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Landable Surfaces In FSDS2

A

AJW

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us-washington
I need help creating a landable deck on the carriers I'm working on in FSDS2. I've read the Help file on the subject, but I'm not getting any results. It says to highlight the polygon while in polygon mode, then go the polygon pulldown menu and choose "create landable surface", put in the altitude and then create the .sca file, take the .sca file and compile the bgl, and place in the scenery file. Well I did all of that and I still "Go through" the deck. I'm trying not to have to use AFCAD to create a deck to move around on. Can anyone help me on this?
 
I have created a couple of carriers (scenery objects) with both FSDSv2.24 and FSDSv3. The method described in the help file for a hard deck is not compatible with FS9 and I could never get it to work in FS8. My advice is to use Afcad. That's what I did on the carriers I have uploaded.

Cheers---------Paul
 
Hi Guys,

I had exactly the same frustrations with my ship models, waited ages for FSDS3, only to find that Abacus have elected to sell us a half finished program, not bother to update it, not bother to complete the support pages etc and not bother to even answer the requests from their assistance page :(

I suppose it's too much to ask of Abacus' development team to extricate themselves from the tropical island where their obviously sunning themselves on our hard earned bucks and finish the damn thing.

The principle of an easy-to-use FS modelling program is great, but I'm afraid at the moment I view FSDS3 as something of a 'broken toy'.

Rather Disgruntled :mad:
 
Hi, Alan, I share your pain. I was a beta tester on FSDSv3 and argued for the equivalent for the attach tool script from the git go. I even sent the XML blob Microsoft published to allow 3rd party programmer's to do just that. Obviously, it isn't there.
I recently developed a work around that works very well. You must have Gmax installed but you don't have to convert the entire project and retexture and reanimate in Gmax. Please note this only works for FSDSv3 as you must use Makemdl as the compiler and Bglcomp for placement.
Once the carrier is finished in v3 I select the top deck polygon's and create a separate part that will be the hard deck. I lower it slightly below the deck level so it won't give me the flashing poly syndrome. I then convert the part to a .dfx file with the CVA converter. I import the .dfx file into Gmax. I select the part and run the attach tool script for a concrete deck. I then clone the part, select the clone and run the attach tool to remove the crash boxes. Then export both parts as a SCENERY .mdl. I add the .mdl as another scenery object at the same location as the carrier in the XML file. Run Bglcomp and you are done. This gives you a hard deck of the exact size and shape of the original. I have used the same technique to add attachpoints for light effects. Hope this isn't too confusing.

Paul
 
Hi All,

If you are able to do all that, why not just model in Gmax?
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right of course Bob, it's a way better tool by miles I know, believe me I've tried in the past but always become lost along the way :confused: As soon as time permits, I will hide myself away for a while and figure out how to use it :scratchch

Paul,

That's fantastic, finally a way to land on my ships, thanks very much for sharing your method and I must say, you've written it in a very plain and concise way, I pretty much follow what you are doing except for one bit:

I then clone the part, select the clone and run the attach tool to remove the crash boxes. Then export both parts as a SCENERY .mdl.
Click to expand...

Can you explain the reason why you need to create a clone of the part ? I'm not quite sure how crashboxes work in Gmax.

Thanks Paul :D
 
At this point, it takes me hours to find stuff in the Gmax menu's that I know by rote in FSDS. I will say I'm porting more and more stuff back and forth between the 2 programs. The Shape Merge process in Gmax is my current learning object. I am basically an airplane designer but one of my interests is pre war Naval aviation so I have done some early carriers. I have a new version of the CV-3 Saratoga coming along. It will be done as described above.

Paul
 
Alan, If you don't clone the part it retains the crash boxes. This is a limitation of the Makemdl compiler which automatically adds the crash option. The clone part - attach tool method is the only way I've seen documented to get rid of it.

Paul
 
You can also disable the crash option in MakeMDL. This is easiest done by adding a line with the text "Crash=0" to your MakeMDL.cfg file. From then on every exported object has no crash detection anymore.

If you have no MakeMDL.cfg file yet, you just need create a new txt document with that name. For the no-crash option the text in it would look like this:

Code: 
[Options]
Crash=0
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks very much for your assistance on this matter.

Paul, that's great, I think I follow now, I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on, cheers :)

Arno, many thanks for that tip, does that mean that I don't need to clone the part ?

Cheers
 
Hi, Alan, I am not nearly as proficient in Gmax as FSDS but here is my experience. I do have a .cfg file for Makemdl as Arno suggests and it does work. However, when I made a hard deck with the attach tool I still had to clone the part and remove the crash box with the attach tool. It is just a few mouse clicks to do that. Setting the Makemdl .cfg file to "Crash=0" seems to work for everything if you don't use the attach tool script.

Paul
 
Hi Arno & Paul,

Thanks for your input on this matter, I've now imported one of the ships (hms ocean) into Gmax, added the attachtool script for a hard surface, removed the crashboxes, exported the .mdl and added it to FS2004, my very first task with Gmax :cool:

I was so pleased to slew down onto the deck rather than straight through it that it has renewed my interest in cracking the Gmax beast, I added a few small parts with Gmax and was amazed at the abilities of this program, no wonder it's the choice of the pro's.

So the outcome is that I'm going to try and stick to Gmax from now on, atleast for the ships anyway so that the .mdl takes it's hard deck with it no matter where I place it and if I can figure out the texturing process next I think I'll be well on the way to producing the models I'd originally wanted to :)

Cheers Guys :D
 
Hi, Alan, If you become efficient at texturing in Gmax, please share your methods. I am so slow at the Gmax texturing process such that I shy away from the program even though I can see it is a powerful modeling tool.

Cheers--------Paul
 
Hi Gentlemen,

I'm new to your forums, but have been following this thread with great interest!

I also want to make my own Aircraft carrier, but have Done a cosiderable ammount of work on it in FSDS3.

I have tried using AFCAD to create my landable flightdeck but for some reason, it just doesnt work:scratchch

Any help with the procedure of using AFCAD with regards to this issue would be hugley appreciated, as I want to make sure I'm doing it the right way.......lol !!

Thanks in advance:)
 
If you want to use afcad then all you need is an apron taxi link (the green one) at deck altitude running from the bow to the stern down the centre of the deck and wide enough to include the entire deck. It does not have to be connected to any other part of the afcad such as runway, parking etc. Two blue nodes and one line detached from everything else.
 
It doesn't have to be a new airport unless you don't already have an afcad for the carrier. If you already have an afcad for it then just add the one line, otherwise then, yes, new airport with a fictional ICAO code.
 
Thanks again Graham,

I haven't created one yet, I did try setting one up the other day to see if I could get a suspended Helipad to work, but that went south........lol, I'll give this a whirl and see what happens - Fingers crossed for this one........:rolleyes:
 
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