Need some help on the PAD Katana VC

[Drzook]

Hey all,
I am trying to figure out why the VC panel on this plane seems to be, for lack of a better word, 'fuzzy'. This seems to affect all the Katana variants from the PAD website (the short winged DV/DA20 versions, not the HK36/Katana Xtreme, which have crystal clear VCs). I've tried the usual remedy of upping the pixel size entry to no avail. If anyone out there knows how to sharpen up the VC I would be most appreciative. It's the only thing that mars an otherwise fantastic virtual aircraft.

[Milton Shupe]

It looks like they may have used only 1-1024 or 1-512 texture for the panel.bmp (check your panel folder and panel.cfg for the vcockpit01 bmp to verify). A panel this size and shape could have been split in half, with one half on top of the bmp, one half on the bottom. I prefer to split this into two halves to improve clarity.

[falcon409]

Yep, the VC texture is one half (top half) of a 1024x1024 texture, so clarity won't be what it should be. In their newer models, they split the VC into a L/H and R/H texture with each one being 1024x1024. . .makes for much more crisp looking VC. Clarity could be improved on the VC texture itself, but the gauges will still have to fit the final size of the bitmap when loaded into the sim and that basically comes out to about 512x512 or thereabouts.

[Drzook]

Well this kind of begs the question: can a schmoe like myself re-write the panel.cfg into two or more VC cockpit sections thus making things clearer, or is this something that is hard-coded into the model?

[bobmay]

The PAD Katana was the product of a very talented designer who left us to pursue a career in payware. The source files went with him so we can't update the VC, which is a shame because we would have liked to improve the panels and have the Katana flying in FSX.

The sharpness of the VC panel bitmap might be improved by saving as 32 bit, apart from this I can't suggest anything useful.

Bob
PAD

[falcon409]

Well this kind of begs the question: can a schmoe like myself re-write the panel.cfg into two or more VC cockpit sections thus making things clearer, or is this something that is hard-coded into the model?

As Bob mentioned, it would take the source code to really fix that, but give me a few days and I'll do some work on the VC panel to get it looking better. The other thing that hinders FS9 is it's inability to accept any resolution higher than 1024x1024. Some of the clarity could be greatly enhanced by using a 2048x2048 texture in it's place. That's where doing texture work in FSX has the advantage.:salute:

[Drzook]

As Bob mentioned, it would take the source code to really fix that, but give me a few days and I'll do some work on the VC panel to get it looking better. The other thing that hinders FS9 is it's inability to accept any resolution higher than 1024x1024. Some of the clarity could be greatly enhanced by using a 2048x2048 texture in it's place. That's where doing texture work in FSX has the advantage.:salute:

Thank you Falcon409, much obliged :ernae:

[Drzook]

The PAD Katana was the product of a very talented designer who left us to pursue a career in payware. The source files went with him so we can't update the VC, which is a shame because we would have liked to improve the panels and have the Katana flying in FSX.

The sharpness of the VC panel bitmap might be improved by saving as 32 bit, apart from this I can't suggest anything useful.

Bob
PAD

It's OK; FWIW your site is incredible and the HK36 is one of my all time favorites.:ernae:
This one has been an ongoing project with different paint and panel options (the GNS430 and GTX330 are from a payware Abacus plane).
I am working on the tri-geared one too using the paint scheme from the above-referenced Katana; after some texture re-alignment it seems to be coming along great. I'll try to get more screenies in but I would like to thank you Bob and team for giving us such great aircraft.

[falcon409]

Just to show some progress. You can see the difference as there are a few things I haven't replaced yet, the resolution should be much better. Still have a few placards to figure out and then cutouts for the gauges, so they look more integrated with the panel and then do a test run to see what it all looks like in the sim.

[bobmay]

It's OK; FWIW your site is incredible and the HK36 is one of my all time favorites. ........
........I would like to thank you Bob and team for giving us such great aircraft.

