SimWorks Studios F-4B Phantom II

[dhazelgrove]

Is it possible to have moving AFCADs?

Fernando Martinez did an AI Phantom for the Big E in FS9 that has folding wings, but I don't know if it's feasible for them to be used on a moving carrier.

Dave

[SiR_RiPPER]

We were drooling at the possibility of having pseudo-AI aircraft flying on and off the ship but technically the challenge is too great for the scope of this product. Thankfully CCP allows you to at least have some AI E-2s and F-4s flying around the ship doing their monitoring and BARCAP missions.

"All of the above" is an option ommitted intentionally. After all, FSX always has the final say...

[Navy Chief]

I was reading your posts on the Facebook site that you are developing static AI A-7s (which look AWESOME!) for the Coral Sea and the Midway ("All squadrons will be of the Vietnam War deployments (i.e. VA-93). For CVA-43 we'll be doing 1965 paints, for CVA-41 the deployment of 1973.")

The Coral Sea did not have Corsair II's during its 1965 deployment, so am guessing you are just going with the Corsair II for continuity? NC

December 7, 1964

November 1, 1965

CVW-15

VA-153 (A-4C) VA-155 (A-4E) VA-165 (A-1H/J) VAH-2 (A-3B) VF-151 (F-4B) VF-154 (F-8D) VFP-63 Det. D (RF-8A) VAW-11 Det. D (E-1B) HC-1 Det. D (UH-2A) VAP-61 Det.* (RA-3B) VQ-1 Det.* (EA-3B) VAW-13 Det.* (EA-1F) VMCJ-1 Det.* (RF-8A)

NL

Western Pacific, Vietnam

USS Richmond K. Turner (CG 20) USS Joseph Strauss (DDG 16)

Operation Rolling Thunder

Pearl Harbor, Hi. Subic Bay, Philippines Hong Kong Yokosuka, Japan Okinawa, Japan

[SiR_RiPPER]

My reply was imprecise.

The Coral Sea coming with the Phantom is the 1965 version which did not have A-7s.

The Coral Sea coming with Midway in the standalone package will include the 1965 version shipping with the F-4B, as well as a 70's version with newer aircraft such as the A-7.

[Navy Chief]

My reply was imprecise.

The Coral Sea coming with the Phantom is the 1965 version which did not have A-7s.

The Coral Sea coming with Midway in the standalone package will include the 1965 version shipping with the F-4B, as well as a 70's version with newer aircraft such as the A-7.

Thanks for the clarification, Sir Ripper! NC

[awstub]

We were drooling at the possibility of having pseudo-AI aircraft flying on and off the ship but technically the challenge is too great for the scope of this product. Thankfully CCP allows you to at least have some AI E-2s and F-4s flying around the ship doing their monitoring and BARCAP missions.

"All of the above" is an option ommitted intentionally. After all, FSX always has the final say...

True that FSX has the final say....but you developers are doing things with it that were thought to be impossible not so long ago.

One of the cool things (out of many) you guys are doing is adding animated crew to your carriers.

This got me thinking.....It would be awesome to have an animated crewman to marshall us onto the catapult shuttle. Is this even remotely possible?

http://www.airshow.com.au/airshow201...ll-signals.gif

[SiR_RiPPER]

True that FSX has the final say....but you developers are doing things with it that were thought to be impossible not so long ago.

One of the cool things (out of many) you guys are doing is adding animated crew to your carriers.

This got me thinking.....It would be awesome to have an animated crewman to marshall us onto the catapult shuttle. Is this even remotely possible?

http://www.airshow.com.au/airshow201...ll-signals.gif

It can be done in theory and seems pretty simple, but we cannot test it it due to non-FSX related reasons.

