HMS Invincible

[gp183601]

As i'm back from my holidays I thought i'd quickly finish this one off whilst I work on USS Oriskany

74246
I had originally used the flight deck textures from another developer and I couldn't release the model without getting their permission. Bruce Martin kindly provided a new texture set for the flight deck to help me out.

74247

I have seen some unfair and unjust abuse recently of far more gifted modelling developers than myself, who have taken the time and effort to provide ships and carriers far superior than my own without asking for a penny in return so let me make this clear.

The model is provided as is, it is very basic with no lights, animations or gadgets except for a hard deck and ski jump. The model is perfectly acceptable for my needs. If you don't like it develop your own.

I have not tested it in AI Carriers - I do not use the package so I do not know if it works, nor will I provide help for it.

I have tested with UKMIL and Sigma Harrier GR9's, and alphasim Lynx and Sea King. I have not tested with any other model.

I have provided a carrier track from Rosyth to North Berwick - see readme.

The model has been completed with the help of others who have provided me with additional objects and textures. So whilst I do not object to changes being made per se - they might. Please ask before making alterations.

Sorry for the grumpy part but after enjoying Mark Harpers Kiev class and looking forward to his offer of a freeware release of HMS Eagle I am slightly annoyed at the rivet counters picking over his excellent work which (rightly) convinced him to withdraw his offer.

...rant over

:salute:

Enjoy.

G

[Daveroo]

good job.......:applause:

[TARPSBird]

Quite enough for me, the other details are nice to have but not necessary. Thank you for your effort. :salute:

[Ian Warren]

Lucky i have the threw deck drop and stop Warrior , Wilco's wicked Harrier .. ideally suited to this one it .. it go's :jump:....... :icon_lol:<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><input jscode="leoInternalChangeDone()" onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setT imeout('jsCall()',500);}" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

[sketchy]

Bravo,
been following your progress since the start on this, she looks great, glad WAFU helped you get her out.
Cheers!
Sketchy

[seawing]

Fantastic Gary! Thanks so much for the effort!!!
As I am a big fan of Ark I must ask the question, whether you will still release the other two of the three sisters!? ;-)

Cheers,

Seawing

[MDIvey]

Thanks for this... Just right. Works fine for me in AI carriers with Wilco Shar 1. First time I've been able to do a skee jump take off...great fun.

Matt

[DaveWG]

Any additions to the fleet are gratefully received, thank you very much. :salute:

[gp183601]

Fantastic Gary! Thanks so much for the effort!!!
As I am a big fan of Ark I must ask the question, whether you will still release the other two of the three sisters!? ;-)

Cheers,

Seawing

Hay Seawing,

I plan to package up Ark and release her on this site in a few days....followed by Lusty (probably in two versions - one in her current form as a helicopter carrier and one with GR9s)

I also have an "Invincible '82" model. Still mulling over what to do with that one. I've toned down the colours to make her a little more grey as she would look in the South Atlantic, added a sea dart launcher, removed her CIWS and altered the Ski Jump to her original 7 degrees.

Sea Harrier modelling is slow going though so dunno whether to continue with that, or to leave the deck empty, create an interior for the bridge and make it "driveable" for multiplayer ops.

Cheers
G

[dhasdell]

Is it just a happy coincidence that the release comes on Trafalgar Day?

[spatialpro]

Excellent work! Well done!

Many thanks indeed

Andy

[lazarus]

Brilliant! Never let the handful of trolls deter you. Even the most half-assed wild hares lead to something good.

[seawing]

Hay Seawing,

I plan to package up Ark and release her on this site in a few days....followed by Lusty (probably in two versions - one in her current form as a helicopter carrier and one with GR9s)

I also have an "Invincible '82" model. Still mulling over what to do with that one. I've toned down the colours to make her a little more grey as she would look in the South Atlantic, added a sea dart launcher, removed her CIWS and altered the Ski Jump to her original 7 degrees.

Sea Harrier modelling is slow going though so dunno whether to continue with that, or to leave the deck empty, create an interior for the bridge and make it "driveable" for multiplayer ops.