It's worth a lot to freeware designers to get a few kind words now and again drzook, it's our only payment. For example, our latest release, the EMB120, has just passed the 4500 downloads mark and guess how many thank you emails we've had....yep, four. Ahh well, some days we're ready to give up but your kind words will now keep us going until at least the end of the week

Bob.

[Drzook]

Just to show some progress. You can see the difference as there are a few things I haven't replaced yet, the resolution should be much better. Still have a few placards to figure out and then cutouts for the gauges, so they look more integrated with the panel and then do a test run to see what it all looks like in the sim.

That is looking good, Falcon409!

[Drzook]

It's worth a lot to freeware designers to get a few kind words now and again drzook, it's our only payment. For example, our latest release, the EMB120, has just passed the 4500 downloads mark and guess how many thank you emails we've had....yep, four. Ahh well, some days we're ready to give up but your kind words will now keep us going until at least the end of the week

Bob.

I had no idea.:redf:
I honestly thought your inbox would be full of complements. Now that I know I will make this my New Year's Resolution--I will do my best to acknowledge our freeware designers' hard work more often. :salute:
The Embraer is very nicely done. Among the most recent planes I would have to say the Dornier Seastar is my favorite-it just screams 'I can go anywhere and do anything!':ernae:

[falcon409]

Here's an "almost there" couple of shots. . . .I circled the areas that I have left (warning lights, caution placard and non-clickable flood light knobs) I also circled an additional avionics box (Auto Pilot) which is a default gauge. Should be done later this evening or tomorrow morning.

[falcon409]

. . . .also working on revising the default textures to sharpen those up as well. Not much more though. . . .

[falcon409]

Just have to add the alpha to the exterior textures and it'll be ready to upload. If you look closely at the pic in the last post, you'll see a fine white line in the graphics on the fuselage near the nose. I can't get that to go away no matter what. Maybe it was in the original as well. . .I don't know. All of the textures will be included in the upload as 32 bit, but if you don't want to use the exterior textures because of that glitch, then that's fine.

DANGER Will Robinson, DANGER. . . .lol. . .ok, no alpha on this baby. . .it turns transparent if you do. lol

(Files Uploaded at 10:56 CST)

[Drzook]

Falcon409, you are the man! Waiting on bated breath for this one!:ernae:

[falcon409]

Hasn't been uploaded here yet, so here's a direct download link:
http://www.box.net/shared/r1557f9u71
:salute:

[Drzook]

Falcon409,
Got your texture mods and it made a huge difference. Makes the Katana much more enjoyable!
I also discovered that one can use the 'new-1' texture (the one that does the VC panel) on other Katanas even if the original 'new-1' is 512x512 (yours is 1024x1024). As mentioned in the readme there will definitely be some gauge reshuffling in the VC, but considering I spend about 90% of my flightsim time to tinkering, tweaking and repainting planes as opposed to actually flying them this is not a big concern.
Bottom line you made my day and I really appreciate it. Hope your day goes well.:ernae:

(hmmm...409th post. Must mean something lol)

[falcon409]

Falcon409,
Got your texture mods and it made a huge difference. Makes the Katana much more enjoyable!
I also discovered that one can use the 'new-1' texture (the one that does the VC panel) on other Katanas even if the original 'new-1' is 512x512 (yours is 1024x1024). As mentioned in the readme there will definitely be some gauge reshuffling in the VC, but considering I spend about 90% of my flightsim time to tinkering, tweaking and repainting planes as opposed to actually flying them this is not a big concern.
Bottom line you made my day and I really appreciate it. Hope your day goes well.:ernae:

(hmmm...409th post. Must mean something lol)

Glad to hear it worked. . .Wow. . .409 eh? (When I was originally trying to come up with a call-sign, I used my apartment number at that time, lol). Since FS9 will accept 1024x1024 textures, you can adjust any smaller textures to that size to gain some clarity. It does help with making things look a bit better.:salute: