SOH Team Project - Grumman Tracker, Trader, Tracer

***Duckie*** · November 23rd, 2013, 05:55

Beautiful aircraft and awesome looking drop effect. Congratulations Team Shupe for another outstanding contribution to the community. Hands down as good as most payware and better than not just a few.

Thanks to all involved on this project. Well done team!

**malibu43** · November 23rd, 2013, 06:44

Thanks Milton! Downloading now!

**Milton Shupe** · November 23rd, 2013, 07:53

Well thanks to all of you for your comments and support over the last 3 years on this Grumman series. With the release of the S2Turbo series, the project is officially completed.

This project started Sept 4, 2011 with the C-1A and followed by the E1B. In total, there are 13 Tracker, Tracer, Trader variants but some 16+ variants uploaded with FSX differences. Also, there have been some models converted to native FSX and some that are still in progress.

There were so many people involved in each of the variant projects, I hesitate to try to list them all. Please read the credits for the contributors who made each variant happen.

What was really neat too was that so many of you contributed by PM, Emails, snail mail, and in the forum thread with books, drawings, pictures, and references. This kind of support improves the projects tremendously and is priceless. I sincerely thank you for all the support given, and the contributions made over the last 3 years. You helped bring these models to life and it truly is the teamwork here at SOH that is so awesomely fruitful.

And finally, I shower thanks and gratitude to all the re-painters for their commitment to cover a range of Tracker history. Repaints expand interest and improve longevity of these projects and for that, I am grateful.

Thanks SOH Team

***Sundog*** · November 23rd, 2013, 09:57

Thanks Milton and team. The fact that this plane was covered in so much detail for FS wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for all of you dedicated to making rare/off the beaten path aircraft fly in flight simulator. When you guys started this project, I thought you were crazy! 288 pages later, I can confirm it, yeah, you guys are crazy good!!

Cheers!

**assassinezzio** · November 23rd, 2013, 10:32

Here here, thank you to all involved. superb work on this massive project as a whole

**malibu43** · November 24th, 2013, 14:04

Milton,

These look great in FSX!

I'm not sure if I installed something wrong, but the drop effect seems to be starting a little to low in the FSX CDF version. Also, toward the end of each tank, it lets out an extra "puff" of retardant that kinda hangs up higher than the rest.

Is this a known issue, or did I install something wrong?

Thanks!

**Milton Shupe** · November 24th, 2013, 14:13

What version of FSX, Accel?, SP2? DX9?

That's what we tested in.

I do get that final puff, but the retardant is perfectly matched to the doors here.

**Milton Shupe** · November 24th, 2013, 14:17

Here is what I show during drop and the second that the retardant stops.

**Milton Shupe** · November 24th, 2013, 14:22

Here are the aircraft.cfg entries that control the position of the retardant. Feel free to adjust as necessary for your system.

The parameters are fore/aft, left/right, up/down.

[smokesystem]

smoke.1 = 4.5, 0, -8, fx_MS_fire_retardant
smoke.2 = 4.5, 0, -8, fx_MS_fire_retardant
smoke.3 = 4.5, 0, -8, fx_MS_fire_retardant
smoke.4 = 4.5, 0, -8, fx_MS_fire_retardant

You are also welcome to adjust and improve the effect to your liking. If you improve it it, please share with others.

Thanks

**malibu43** · November 25th, 2013, 07:47

Thanks, Milton. changing -8 to -5 put the effect in the right spot for me.

I swapped in the old effect from the radial tankers, and still got the puff at the end, so it seems to be beyond what's in the .fx file. I don't know enough about FSX effects to look beyond that.

Doesn't really matter anyway! It's still a great looking plane and a blast to fly!

**Milton Shupe** · November 25th, 2013, 10:46

Originally Posted by malibu43

Thanks, Milton. changing -8 to -5 put the effect in the right spot for me.

I swapped in the old effect from the radial tankers, and still got the puff at the end, so it seems to be beyond what's in the .fx file. I don't know enough about FSX effects to look beyond that.

Doesn't really matter anyway! It's still a great looking plane and a blast to fly!

Are you talking about FS9 or FSX here?

9 and X are so different because FS9 Smoke system read the parameters differently (incorrectly).

Are you running Accel, SP2 and DX9?

**malibu43** · November 25th, 2013, 10:51

Originally Posted by Milton Shupe

Are you talking about FS9 or FSX here?

9 and X are so different because FS9 Smoke system read the parameters differently (incorrectly).

Are you running Accel, SP2 and DX9?

Sorry. I'm talking about FSX w/ Accel, SP2 and in DX9.