Cheers
G

Hi Gary,

great to hear that!! :applause: I am really looking foreward to these ships! Please keep it up, they just look awesome!!
May we press you for some night textures?? - just ... maybe?? :icon_lol:

Seawing

[sepp666]

Very nice, thank you! For me it works with AI Carriers.

[fallenphoenix1986]

Thanks, been following the thread over at Flying stations since the begining, now got her loaded up and aquainted withthe UKMil F/A2 really looking forward to the Razbam Gr.7/9 now.

It might be my imagination but I think she sails a couple of degrees off axis to port, still pretty good though, if I can get my Majestic class to this standard I'll be happy :cool:

Craig

ps. anyone unfamilliar with AIcarriers:

[formation.xx]
title=Invincible
unit.0=HMS_Invincible, 0, 0

plug the above into the AIcarriers cfg file, change the xx to the next numbers in sequence and you're good to go.

[gp183601]

Hi Gary,

great to hear that!! :applause: I am really looking foreward to these ships! Please keep it up, they just look awesome!!
May we press you for some night textures?? - just ... maybe?? :icon_lol:

Seawing

I've had a look at some night ops vids for Ark Royal and Illustrious and the only thing that is lit is the flight deck and some low level lighting around the superstructure. I could test out some night textures, or add some light effects to Ark Royal using MCX to test it out....that'll probably delay Ark's release by about a week (Ark is more or less ready to go just testing the new textures in FSX)...if it works I could then update and re-release Invincible.

As for Craig's (fallenphoenix1986) comment on the slight drift to Port...I did wonder about that during test but thought it was just my eyesight!!

:blind:

Would love to see some pics of your WIP Majestic's class!

[spatialpro]

Would love to see some pics of your WIP Majestic's class!

I second that!!

[peter12213]

A true masterpiece! Much appreciated here!

[fallenphoenix1986]

Sorry to dissapoint lads but she's a ways off for now. Had to return her to drydock a month ago and I'm lucky to get an hour a week to work just now. When done I plan on releasing the Bonaveture and Melbourne, might see if I can alter into the Collosus class Karel Doorman after the first two. Pretty sure theres a guy over at Flying Stations working on the Bulwark and Albion.

Craig

[spatialpro]

Pretty sure theres a guy over at Flying Stations working on the Bulwark and Albion

That would be me! Now I have good enough drawings I can make good progress. I also have good drawings of a few bids and bobs that would allow me to make an HMS Centuar, so I might do that instead/first as I'm really after Scimitar/Sea Vixen era if at all possible.

Andy

[fallenphoenix1986]

Been anxiosly waiting on the Victorious refit for a home for the Sea Vixen and Scimitar. The Melbourne is in anticipation of the Razbam A-4G and the Bonnie is for the Razbam Banshee, both I guess provide a home for the S2F's. Should be spoilt for choice re flat-tops in a year or so :jump:

Craig

[peter12213]

Yeah thats our finest era for carriers thats for sure, when we get really good quality RN Phantom and Seahawk model plus the correct era carriers then that really will make FSX for me! The Virtavia Scimitar, Skysim Vixen, Venoms, Gannet's plus the Bucc and the Wyvern have all been great up to now although a newer Scimitar and even a nice Wessex model would not come a miss at all here lol!
Back to this fantastic carrier though and I would be interested in the night textures, thats for sure! Sorry to go off topic lol!:kilroy:

[bruce448]

Night textures for the CVS's would be over kill, At night during Night flying Stations all external lighting would be turned off "Darken Ship" (30 minutes prior to sunset) with the exception of the ships nav lights and the 3 glide slope indicators (roughtly portside aft of 2 and 4 spots and also on the stbd side on the aft end of the island for 5 spot), whilst the aircraft is being manned/unmanned a very low intensity spotlight will illuminated the particular spot that the aircraft occupies, as soon as the engines are running the spotlights are turned off, I have lost count how many times I have had Chain rash on my shins over 25 years, In recent years low intensity NGV slime lights were fitted but throw out next to no light. For harrier ops the runway omni directional light would be turned on for the line up, and take off.

