FSX
Manfred's DC-3 gets authentic VVC !
That rhymes. What doesn't rhyme, atleast not in my dedicated DC-3 fan book, is Manfred's superb external rendition of a vintage DC-3/C-47 model fitted with a modern VC derived from his equally superb Basler BT67 Turboprop model. No doubt like many DC-3 aficionado's here at the SOH FSX forum i have been waiting for either Manfred or any other FS aircraft developer to sort out this shortcoming.
Sofar nobody applied for the job. No wonder really because it involves a lot of hard work spanning several months atleast.
As a retired FS aircraft designer myself my hands have been itching, believe me! ( i worked on several FS DC-3 iterations on and off just about trough my whole 'FS design career' ). After Manfred released v2 of his gorgeous DC-3 model and Ted (Tufun) released his amazing DC-3 sound suite on top of that ( listen carefully to the enchanting idle sound of the engines and you might hear a repeating whisper : "DC3 needs VVC, DC3 needs VVC, DC3 needs VVC..." ) it was just too much for me to hold off any longer, forget my retirement for a while and get to work.
No sooner said than done. Both Manfred and Hansi ( who will be doing the programming) liked the idea and for a couple weeks now i've got the DC-3 VVC (Vintage Virtual Cockpit) show on the road. Manfred thought it would be a good idea to not only update him and Hansi on the development progress but deal all DC-3 fans here at SOH in as well.
The first way point to navigate to was to figure out what setup of the panel/instruments to choose for our VVC. As you know there's a plethora of setups to choose from, no DC-3 cockpit is alike. One thing clear: no modern instruments, vintage is vintage. (maybe a selectable GPS for people who like that sort of thing). After checking out a few candidates we decided to go with a DC-3 panel that is being restored in orginal vintage condition. Mostly because the panel does not sit inside the cockpit and features seperate, good photos of all instruments. Wonderful job by a gentleman called Bart Nopper from the Netherlands. (he also works on an amazing superscale model of a C-47).On top of that the setup also features an original 1937 Sperry Type A-3 'Gyropilot' which we like very much to be available in our DC-3 VVC.
So, lets start with the panel and instruments then. As we say here in Holland "de eerste klap is 'n daalder waard" (the first blow is half the battle).
To get an idea of what the virtual panel would look like i glued two photo's of the restoration panel together, cleaned it up and matched the bitmap to the panel that sits in the current VC. It was needed to make the panel a bit higher. Here's what it looked like :
We all agreed that we could go with this so i started cutting out the gauge holes, create the first gauge bodies and bezels and the pitch control part of the 3D Sperry Gyro :
All gauge faceplates will be handdrawn by Hansi. He sent me a first MP test plate to work with so for the moment that's all there is to see.
Here's a close up of the 3D Sperry Pitch instrument in the works (no texture yet, naturally) :
Every gauge will get its own 'glass plate' to which a unique reflection texture will be mapped. A first test trial here (only the right gauge has glass and reflection applied here ) :
Seems i'm allowed to only post 4 images so i'll continue in a follow up post.
Cheers,
Jan
Wicked .. do those squeggies jiggle around 
I Thank you!
Originally Posted by fxsttcb
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