Virtavia B-1 Lancer updated to P3DV4, but....

[Navy Chief]

I received a email notification from PcAviator about free update to the Virtavia B-1 Lancer for those who currently owned the FSX model. So I downloaded/installed it. Looks nice, but they made it so the Weapons system & delivery will only work in P3D Plus Prof Edition!

So my question is, can this be Tac Pac modded?

Just wondering. NC,

[Navy Chief]

The thing is, I probably wouldn't be using the weapons delivery function anyway, but when I found out that it only works with P3D Professional Plus....well, then I just HAD to see if there is a workaround! Naturally, the visuals/menus would not be the same, but with Tacpac, at least functional. But I can't afford the Professional version! NC

[wombat666]

Odd that it's only for the Pro+ version, might be sign of future development for the B1 as a P3D? included aircraft.?
Based purely on SWAG.

[Daube]

I'm surprised to see Virtavia aiming at the professional licence.
Does that mean there is a B-1 version dedicated to the pro+ version, with a higher price, like A2A does, for example ?
(I mean, an academic version with no weapons and low price, and a pro+ version with higher price?)
If so, I suppose integrating TacPack into the B-1 would have resulted in too low selling volumes and income compared to the efforts.
If not, then I cannot understand their reason.

[Navy Chief]

I'm surprised to see Virtavia aiming at the professional licence.
Does that mean there is a B-1 version dedicated to the pro+ version, with a higher price, like A2A does, for example ?
(I mean, an academic version with no weapons and low price, and a pro+ version with higher price?)
If so, I suppose integrating TacPack into the B-1 would have resulted in too low selling volumes and income compared to the efforts.
If not, then I cannot understand their reason.

Is it possible to integrate TacPack into the B-1? I wouldn't have a clue how to do so, but just wondering. NC

[Daube]

Yes and no.
You can do a "simple" integration by creating attach points for bombs or missiles. One of our fellow members did that for a few WWII aircrafts, if I'm not mistaken.
However, these weapons will have absolutely no integration at all with the instruments/commands in your cockpit.
That means you can "attach" laser bombs to your plane, they will show externally, but you're not going to get any laser targetting display in your MFD in the cockpit. The bomb will just drop when you press a button on your joystick.
Same with missiles: you can attach some A/A radar missiles, but they will not react to anything you do on your radar MFD. You won't get anything on your HUD either.

This system is "nice enough" for simple weapons like on WWI and WWII aircraft (just guns and bombs). But for modern aircraft with electronic weapon systems, this is really not suitable at all.

EDIT: I was speaking about integration by external people, not by the aircraft maker.
Of course Virtavia *could* make a proper integration of TacPack. A proper integration means modifying the cockpit to create/integrate new systems and buttons/screens that were not modelled before. Only the addon aircraft maker (Virtavia in this case) can do that. Not us simmers.

[Navy Chief]

Thanks for your reply. For me, it's more of a case where (because the capability is not included for the Academic version of P3DV4)...now I want to get it to work! The drop down menu for the weapons does, indeed, look nice. NC

Yes and no.
You can do a "simple" integration by creating attach points for bombs or missiles. One of our fellow members did that for a few WWII aircrafts, if I'm not mistaken.
However, these weapons will have absolutely no integration at all with the instruments/commands in your cockpit.
That means you can "attach" laser bombs to your plane, they will show externally, but you're not going to get any laser targetting display in your MFD in the cockpit. The bomb will just drop when you press a button on your joystick.
Same with missiles: you can attach some A/A radar missiles, but they will not react to anything you do on your radar MFD. You won't get anything on your HUD either.

This system is "nice enough" for simple weapons like on WWI and WWII aircraft (just guns and bombs). But for modern aircraft with electronic weapon systems, this is really not suitable at all.

EDIT: I was speaking about integration by external people, not by the aircraft maker.
Of course Virtavia *could* make a proper integration of TacPack. A proper integration means modifying the cockpit to create/integrate new systems and buttons/screens that were not modelled before. Only the addon aircraft maker (Virtavia in this case) can do that. Not us simmers.

[Victory103]

NC, there is a video that added JDAMs to the Bone. As Daube described, there is the TMAP add-on that can be found on the VRS forums and will add basic TP weapons, but the user will need to change the config files. Bombers are slightly easier as you don't need to model the bombs in the bomb bay visually. Typically fighters are more time consuming if one wants to have visual weapons drop from the wing pylons. I recently added the Bone into P3D and when this was released could not understand why Virtavia didn't just integrate Tacpack like Dino does on his models. Adding any form of targeting pod/FLIR requires a bit more work with GMax/MCX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ylb76d_pXo

[fsafranek]

The reason it only works in the Professional Plus version is because, as a developer, that is the version Phil of Virtavia has to work with.
It wasn't until he had finished the update and published it that it was realized the Academic version didn't support weapons.
There is nothing else going on. An assumption of suitability that was incorrect.