Chronocidal

Lol.. actually, if he's taking off, the landing gear would be there. Nice effects. What's that done in?

Personally, I really like the delta variation of the VF-11 design.. but breasts? Really, there is such a thing as going too far. The custom design and paint I can understand... I can even kind of understand the face thing.. but arbitrarily adding two mounds on the fuselage that serve as nothing more than added drag in fighter mode makes me go

Hmm.. Truth be told, I think FS2002 is actually PICKIER than X-Plane.. particularly in things like the .air file that each plane needs. In X-Plane, all the values are calculated automatically in the aircraft file, so it's pretty simple. In FS2002, the values are in no way connected to the model. You actually have to do all the wing area, weight distribution, thrust, engine weight, fuel load, etc. on your own, and enter them in the program's aircraft editor. The most annoying aspect of this is that the program doesn't calculate ANYTHING with the model. All the landing gear contact coordinates, as well as any place the plane may touch the ground (ie a wingtip, or nose, or whatever) have to be entered manually, or the game won't register a collision. Wrong data can result in a plane that bounces up in the air like a balloon before flipping over and crashing. And that's with the engines off. There are just so many values to calculate it's ridiculous, and sometimes the game will just refuse to make a plane fly, no matter what you do. The only way to really get something to fly is find a similar aircraft, and copy values from its files. This one started with data I found in a variety of planes, mainly some kind of sst, crossed with data from a Tomcat. I eventually tweaked all the values, but it's a VERY long and arduous process. I had a lot more success with X-Plane than I have had with FS2002. As for making the actual planes, you need some type of 3d software, usually Gmax since it's free, and you need the Professional Edition of FS2002.. it has the plugins and programs to make the models for the games. That itself is a long process as well, since the actual formatting of the model for all the different types of animations is pretty complex (ie landing gear, control surfaces, etc.)

Actually, I imagine by going CG they would hope to conserve the actual structures of the plane.. my impression was that they only made the nose swappable so the legs would have a place to mount without deforming the nose horribly. I think they're two versions of the same size nose, one with leg mounts, and one without. I do agree with that idea though, I'd say go for the looks, and make fighter mode look good. Once you've got that down, you can work it into a transformable model later if you want.

Heheh.. I forgot how easy it is to make airplane textures compared to Star Trek stuff.. the exterior is done except for a few one colored textures, I'm working on interior details now, like the landing gear and cockpit.

Well, I guess I could, but it would probably be easier for me to do the update and release it when it's final. I don't have the model in Gmax format anyway, so all the animations would be lost in the transfer. I'm through texturing about 1/3 of the model, and I can't imagine it being that hard to get the flaps working for you. Probably just a simple renaming of a part. I'll get the FS2004 SDK, and I can release two versions when it's done. The nozzles on the other hand shouldn't move anyway. I've been experimenting with that on my own after I released the current model. I might simply eliminate the thrust vectoring unless I can find a way to make the engine flames move, cause right now it looks ridiculous to have the nozzles moving while the afterburner flames shoot through the center of the feet.

Hmm.. pardon me while I go chase my eyes.. they just jumped out and decided to go rolling across the floor...

Heheh.. well, Isamu said on his first flight that it was able to reach the atmospheric service ceiling in 40 seconds...I tried to match that roughly. It'll probably get closer with later updates. I've gotten quite a bit of texturing done in the past two days, but it's going kind of slow.. I should have textured the model BEFORE I broke it up and animated the different parts.

Yep.. there's no way a real aircraft could fly like that.. at least using today's technology. I based the stats off the kind of maneuvers it pulled during the dogfight scenes in the movie... I'll have to look over the movie again, though. I probably overdid it.

Ooh, please do... It'll let me concentrate more on the Mac+ Valks. If you need any help getting stuff flying correctly, I'm sure I could help. Getting the model in the program is the easy part...It takes a lot of trial and error testing to get the plane flying like it should, but it's less time consuming than modeling, so I'll be able to do multiple planes at once. If you need any plugins for Gmax or Max, I've got them. I have no idea how to do thrust vectoring, I've heard it's not possible. I've been using Max to directly export the FS Models, and format them, instead of the Gmax Plugin, because I can't texture in Gmax well, and I always lose all the animation data in the transfer from Max to Gmax. What I'm tempted to buy is the Flight Sim Design Studio program, which hacks into the model data in specific ways, and can change a LOT of model characteristics, based on changes in data from the game... basically, as is, you have to activate the afterburner flame on the YF-19 by pressing L, which also turns on the nav lights... With FSDS, there is a way to link the activation of those effects with the throttle percentage, so they appear automatically. The same is true for many other things as well, and they can't be done with Gmax. It's not too expensive, and I'm seriously considering it, if it will make things like true thrust vectoring possible. As it is on my newest model, the feet are linked to move with the elevator and aileron control, so they do appear to vector the thrust, but there's no actual change in the direction of thrust. It just looks cool. Except of course when the afterburner effects are on, since they don't move with the feet. I've got a VF-22 Hasegawa kit sitting up in my closet, as well as a VF-1J, so I'll probably be doing both in the future, but I'll probably do the VF-22 first.. as well as a YF-21 paint scheme for it, of course.

Yep, no reason I won't repaint it various ways. Those are just the material colors from Max, which transfer over to FS2002. Once I make up the actual textures I'll do several versions, most likely the VF-19A scheme, and maybe a couple other custom ones. I'd like to see how this plane would look in some of the old high-vis Tomcat markings.

LOL.. Whoops, yeah, I gotta get my wording straight, considerig I'm an aeronautics major. You're right, it does just have a hinged leading edge... It did have slats at first, but I replaced them, and just made them hinge downward. What's the actual difference between a leading edge flap and just a hinged leading edge though?

