Surprise Finds (from the 'Good Old Days'

[zswobbie1]

Being a bit bored, I started trawling various libraries, & I found some gems from way back, and what I found really symbolizes the Fun & Fiction side of our hobby.

I re-discovered Kazunori Ito's creations, and what fun they are.. I've spent the last couple of hours building up my collection.
I'm not going to say what I've downloaded, as I hope that others finding his downloads will be as excited as I was finding them, ranging from P82 Twin Mustangs to some very interesting Science Fiction Animation craft. I even found a train & coaches.

Some of his planes are unique, where the craft actually changes shape when certain keys are pressed.

I had to look in various libraries, obviously here, SurClaro, Simviation & Flightsim.

This is, for me, what simming is all about.. Fun, Facts & Fiction. And unique to FS2004!

For those that want to do something different in FS2004.. it's worth the search.

[ViperPilot2]

Being a bit bored, I started trawling various libraries, & I found some gems from way back, and what I found really symbolizes the Fun & Fiction side of our hobby.

I re-discovered Kazunori Ito's creations, and what fun they are.. I've spent the last couple of hours building up my collection.
I'm not going to say what I've downloaded, as I hope that others finding his downloads will be as excited as I was finding them, ranging from P82 Twin Mustangs to some very interesting Science Fiction Animation craft. I even found a train & coaches.

Some of his planes are unique, where the craft actually changes shape when certain keys are pressed.

I had to look in various libraries, obviously here, SurClaro, Simviation & Flightsim.

This is, for me, what simming is all about.. Fun, Facts & Fiction. And unique to FS2004!

For those that want to do something different in FS2004.. it's worth the search.

You're like me... always searching for something a little off the beaten path everyone else takes. Burt Rutan's ARES Close Air Support jet fighter, the CV-10 "CargoBronc" adapted from the OV-10 Bronco, and the Navy version of the F-117 Nighthawk.

[zswobbie1]

Sure. Over the years, I have collected most of these, but one gets wrapped up in looking for the Holy Grail of simming, and forgetting how much fun there is with the older stuff.
Sad that a lot has disappeared from the web, with sites closing down, and developers moving and passing on. Thankfully, SOH has saved Garry's Ford Tri-Motor project site from vanishing.

I often did up Bill & Lynn Lyons's stuff as well. Always with a story & a car or boat. As for their Graf Zeppelin..

[Jorge]

I'm currently updating (or at least trying to, anyway) one of Master Ito's birds for Platinum Wings by using Allan's tutorial series and GMAX. It's for one of the planes that can't be found because nobody (other than one other person) has made it, despite the fact it's smaller brother is available.

Still a lot to go on that one, but I've been working on this on and off for about a year now. It seems real life gets in the way every time I make some headway, but at least I'm making headway none the less.

I'm also doing some general updates to some of his other birds that are fine "as-is" except for the handling and the air file/cfg file entries (for example, most of his birds are "jets" when they should be "prop" instead). It'll be one of the things I upload next, when I can get around to finish updating them, that is.

Jorge
Miami, FL

[zswobbie1]

Not forgetting Mike Stone's planes. Great stuff, with great paints from Garry Smith.
Ahhh, the good old days...

[ViperPilot2]

I've had fun replicating this Photo with the X-Wing that's out there for Nine...

[Sbob]

I've been playing around with the IRIS F-14 Tomcat.

There are some really great re-paints out there.
In particular are the repaint "packages" that were done by Scott Minty for FSX.
Scott did some outstanding texture work that includes detailed pilot uniforms and squadron-specific custom helmet logos.
He also included custom call signs you can import into Editvoicepack.

The ONE thing you'll need to do if you want to see his work in FS9 IS CONVERT THE DXT5 BMPs INTO DXT3 format.
If you don't convert these files, FS9 will lock up if you try to load the plane.

So, the challenge becomes how to convert DXT5 to DXT3 textures without having the source BMPs turn into mush.
We all know this, you can't un-compress a DXT texture or convert it to a different format.

Right?

Well, it ain't necessarily so.

Instead of using DXTtoBMP, I use an old(er) program called FS REPAINT.
FS Repaint is still out there, the last I checked. I'm pretty sure the download is now FREEWARE.
FS Repaint had a lot of doubters in the community, mostly because it runs best with M$ Paint.
This was a problem until M$ updated MS Paint several years ago for Win10.
Its now a whole new ball game.

So, anyway, if you'd like to try converting DXT5 to DXT3 textures (or 32-bit, or what-ever) just start with a good set of textures and alpha channels.
Back up the good texture set then use FS Repaint's CUT and PASTE function to copy all of the DXT5 textures to the older folder.
There are some options for FS Repaint I use for basic texture conversion. I set the Default Save option to "Only DXT3" and I set FS Repaint to only copy the BMP part of the new textures and apply them over the "stock" alpha channel.

I've tried to find areas where the DXT5 texture "blew up" in the new DXT3 conversion. I've yet to find one.
I've re-converted or come back to add some details to what is now a DXT3 texture. Even after three edits, I don't see any issues.

If any of you want a detailed write-up on how to do this, just let me know and I'll come up with something more complicated.
If you want to tell me how and why it doesn't work, do us both a favor and TRY it yourself.
Then tell me how it didn't work.

[zswobbie1]

Surprise Finds (from the 'Good Old Days')?

That's not quite what I envisaged with my original post!!

An interesting tip, but lets get back to topic with some more surprise finds?

Do you remember, from the FS2002 days, the GMAX Red Arrows, that, by hitting the spoiler key, could change the formation of the aircraft?
There was a mod to make it work in FS2004.
You would select a Red Arrow aircraft that displayed as a 4 man flight, & the formation could change by hitting the spoiler key, so it looked as if you were flying four planes. There was a fixed 9 plane formation as well, and we had a lot of fun at our VA meetings by about six of us flying in formation.