Macchi C.202 skins / updates posted Parts 1 and 2!

[Oglivie]

Thanks, Kurt!

[msfossey]

Fantastic job Captain Kurt and of course I need to thank Corrado la Posta for the original plane. It's a work of art!

msfossey

[bearcat241]

Kurt and Corrado, its been a pleasure working with this model and exploring its history - thanks for the addition. Lately, i've been busy adding my touches to the dp, air files and panel and finally got a good handle on converting the VC to my taste (its a complex setup with so many separate panels to address, many of which are simply non-functional due to original XML design). But there's one gauge component that doggedly eludes me - the attitude gauge placement and activation. Since it has no clearly discernible placement in the VC of the original FS9 panel.cfg, i can't figure out where it would go in a CFS2 configuration. I can only assume that it was an active XML component embedded in the FS9 model which was lost in the conversion process, but a suitable CFS2 replacement can be placed if one knows which one of the 60 VC segments to use. I've managed all the main gauges except this one.

It would be great if Corrado can steer me to the placement point of the former XML attitude gauge. Or maybe recompile the CFS2 mdl to accept a dynamic attitude gauge in the VC at the authentic location.

Thanks for everything guys,

CheerZ!

[Corrado5834]

Hi,
I have nothing but bad news.
Unfortunatly I can no more compile to CFS2; been trying a lot of late but looks like my old tools are no more working.
Also the way the new Gmax sources are done causes a flow of errors.
That gauge was different, as you guessed, directly animated in XML code so it has no $mc202 texture to reference; it has a dedicated sheet, mc202_v5.bmp, in texture folder but can't see how this can be of use.
Please, share your rework once done.
Corrado

[Corrado5834]

Found a workaround!
Almost.
With an hex-editor change m202_v5.bmp to $mc202_attit then add a new virtual cockpit section

[Vcockpit60]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=256,256
visible=1
pixel_size=256,256
texture=$mc202_attit
gauge00=italian_turn, 128,1,128,127



Now you can load whatever gauge you like,
Problem is ... it's flipped upside down, due to the original mapping.

Also, in the last update I have removed most of the old $mc202s and replaced with static BMPs; hexediting again.
are you going to reinstate them?

Corrado

[bearcat241]

Thanks for the tip Corrado. It did help with establishing the gauge visually. But as you found in your experiment, the finished product is placed backwards and upside down when using the new section. I didn't get it to work at first when assigning everything to Vcockpit60 as the location. So i inserted the data to the empty Vcockpit01 section, overwriting $mc202_01 and that gave me the visual gauge. I'm guessing that $mc202_01 may have been the original location for the coding of the XML attitude gauge.

Anyway, the effort of reworking this complex VC has many twists and turns. Below are pics of my results so far. I'm dressing both the new macchi202_cfs2.MDL and the older M202T356.MDL. Since they obviously have the same origin, it stands to reason that they should support the same VC structure in the panel.cfg. The first pic is the 2D panel for both. Its a little more fancy than the actual panel of the authentic aircraft, but that's how i roll sometimes. The second pic i what i've accomplished with the new macchi202_cfs2.MDL. Third is the older M202T356.MDL, which suffers with the backwards tailwheel from the CFS2 conversion process.

Both models are using the same exact panel.cfg - sharing the same 2D and VC sections. Note that the older model is receptive to all of my customizations which show up fine, whereas the newer model is still missing some key gauges and falling back on original static bmp images to fill in blank spots. I know at first glance it doesn't appear so, but at least five dynamic gauges are missing from the new model's pic. If i can't find the handle, maybe at some point i'll scasm the old model and try to fix that wheel.

The fourth pic is the dp box layout i put borrowed and tweaked from the 1% MC205. I also put in the break points so the model has tested breaking parts in combat.

[Corrado5834]

I know at first glance it doesn't appear so, but at least five dynamic gauges are missing from the new model's pic. If i can't find the handle, maybe at some point i'll scasm the old model and try to fix that wheel.

You can reenact the missing gauges.
I used this one trick, hexedited $MC202_XY to GAUXY.BMP; please note they have both 9 characters so hexediting is straightforward.
If you need a gauge back revert the renaming and load it in the appropriate virtual cockpit section.

Corrado

[bearcat241]

Ok thanks...i'll give it a go