Aircraft Models to Offer

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SimCgi

New member
Hello All

I have been working in sims for 14 years. I started out on Empires Comanche vs Hokum, worked at Microprose on GP3 and GP4, did a few years freelance making aircraft and scenery for MSFlightSim, and these days I work on HiEnd professional motosport sims.

After recently catching the RC bug, I came across RealFlight 6.5 and I am greatly impressed. I would like to convert some of my aircraft models for use in the sim but I'm not entirely sure where to start. Lots of different advice out there.

EDITED TO ADD......Once these models are working in RealFlight. I would like to release them to the wider community as freeware addons.

I have a

C-5 Galaxy
Saab Vigen
Eurofighter
F-117
F-22
F-8
B-2

They are all currently set up for MS flight sim so are modeled, textured, named, linked and animated. But I dare say much of that will go in the bin......

Anyone want to hold my hand? I would also love to try a 3D Environment so could use some help getting the ball rolling there too.

Cheers

Sim
 
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Some images of the models.

They are a good 8 years old now so not exactly cutting edge, but I thought they could be a bit of fun as RC models.

I see your posting about one to one help, phrank, thanks and that is a very kind offer from the modeler in question. My only worry would be finding the time as our motorsport work schedule is somewhat....chaotic.... (Wanna job?)

Maybe I will ask about doing it over emails? Or this forum? I've worked with enough SDKs that I should be able to muddle through as long as someone points me in roughly the right direction and does'nt mind the odd nooby question.


ta937.jpg



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OOOPS

And I should have said in my first post (I will add it to the openeing post)...that once converted, I want to give these models out as freeware for RealFlight 6.5............
 
Step 1: Convert all of those high poly models to be a maximum of 18,500 triangles

Step 2: Discover that it's easier to start over from scratch

Honestly almost everything has to be re-done to get those models int oRealFlight
 
Welcome SimCgi. Obviously a new guy with a lot of talent. Hope you stick around.

As mentioned, the amount of detail is limited by the 18,500 triangles, and 1,500 triangles for a collision mesh. 3DMaxStudio 2012 32bit is used by most. The kex converter for RealFlight will only work with that version. AutoCad has said non-commercial use of the free student version of this software is acceptable. Photo Shop or Gimp are used for the painting.

There is a lot of reading for you here in the G6 AND the G5 threads.
 
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Good Morning Gents.

Thanks for the feedback.

Below is a shot of one of the C-5 LODs, by 3DSMax Mesh count, 7488 faces.............if you convert to Poly and do a count, 4267 faces. So well within the limits for RealFlight.

12OClockHigh, when you say the Kex converter will only work for real flight and Max 12. When I was trawling around the various web pages I did find a converter for 2010, the version of Max I have here.....does that not work then? Is it essential I find an....."evaluation" copy of 3DSMax 12?

Cheers

sfeoc.jpg
 
Its only necessary that you use 3ds max and the corresponding kex exporter plugin. If you use max 2010 then the kex exporter for that version will work. Every part must be mapped to a single .tga. The maps that are used are the main diffuse map. A specular map named exactly as the diffuse with the suffix _s. A normal map is also used with the suffix _n. You will not need any animations as RF handles that itself. There is a specific naming convention for each part with some of the names being required for RF to properly spawn the model. Most of this info can be found in the support section in the artist reference pdf and the airplane tutorial. Thats all I needed when I first started. Also please use the manage attachments feature to upload images from your computer. When you uze external links the images are not thumbnailed and it messes up the page formatting for mobile devices. Hope to see more of your work. More help can be found at the site linked in my signature.
 
Excellent feedback Boof69, just what I was after. :) Many thanks.

And understood on the forum image sizes. Wil get that right in the future. My apologies

I will keep the thread posted as to the progress being made.

Thanks again.
 
Some are using Wings3D and others to create, but you must use Kex export from 3DMax Studio to get the plane into Real Flight. In my mind why not just stay in one system and avoid conversions. There is a Free download Student Version available, just search this forum for links.
 
12oclockhigh said:
Some are using Wings3D and others to create, but you must use Kex export from 3DMax Studio to get the plane into Real Flight. In my mind why not just stay in one system and avoid conversions. There is a Free download Student Version available, just search this forum for links.
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Hi 12oclockhigh.

I've been using 3D Max professionally in its various forms for over 15 years, its like a comfy pair of shoes for me.

Not to mention the models I have are already 3DSFormats (.Max). So for me it will probably be a lot quicker to figure out how to get Max to do it rather than try and learn a new 3D package.

I'll be happy to release the source files with the ingame files if any of you want to tinker and modify them to your own creations. But as to getting them from Max to Wings3D......I'd be lost at this stage.
 
You didn't mention that you had LOD's in your 1st post, obviously that makes things alot easier, RealFLight does not allow the use of LOD's BTW just a single mesh and TGA. To get those models that are already below the poly limit into the sim, your gonna have to re-map the models, put all your paint elements on a single TGA (texture size must be a power of 2 to conform w/directx9 standards), rename all your models parts (check out one of the sample files after you install KEX convertor) set up pivot points for any moving parts, create a collison mesh and setup linking heirarchy, input all the NUP values for things like retracts, gear doors etc.. then export and import and setup the models flight physics in the sim -easy peazy.

*forget about Wings, all your gonna want to use is 3dsmax (the on that you have is fine as long as its 32bit) and adobe, corell or gimp
 
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Thanks oneder.

Thats exaclty what I am going to do. I think the C-5 used 65 seperate maps so that is gonna need a serious repaint. So I wont start there. Plus, with all its flaps, speedbrakes etc...its like setting up a face for animation rather than a hard surfaced object.

I did a few airshow sceneries back in the day and they had a lot of very low poly ( 500-1000 faces) props to act as a static aircraft display element....and they already are of the 1 mesh, 1 texture variety, so I will go ahead and convert one of those to get it clear in my head what needs to be done. Then I will start to look at one of the larger model conversions.
 
Almost forgot you can setup your transparent parts (like glass) in your paint program as an alpha channel or do what I do and just make your own glass material in 3ds max.
 
Go ahead and download the KEmax Toolkit which contains the exporter plugin for 3dsmax. Install it and it gives you a few .max files of already completed aircraft, open them in 3ds max and you will see exactly what you need to do.

*trust me this is NOT MSFS
 
If your really serious about getting into this you want to get to know the user boof69, the guy is brilliant when it comes to problem solving and all things related to 3ds max and photoshop. He's actually one of the newer modelers around here but he is the best hands down. He is also one of the admins @ the forum in the link in my signature.
 
If you are familiar with skype we could set up a session and I could walk you through the process very quickly.
 
Many thanks oneder. I think I've got my head around the right info. And I have a 850 polygon model of a Red Arrow Hawk open in max.......I'm going in...... :)

But I'll be back for sure...lol...and I will take you up on your offers of help.

Will be in touch.
 
Boof69 said:
If you are familiar with skype we could set up a session and I could walk you through the process very quickly.
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Hi Boof69

That is very kind of you and I do have Skype installed so would like to keep that offer open.

My only problem is I am doing "real" work at the moment so have my head deep in a rather large model of a race track. Will spend today reading up on the various techniques and methods used for Real Flight, and then edit this BAe Hawk as and when the motorsport stuff is compiling.

How about I get as far as I can go over the next xxx days, then when I get stuck and can also Wack-a-mole work quiet for a few hours, we'll have a get together.
 
That sounds great. I will only be available at the site in my sig after a few days. All of my builds will be there from now forward. Join me there when you need a hand.
 
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