Arado-234 freeware?

[AnKor]

Yeah, in ideal world these should not be user configurable.
One problem is that in my DX9 specular highlights will never look exactly like the original DX8 ones. My shaders use different formulas, more similar to (but still far from) physically-based rendering (PBR) of modern games.
To implement these new formulas I had to reinterpret glossiness and specular values from m3d files. And because I've never seen WinXP rendering it was difficult to guess what was the intention of model authors. It didn't help that WOFF has very inconsistent glossiness and specular among its aircraft and didn't use _s texture.
Finally, some material settings don't make much sense with PBR formulas, so I had to introduce some artificial correlation to inputs when interpreted by my shaders.
As you can see I had to do a lot of guesswork there, and of course it was biased by my own taste.
That's why I made re-interpretation parameters adjustable.

My current preference is 8/2. High EnvReflection combined with low Glossiness doesn't turn surfaces into mirrors, but lets the environment have more pronounced effect on aircraft lighting.

[BorekS]

Well, what I am talking here is running Ankors on WinxP vs Win7 and Win8.1 visually match perfectly from my own experience, same shader pack, 5/1 settings current release. So to blame WinXP theat the Ankors looks there totally different, is a lie.

My add-on just will be set for default Ankor settings, current 5/1 settings release and to be also usable with a game Ankors unkissed. Any wishes to fix this or that relating to other settings will be ignored.

[BorekS]

Arado 234B-2 wip version 02f, a big lie proof.

Image #1 is taken from WinXP CFS3 + Ankors Shaders (jan 2018) edition
Image #2 is taken from Win7 CFS3 + Ankors Shaders (jan 2018) edition + shader.xml specular enable fix

no other edits needed. looks identical, or?

[sixstrings5859]

Image #1 is darker.

[mongoose]

Since not exactly identical view, too close to call. I would say both good.

[Shessi]

Hi B,
I would say the second Arado has a little bit more shine intensity, but at M says not a lot in it.

Cheers

Shessi

[BorekS]

thanks guys for the two shot comparation comments. well I am bit surprised you can see some differency there, but I hell, I dont care infact. important is that I am stopping to support/tolerate any texture and m3d tweaks of my add-on projects, to please all the users who means their own made game settings is the most right one.

@Shessi: the project is basically prepared for FS series conversion. I did today a quick port of the last gmax CFS3 model into FS9, a static model. having couple of questions about FS9/FSX features, just await some PMs in a short future

[Shessi]

Thanks Borek,
I've got a couple of on-going projects that I MUST finish, and then Arado-city here we come!

Cheers

Shessi

[BorekS]

yeah, no problem also, I could try some conversion steps under your lead

well, lets put just two new CFS3 images, this time presenting the empty and the booster / long distance loaded Blitz. nothing more

[popsaka]

Really stunning work there laddie

[BorekS]

thanks

from the developers corner: applying damage effects...

[BorekS]

and this is a simple "under skin" preview template, used for the inner parts visualisation when damage hole event.

[huub vink]

It looks spectacular .

[gecko]

How will the inner parts display? Looks very interesting!

[NSS]

Now you are teasing!!

Looking good.

Kev

[BorekS]

the current inner Blitz structure is a few mesh polygones inside the fuselage and vertcial tail / rudder. they are sticky, just hidden inside, same as our parachute item is. maybe they could be tagged as cf3s gmax endcaps, to get them activated - visible only when damage event.

anyway each stock CFS3 can make skin damage "holes" into the airplane body with the alpha channel mask, called (skin)_damage.dds.
such holes appears doe the combination of gmax / .mos / .xdp file damage settings.
well, simply said they appears when debris event (only) - it seems. I cant say more, because I am a damage profile newbie, just learning by attempts.

because the players camera target is always the airplane body (not a wing or other parts), I did the 3d inner parts only for the fuselage and vertical tail/ rudder. the rest is just a matter of the (skin)_damage mask.
the damage mask is set in the .mos file layer, but from my experiece it works without to be added onto the .mos file.

I think bit more could say the layered image, how the damage mask works - it is the solid white color layer:

[BorekS]

maybe you would like to ask if such holes could appear also when bullet hits, right?

well, from my experience not. Ive tried to set the .mos effect bullet layer various blend settings (add, overlay, overlay with alpha, modulate etc.). yet having a huge issue our Blitz bullet hit images just flickering over the body when hit event - they appears for a millisecond and gone, no bullet hits rendered on the Blitz skin at all

[gecko]

I've been messing with this on my project as well. I discovered that the "bullet_cn_xxx" layers will only flicker and never stay, so I have removed them all completely from the mos. The "bullet_mg_xxx" layers flicker off each time a new one appears, but stay steady on when you aren't taking hits. A handful of the "bullet_mg_xxx" layers never flicker at all, but I haven't been able to figure out why. In your config settings, texture info tab, playing with the Composite Aircraft Texture Budget slider might have an effect too. I have mine moved all the way to the right. Hope some of that helps, interesting new ideas you're working with on the mos files!

[BorekS]

phantastic, I did the changes and some of the predefined bullet hits finally appears now, thank you mate!
my Blitz .mos file has only a few "_mg_" ones infact, yet badly placed to notice such ones are the right ingame rendering ones.

what I did is I just took the .mos file into my favorite hex/text editor and let rename all "_cn_" to "_mg_" ones. the MOS editor was able to open the file, no duplicity names, no layer issues. a sexy solution I would say

the renamed bullet objects still are original blend settings overlay, the "mg" ones seems are set as overlay with alpha. but it is a cosmethic differency infact, barelly noticable when hit/damage event.

so what lefts is the only thing - to test it deeper ingame, but that makes me sick - even flying a dogfight or intercept quick mission with a single Blitz vs eight AI jet engined airplane aces takes ages sometimes, to get some hits. a very annoying damage profile testing I have to say.

