New C-123 from V. Zhigulski

[falcon409]

A very nice update of his earlier and much flown C-123 Provider. The VC has undergone an extensive redo and is quite nice. The exterior model has also been subject to a major overhaul and looks pretty impressive. Be on notice though that this is still an FS9 aircraft, but like his earlier offering, with a few minor fixes, it looks great in FSX. Ok, so much for the promo, lol. . . .here are the fixes: Use Banana Bob's C-119 prop to replace the current "solid prop disc" and take the "mask.bmp" texture. . .give it a solid black alpha and change the base texture from a crinkled aluminum appearance to a light gray, then save as 32bit or whatever conversion you normally use.

One side note of some concern. It appears he did not model the exterior as part of the VC, so when looking out the pilots window, you see nothing of the exterior, no wing, no engine. . . .and with that, here's the link:
http://www.avsimrus.com/f/fs2004-aircrafts-40/fairchild-c-123k-provider-v2011-40998.html?action=download&hl=

[roger-wilco-66]

Wow!! Downloading now, thanks for the note, Falcon!

Cheers,
Mark

[Daube]

I could finally give it a try.
A small dissappointment from my side, unfortunately:
- there is definitely a FPS hit, not much though
- the virtual cockpit has some missing textures for some instrument backgrounds
- there must be some bug in some gauge, I keep hearing some sort of engin noise, right from the start (cold and dark), and after I shutdown the engines as well
- despite the improvements, the VC is still incomplete and the plane cannot be operated from the VC (no engine+electric controls, you must use the 2D panels, which is a total show-stopper for me)
Aircraft uninstalled. Just like the An2, I will use the previous versions instead.

[falcon409]

I could finally give it a try.
A small dissappointment from my side, unfortunately:
- there is definitely a FPS hit, not much though
- the virtual cockpit has some missing textures for some instrument backgrounds
- there must be some bug in some gauge, I keep hearing some sort of engin noise, right from the start (cold and dark), and after I shutdown the engines as well
- despite the improvements, the VC is still incomplete and the plane cannot be operated from the VC (no engine+electric controls, you must use the 2D panels, which is a total show-stopper for me)
Aircraft uninstalled. Just like the An2, I will use the previous versions instead.

Hmmm, I admit to not having done much with it other than load it late last evening (around midnight) and doing a quick flight. I have noticed the constant engine noise (like a car engine that's still trying to run after you turn the key off). As for the engine start, I've done it twice now. . .the mixture, prop and engine controls are all animated in the VC and the engine start switches are on the popup brought up by clicking the "E" icon, so you don't have to leave the VC. It takes a bit of doing, but it does work without switching to the 2D and then back again.

As for the missing textures, I haven't looked at those yet but I will in a little while, I'd like to check those out and see if there's anything that can be done easily to correct it. Thanks for pointing those out and sorry that it doesn't work for you.:salute:

[roger-wilco-66]

hhmm, I also noticed the gauge problems, but what's worse are opaque cockpit windows and alpha channel problems with the props - you guys also see this?
I like the two Jack Daniels Bottles on the flight engineers desk though :-) They are nicely secured with straps so they don't get damaged during turbulences, hehe.

I think that most of these quirks can be straightened out. The designer also did a good job on presenting the aircraft on the ground, makes nice images.

Cheers,
Mark

[Daube]

Yes, Falcon mentionned the Alpha Channel issues with the windows and props in the FS9 topic for that plane.
The solution is simply to edit the two textures and assign them a very dark grey Alpha Channel, and save them as extended bitmap - DTX3.
The windows and props will look ok after this.

[falcon409]

hhmm, I also noticed the gauge problems, but what's worse are opaque cockpit windows and alpha channel problems with the props - you guys also see this?
. . . . . . .Cheers,
Mark
Mark, my first post in this thread mentions both of those.

[falcon409]

Daube,
I figured out the problem with the gauge faces. I took a look with FSPanel Studio and it appears that the bitmaps for that row of gauges (manifold pressure) were pushed beyond the edge of the placeholder and really no more than a few pixels it seems, but it was enough to keep them from displaying. I moved them just a tad bit and that row is now visible. Let me get them exactly where they need to be and I can post the numbers for the panel.cfg file so you can make the change.

