Ford-Tri-Motor will be no More! Updated

[edmoore235]

It has been fun but the site will close on 22 Nov 2020. Main factor was the cost
and no Garry Smith. From today and the 22nd of Nov - download the files you
want! Good luck to all.


Ed Moore



See this post for the latest update http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...=1#post1241412

[huub vink]

Thanks Ed for keeping the site up this long. As the end of the site will most likely not be reversible I will make this a sticky so (hopefully) nobody misses it.

And for those who don't know the site: There is more than just Ford Tri-Motors.

Cheers,
Huub

[zswobbie1]

Hi Ed,

Very sad to hear that Ford Tri-Motor will be closing down shortly. That site was, & still is very special to me, as it rekindled flight simming for me, after I got bored of the usual point to point flying & my simming interest started fading.

I somehow found the site & ended up downloading everything & I have a separate Ford Tri-Motor install.
I often virtually 'chatted' to Garry, ending up as a beta tester for him, for his unreleased 'Death Star' project, that came about after a late night chat about floating runways. He was a very interesting man to chat to, and he told me all about his 'war stories'.

Thank you for keeping the site alive for as long as you have, it is really appreciated by many.
Would it be possible at all for SOH to host the files from the site? It would be sad to have that legacy vanish.

Here's hoping!!

[Jorge]

Thank you for EVERYTHING Ed! It is a TRUELY great site!

To the mods: is there any chance we can save the content onto here like we did with the Freeflight Site content? I'd be willing to help if I can since I have a LOT of the files from the site already. They're mostly the regular Ford and Lockheed files that I began to use as AI for the retro-FS9 setup I have, but I think I have all the regular AI files posted on the site as well. I'll have to check.

It would be a bear to upload everything here, and even then I would STILL have to download a lot more just to have the ability to back everything up on here by uploading them.

Also, I can't remember if there is a file size limit as to what we can upload here. Some of the files are fairly big, but not impossible to work with.

Any ideas?

Jorge

[zswobbie1]

I probably have all the files in my library.
I downloaded them all for my separate Ford Tri-Motor install, complete with a splash screen from Garry.

All Garry's projects on the site are great and different.
Garry always said that simming is all about Fun, Facts & Fiction.

Possibly, if the files can be hosted on SOH, maybe a separate collection in the library to keep them all together?

[huub vink]

This thread was made a sticky, to ensure everybody was able to download what is wanted, before the site disappears.

Whether we can and want to host the site here is not just up to me. We should also be realistic and realise that we won't be able to preserve the complete FS9 legacy here at the Sim-Outhouse. FS9 is a reasonably old sim and when I look at the community here, most of us have the biggest of our life already behind us.

In my opinion there are two options, either to host the complete site here. Which might well be impossible due to technical problems (incompatibility, links pointing to the wrong url, etc.). The second option is a special corner in our library, like for instance with the akemi legacy. This will take a lot of effort and will ask a lot of involvement of both our librarians and you as members.

As said I have asked my fellow admins, to give it a thought, and I will keep you informed.

Cheers,
Huub

[zswobbie1]

It will be a pleasure to help out, Huub. As I said, I do have the downloads. So it is doable. Maybe I can screenshoot the topic..

Give a shout out, I'm sure you realise that us FS9'ers are very willing to help.

[leuen]

The FS9 is undoubtedly old-fashioned and meanwhile from another time, especially now compared to what we have been seeing since a few weeks. But it's the only sim who still makes vintage flying possible and keeps it alive. With no others the heroic era can be represented as well and simply as with the FS9. It would be a shame to give this up.

In any case, many thanks at this point to Ed and Garry who have contributed and created an exciting world over the past two decades. As many others of course, which luckly did all the nice sceneries to be used with famous Trim-Motor's.

This should be dome tributes to Ed and Garry, just done recentlty and showing that vintage flying still could be facinating and get a lot of fun. What should we expect more?


Their Ford Dearborn completed with AI traffic




Holden Air Transport Service Ltd. at Lae, New Guinea




and finally all 366 repaints parked as AI at Mojave - a kind of backyard before its time ...




Thanks again!

Bernard

[zswobbie1]

Bernard, you have done it again.. Stunning pictures.

I wrote an article in November 2019, which got over 18500 views.. for folk that are unaware of the site..

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/conte...Project/view/1

I hope nobody minds me posting the link..

[zswobbie1]

There is even a commemorative DC-3 paint for us..

[huub vink]

Hi all,

Dangerousdave26 will contact Ed Moore to see whether we can host the site here.

Cheers,
Huub

[Navy Chief]

Any chance this aircraft will work in P3DV5? NC

[Priller]

Any chance this aircraft will work in P3DV5? NC

Hi Chief,

if not converted to native FSX/P3D format, no chance it will work.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad tidings.