[SiR_RiPPER]

A small update on our side. We've wrapped up the coding for F-4B's next version, which will be the 2nd to last before F-4B v1.0 and then F-4N. The new version which will be in the hands of closed beta testers soon will feature many bugfixes as well as all new systems coding:

• Aircraft defaults to ON state
• New fuel system logic with inflight refuelling
• Custom engine model with realistic startup, RPM, temperatures, windmilling effects, fuel consumption and more
• New pneumatic and hydraulic system logic, tied in to the engine upgrades
  
  • Pneumatic system comes with charging and discharging logic
  • Canopy extension "costs" pressure -make sure your engines are running
  
  
• Redid and improved pitch Stability Augmentation System significantly -you will see for yourselves!
• Angle of Attack tones
• F-4 Autoflaps -they did exist back then!
• Realistic oxygen consumption -hypoxia is not yet simulated, you can get away with it for now
• RADAR fixes and updates
  
  • An important one is that you are now able to lock and track targets using your keyboard -no need to go to the back seat for that
  
  
• TacPack corrections and optimisations
  
  • Code shortened significantly
  • This will probably the last time you see this payload manager
  • Revised procedures for bomb and rocket release
  • Adjustable AIM-9 growl volume depending on cockpit setting and target proximity to "sweet spot"
  • Gun sound
  • Wing gunpods removed (USN opted for the centerline only)
  
  
• Fixed/deleted many bugs in the old code
• More bugfixes

We also thought our carriers are worth some touching up. The Coral Sea will see a small update in the upcoming version, which comes in the form of an enriched hangar and a tad fewer polygons. Right now we are working on the ceiling and after that we will rescan the entire ship to find and remove excess polygons, making more room for our statics! We are also working on the statics themselves and a payload manager for the ship that will allow you to:

• *Show/hide aircraft groups all over the deck
• Load states such as launch, recovery, UNREP
• *Toggle the ship's lights
• Control each one of the elevators independently
• Open/close the hangar doors
• Hide/unhide the hangar to improve performance
• USS Coral Sea will get two versions with corresponding aircraft:
  
  • 1965 deployment
  • *1973 deployment
  
  
• USS Midway
  
  • 1973 deployment
  
  

Features marked with a * will not be available on the USS Coral Sea coming with the F-4B/N package.

Static aircraft are being worked on along with the ship; Two CVA-41 A-7 squadrons are done, the A-1 for USS Coral Sea is getting its first coat of paint, F-8s and F-4s are being built at their factories and other static aircraft are queued up after them.

Finally, I'm attaching some pics of the hangar as it is today as well as a crash test with static A-7s on the Midway, spawned using a prototype "deck manager".

[Ian Warren]

That is looking smart with a chocker flight deck.

[Dman]

Looks good..
Are we still waiting for a P3D version?? Fsx has been dropped from my system.. so I've been waiting in the winds for this one....

[fsafranek]

Is it possible to have moving AFCADs?

Fernando Martinez did an AI Phantom for the Big E in FS9 that has folding wings, but I don't know if it's feasible for them to be used on a moving carrier.

Dave

Discussion on that over here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...ic-to-carriers

[SiR_RiPPER]

Looks good..
Are we still waiting for a P3D version?? Fsx has been dropped from my system.. so I've been waiting in the winds for this one....

The upcoming v0.98 will support P3Dv2 officially. We are looking into some issues with v3 currently, so 3.x will not be supported with this version.

[dhazelgrove]

Dave

[PhantomTweak]

Boy, I worked on lot of those! Especially the stuff in that nose cone
Thanks for some great work to all! I certainly brings back memories, good, AND bad
Pat☺

[Navy Chief]

Back when I worked on them at Pax River, I occasionally removed seat buckets (by myself)...totally against regs. But at the time we did a LOT of maintenance that would be a BIG no-no now!!

The aircond turbine change on Phantoms was a real pain, if memory serves me correctly. NC

[dhazelgrove]

Working elevators on the Coral Sea.

Back when I worked on them at Pax River, I occasionally removed seat buckets (by myself)...totally against regs. But at the time we did a LOT of maintenance that would be a BIG no-no now!!