**Milton Shupe** · November 25th, 2013, 10:56

that is amazing that we run the same and yet have such different results. :-/

**malibu43** · November 25th, 2013, 11:41

Originally Posted by Milton Shupe

that is amazing that we run the same and yet have such different results. :-/

That is weird... Maybe something is porked in my install. I won't know, though, until I have a reason to reinstall FSX. So hopefully not for a while!

**malibu43** · November 25th, 2013, 12:09

Originally Posted by Milton Shupe

Here is what I show during drop and the second that the retardant stops.

Are these images from FSX or FS9? Your retardant looks a lot "fluffier" than mine does in FSX.

The reason I ask is the prop blur on the aircraft looks like FS9 or a native FSX model. My prop shows up almost completely clear in FSX (like most FS9 port overs do).

Edit - One other thought. Could it have to do how high you set Effects in the FSX options? I believe mine are set as high as it will go. I can double check later when I get home.

**malibu43** · November 25th, 2013, 14:02

I did some more poking around...

I installed the FSX CDF Turbo to a temp folder and looked at the fx_MS_fire_retardant.fx file in the (temp)/Effects folder. I compared that to the retardant drop effect installed by the FS9 CDF Turbo installer and they appear to be the same.

After digging around in the folders that the FSX installer installed, I found another fx_MS_fire_retardant.fx file in (temp)/simobjects/airplanes/SOH-S2TCDF/panel/EffectControl folder. This file is very different from the one that is installed in the (temp)/Effects by the FSX installer or the one that comes with the FS9 version.

Which file actually gets used by FSX?

**Milton Shupe** · November 25th, 2013, 14:51

No, that one is not used; should have deleted that folder altogether.

The one that should be active in your effects folder should be dated: 10/26/2013 12:45 and if you open the fx, you should see:

Display Name=fire retardent drop by Milton Shupe Oct 2013

(Note retardant is mis-spelled)

The one I distributed with the FSX packages is attached. Verify this is the one you have in your Effects folder.
If not, replace it and revert back to the original smoke settings.

**malibu43** · November 25th, 2013, 15:08

Originally Posted by Milton Shupe

No, that one is not used; should have deleted that folder altogether.

The one that should be active in your effects folder should be dated: 10/26/2013 12:45 and if you open the fx, you should see:

Display Name=fire retardent drop by Milton Shupe Oct 2013

(Note retardant is mis-spelled)

The one I distributed with the FSX packages is attached. Verify this is the one you have in your Effects folder.
If not, replace it and revert back to the original smoke settings.

Thanks Milton. That is identical to the one I already have installed, so I guess that isn't the issue. Out of curiosity, is it correct that it is also identical to the effect in the FS9 package?

I'll look at my install more a little later when I get a chance to see if something is mixed up...

**Milton Shupe** · November 25th, 2013, 15:41

Yes, the fx should be the same. Only the gauge programming is different to invoke the release.

**TuFun** · November 25th, 2013, 15:50

Beautiful paint job and model!!! Thanks Milton and to all involved!

Short FSX video...

**malibu43** · November 26th, 2013, 08:59

I love this thing.

**Milton Shupe** · November 26th, 2013, 09:07

Originally Posted by TuFun

Beautiful paint job and model!!! Thanks Milton and to all involved!

Short FSX video...

Thank you TF. Ferondoe (Martial Feron) did an awesome job on this scheme. It is a personal favorite. Thanks Marty!

**Milton Shupe** · November 26th, 2013, 09:09

Originally Posted by malibu43

I love this thing.

These tankers have their own personality for sure. You can feel the "Heavy" when loaded but she carries the weight well. When empty, she handles light and doesn't require much in the way of flaps to bring her home. She is fun to fly and looks great too :-)

**Daveroo** · November 26th, 2013, 11:05

i know this thread is in FS9,,where it most popular as a thread it seems,,,so im posting here,,,,,for the CalFire version,could someone help he out and make me a paint of both T-89,and T88, T- eight -nine,is one of my favorites.flown by Joesph (HOSER) Satrapa,ex crusader jockey ,atleast i think it was....big jet with an opening under the cockpit for air intake..C-7?..or C-8?..heck i dont know...would love to see these two in my sim atleast..

http://s774.photobucket.com/user/dlk...21767.jpg.html

**Milton Shupe** · November 26th, 2013, 12:20

Originally Posted by Daveroo

i know this thread is in FS9,,where it most popular as a thread it seems,,,so im posting here,,,,,for the CalFire version,could someone help he out and make me a paint of both T-89,and T88, T- eight -nine,is one of my favorites.flown by Joesph (HOSER) Satrapa,ex crusader jockey ,atleast i think it was....big jet with an opening under the cockpit for air intake..C-7?..or C-8?..heck i dont know...would love to see these two in my sim atleast..

http://s774.photobucket.com/user/dlk...21767.jpg.html

Not sure what you are asking for Dave, but we do have an "88" on the FSX side.