RFN Charles De Gaulle Aircraft Carrier Out !

[Flyboy208]

Just released today at their website ! Mike

http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/RFN-1-CDG-FR.htm :applause:

[Daube]

Wow !!!
It looks fantastic. The 3D model seems excellent of course, but what I really love is the textures, they really did a good job on this ! :ernae:
Thanks for the notification FlyBoy :)

[sparouty]

Well-done Flyboy208!!
You're the very first who notice the release!! :icon_lol:

84495

We released also a new version of our Gauge for NavOps (v4.0):
84496
Enjoy!

Regards,
Sylvain

[Flyboy208]

Merci' Sylvain to you and your RFN Team for this gift, look forward to some Etendard aviating tonight ! Mike :salute:

[Sundog]

OMW! Thanks RFN!

[Naismith]

Tres magnifique

[Ian Warren]

:icon_eek:Hells Bells , that dose look smart ! :cool:<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><input jscode="leoInternalChangeDone()" onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setT imeout('jsCall()',500);}" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

[Flyboy208]

Just did a few traps ... what a wonderful recreation of the CDG ! Fantastic job RFN Team !!! Mike :applause:

[PHo17]

Magnifique! Merci beacoup RFN.

[Sindhu]

:salute: Salute you, sir. Thank you very much for this gorgeous lady of France :applause:

Greeting from Thailand, sir.

[assassinezzio]

Well done RFN, she truly is a beauty!

[Bruce Thompson]

RFN for this great package, I thank you:salute::icon_lol::salute:.

[Anneke]

Wow me thinks this sets a new standard for naval opps. Great functionality Nice animations! Thanks RFN team!!!

[Dino Cattaneo]

GREAT work, guys! Congratulations!
It makes me wish to have the time to do our Cavour...

[fxsttcb]

En un mot: Superbe! :applause:

Thank you RFN. :icon29: ...Don

[yankeeromeo]

Thank you to the ROYALE FRENCH NAVY Team, stunning work again:medals:
:ernae: (prefer glasses of wine, but not available for now,maybe one day...)

[hae5904]

Fantastic Sylvain ! Congrats to your team, this ship is awesome!

Cheers,
Hank

[delta_lima]

First, the boat is awesome - what else need I say that hasn't already been said? Superb detail, zero - and I mean zero FPS impact - how you do it is pure alchemy - simply awesome.

In case someone missed it, the Clem and Foch have been updated in early 2013 - now with a more period-appropriate Allouette III plane guard helo - this, together with some fresh tweaks, renders a superb 70s Aeronavale boat. The positioning of the helo seems a bit weird - it sits atop the bow at the end of the catapult track - I'll just have to review the placement coordinates of the helo - not a big thing to fix.

Also, as Sylvain pointed out, there's a new RFN Tacan gauge v4 out. I had v3 working just fine before, so I added this one - now I've lost all my meatballs (:mixedsmi:) and the gauge, while it shows up, doesn't work (doesn't pick up the carriers, indication messages, etc don't work).

Anyone else find this? I simply installed the gauges, effects, etc right into their respective FSX folders, as I had done with the original version. Any help would be great - as I really enjoyed the V3 gauge, and it appears I'm missing out on some of the features of the CdG, too. Most importantly, I miss my meatballs! :)

Again, the RFN team blew this out of the park - simply stunning!

Best,

DL

[fliger747]

Quite nice indeed, first arrested landing with the trusty Stoof. T

[TeiscoDelRay]

I have never installed anything like this yet and the boats I have installed in the past went into the airplane folder, so how do I find this and use it?

[sparouty]

Hi Guys, and many thanks for the kind comments!


