no less!) and I will be entering this new data into the flight model. The Blender obj version is still progressing smoothly and nothing will be done to hinder the progress, but I figured the final release of 9.30 will be out before I finish the obj version and the PM version only took 2 or 3 days to finish. In its current state, it's too buggy for me to spend time on fixing things for it to work in 9.30. It's probably going to take me longer to fix the bugs than it will to make a completely new model. The only other thing I have issues with at the moment is the Hawkers FMC. I don't know it, I don't want to know it and I'm not going to model it. It will take way too much programming and if I do find some way to model it, release probably won't be until early next year. Perhaps, sometime in the future, I might add it as an add on, but upon release, this aircraft will be available with only the default X Plane FMC. Goran

I made the Hawker 4000 for 9.22 but 9.30 is in its RC phase so I just wanted to know how many people are updating as the new betas and RC's are being released and how many are staying with 9.22.

A small update that took most of the night. Finished the control surfaces, rounded the root of all of them, cut out some more polys that could be cut so I can get back some more fps, tweaked some more shapes, finished the air intake on the tail. I'll do some more tomorrow. Modelling should be completed by some time in the next 2 weeks. (I still have to model the overhead panel and cabin.) That's when I'll hand over the UV maps to Theo for texturing and while he textures, I'll be doing all the animations. Then come the datarefs, making sure the panel works, some test flights and fixes if necessary, then I release it!!

1 of the last batches of screenshots of the 3D model before I start animating and texturing. The vertical fin took 2 days worth of modelling, deleting, re modelling, etc... (that perfectionism rears its head many times) Especially the top section which was another merge of ellipse to square (Square part is on the top). Elevators have been cut and will need to be modelled correctly (Rounding off the root of the elevators). Overall, this aircraft is turning out EXACTLY how I want it. There will be other minor tweaks here and there to fix some shapes but they are very small and will take minutes. Air intake at the base of the vertical tail will be added. APU exhaust will be moved. The gap that is visible between the rudder and the top section of the vertical fin is actually there on the real aircraft. Release will be a lot earlier than anticipated. No firm dates yet but it will be soon. As always, feedback and comments are always welcome!

It'd be a real fluke it was the same method you use.

Update for the Hawker 4000. I made a post on the .org forums and got a pretty good response from people there. I had some help from Scooter (aka Ari) for modelling the rounded edges of the wings where the wing lights and nav lights are located. He sent me a couple of screenshots of wireframes and it looked pretty good. However, not taking anything away from Scooter, I found a new way to model the rounded edge as my wing looks different to the wing he modelled for his Hawker. (The cross section) So his method would not give a smooth result for my wing. I actually came up with this method while I was in the shower. Believe it or not, I get a lot of ideas for modelling the objects when I'm in the shower, shaving or brushing my teeth. What is this new way? TOP SECRET! (For now. I think I can tweak it to give an even better result. When I finish with this method, I'll put up a tutorial in the 3D shop section.) Anyway, more screenshots and a nice close up of the wing edge. Also a wireframe showing all the cut control surfaces and a semi built rudder and tail section. I've also heavily cut down some vertices and tweaked the entire shape of all the objects slightly to smoothen them out a bit more. It's coming together.

Not much to post for now on the payware version. It's 3am and last night and yesterday I was deleting vertices that aren't visible and/or not needed and "streamlined" the aircraft to maximize FPS. There was 1 part in the cockpit that I modelled and subsurfed. I re modelled this part and it went from 45000 vertices to 684. Yes, 684...NOT 684 000 but 684. I hate subsurf! I built the tail section, flap tracks and rebuilt the wings to make them resemble the actual wing more closely going by photos. All control surfaces are cut. A few more things to model, add some lights, fine tune the model in Maya or 3DS Max, UV mapping and then I start animating! Goran

Beta version of the PM version of the Hawker. Have to fix it so it works with 9.30. So far, the FADEC doesn't work. Livery done by Theo Gregory (Also a beta. A few things will be "tweaked". Who made up that word anyway???) Goran I almost forgot. This will be freeware..obviously

A Hawker 4000 transformer? Nah. But just the animations and rendering look phenomenal.

OH MY GOD!!!!! Guess who's exporting a Hawker 4000 to Lightwave?

Haha Always put your pennies away for a rainy day. I was lucky that I had a big jar that could hold a lot of pennies. ;D Release date is hard to say. It's been just over 2 months since I started working on this project and I gave myself a maximum time frame of 6 months to finish it, but I can probably see it getting released earlier than that. Specific time (eg, end of August) is hard to say. I don't know how much trouble I'm going to have with datarefs and possibly some plug ins. Rest assured, I'm working very hard on this and I want to fly it as much as the next guy. Goran

All parts assembled minus the rudder (Which I still have to model) and the cockpit which is on another layer. I haven't merged the cockpit objects into 1 object yet. Still a few more things to add and tweak before I apply the mirror modifier but it's getting closer to being finished. Also, a small footnote. I'm probably going to do some fine tuning and a few additions in either 3DS Max or Maya. They both have a few more tools than Blender.

LOL, Nick, did you bring the crosses and Holy water as well? I pretty much don't like the Boolean either, but I think in some cases, it works well. I don't like the way Blender does it sometimes. It works well with simple objects but not so well with more complex polys. I tried Retopo with the holes that are in the main wheels (Teardrop shape) but it was a real problem for me. I tried Boolean and it worked great, albeit with a few extra vertices (Read few as a bag full of them). But I wasn't going to work on them after that so I think the wheels turned out exactly how I wanted them to.

Sometimes I hate schematics. It's an easy fix though. I might tweak it a bit more though next time. UPDATED: This is actually more like it.

I need a drink! BTW, it's 130am. And yes, the wingbox will be chamfered at a later date. I'm just glad the wingbox nightmare is over! Clean lines, clean joins and no "kermingles" AND I did it with a boolean cut. ;D UPDATED: Chamfered edges.