different guns in one A/C

[gosd]

I came accross some info and would like to try it out;"Hurrican" - the different loadings during Battle of Britain:

"The RAF fighters armed with eight .303 guns differed from the usual practice by loading
each gun with only one type of ammunition. During the Battle of Britain in 1940, the
reported use was three guns loaded with ball, two with AP, two with Mk IV incendiary tracer
and one with Mk VI incendiary (the "De Wilde")."
This is from the new book "Flying Guns Of World War II", quoted by one of the authors
Anthony G. Williams in delphiforums in october 2002.

How can I make the mods to the xdp file in order to get this simulated ? Is the xdp file the only file I have to modify ?
I have the different guns an weapons files

[greycap.raf]

You'll have to hex edit the .m3d and edit the xdp.

In the m3d:

Find the entry gun_grp0b0 and proceed from there. These vary depending on the aircraft but every aircraft has at least that one. I assume (perhaps erroneously) that the Hurricane is modelled with two gun groups with four guns each in which case there would be:

gun_grp0b0
gun_grp0b1
gun_grp0b2
gun_grp0b3

and

gun_grp1b0
gun_grp1b1
gun_grp1b2
gun_grp1b3

which you'll want to change. The first number defines the group, the second number defines the individual gun entry inside the group but the xdp gunstation entries only affect entire groups so you'll have to make every single gun into a gun group of its own in order to have full control over them. Using the "find and replace" (or something like that) command you'll begin with the "last" gun as you're far less likely to get confused that way. The naming goes like this:

gun_grp1b3 becomes gun_grp7b0
gun_grp1b2 becomes gun_grp6b0
gun_grp1b1 becomes gun_grp5b0
gun_grp1b0 becomes gun_grp4b0
gun_grp0b3 becomes gun_grp3b0
gun_grp0b2 becomes gun_grp2b0
gun_grp0b1 becomes gun_grp1b0
gun_grp0b0 becomes gun_grp0b0

NOTE: you'll want to do it in this order as otherwise you'll at one point have two sets of gun_grp1b0 entries and finding out which is which is pure hell. Save and exit after making a backup.

In the xdp:

Make sure every gun, all eight of them, has its own gunstation entry with a correct ammo count. No more combined ammo counts, now it's separate for every gun. Also make sure they're all enabled under every view that you'll want to fire them from - there are the ID=0 etc. entries further down. You'll need them from ID=0 to ID=7 under every view or every gun won't fire. To complete the effect you can put a separate effects line for every gunstation - Shells0, Shells1... all the way to Shells7.

Afterwards you'll have to find out which gunstation matches which visual effect but that's easiest done by having seven machine guns and one cannon so you can fire them separately. Fire, make notice, back to the xdp, change weapons, repeat until you have them all down.

When dealing with these files ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THE FIRST NUMBER USED IS ZERO.

[gosd]

Thanks, great tutorial:ernae:

[Daiwilletti]

Hi gosd, IIRC, there are some 303 cal weapons for ball, AP and incendiary in ETO.
i think some of the hurricane xdps in ETO have 8 gun entries, but I don't know if each entry has its own gun group in the m3d file.

so there may already be an aircraft out there for which you could replicate the loadings you are reading about?
cheers,
D

[BeauBrummie]

Try Pm'ing Pat Pattle this sounds like his territory. I have a vague recollection about a similar thread a long time ago.