...Also, as Sylvain pointed out, there's a new RFN Tacan gauge v4 out. I had v3 working just fine before, so I added this one - now I've lost all my meatballs (:mixedsmi:) and the gauge, while it shows up, doesn't work (doesn't pick up the carriers, indication messages, etc don't work).
...
Basically, the V3.0 and 4.0 have the same pre-requires. Check if text is showing up when changing nav frequency. If not, check then your panel.cfg file => did you copy past the entries from the doc ? Note that some new names are used with V4.0 and also parameters are now needed. If the text is OK, then the gauge is running so check that you had well copy-pasted the 2 xml files (1 for carriers, 1 for feature configurations) => it's a change from the v3.0...
Let me know if you still have issue...


I have never installed anything like this yet and the boats I have installed in the past went into the airplane folder, so how do I find this and use it?
Well, AI boats like this carrier need to be inserted into your session using FSX AI trafic engine (like every other type of AI objects) thanks to compiled traffic file (traffic .bgl file) or using addon program which the most well known is AICarrier2. In the documentation we wrote some comments on both solutions but you will find easily some more information in this forum for instance.

Regards,
Sylvain

[mathieu]

Bravo les gars !
Je suis sans voix. Quel boulot formidable!
merci mille fois

[Scandinavian]

Looks great! Can't wait to give it a go! :)

[fsafranek]

I have never installed anything like this yet and the boats I have installed in the past went into the airplane folder, so how do I find this and use it?
After unzipping the download copy the files of the "Effects" folder to FSX/Effects. Overwrite when prompted. Then copy the "VEH_Charles_de_Gaulle" folder to FSX/SimObjects/Boats.

In the "Options" folder are the parts you need for use with AiCarriers or to add Traffic files. Explained on page 4 of the manual. You can get Lamont Clark's AiCarriers (highly recommended) here: http://lc0277.gratisim.fr/software.html

I helped proof the English manual before it went out (I know, I see I missed a couple things and I forgot to sneak my name into the manual :kilroy:) so I tested it all out. Some of the animations do require use of the RFN TACAN Carrier Gauge v4.0. And for folks using previous versions of the gauge, some frequencies have been changed in the "RFN_carriers.xml" file in the "Gauges" folder (the file was named "carriers.xml" in previous versions).

Hope this helps.
:ernae:

[TeiscoDelRay]

Thanks, got it now What easy and fairly slow freeware plane would you recommend for some practice?

[Marine0326]

Its no fun having to sit on this great piece of art work. Michel sent this to me before release, so when I did a few traps and captured some screens, I had the problem of not being able to show it off. That was a bummer.

Well done guys, another great Carrier to add to my collection. And the TACAN, works GREAT!!!

Thanks for another superb addition. X2

RD

[Daube]

Thanks, got it now What easy and fairly slow freeware plane would you recommend for some practice?

The freeware T-45 made by Dino Cattaneo is quite slow on the approach, and very stable on landing. It's one of the easiest planes I know to land on a carrier.
The freeware Fouga Zephyr made by Restauravia might be even slower, now that I think about it... And its virtual cockpit is very high quality too !

[delta_lima]

Thanks, got it now What easy and fairly slow freeware plane would you recommend for some practice?

If you want to be fairly realistic (at least French) - get the RFN Zephyr. Roughly equivalent to a T-2 in terms of it being advanced naval carrier trainer jet - it's fairly docile, and really completes the French flavour. Down the road, get the RFN Etendard IV - it's a freeware masterpiece of payware proportions.

If you don't care to be accurate to the time/country - then many choices abound. The T-28 (either from Alphasim, now freeware or Piglet's) is a great choice, as is Piglet's A-1 Skyraider (H or J variants). Other options include the SNJ variant of Wozza's Harvard; you could go British and try Rob Richardson's awesome Gannets, and for the absolutely easiest (and least historically/nationally accurate choice, for this carrier) choice would be the Flying Stations Swordfish. It's superbly easy to fly, very accurately modelled, and just a nice bit of biplane naval nostalgia. If you fly with a headwind over the deck, and trimmed right, you can actually keep station with the carrier, it's that slow.

Hope that helps,

DL

[fsafranek]

Its no fun having to sit on this great piece of art work. Michel sent this to me before release, so when I did a few traps and captured some screens, I had the problem of not being able to show it off. That was a bummer.

