SOH A-26 Invader FSX Converted Files Download

[DaveWG]

Thanks for doing the conversion John, much appreciated.
And thanks to Milton & everyone else involved in the original release.

:salute:

[langereis]

Hi,

Very beautiful plane, but I can't stear it while taxien on the runway.

What to do?
:isadizzy:

Kind regards,
langereis

[Ferry_vO]

We have one of these in Tatoi, my club's base, owned by a local shipowner and TV channel owner.

Guns and passengers..? interesting combo!

The (Formerly?) Swedish 'Sugerland Express' has a similar configuration.

Anyway, thanks John!

[Ferry_vO]

Very beautiful plane, but I can't stear it while taxien on the runway.

What to do?
:isadizzy:

Try the differential brakes or using seperate throttles as the plane, like the original, has a castoring nosewheel.

[Daube]

I have just made a test flight. I have to confess that I didn't remember this plane being so good. Perhaps I had tried an early version or something like this, but in my memory this plane had a basic and non-interractive (not clickable) virtual cockpit.
Here instead, I got into a fully (almost) functionnal VC with everything I needed ! What a pleasant surprise !

The flight around Bowerman was great and the plane behaved quite nicely. I would simply have five remarks:

1- I could not start the engines. Perhaps I need to ****, but basically I tried to switch them on exactely like in the B-17 or P-47 Accusim
- Batteries ON
- Props RPM 70%
- Mixture full rich
- magnetos BOTH
- Enegizer ON (here I get no sounds or anything like that, so I don't know if it was really working or not...)
- Starter ON (no noise, no reaction, just like if I had no more batteries... nevertheless, I had Volts and the nav lights were still working...
I had to cheat and use the keyboard Magnetos commands: M key, then '+' maintained. Both engines started successfully in this way.


2- On final, the last crank of flaps seemed to disrupt my lift... but this one I'll have to check again, perhaps it's just my speed that dropped a bit too much.

3- Cabin lights (not istrument lights) didn't work, but perhaps they work only at night ?

4- taxying was fine once I understood how to use the separate throttles. Was it like this in the real plane as well ? (no front wheel steering and no differential brakes?) EDIT: ah ok, answer is right above my post

5- the windows are a bit too milky, as you can see in the screenshot below. Are the INSIDE windows linked to a texture or not ? If yes, then I can solve it simply by editing the Alpha Channel myself. If not, some material edition would be needed.



A great plane in any case, I think I'm going to fly this one quite a lot. Also, I think I will add the freeware 3D landing lights too, that should be fun
Thanks again John for the conversion, and thanks to the SOH team who did the original plane :ernae:

[langereis]

Ferry_Vo

Thanks for your quick response. That did the trick!
:salute:
Kind Regards,
Langereis

Bedankt en groeten vanuit Apeldoorn!!!

[fliger747]

FSX does a few things differently and I will revisit this plane to tweak a few items from the FS9 version. As noted above, the plane steers by differential braking and rudder as did the original. The way this works in FS is the braking is applied to either side in proportion to the rudder deflection. If you do happen to have dual throttles, even better! Though not as obvious as having nose wheel steering, once you get used to it you will find the takeoff runs much easier with less over controlling.

Currently revising the cyl head and oil temps and may have to adjust the low AOA lift a snitch to help the takeoff rotation (this was a bit of an issue with the FS9 version as well). A myriad of other small issues as well.

T

[Bomber_12th]

Daube,

Thank you for the feedback on the interior/VC glass! The opacity is controlled via the alpha channel connected to the VC_Glass_T texture, so making it darker will make the windows clearer from the VC. I noticed them a bit too 'cloudy' this morning too, after flying the aircraft in early hours - it isn't as present during the middle of the day. I'll provide an adjusted VC_Glass_T texture when I upload the files to the SOH library. Regarding the start-up procedure, I remember the aircraft has a gauge that comes into play, to allow you to start the engines in an authentic manner, with the energizer/starter switches. I'll have to check that out and try it out myself - I've been more of a sucker for the Ctrl-E as of late, something that the "2+ year ago me" would have been kicking myself about. : )

When I upload the files to SOH, the models will have bump map support, but the bump maps will be very, very subtle, as I don't really feel the models/textures are in the best format for bump maps, at least at this time. However, by doing this, it does allow others to make their own bump maps, if they wish, to whatever degree of intensity they desire. Also, if larger resolution textures are made, more detailed bump maps can also be made at that time.

Also, with the SOH files, I'll be providing FSX versions of the models I originally made, using Milton's source files, for the "Rude Invader", "Margie", and "CIA" repaints back when this aircraft was originally released for FS9.

When I upload the files to SOH, hopefully tomorrow, or Thursday at the latest, I'll make a post to this thread.

[Bomber_12th]

FSX does a few things differently and I will revisit this plane to tweak a few items from the FS9 version. As noted above, the plane steers by differential braking and rudder as did the original. The way this works in FS is the braking is applied to either side in proportion to the rudder deflection. If you do happen to have dual throttles, even better! Though not as obvious as having nose wheel steering, once you get used to it you will find the takeoff runs much easier with less over controlling.

Currently revising the cyl head and oil temps and may have to adjust the low AOA lift a snitch to help the takeoff rotation (this was a bit of an issue with the FS9 version as well). A myriad of other small issues as well.

T

That sounds great, Tom! I've always been a fan of the nose steering on the SOH A-26 - very accurate/realistic. I know it will be great to 'see and feel' the updated flight dynamics!

[Firekitten]

Be careful not to knock the flight dynamics too far... the fs9 one I thought was fairly accurate... the A-26 not being an aircraft one 'rotates' on takeoff, but fly it off the runway at a shallow angle... The highspeed wing has fairly unique handling with a beast of that weight.

