IJN Carrier

[smilo]

as mentioned, way back in February;

here's an update of the IJN Carrier.
she's still a work in progress,
but, all in all, except for a few minor details,
the building process is complete.

Attachment 87154

next, the texture mapping,
damage boxes and scasm file cleanup.
...that should only take another year or two.

if you are interested and would like to check her out,
let me know and i will send you a wip bgl.

oh yeah, just to let you know,
this is my first attempt
at building a scenery object.
not that it means diddley.

[No Dice]

Looking mighty fine milo, mighty fine.

[smilo]

thanks Dave.
honestly, i was starting to wonder
if there was any interest.
70 views, no comments.
but, then again, this is the cfs forum.
be that as it may,
here's a shot of the latest efforts;

Attachment 87307

i've spent most of the weekend
messing with the deck texture mapping.
turns out, there is an alignment problem
with the multi section flight deck.
i can get it close, but i don't like it.

soooo, i had to go back
and construct a full flight deck top
to fit over all the old flight deck sections.
in a nut shell, i need the old section sides
so that the exhausts, turrets and their bases
show properly without bleeds.

theeen, it turned out that the island, antenna
and flag didn't show like they should.
fortunately, that was an easy fix.

many thanks to Ivan for sending me
the Akagi Deck.gif a few months ago.
i've finally gotten to where i can use it.
it has been a great starting point
for constructing the deck.bmp
...still a lot of work to do, though.

i've learned that when stretched
to fit such a long polygon,
the cross lines, even though just one pixel,
are nothing more than a blurred mess.
this is where the multi section deck had it's advantages,
but there is that pesky alignment issue.

needles to say, adding texture detail,
like arrestor cables, elevator lines
and such, will be out of the question,
unless i can come up with a solution.

quack, quack, quack
shut-up and get back to work.

oh yeah, i almost forgot,
i owe hubba a huge debt of gratitude
for guiding me through the scasm learning process.
i am no where close to understanding it,
but feel that i am getting there.
slow but sure.

now, get back to work

[smilo]

just a quick update before i hit the sack.

the cross deck line issue has been resolved.
the results are far better than expected.

the aft and mid elevators are complete,
as are the aft arrestor cables.

five or six more forward cables
and the forward elevator left to do.

sorry. no time for pictures.

[arfyhun]

Count me in smilo, I'm interested. Just wish I could 'do a bit' myself 'cos I'd do HMS Furious, just to satisfy the WW1 slant.

Keep up the good work smilo,

Graham.

[No Dice]

Any updates on the ships ? Pics please

Dave

[smilo]

sorry, there are no updates or pictures.
the project is on hold for a while.
i got tired and bored mapping the textures.

then, the aac took a summer, maybe permanent, break
and i saw no reason to push the project.
it's hard to keep going when there is little need or interest.
granted, i have a lot of time invested,
so i am sure i will return to finish what i have started.
sooner or later...for now, later.

in the mean time, i have become distracted by a project
i was working on before beginning the ijn carrier.
as you maybe aware, i (with the help of a lot of people)
put together a WWII era landable carrier.
she is the Saratoga, available at the freeflightsite

the next phase, before the ijn interruption,
was the creation of a scenery library BGL of WWII US Carriers.
i thought it would be cool to offer them as scenery objects
so you all could place them wherever you want
using the cfs scenery editor.

unfortunately, i have hit a brick wall
and it is giving me one hell of a headache.
i can not seem to create the library.bgl
i can't tell you how many documents and tutorials i have read,
or even, how many scasm and scasm related programs i have tried.

hells bells, i can't even get scasm to run outside of Airport.
problem is, Airport does not create library bgls.
talk about frustrating...
i get this nifty little window when i click on the scasm.exe;

"SCASM is a Win32 console application
and needs command line parameters.
Please open a console window (DOS Box)
to enter a command line or use SCASM
through a front end application."

in a nutshell, i don't know squat about command lines,
or the console window (DOS Box)
i just want to click on the SCASM.exe,
run the program and finish the job.

so, for now, the project is dead in the water...so to speak.

onward through the fog

[smilo]

with a little help from my son,
(actually, with a lot of help)
i have learned how to use Run\cmd
to run scasm to compile a .sca file into a .bgl
the method to this madness is to create an object library

so far, i have a carrier library bgl that contains
8 WWII US Carriers CV-2 through CV-9,
the Lexington, Saratoga, Ranger, Yorktown,
Enterprise, Wasp, Hornet, and Essex.
all are the straight deck carrier by Dan Geis.
each has its own textures repainted by me.

the next phase will be to make each an exploding object
and then, if possible, give each a landable deck.

if all goes well, when completed, the ijn will be added to the library.

[No Dice]

Congrats my friend, On pins and needles for the final release

Dave

[smilo]

after a fantastic weekend in Seattle last week,
-dinner at the Tap Room Grill (120 taps and great food)
-a visit to the Chihuly Glass Museum
-followed by a party with 67,000+ friends
i was able to put in some time on the carrier library bgl.
after several hours of trial and error,
i was finally able to make the library objects crash enabled.

now, after many more hours of experimentation,
i'm attempting to make the flight decks landable.
so far, no success, but i'll keep hammering away at it.
for some reason, scasm section 16 will not function
when i compile the library objects bgl,
but will if the carrier apis are compiled individually.

go figure...it's always somethin'