Bruce

[gp183601]

I would agree with Bruce as he's been the one keeping me right on Flyingstations about the deck lighting during the development of this model. He also created the flight deck textures so I trust his judgement.

Out of curiosity were you a matelot, wafu as your name suggests, or a fishead?
I'm an ex-crab so never quite got to grips with these nautical fellows and their terms!

:jump:

What i'm doing for Ark is adding some minimal lighting effects...a couple of navigation lights and some deck edge lighting. Nothing major, just to the same level as what i've witnessed watching the "HMS Ark Royal" discovery programme. So the ship won't be in total darkness but it won't be lit up like a cruise liner either.

Cheers
Gary

[bruce448]

I would agree with Bruce as he's been the one keeping me right on Flyingstations about the deck lighting during the development of this model. He also created the flight deck textures so I trust his judgement.

Out of curiosity were you a matelot, wafu as your name suggests, or a fishead?
I'm an ex-crab so never quite got to grips with these nautical fellows and their terms!

:jump:

What i'm doing for Ark is adding some minimal lighting effects...a couple of navigation lights and some deck edge lighting. Nothing major, just to the same level as what i've witnessed watching the "HMS Ark Royal" discovery programme. So the ship won't be in total darkness but it won't be lit up like a cruise liner either.

Cheers
Gary




Gary,

No, not a Fishead (General Service) by the Grace of God, WAFU through and through (Fleet Air Arm), WAFU is a name lovingly (I say that loosely) given to us sun worshipers by the sun dodgers. It derives from the good old days when the aircraft were covered in canvas, if they got drenched they then became "Wet And ******ing Useless".

Bruce

[peter12213]

When I said night textures what I meant was the ship in a 'Night Ops' format lighting wise sorry, I've got that NVG mod which I'm using with the Harriers available, I've actually had a flanker of the Deck on her too, I have to say compared to every other ski ramp this one is super smooth!

[sketchy]

Gary Cracking model!

Well done and thank you! Such devotion for an "Ex Crab" as you say!

Here's the 814 Tiger Cab joining her in Mounts Bay.



http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p201/sketchy74/Tiger.jpg

[seawing]

What i'm doing for Ark is adding some minimal lighting effects...a couple of navigation lights and some deck edge lighting. Nothing major, just to the same level as what i've witnessed watching the "HMS Ark Royal" discovery programme. So the ship won't be in total darkness but it won't be lit up like a cruise liner either.

Cheers
Gary

Hi Gary,

just back from two weeks of flying, so I wasn't able to look into the forum often. Yes, what I had in mind is actually just some realistic low-vis deck lighting. Invincible, as it is now, is just plain dark and that appeared to me a bit too "low". So I think you are on good tracks! Take your time, I'm sure it's worth waiting!

Seawing

[Roadburner440]

I can second that during flight ops there are literally next to no lights on at night.. Darken ship is literally what it sounds like. I have never been on a carrier though. Doing helicopter operations on smaller ships though we usually only have on the green "dust pans" as we called them. Then once the heli was gone all of the lights were put out. Even the mast and nav lights were out. Made taking smoke breaks a pain cause once you opened the hatch to the wind break it was pitch black, and all you say in the smoke pit was little red glows. Tons of good conversation however. I sure do miss the boat some days.

[chrisgs]

Excellent work mate, well done, i have HMS Invincible installed in AI Carriers and she is wonderful addition, thankyou for all your hard work, much appreciated. I am currently flying from her in Razbams Harrier and she is just what ive been looking for, look forward to your other releases in the future. Just wondered if it would be possible to have a clean deck version without any harriers on deck, the choice would be good, thanks again.

[vora]

Thanks a thousand, Gary!
This model looks fantastic. My Wilco Harrier will see a lot of action.
So far this year started very promising for carrier nerds :jump:

[gp183601]

Just wondered if it would be possible to have a clean deck version without any harriers on deck, the choice would be good, thanks again.

You mean something like this?

78669

Invincible in her 1982 layout with sea dart launcher, original deck layout, and toned down textures to make her look a little more grey to fit in with other model developers releases. Ski ramp is also the original 7 degree incline.