Priller

[Postbaer61]

You can download a native FSX Version here:


https://raraavissims.wixsite.com/rar...s/aircraft--f-


this should work with FSX and P3D.

Cheers
Ulrich

[leuen]

Bernard, you have done it again.. Stunning pictures.

I wrote an article in November 2019, which got over 18500 views.. for folk that are unaware of the site..

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/conte...Project/view/1

I hope nobody minds me posting the link..

Robin, I enjoyed to read your article and share the same fascination of simply keeping FS9 in the air, without waisting time for endless tweakings and adjustments ...

Bernard

[InDeepSchit]

You can download a native FSX Version here:


https://raraavissims.wixsite.com/rar...s/aircraft--f-


this should work with FSX and P3D.

Cheers
Ulrich

I was wondering where the FSX native version went after classicwings.net disappeared. If I remember correctly, all textures need to be converted to dds format to work with this model. I can recall spending countless hours flying the Evergreen repaint up and down the Pacific Northwest with a few friends in chase.

Managed to dig up an old screenshot back before I ran widescreen. Good times.

Any chance this aircraft will work in P3DV5? NC

Also, I can confirm that it works in P3Dv5 without issue.

[huub vink]

I was wondering where the FSX native version went after classicwings.net disappeared. If I remember correctly, all textures need to be converted to dds format to work with this model. I can recall spending countless hours flying the Evergreen repaint up and down the Pacific Northwest with a few friends in chase.

FSX is able to read both .dds and extended .bmp textures, so for FSX there is no need to convert them. I don't know whether P3D is able to read extended .bmp textures.

Cheers,
Huub

[InDeepSchit]

FSX is able to read both .dds and extended .bmp textures, so for FSX there is no need to convert them. I don't know whether P3D is able to read extended .bmp textures.

Cheers,
Huub

Downloaded another paint to test my theory and you're right about the bmp files working. However, if left as a bmp, the textures off the site need to be flipped vertically for use with the FSX native model, otherwise it looks like a jumbled mess.

[huub vink]

Technically there isn't that much different between an extended bmp texture and a texture in .dds format. An extended bitmap needs to be flipped by your video card to display correctly This is not just in flightsims, but in nearly all video games. A .dds file is a extended bmp file which exactly the same extra data as an equal extended bmp file, it is only already flipped. (dds-dtx3 is the same as dtx3 only flipped. That's why .dds file theoretically load faster. With the current video cards you could wonder whether this is really noticeable for a 1024x1024 of 2048x2048 texture.

The video card handles the textures and not the model so it shouldn't matter whether the texture is in bmp or dds format.

I hope this makes some sense.....

Cheers,
Huub

[huub vink]

Ed,

Could you please check your e-mail? DangerousDave is trying to contact you.

Thanks,
Huub

[Jorge]

All,

Just out of curiosity: Can the specular and bump maps in FSX (both are ".dds") work if the format is ".bmp" for the texture, or does the whole thing have to be ".dds" instead? Just wondering.

I copied the Mike Beaumont metal base textures for FS9's default DC-3 over to FSX after flipping them to test this and didn't get the bumps on the default FSX DC-3. At least it doesn't look like it has any when compared to the default metal textures. All I did was remove the alpha and then flip them, but haven't converted them to ".dds" yet. I'm about to try them in ".dds" format and see if that makes the difference.

I was hoping to attempt a bump and specular map for the Ford at some point, but wanted to ask the question first since I'm not sure if this was just an issue with my video card or not. I would think that the format of the texture (dds vs bmp) would not matter as long as the others (bump and specular) are in dds, correct? Or should all three types be in dds format in order for the system (bump mapping and specular effects) to work with the texture?

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Jorge

[huub vink]

Guys you're of course all more than welcome here, but this is the FS2002/FS2004 forum. FS2004 doesn't have bump maps nor Spec maps. So your question is not a question for this forum, but should be asked in the FSX forum.

As we don't fly in FSX or P3D it doesn't really make sense to ask here whether a model or texture will work in FSX or P3D as we don't fly those sims.

Here we still fly the MAAM DC-3 and C-47 in FSX you should fly Manfred Jahn's C-47.

Thanks,
Huub

[huub vink]

For all the fans of this site there is good news. Ed Moore has handed over the keys of the site to our own DangerousDave26. The site will not be integrated in the Sim-Outhouse site, but will remain a separate site as it is now.

So also after November this site will remain available to all who like the remarkable work of Garry J. Smith and Ed Moore.

Cheers,
Huub

[PeteHam]

That is fantastic news

It's a site full of wonderful offerings

By the way the Evergreen Tri-Motor shown in post #16, are those textures available somewhere please?

Pete.

[InDeepSchit]

That is fantastic news

It's a site full of wonderful offerings

By the way the Evergreen Tri-Motor shown in post #16, are those textures available somewhere please?

Pete.

The Evergreen paint is on the ford-tri-motor.net site, textures A-E at the bottom of the page.