[BorekS]

ok guys,
having one simple question for CFS3 effect makers: how to make a (flame) effect let run / to be visible only for the first 30 seconds and over, no loop?

this is a 30 second long flame effect sample I would just need to run once only:

<AR234_RATO_EFFECTS/>
<Ar234_Rocket_Exhaust_flame1 ClassName="ParticleEffect" EmitterShape="Point" EmitterRadius="0" EmitterLifetime="30" EmitterPosX="0.0" EmitterPosY="0.0" EmitterPosZ="-.15" ZBias="0.00002" EmissionAngleHoriz="180" EmissionAngleVert="90" EmissionSpread="3.5" EmissionRate="70" EmissionRateVar="15" InitialDelay="0" InitialCount="1" MinDistance="30" MaxDistance="2000" StopMethod="1" ZSort="1" UprightSprite="0" RandomStartRotation="1" RandomRotationDirection="1" Lifetime=".15" LifetimeVar="0" Speed="10" SpeedVar="0" MaxSpeed="1600" MaxSpeedVar="0.0" Accel="0" AccelVar="0.0" AccelTime="0.0" Gravity="0" Drag="0" DragDelay="0.0" InheritVelocity="1" Size=".4" SizeVar=".05" MaxSize="0" MaxSizeVar="0" GrowRate=".015" GrowRateVar="0" RotationRate="200" RotationRateVar="100" FadeInTime=".05" InitialColor="250 194 80" InitialAlpha="255" Color="254 250 192" Alpha="255" FadeOutTime=".08" FinalColor="253 251 151" FinalAlpha="0" Texture="Fireball_Additive2.DDS" BlendMode="Add"/>

[gecko]

How do you have it set up in the xdp?

[BorekS]

as the engine emitter effects, sample:

<Effect Type="JetExhaust2" EffectName="Ar234_Rocket_Exhaust_flame1" MinThrottle="-10" MaxThrottle="200" Location="emitter_rato_l" />
<Effect Type="JetExhaust2" EffectName="Ar234_Rocket_Exhaust_flame1" MinThrottle="-10" MaxThrottle="200" Location="emitter_rato_r" />

[gecko]

A simple option would be to have both tied to the second engine start, perhaps with a slight delay after the engine has actually started. As such:

<Effect Type="StartEngine1" EffectName="Ar234_Rocket_Exhaust_flame1" Location="emitter_rato_l" />
<Effect Type="StartEngine1" EffectName="Ar234_Rocket_Exhaust_flame1" Location="emitter_rato_r" />

and

<Ar234_Rocket_Exhaust_flame1 ClassName="ParticleEffect" EmitterShape="Point" EmitterRadius="0" EmitterLifetime="30" EmitterPosX="0.0" EmitterPosY="0.0" EmitterPosZ="-.15" ZBias="0.00002" EmissionAngleHoriz="180" EmissionAngleVert="90" EmissionSpread="3.5" EmissionRate="70" EmissionRateVar="15" InitialDelay="5" InitialCount="1" MinDistance="30" MaxDistance="2000" StopMethod="1" ZSort="1" UprightSprite="0" RandomStartRotation="1" RandomRotationDirection="1" Lifetime=".15" LifetimeVar="0" Speed="10" SpeedVar="0" MaxSpeed="1600" MaxSpeedVar="0.0" Accel="0" AccelVar="0.0" AccelTime="0.0" Gravity="0" Drag="0" DragDelay="0.0" InheritVelocity="1" Size=".4" SizeVar=".05" MaxSize="0" MaxSizeVar="0" GrowRate=".015" GrowRateVar="0" RotationRate="200" RotationRateVar="100" FadeInTime=".05" InitialColor="250 194 80" InitialAlpha="255" Color="254 250 192" Alpha="255" FadeOutTime=".08" FinalColor="253 251 151" FinalAlpha="0" Texture="Fireball_Additive2.DDS" BlendMode="Add"/>

You'd want to make sure the smoke effects that look like they are part of it have the same delay, just used 5 seconds as an example, could be whatever you like.

Unless you have a third engine set up in the FM for the RATOs, as it looks like you might, in which case the effect type would be StartEngine2 and no delay needed.

[BorekS]

yes, having the two rocket emitters linked to the third engine, defined in the flight model. that is why they are "StartEngine2"

the point is just to see the emitter effect for first 30 seconds since the (current engine) ignition and over.
as my attached sample presents, it is happen, but after a while the effect starts again.

I dont know any other way, how could be such effect ignited, sticky with the airplane (wing).

btw, Ive stopped to bother with some manual cut-off of the third engine after zillions unsuccess attempts to achieve this with any CFS3 key combination.

so, my only wish is to get working the visual effect. it is my last attempt to offer to the end-user the RATO loadouts. if such simple solution - at first look - cant be achieved, the RATO pods will be just excluded from the package.

[gecko]

In your example you are using "JetExhaust2", which will repeat. Using "StartEngine2" should make it a one-time event. You would see the effect for 30 seconds, starting as soon as the engine is running, and then not again.