Ménestrel HN-700 for Prepar3D v4

[Lagaffe]

Good morning,

A few words to present an old project dating from 2011 (http://frenchvfr.free.fr/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=86&mnuid=491&tconfig=0) that I decided during Christmas hollidays to update for Prepar3D.
This project which has born under Gmax has been translated for Blender in order to use the possibility to create Ambient Occlusion and improve the final textures.

The result:

I made the same operation for the aircraft's interior and it's wonderful to obtain this result with so little works.

With a checker image (2048 pixels) to see the resolution of fuselage and wings

 

[rotorhub]

Good morning,

A few words to present an old project dating from 2011 (http://frenchvfr.free.fr/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=86&mnuid=491&tconfig=0) that I decided during Christmas hollidays to update for Prepar3D. This project which has born under Gmax has been translated for Blender in order to use the possibility to create Ambient Occlusion and improve the final textures.

I made the same operation for the aircraft's interior and it's wonderful to obtain this result with so little works.

With a checker image (2048 pixels) to see the resolution of fuselage and wings

It looks very nice, and will pobably work well in VR as well. .

 

[Lagaffe]

Some news of this VFR aircraft ...

The exterior is going to be finished soon (it remains the front gear before) and the mapping of the various pieces is almost finished, textures and paintkit are 80% realized, it will be for me to detail the cockpit.
Then there will remain animations and XML coding but on this last point I put in reserve a lot of lines of code XML since I started to create planes for FS2004 then FSX and finally P3D 64bits.

 

[Lagaffe]

Some news about this Ménestrel HN-700.
Recently, I discover Substance Painter/Quixel products and the possibility to create better textures (I am not a good painter ). So I try to use S.P. in order to improve my texture creations.
Here is the result obtained with the front and rear wheels of the Ménestrel:

The workflow must be improved because for the moment it's very empiric solution

 

[KL791]

Some news about this Ménestrel HN-700.
Recently, I discover Substance Painter/Quixel products and the possibility to create better textures (I am not a good painter ). So I try to use S.P. in order to improve my texture creations.
Here is the result obtained with the front and rear wheels of the Ménestrel:

The workflow must be improved because for the moment it's very empiric solution

Bonjour, Well if you are not good at painting then I must be horrible.... Looks nice And as usual from your hand this is superb modeling - and also a beautiful plane with nice lines. I look forward to testing it.

Henrik

 

[Lagaffe]

Some news with the cockpit which has find his gauges, radio and all Ambient Occlusions :

Perhaps, it is a little dark ?

One of the first view under Prepar3D v4.2 ...

 

[jencas]

Yee-haw, that's looking terrific!!!

 

[Lagaffe]

After three days of hollidays, somes pics of my work on the cockpit and the pilote with Substance Painter 2.

Cockpit

The textures that are made from Substance Painter 2, have required quite a lot of investment in the software since Christmas but I think I have found an operating mode that gives satisfaction and that allows despite the fact that the tool is rather designed for PBR textures to get "basic" textures that you just have to arrange in your graphics software to get the final texture.

For the moment the Bumps are not finished for the interior cockpit but the plane and its pilot are 300 Mo, the MDL weigh 14 Mo each and the whole is only 174 000 polys....
That said I still have a lot of details to add and animations to include.

 

[antaris]

Beau travail, monsieur Lagaffe.

 

[Kekelekou]

Gorgeous indeed, Didier!
The pilot’s skin is looking a bit shiny though. She’s just out of the sauna?

 

[Heretic]

Hot day, plexiglass canopy.

Any plans for less Lara Croft and more female pilot (headset, sunglasses, maybe a basecap)?

 

[Lagaffe]

Hi,

Theses screenshots were the firsts images that I capture after my job of the weekend on this subject. The work isn't finish and I should add some improvement on "my pilot": headset, circular sunglass ...
Pilot's textures should be modificated (alpha channel is'nt correct for me).
I had also to work on the rain effects (trueglass) ....
But this will be the job of the next week

 

[Lagaffe]

Since the release v4.4 of P3D, I think use his SDK to create PBR texture for this airplane.

 

[Lagaffe]

Two years after, it seems that a lot of people has adopted Substance Painter solution, and Quixel was forgetten of P3D developments.
My Mesnestrel is in the last step of development and will be released as soon as possible.

 

[rotorhub]

Two years after, it seems that a lot of people has adopted Substance Painter solution, and Quixel was forgetten of P3D developments.
My Mesnestrel is in the last step of development and will be released as soon as possible.

This looks very nice and sleek Great modelling! I still have not looked at either Substance Painter or Quixel, but for PBR I guess it's a must. It's on my "To Do" list.

Rotorhub

 

[Lagaffe]

And in the same aspect, I have done a serious maj on the first project (Gmax in 2010) to finish it under Blender 2.83.
This is the Menestrel HN-433 (one seat) build by Jean-Claude Allard (http://avionmenestrel.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=106) and which is always in order to fly:

 

[Lagaffe]

Another view of this Menestrel HN-433 in Blender:

 

[Lagaffe]

Hi,

An another view of my last project, debited in 2010 on Gmax and that I want to finish and publish for Prepar3D v5 via Blender3P3DFSX.

This screen was made last week but I have some improvements on the cockpit and exterior is full mapped via TexTools for Blender.

More screens tomorow ...

 

[Lagaffe]

Good evening, sir,

I still manage to advance this Minstrel.

The Ambient Occlusions of the wings, the fuselage and the interior are almost finished, a retouch on the interior remains to be done.
I've been working on the details forgotten 8 years ago on the first version for FS2004 and since Prepar3D and MSFS accept polys without flinching, I'm letting go ...

Here is the cockpit, at least the high view of the instrument panel and the instruments as well as the magnificent seat (original blue velvet) to welcome your serant during the long hours of flight.

On the left side we have the cockpit vent, the two latches to lock the canopy, a little lower is the trim control. On the seat the safety harness finished yesterday and on the left the radio block and its connectors for the helmet.

As well as the low view with the crankset and brakes (work of the day) in progress

I have voluntarily left the "wireframes" (the construction wire) to give you an idea of the number of vertices and polygons that need to be processed to achieve a nice visual.
If I don't mess up on the textures, it should be able to pass in the "payware" category.

For the flight model, I was able to keep the center of gravity of this model on the 2010 one so the old flight model that we had refined with "Bee-Gee" (Restauravia and RFN team) is still current and so apart from the animations and textures ... it's not too bad

 

[Lagaffe]

Today, I have finish the 3D and mapped all pieces so I will began textures.
First with my old method an then with Substance Painter ...

The cockpit