Hmm.. which version is FS9? I know I included flaps of two types on it, but they might not work if that version uses different flap naming conventions than FS2002. It should have hinged leading edges that drop, and the inner half of the wing control surfaces should drop as flaps as well.

Don't worry, I've had lots of texturing experience, so it won't be a problem. I just don't know when I'll get around to doing it.

K, I think there's an option to tweak that, I hadn't played with it much before. Thanks for the tip. Also, the speed brakes should be easy enough, I just have to reverse the axis of rotation. But the position of the speed brakes was something I wondered about.. is there any evidence that the -19 had its brakes elsewhere? I may increase the stall speed later, but for now it makes it easier to see how stable the plane is at low speeds. I exaggerated many flight characteristics to try and get the plane to fly like how the -19 behaved in the movie. Truth is, I mainly went for movie realism, not real life realism. It resulted in some ridiculous stats, and impossibly high g-levels, but it is fun to fly. I'll probably tone it down some once it's done, but I'm still trying to figure out how to tweak the specific stats to get it to fly well. FS2002 is REALLY picky, and has a way of corrupting the aircraft stat files somehow. It's like the program doesn't like certain values and decides to re-write them, changing how the plane flies without me doing anything.

I don't think 2002 is too expensive anymore, since a new version is out. You might be able to find a copy of the basic edition for around $20. I'm planning on eventually making a whole series of planes like this, all from the various Macross stories. I started with Mac+ because I bought the YF-19 model first.

Here's a screenshot to look at, I didn't include it in the zip to save space.

K, this is for all those flight sim junkies who have been begging to fly a YF-19 since they first saw Mac+.. including me. The plane flies like a bat out of hell, but is kind of stall prone.. I'm working on the flight characteristics. The control surfaces are very effective, and if you pull too sharp a maneuver at too high a speed, the stall warning will go off... the plane may not stall entirely though.. a lot of times, the engines will keep it up by sheer power alone, and you get kind of a fish-tailing effect... basically, the plane turns faster than it's flight path. Usually the stall warning will go off once you stop pulling back on the stick. It can be fun to watch the plane slide around a loop, but don't be fooled into thinking the plane always travels the direction the nose is pointing. Also, get ready for some really interesting landings... this plane has a flaps down stall speed of approx. 60 knots. Makes for some really slow landings. It's got spoilers (rudders turn in for speed braking), full gear, and a split flap/aileron system, as well as leading edge slats, and an opening cockpit. It's a fun ride. If you manipulate the controls right, you can pull some VERY strange maneuvers. If the plane looks like it's out of control, don't worry, just give it full throttle, and try to get the nose level, then let go of the stick. It's got some VERY weird ways of flying. It's a pretty small download, since the model doesn't use any actual textures yet, just a few 16*16 bitmaps for specular higlights and reflection. To install, you should just have to unzip the file, and copy the YF-19 folder into the aircraft folder in FS2002. Once that's done, copy the two fx files into the effects folder in the FS2002 directory. Should be pretty simple. Note, I don't know if this will work with FS2004, but you're welcome to try it. If I ever get 2004, I'll make sure to make a new version, but from what I hear it's not hard to convert the planes from 2002 to 2004. yf_19.zip

K, here's a sort of work in progress.. I say sort of because it works, but it's not textured yet.

You're right, man that looks good. Btw, I'm also working to make the YF-19 gear up... what are you planning? Cutting the gear well out entirely may help, but I wonder if it would be too much weight to just fill the gear well with lumps of clay, and press the doors into it.

Do you intend this to be for all WIPs? I'm thinking of all the different types. I mean, there's Photoshop work, actual drawn stuff, plus CG modeling. I've got oodles of stuff that could go here, but most of it is CG.

I think the main issue is whether the company that originally produced the kit is defunct or not. If they're out of business, unless the molds got sold to someone who would reproduce the kit later, likelyhood is that you may never see that kit again. Recasting it may be the only way of ever getting a copy of the kit. Personally, in the case of something as rare as the YF-21, I'd recast it myself, and build the recast, instead of building the original kit. So, in a way, recasting allows the collectibility of an item to be preserved, and still allows you to enjoy the product.

Hehe... as far as supersonic flight goes, I think at least a large chunk of the southern half of California is fair game due to all the flight research that goes on there. Edwards AFB has planes going supersonic routinely, but it's isolated enough to not cause too much ruckus. They start their annual airshow off with a sonic boom, traditionally by Chuck Yeager (dunno if he's done it recently though, last time I know of for certain was the 50th anniversary celebration in '97). Also, they're actually experimenting with making sonic booms less noisy.. it has to do with blunting certain aspects of the aircraft, mainly the nose.. they had a pic of the ugliest T-38 I've ever seen, with a nose cone twice the thickness of the rest of the plane. But anyway, I did have one question.. I can't tell for sure, but is one of those break-up sequence photos reversed? One of them looks like the plane is missing the left wingtip, instead of the right.

Toy Story NOTHING... that looks like a photo from off a shelf!! O_O!!! I really should use Rhino for more than polygon modeling... How on earth do you get those complex surfaces so smooth??? I always end up with ridiculous distortions.

Hehe... I've got fond memories of that plane.. I think I've still got a picture somewhere of myself at about age 4 standing under the engines. Btw, as another size comparison, I've got a 1/72 scale kit of the XB-70 under my bed.. it's three feet long. A 1/48th kit would easily be four and a half feet long (I've actually seen one.. vacuuform kit, very rare and pretty expensive). VERY big plane.