Well done guys, another great Carrier to add to my collection. And the TACAN, works GREAT!!!

Thanks for another superb addition. X2

RD
I can relate. But at least we can talk about it now. :applause:
:ernae:

[TeiscoDelRay]

One more question; How can I save a flight with my plane on the carrier deck? I have tried but the carrier is not in the saved file and only the plane shows up. It is a bit of a hassle getting your plane, than getting the carrier, and then slewing you plane onto the deck so hope there is a way to avoid this.
thanks

[Navy Chief]

One of my favorite aircraft for carrier ops is the A-6 Intruder. Its wingtip spoilers make it easy (for me at least) to control the approach speed.

NC

[fliger747]

Nice and slow, stable, easy: any of the STOOF series.

T

[Sindhu]

One more question; How can I save a flight with my plane on the carrier deck? I have tried but the carrier is not in the saved file and only the plane shows up. It is a bit of a hassle getting your plane, than getting the carrier, and then slewing you plane onto the deck so hope there is a way to avoid this.
thanks

I'm not sure and never tried it but I got an idea that when you save your flight on the carrier deck and when you load your flight,only the plane shows up then can we call up the same carrier again so we'll get our plane and carrier at the same place and time as the last flight?

[heywooood]

found this bad boy on the same site as the new carrier - but I dont read french atall so I have no idea why there is no VC...pity it has no pit

[DaveKDEN]

found this bad boy on the same site as the new carrier - but I dont read french atall so I have no idea why there is no VC...pity it has no pit

You can alias it to the default Acceleration F/A-18 VC. Copy the FA-18_Interior.mdl file over to the Rafale's model folder. Copy the base F/A-18's texture files over to the Rafale's texture folder. Copy and paste the respective VC sections of the panel.cfg from the F/A-18 over to the panel.cfg file of the rafale. Make sure you have a copy of the F/A-18 gauge file in the main FSX gauges folder.

[heywooood]

You can alias it to the default Acceleration F/A-18 VC. Copy the FA-18_Interior.mdl file over to the Rafale's model folder. Copy the base F/A-18's texture files over to the Rafale's texture folder. Copy and paste the respective VC sections of the panel.cfg from the F/A-18 over to the panel.cfg file of the rafale. Make sure you have a copy of the F/A-18 gauge file in the main FSX gauges folder.

ahhh...so thats the alchemy then - much appreciated info Dave..thank you

[DaveKDEN]

ahhh...so thats the alchemy then - much appreciated info Dave..thank you

Let me know if you need any more info.

[Flyboy208]

Love this French Aircraft Carrier ! Mike :applause:

[danyboy21]

Fantastic job ! ! !

Merci Sylvain :salute:

[fsafranek]

found this bad boy on the same site as the new carrier - but I dont read french atall so I have no idea why there is no VC...pity it has no pit

It was talked about at length when that Rafale was released.
It does not have a VC. But solutions were given in this long thread (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?58031-Thor-s-Hammer-FSX-Freeware-Rafale-Marine-%21-October-1st-%21).

There are also several repaints available. (http://www.mirage4fs.com/rafale_all.html)
:ernae:

[StormILM]

I was lucky enough to buy Rollus's Rafale C/M before they pulled it over the dispute with Dassault. I while back I was checking old orders at simmarket and saw my Rafale download links were still available as well as the C model's 30,000 hour scheme bonus repaint. I went downloaded the new scheme and made another backup of my original files. It is a shame this model isn't available anymore, it is one of the most well thought out models I've ever seen in terms of programing. There are many radar/map options for the MFD's, the HUD is 1st rate as are the animations, fire-able weapons, working ejection seat, but most of all, the custom FDE & simulated FBW system is incredible. The M model is very stable for AI Carrier operations. I plan on doing a number of tests with both the Rafale M and the CDG when I get FSX back up and running this weekend.

[expat]

I would encourage anyone to try the merged default F-18 VC in the freeware Rafale model. Looks terrific and great fun.