I use her for the Wilco sea harrier as the deck layout is more in keeping with that era and have her steaming round the Falklands with HMS Hermes. Don't have time to do Sea Harrier models for the deck at the moment so I use it as is.

No deck lighting as i'm still working on HMS Ark Royals and it's proving to be a pain in the :censored: but if it's acceptable without (it has the same smoke effects and hard deck as the original invincible), I can upload it no problem.

Cheers
Gary

[dhasdell]

Excellent work mate, well done, i have HMS Invincible installed in AI Carriers and she is wonderful addition.

Sorry to be dim, but I have tried and failed to add Invincible to AI Carriers, though I have managed Savo Island. Could you (or someone) tell me how it's done, please?

[Ian Warren]

This is one carrier that visited New Zealand recent 1992 first and decade back they had had GR3s on board , better get my WilcoH out , looks Brilliant Gary :salute:

[gp183601]

Sorry to be dim, but I have tried and failed to add Invincible to AI Carriers, though I have managed Savo Island. Could you (or someone) tell me how it's done, please?

I don't use AI Carriers myself that's why I included a traffic file with Invincible sailing from Rosyth with the caveat that I hadn't tested with AI Carriers.
According to fallenphoenix who posted earlier in this thread for AI Carriers:

[formation.xx]
title=Invincible
unit.0=HMS_Invincible, 0, 0

plug the above into the AIcarriers cfg file, change the xx to the next numbers in sequence and you're good to go.

I'm sure some of the other folks on here will give you some pointers if that doesn't work.

ATB
Gary

[bruce448]

http://s19.postimage.org/rz3q8mb8z/Deck_Quals01.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/9jj9b7x4f/full/)


http://s19.postimage.org/ogwbpyzqr/Deck_Quals02.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/lmt6cixkf/full/)


http://s19.postimage.org/y2pw69qwj/Deck_Quals03.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/6fd6s65pr/full/)

Click on the pics for larger versions

Bruce

[Ian Warren]

Great Screens Bruce , the Island structure is absolutely superb :cool:

[gp183601]

Great Screens Bruce , the Island structure is absolutely superb :cool:

You've no idea how many sleepless nights that island gave me in getting it right! :isadizzy:

Adding night lighting to Ark Royal at the moment - it's a bit of a pain in MCX as you've got to do a bit of trial and error with positioning

79835

Gary

[gp183601]

Forgot to say Bruce - what Harrier is that?

Cheers
G

[Ian Warren]

You've no idea how many sleepless nights that island gave me in getting it right! :isadizzy:

Sleep deprivation has payed off :cool: ... :icon_lol: that really come up very SNAZZY :salute::applause:

[dhasdell]

Thanks Gary - I was being dim, and I was able to see at once where I had gone wrong. I understand about your supplying a bgl, but I've flown up and down between Rosyth and Berwick searching, and never a sign of Invincible. AI Carriers proves that I had installed her, which I was beginning to wonder about.

David

[bruce448]

Forgot to say Bruce - what Harrier is that?

Cheers
G



Hiya Gary, the GR is the soon to be released Harrier from Razbam.

Bruce

[AusWilko]

Just like to add my thanks for this, very good and nice to try a different sort of carrier flying

[gp183601]

Thanks Gary - I was being dim, and I was able to see at once where I had gone wrong. I understand about your supplying a bgl, but I've flown up and down between Rosyth and Berwick searching, and never a sign of Invincible. AI Carriers proves that I had installed her, which I was beginning to wonder about.

David

You should see it off Rosyth at 10:00 Zulu daily. You also need to have shipping set to 60% or higher in your FSX settings (this is something I forgot to mention in the readme - DOH!) The guys over at cbfsim also created some additional traffic routes if you search for the thread "calling all fisheads and wafus" (although they sometimes let ex-crabs like me in)

:)

Cheers
Gary

[dhasdell]

Thanks again Gary. My traffic was set too low as I use the recommendations for FTX England where I spend most of my time.

The cbfsim thread is very useful, with some good info and screenshots, so here's a link for others to follow: http://www.cbfsim.co.uk/cbfs_bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24183. I see from that thread that Andromeda, Glamorgan and Hermes are, ahem, floating around somewhere Could some kind person give me a vector for a download, please?

Slightly OT, I think it was the Hermes airgroup which fielded Simon's Circus, whose Scimitars I saw at Farnborough in the dim and distant with the words Royal Navy replacing the underwing serials. Those were the days!

David

[gp183601]

HMS Hermes is the old Alphasim model....not sure if it's still available but you could try Virtavia's freeware section.
For Leanders, Type 21's, 42's etc search on flightsim.com or go to my Invincible class development thread on Flying stations (The three sisters) which has links to various RN vessels.

Cheers
Gary

[dhasdell]

Thanks very much. With that lot to keep me going I think I can probably leave you alone now and concentrate on my flying.

David

[gp183601]

Thanks very much. With that lot to keep me going I think I can probably leave you alone now and concentrate on my flying.

David

Hay no problem just glad I could be of help....hope to see some screenshots of your fleet!!

:-)

ATB
Gary

[bruce448]

Jumping ship slightly, but here is the Hermes converted for use with AiCarriers its very basic at the moment. with kind permissions from the original modeler Thrawn and Phil at Virtavia.

79980

http://www.mediafire.com/?h4mn90w163i6uda

Bruce

[dhasdell]

Thank you. That "Three Sisters" thread at Flying Stations has been very helpful.

[Essex]

If anyone fancies some hypothetical STOBAR action on Hermes, the cables can be reinstated by copying and renaming (e.g. FLOLS_TrailerH) the FLOLS trailer folder and changing the height "static_cg_height=54.9"
then in aicarriers.cfg add
[formation.x]
title=Hermes STOBAR
unit.0=Hms Hermes, 0, 60
unit.1=FLOLS_TrailerH, 43, 105
unit.2=ArrestingGearH, 1, 115
(Ideally the cables would be smaller)

Incidentally, I had trouble with the AlphaSim Typhoon's auto-throttle so I disabled the afterburner gauge and replaced it with
afterburner_throttle_threshold = 0.50
I'm not sure if that's the ideal solution.

BTW Gary thanks for all your hard work.

[peter12213]

Thanks so much for the Hermes, been waiting for her forever!

[petejg5]

Where can I download this FLOLS trailer? I've been trawling the internet for it but no luck.

Hope someone could help. :jump:

[Essex]

There's a more sophisticated trailer included with
http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/Creations/Gauge_RFN_CarrierOps.zip
but no wires.

There's a link to the old trailer here
http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb25/YaBB.pl?num=1351560552

FCLP Scenery Objects may also be useful
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?229779-dont-know-if-its-possible-out-already

[fsafranek]

Incidentally, I had trouble with the AlphaSim Typhoon's auto-throttle so I disabled the afterburner gauge and replaced it with afterburner_throttle_threshold = 0.50 I'm not sure if that's the ideal solution.

BTW Gary thanks for all your hard work.
Yes, adding the "afterburner_throttle_threshold=[0.0 works as well]" line under the [TurbineEngineData] section of the "aircraft.cfg" file fixed the auto-throttle issue. Afterwards you'll have full throttle control of all AlphaSim aircraft with that same problem in FSX/Acceleration (portover FDE's typically).
:ernae:

[Essex]

(Ideally the cables would be smaller)


It turns out that it's extremely easy to both rotate and rescale MDLs with MCX (Transform object).
So that the cables fit, I reduced the scale to .66666 and rotated +5 degrees, I then changed aicarriers.cfg to;

[formation.x]
title=Hermes STOBAR
unit.0=Hms Hermes, 0, 60
unit.1=FLOLS_TrailerH, 43, 105
unit.2=ArrestingGearH, -6, 75

I also had to change the sim.cfg height to;
static_cg_height=54.87

Even better, with the development release of MCX it's possible to merge MDLs!

Import Hermes, then click Merge Objects,
Load object , ArrestingGear67pc5deg.MDL
enter offsets (In meters)
X offset: -6.00
Y offset: 15.00
Z offset: 16.80
Merge
Export.
Done!

You can now delete
unit.2=ArrestingGearH, -6, 75

These numbers are guestimates and I've only tested it briefly, but it all seems it work ok.