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MSFS20 Flight Model Bending - The Graf Zeppelin (II)
- Thread starter IC3MAN
- Start date
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- Tags
- airship blimp flight model
- Messages
- 31
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Please tell me this project is still in development and has not been abandoned.
KB
KB
- Messages
- 42
- Country
Two sisters
Modelling has progressed - slowly, though the flight model remains a complete nightmare, MSFS seems to have a moral disgust for anything prying into its systems which leads me to think a fully custom job is my only option which is what I am currently exploring at the moment, animation of parts will come once I have something workable, I see that as a waste of time in the meantime.
Modelling has progressed - slowly, though the flight model remains a complete nightmare, MSFS seems to have a moral disgust for anything prying into its systems which leads me to think a fully custom job is my only option which is what I am currently exploring at the moment, animation of parts will come once I have something workable, I see that as a waste of time in the meantime.
- Messages
- 31
- Country
- Messages
- 42
- Country
Thanks for the support everybody. Unfortunately, working on the flight characteristics doesn't garner much visual progress so the best I can show is some in-flight screenshots. Keeping my progress close to my chest as I'm not sure my current approach is working yet, though I did have a nice cruise down to lakehurst from New York this evening
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Just found this project, looks amazing, and I hope you will figure out the flight model!
You wrote earlier that the fabric wrinkles are made entirely by textures. I am looking for a similar effect for my old project, a wooden glider, where the fabric was pulled between the ribs, similarly to the airships hull. Could you point me to a description of that technique, so I could start experimenting on my own?
You wrote earlier that the fabric wrinkles are made entirely by textures. I am looking for a similar effect for my old project, a wooden glider, where the fabric was pulled between the ribs, similarly to the airships hull. Could you point me to a description of that technique, so I could start experimenting on my own?
- Messages
- 42
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To acknowledge the interest here are some more shots of that flight. Prototypically speaking the ship would've been behind schedule in these as arrival time at Lakehurst was always scheduled for 06:30 on Hindenburg/DZR North American flights to allow turnaround by the evening. I am very happy with how the major components of the model are looking now, being in their final form, (textures being placeholder) with the glaring ommission of the landing gear. Flight model pain means this will take some time to work out that said.
Underside view over New York and Jersey City
Cruising across the Lower Bay towards New Jersey
Underside view over New York and Jersey City
Cruising across the Lower Bay towards New Jersey
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- Messages
- 31
- Country
This thread just gets better and better.
Please don't give up. There are many airship enthusiasts who will love seeing this beauty brought into the game.
Thank you for sharing.
KevinB
Please don't give up. There are many airship enthusiasts who will love seeing this beauty brought into the game.
Thank you for sharing.
KevinB
- Messages
- 31
- Country
Just checking in to see if this project is still in development.
KB
KB
- Messages
- 42
- Country
Been a while, I haven't forgotten this, modelling certainly is a great way to renew focus.
What's new - I finally got around to the dreaded job of sealing up the control car - so external walls, internal walls, the partitions, sills, door and window frames etc - now one continuous mesh.
As part of this I thinned out all of the window frames to a realistic appearance/expectation, finally something I am happy with just adding to and not having to go over and redo sections. As part of this the vertical girders have also been redone - not sure whether these will need to be added to the continuous mesh of the body but time will tell, hoping to keep that separate as they are enormously complex meshes. Certainly looks a lot better when filled up with girders, controls and fixtures now - a lot more in the WIP folder that said to fully get the look on point. However, I'm getting to the stage now where for the control car I can start ticking off major items as fully done, are they perfect, impossible, but as good as I'm going to get them, then the real fun begins!
For instance a new landing gear, this time with as much detail as is possible, I have just started to redo this so looks basic for now - 2 styles to do here again tho
And so progress moves on (another flight picture because why not). I will revisit the flight model soon but that is on the back burner at the moment.
What's new - I finally got around to the dreaded job of sealing up the control car - so external walls, internal walls, the partitions, sills, door and window frames etc - now one continuous mesh.
As part of this I thinned out all of the window frames to a realistic appearance/expectation, finally something I am happy with just adding to and not having to go over and redo sections. As part of this the vertical girders have also been redone - not sure whether these will need to be added to the continuous mesh of the body but time will tell, hoping to keep that separate as they are enormously complex meshes. Certainly looks a lot better when filled up with girders, controls and fixtures now - a lot more in the WIP folder that said to fully get the look on point. However, I'm getting to the stage now where for the control car I can start ticking off major items as fully done, are they perfect, impossible, but as good as I'm going to get them, then the real fun begins!
For instance a new landing gear, this time with as much detail as is possible, I have just started to redo this so looks basic for now - 2 styles to do here again tho
And so progress moves on (another flight picture because why not). I will revisit the flight model soon but that is on the back burner at the moment.
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- 23
- Country
Beautiful! I've always been a huge aerostat nerd and I'm thrilled to see one being developed in such painstaking detail. You have my eternal admiration and gratitude for undertaking such a monumental project. I'll be very interested to hear the particulars of the flight model progress when you get back to it. I love working on that sort of thing and wish I could offer my help, but unfortunately my background is doing it in Unity in C#. I've been meaning to pick up WASM but haven't had the time to dedicate to digging up how it works. If you're open to contributions, I'll be sure to ping you when I get around to fixing that.