Here are the two lines from the panel.cfg, these go in place of what is there right now for [Vcockpit02]:
gauge11=C123zh!Manifold Pressure1, 1,91,85,85
gauge12=C123zh!Manifold Pressure2, 89,91,85,85

[falcon409]

Sorry folks, another senior moment. I copied the wrong lines. Reading down in the row that's missing are the Man. Press., Oil Press., Fueltank_EXT_1 and Cowl Flap. The lines that need changing are indicated in red. My apologies!

[Vcockpit02]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=0
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$vc_Right
gauge00=C123zh!AHI, 456,123,113,114
gauge01=C123zh!Rad_Compass, 592,121,112,112
gauge02=C123zh!asi, 337,131,100,98
gauge03=C123zh!VOR1_Indicator, 471,276,103,105
gauge04=C123zh!turn_and_bank, 346,282,98,99
gauge05=C123zh!RMI, 735,274,101,101
gauge06=C123zh!flaps, 345,418,70,71
gauge07=C123zh!VSI, 603,276,104,103
gauge08=C123zh!Eng1 Cht, 734,166,72,70
gauge09=C123zhEL!anti-icing_fluid, 448,497,81,80
gauge10=C123zhEL!anti-icing_fluid, 562,498,81,80
gauge11=C123zh!Manifold Pressure1, 1,91,85,85
gauge12=C123zh!Manifold Pressure2, 89,91,85,85
gauge13=C123zh!oilpress12, 1,180,85,85
gauge14=C123zh!OilTemp12, 89, 181 ,85,85
gauge15=C123zh!cowlflap_12, 0,358,85,85
gauge16=C123zh!RPM_1_JET, 90,359,85,85
gauge17=C123zhFUEL!fueltank_EXT_1, 1,268,85,85
gauge18=C123zhFUEL!fueltank_EXT_2, 90,271,85,85
gauge19=C123zhEL!Icon_ELECTRO, 96,9,30,30
gauge20=C123zh!IconLandOpen, 55,9,30,30
gauge21=C123zh!Icon_LEFT, 14,9,30,30
gauge22=C123zh!chron, 214,134,92,97
gauge23=C123zh!oat, 210,256,94,95

[thunder100]

As I am a bit hopeless in repainting and alphachannels would you mind to post the textures here?

On the VC

Usually this is an internal glass texture which again needs a new Alphachannel and then you should be able to look outside.But then again i am no painter

thanks

Roland

[falcon409]

As I am a bit hopeless in repainting and alphachannels would you mind to post the textures here?
On the VC, usually this is an internal glass texture which again needs a new Alphachannel and then you should be able to look outside. But then again i am no painter
thanks
Roland
Yes, the glass texture you refer to is the one I mentioned in my first post (mask.bmp). It required a bit of modifying to make it transparent in FSX (a darker alpha Channel) and the prop texture was the same.

[thunder100]

Yes, the glass texture you refer to is the one I mentioned in my first post (mask.bmp). It required a bit of modifying to make it transparent in FSX (a darker alpha Channel) and the prop texture was the same.

Thanks a lot

Roland

[roger-wilco-66]

Thanks Falcon, the replacement textures and gauge corrections work beautifully. I also noted a slight frame hit with this aircraft. Oh well. Nice version, anyhow!

Cheers,
Mark

[falcon409]

Thanks Falcon, the replacement textures and gauge corrections work beautifully. I also noted a slight frame hit with this aircraft. Oh well. Nice version, anyhow!
Cheers,
Mark
No Problem at all. I guess I saw a small fps hit, but overall it wasn't enough to cause me to go back to his original. By the way Mark, when I load the airplane cold and dark. . . .the engine is "dieseling" and I can find no way to get it to completely shut down. Do you have a similar problem? The folks in FS9 say they don't have it, so I'm guessing it's an FSX "thing".

[Pepere]

Thanks falcon for you help.

David