Can't wait to try it on the new CDG. A big fan also of the TACAN gauge. Congrats to Sylvain, Frank and the Team.

[cortomalteseit]

Thanks a lot to all the members of the team of RFN!!!
This is another great piece of history of FSX addons!
:wavey:

[Sindhu]

Well-done Flyboy208!!
You're the very first who notice the release!! :icon_lol:

84495

We released also a new version of our Gauge for NavOps (v4.0):
84496
Enjoy!

Regards,
Sylvain

Will RFN has a plan to make a new Super Etendard in the future, sir?

[Mach3DS]

I would encourage anyone to try the merged default F-18 VC in the freeware Rafale model. Looks terrific and great fun.

Can't wait to try it on the new CDG. A big fan also of the TACAN gauge. Congrats to Sylvain, Frank and the Team.

I've aliased Dino's F-35C. The Default F/A-18 VC causes a large light to appear outside the aircraft for me, just below the nose gear well. I may switch to the F-14 as it has twin engine gauge support. But the F35C is nice ATM.

[robertorizzo]

Merci Sylvain

GRAZIE

[hae5904]

One more question; How can I save a flight with my plane on the carrier deck? I have tried but the carrier is not in the saved file and only the plane shows up. It is a bit of a hassle getting your plane, than getting the carrier, and then slewing you plane onto the deck so hope there is a way to avoid this.
thanks

Very easy to do mate !

Before you save the flight, make sure the ship has stopped completely! Pause it. Safe the flight and (this is important : save as starting flight !!)
Next time you start FSX, your carrier flight will be shown, but do for the rest nothing else like viewing the scenery library and such!
Start AICarriers, once activated, start fly now, unpause the flight (you'll notice you're floating above the water....logic right!), select the same ship you actually saved your flight with (due to deck altitude....) on current position.
And voila.......you can fly of the deck again.

Cheers,
Hank

[TeiscoDelRay]

I am not sure how to make the qauge work correctly. I have the freq correct as the gauge shows carrier but I do not get any lights or indications from the ship unit when landing.

[expat]

I had some trouble getting the last version 3.0 to run. I recall having to reinstall the gauges and all the bits. It may be that stopping and restarting FSX once or twice was what go it going.
Great addon.

[FentiFlier1]

This is a fantastic addon! Many thanks to the Royale French Navy! :salute::france:

Owen.

[peter12213]

Thanks a lot for this, really looks great!

[jagl04]

Great job. Magnifique.

[fsafranek]

There is some further discussion on that over here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?77487-Uss-Enterprise-scenery




Very easy to do mate !

Before you save the flight, make sure the ship has stopped completely! Pause it. Safe the flight and (this is important : save as starting flight !!)
Next time you start FSX, your carrier flight will be shown, but do for the rest nothing else like viewing the scenery library and such!
Start AICarriers, once activated, start fly now, unpause the flight (you'll notice you're floating above the water....logic right!), select the same ship you actually saved your flight with (due to deck altitude....) on current position.
And voila.......you can fly of the deck again.

Cheers,
Hank


One more question; How can I save a flight with my plane on the carrier deck? I have tried but the carrier is not in the saved file and only the plane shows up. It is a bit of a hassle getting your plane, than getting the carrier, and then slewing you plane onto the deck so hope there is a way to avoid this.
thanks

[expat]

One of the very best carriers made for FSX. Only comment is - as per the warning in the Readme - I could not land with crash detection on without a building crash. Similar problem with the Clem and Foch. I can sometimes manage the landing on the latter but get a crash when catting off either the side or bow cats. I know many do carrier ops without crash detection on but for me it loses a lot of the challenge and fun!

[hae5904]

One of the very best carriers made for FSX. Only comment is - as per the warning in the Readme - I could not land with crash detection on without a building crash. Similar problem with the Clem and Foch. I can sometimes manage the landing on the latter but get a crash when catting off either the side or bow cats. I know many do carrier ops without crash detection on but for me it loses a lot of the challenge and fun!

