Different physics/graphic meshes

M

Moto-Guzzi

Active member
Hello Group,
Is it possible to take the Wire Frame/physics of one model, and mesh it with graphics of another?

I love the Spirit of St Louis, but the one I got from the Swap Page flies poorly for me in RF7....and I understand she was modeled to BE a bit ponderous in the air, as the original was no P-51 (nor would I ever wish her to be).

Modifying her existing physics to create more of a “Piper Cub in Lindbergh Dress” would, I suspect, be a larger challenge for me than swapping graphic files.

So, as long it’s not overly “rude” to the original designer….

If I wanted to take my favorite easy-flying high-wing tail-dragger of similar size, and put The Spirits graphics onto her…

Where would I start?
 
The short answer is YES you can....

Here is how:

Open the aircraft that has the physics you want to use in the editor.

Save the physics as a new variant... for this we'll call it Plane_file_A

Open the target aircraft that has the graphics ( LOOK ) you want to use in the editor.
Save it's physics as a new variant... we'll call it "Plane_File_B".

Exit the sim.

Using a text editor open the "Plane_File_B.rfvehicle" file. Find the section that begins with [MAIN].

Highlight everything including "[MAIN]" until the VERY NEXT left bracket entry "[xxxx]" but not the entry iself.

Copy that ( CTRL-C ).

Now with a text editor open "Plane_File_A.rfvehicle" and again look for the "[MAIN]" section.

Position the cursor just before the old "[MAIN]" section and hit PASTE ( ctrl-V ).

You now have TWO "MAIN" sections in the file.

Find and highlight the entire OLD "MAIN" section and delete it.

Save the file as "Plane_File_B.rfvehicle" overwriting the old file.

Start the sim and load up the "Plane_File_B" variant.

Done.

----

Now the bad news...

The physics will be that of your the other plane as you desired, but the physics scaling and weights will be off for the plane you imported into.

That means you will have to spend a lot of time tweaking and adjusting weights, positions, etc... to get things right.

Sometimes it is worth the effort to use the above trick, sometimes it is not and you are better off just starting from scratch.
 
Thank you!

I'll print those directions and give it a go...So far I've only quick edited a few control surface and power settings, I need a "reason" to stick my toe in the water and attempt to learn more....even if it doesn't work out for the reason you say, it will be useful for this old dog to find out!
 
success!

Thanks again, just wanted to post that it worked out very nicely...

The Spirit of St Louis and the Piper Cub I combined had a lot in common...

Both were tail dragging High-wing monoplanes of approximate scale with springy landing gear....The Piper was so sweet I could fly it by mind control, whereas the Spirit was a quite a challenge to approach and land smoothly all the time. The mesh fits decently, (not trying to super-size anything) so the Prop is scaled reasonably well and she flys in a natural looking way...everything I THOUGHT should happen strategically, if someone could get me through the tactic.

Lots more to learn and do here, nice when your first attempt at something works out!
 
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