The aircond turbine change on Phantoms was a real pain, if memory serves me correctly. NC

Can you imagine the shape of an aircraft that was actually designed with maintainers in mind?
It'd never get off the ground - or would it?

Dave

[Gene K]

Dave,

Beautiful capture of a beautiful model. I know Alex is (and should be) proud!

Gene K

[MDIvey]

Love the existing model so cant wait to see the updated version.

I have a few minor niggles which I wondered if they have been addressed with all this tweaking and development...

1) whether a fix has been found for the Wheel hubs looking bright on the unlit side? Always looks odd on such a visually stunning model.

2) when I save a flight with a full AA load out and then later reload it.... some of it is missing.... usually what's lowest down the list so it seems like it has run out of storage. Its a pain having to keep re adding items. A fix for that would be welcome or better still would be load manager that works for non Tacpac users as with the Milviz F4.

an absolutely brilliant add on even with its very minor imperfections.

Matt

[dhazelgrove]

Dave,

Beautiful capture of a beautiful model. I know Alex is (and should be) proud!

Gene K

Thanks. You wait until you see the additional models.

BTW: The aircraft is fine in P3D v2. P3D v3 has issues, but they're being addressed. There's also a paint kit for those who want to get colourful.

Dave

[SiR_RiPPER]

Dave,

Beautiful capture of a beautiful model. I know Alex is (and should be) proud!

Gene K

Definitely proud of what we've done so far. There is more to come for v1.0 though!

1) whether a fix has been found for the Wheel hubs looking bright on the unlit side? Always looks odd on such a visually stunning model.
2) when I save a flight with a full AA load out and then later reload it.... some of it is missing.... usually what's lowest down the list so it seems like it has run out of storage. Its a pain having to keep re adding items. A fix for that would be welcome or better still would be load manager that works for non Tacpac users as with the Milviz F4.
Matt

With regards to No.1, we're still trying to figure out what's wrong with it and fix it.
With regards to No.2, we have encountered this exact problem in Multiplayer. When loading weapons with TacPack, the bottom 3/4 of the stations do not appear at all to other players. Everyone sees his own A/C loaded, but the other ones are missing weapons. They fire normally however. This is an issue we have noticed with other TP aircraft during our testing and are in touch with VRS about it.

Your very words of "some of it is missing.... usually what's lowest down the list" is what we encounter in MP. Usually it is the right-side bombs of the CL MERs, right fuselage AIM-7s and right inboard pylon. Please confirm if that is the case.

From our initial testing and research, it seems that the problem stems from FSX, so we will probably not be able to fix it. What we can do is make the payload manager work with non-TP aircraft as well, which is in our to-do list.

[MDIvey]

I can confirm problem with loads is right side only Alex.

with regard to wheel problem... I usually find if I have that problem with a part looking light on the unlit side and vice versa, that it is a geometry problem... not always easy to find exactly what it doesn't like about the geometry and fix it but that's usually the cause I find.

Matt

[Navy Chief]

So awesome in every respect!

I do not have fond memories of life onboard a carrier, but it is fun to "relive" being on one. I can almost smell the JP-5 (which was ever present in the air, and you could taste it in the drinking water).

I remember a klaxon type horn would be sounded every time a elevator was about to move up or down.

NC

[dhazelgrove]

Here's a good trick. I'm on the elevator - and I don't fall through!

Dave

[Ian Warren]

Lift go's up, Lift go's down Lift go's up, Lift go's down Lift go's up, Lift go's down , Thanks NC never had a chance to get on board a US Carrier, amazing ships , New Zealand and it stupid anti nuclear politics dribble, my kind of holiday, spend a few months on board exploring and meeting the crew, photo's - watching flight deck operations , it would be one hell of a holiday.

[strykerpsg]

Working elevators on the Coral Sea.



Can you imagine the shape of an aircraft that was actually designed with maintainers in mind?
It'd never get off the ground - or would it?

Dave

Again, another great model and development team. The attention to the carrier is fantastic and brings it to life. Thanks for this great work.