Guess it has something to do how the ship ("scenery") has been build. Probably impossible to do for a moving scenery.
Non the less, with crash detection set to off, using different landing weights in combination with bad weather and flying in low viz is challenging enough :icon_lol:

Like their pevious Clemenceau/Foch carrier, the CdG is truly awesome, and highly recommended for all carrier flyers around the FS community.

Cheers,
Hank

[sparouty]

Hi guys,
Thank you for the very nice welcome to our last carrier!

As Hank said, it is not always easy to clean up the deck and be able to fly with crash detection ON.
I'm still tracking objects that generate crash but it is not fine so far...

In parallel I fixed a small issue with the configuration1 (the clean deck one): when compiling the model some configuration2 objects remained...
We uploaded a small update on our website to allow you to just download the correct mdl file.
You can find it here : http://royalefrenchnavy.perso.sfr.fr/RFN-Creations-EN.htm

Regards,
Sylvain

PS : btw Crusader project is now on-going!

[cortomalteseit]

Congratulations once again for this great vessel.
Just a question, I've updated the model, but i can't reach the hangar by using the elevator, because when I come close to it, the aircraft goes to the sea...
What can I do? Thanks

[fsafranek]

Congratulations once again for this great vessel.
Just a question, I've updated the model, but i can't reach the hangar by using the elevator, because when I come close to it, the aircraft goes to the sea...
What can I do? Thanks
As mentioned in the manual, the elevator surface is not hardened. There is no solution for this.
If you want to get to the lower deck you might try slewing. I think the lower deck is hardened.
:ernae:

[cortomalteseit]

As mentioned in the manual, the elevator surface is not hardened. There is no solution for this.
If you want to get to the lower deck you might try slewing. I think the lower deck is hardened.
:ernae:

Merci beaucoup!

[hae5904]

PS : btw Crusader project is now on-going!

That's awesome news Sylvain, merci ! :salute:

Salut,
Hank

[Thrawn]

Congratulations Sylvain, for what IMHO is the best carrier for FSX ever made!!

best regards,
Javier

[sparouty]

Congratulations Sylvain, for what IMHO is the best carrier for FSX ever made!!

best regards,
Javier
Hi Javier ,
thank you for your nice comment!
Btw I'm interested in having your feedback on animated elevator because some simmers have issue with the hardened surface...Regards Sylvain

[sparouty]

One of the very best carriers made for FSX. Only comment is - as per the warning in the Readme - I could not land with crash detection on without a building crash. Similar problem with the Clem and Foch. I can sometimes manage the landing on the latter but get a crash when catting off either the side or bow cats. I know many do carrier ops without crash detection on but for me it loses a lot of the challenge and fun!

Hi Expat,
Sorry for my late answer but there a in between solution to the situation you're pointing at : keep "Detect crash and damages" checked but check also "Aircraft stress causes damage " but uncheck "Allow collision with other aircraft".
Then any "bad" landing will generate a crash, but FSX will not fire a crash when rolling on the flight deck...
I think it is a good compromise.
Let me know if it is OK for you too?

Regards,
Sylvain

[expat]

Thanks Sylvain

Will give that a try.

[Eoraptor1]

Merci beaucoup pour tous vos travaux, RFN. Le modèle a l'air fantastique.

JAMES

[jinx]

Wonderful addon, downloading it now--- and the Etendard and the gauge also.

Thanks

[seawing]

Btw I'm interested in having your feedback on animated elevator because some simmers have issue with the hardened surface...Regards Sylvain

Salut Sylvain!

Well, I have been using CDG now for a while in the Med and flying the VRS F-18, I can say, the elevator works nicely and the plane can be transported up and down. It appears though, the elevator only supports the aircraft standing on it when the RFN gauge is powered - meaning there is avionic power on the aircraft, which is a bit tricky on the Superbug. But I managed to bring the aircraft below decks and back up! Very nice hangar, btw! My compliments, great ship!!!

Seawing