John; I'm working on a set of updated plain metal background textures for the 26 in 2048x2048 if you'd like those for the more detailed bumpmaps at a later point?

Daube: yep, the last notch will do that, its more drag than lift... she's a quirky plane to land, try to maintain around 130mph on final, with 110-115 over the keys, landing fairly flat with little flare, and a touch of power to arrest the descent.

[Roger]

[fliger747]

Wiredly enough the cfg file I had on my computer was missing the {Differential_Braking_Scale =1.0} line.... So yet another thing to add!

T

[papab]

I have just made a test flight. I have to confess that I didn't remember this plane being so good. Perhaps I had tried an early version or something like this, but in my memory this plane had a basic and non-interractive (not clickable) virtual cockpit.
Here instead, I got into a fully (almost) functionnal VC with everything I needed ! What a pleasant surprise !

The flight around Bowerman was great and the plane behaved quite nicely. I would simply have five remarks:

1- I could not start the engines. Perhaps I need to ****, but basically I tried to switch them on exactely like in the B-17 or P-47 Accusim
- Batteries ON
- Props RPM 70%
- Mixture full rich
- magnetos BOTH
- Enegizer ON (here I get no sounds or anything like that, so I don't know if it was really working or not...)
- Starter ON (no noise, no reaction, just like if I had no more batteries... nevertheless, I had Volts and the nav lights were still working...
I had to cheat and use the keyboard Magnetos commands: M key, then '+' maintained. Both engines started successfully in this way.

There is a word text document in the panel folder of the original FS9 A26
Here is what it says:

"The included optional A26_engine_start.gau from D. Dawson has been
modified so the engines can be started using the overhead panel.
Speaking of which, that is a two step process. First engage the desired
engine, then click and hold the starter switch for that engine.
To activate the engine start gauge, remove the // from window00 gauge 31
and ensure you have the latest FSUIPC installed."

Look in the panel folder........

Rick

[TuFun]

Very nice John... having a blast with the old bird!!!

[Daube]

Thanks John, Firekitten and Rick for your explanations.
Indeed the glass was linked to a texture. I have darkened the Alpha channel.
Also, the flaps behavior as described here corresponds to what I experienced during my test flight. I'll have to be carefull about that
Concerning the starter gauge, it looks like I had to ****. As written here, there was a gauge to uncomment in the panel.cfg. I have done that, but unfortunately it seems that it's making my sim crash upon aircraft loading, may it be in game or on freeflight creation screen. I noticed that before the uncomment, the aircraft was taking ages to load (more than 5 seconds) before finally appearing on the preview window. Perhaps this is linked ?

[Bomber_12th]

I love the screenshots posted! Thank you Roger and Ted!

Rachael, regarding the higher resolution textures you're working on, that sounds awesome!! And I would certainly love to use them to create new bump maps when the time comes! And regarding the specialized model for the "Fire Eaters" scheme(s), I still have my mind set on providing that for you.

All of the models now have bump maps made and assigned. I also have finished reproducing the early gun-nose variant. While making the early gun-nose variant, I re-scaled and re-mapped all of the guns, so I will be replacing the guns on the other models now as well. I also want to re-map the control yoke and column in the VC's. I have also darkened the alpha channel for the VC glass a bit, so that it is clearer. Other than that, exporting a couple of other variant models, and packaging it all together, I think it is fairly well set towards an upload to the SOH library.

Here are some screenshots of the early gun nose variant, with a couple of repaints of Damian Radice's which were made for this specific model type back in FS9. There are bump maps in-place, and although subtle, you should still see some of the effects of them at work in the screenshots. Although I'm going to include this model and two others, that didn't come with the original FS9 package, they will be provided in a way that is off-set, so you can choose to install them if you want to or not.

[Milton Shupe]

Woooo-Hoooooo!!!! Excelenté!

[Lateral-G]

Thanks so much for the update!

:salute:

[dvj]

Thrilling. I must say that the freeware showing up on this site recently is simply amazing. :salute:

[Bomber_12th]

Well, I think everything is ready for upload to SOH, with all of the latest additions/modifications. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to package it all together and upload it, so that some more time can be spent looking things over.

Anyone who has seen the old Jeff Ethell A-26 check-out film from the "Wonderful World of Warbirds" series should know this aircraft. By bumping up the alpha channels, you can really make this thing shine in FSX.

[fliger747]

Just a few minor revisions to the flight dynmics, small tweaks really, but FSX and FS9 do some things differently. Indeed the plane does not leap of the runway, but the initial pull is sometimes problematic. In the original FS9 bird, some minor modification of the very low AOA lift and pitch was necessary to get a realistic takeoff. Part of this is due to the way FS in general treats horiz stabs and elevators, and also prop blast.

A great Milton Classic, glad to see it getting a new life!

T

[airattackimages]

Very enjoyable, thank you!

[TuFun]

John... lov'n the polished beauty!!!

Not as nice as yours... a little dx3 polish!

[skyhawka4m]

John... lov'n the polished beauty!!!

Not as nice as yours... a little dx3 polish!

Can we get a plain jane aremetal with no markings?

[Firekitten]

John; Cool, I'll get cracking on the new set, same mappings? (I presume so) will work as fast as possible!

As for the fire eaters one, thankyou! basically use the glass nose C, but make the upper solid, as though it was simply replaced with a metal cover, but same shape...

Will knock up a set of 'Tanker 57' Fire Eaters textures for this on the new base textures when done, and an fs9 version not to leave out our neighbors.