FSX Some General Modeling Questions

[Leovenous]

Hello,

I have some general questions before I start drilling down in the child boards.

Some background. I've been foisted into the Engeneering Surface Vessels department of the Virtual US Coast Guard. I've been working on my first model for FS, the Hamilton Class 378' WHEC Cutter:

My first question is simple: Do I need to the model to be above the waterline only, or is there any point in having the full draft?

Next, is there a way make vessels move, particularly at a specific heading or even a route?

Here's another one. Can you animate scenery objects in FS9 and FSX? What I'm looking at would be things like opening or closing the hangar door, or raising or lowering the safety nets around the helipad. And if you can, are they activated by time, a key, or even proximity?

And what kind of poly count should I be going for, particularly since this model needs to have a FS9 version?

Lastly: Is it possible to mount both regular lights, and a glideslope light on the boat?

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[arno]

Hi,

My first question is simple: Do I need to the model to be above the waterline only, or is there any point in having the full draft?

I don't think you can see the part below the water surface in FS, so there is no real need to model it. Although it might be easier to keep it in your model if it is there already. If you look at the default ships included in FSX they seem to have a complete hull for most of them.

Here's another one. Can you animate scenery objects in FS9 and FSX? What I'm looking at would be things like opening or closing the hangar door, or raising or lowering the safety nets around the helipad. And if you can, are they activated by time, a key, or even proximity?

Conditional animations can be done in FS2004 by using my CAT tool. You can then trigger the animation based on some condition. These FS2004 MDL files do still work in FSX as well. But in native FSX MDL files you can not use these conditional animations for scenery.

And what kind of poly count should I be going for, particularly since this model needs to have a FS9 version?

Performance is determined by the combination of triangle count and number of drawcalls. If you want to land on the ships I would use more triangles, then in the case you only fly by. I guess if you try to keep it at a few thousand it will probably be OK.

Lastly: Is it possible to mount both regular lights, and a glideslope light on the boat?

Yes, adding lights is possible. It can be done with effects or in the FS2004 gamepack with the BGL_LIGHT option. Glideslope light will be harder, since they need to change colour. In the FS2004 MDL format it should be possible, but probably with some hand tweaking of the code.

 

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Leovenous -
That's a lovely looking low-poly hull.

Do I need to the model to be above the waterline only,
or is there any point in having the full draft?

Please do keep the full-hull model.

Otherwise it's going to look very odd
once you've implemented pitch/roll/yaw in the FDEs.

Next,
is there a way make vessels move,
particularly at a specific heading or even a route?

In FS9 using an extended taxiway AFCAD.
In FSX eaither as precompiled routed traffic,
or by simconnect injection.

Here's another one.
Can you animate scenery objects in FS9 and FSX?
What I'm looking at would be things like
opening or closing the hangar door,
or raising or lowering the safety nets around the helipad.
And if you can, are they activated by time, a key, or even proximity?

If being used as a pilotable model,
then key activation will work for both FS versions.

And what kind of poly count should I be going for,
particularly since this model needs to have a FS9 version?

According to your screenies,
at 1,407 polys,
you've already achieved AI level.

For your mast structures -
Rather than creating a girder based structure,
try a creating a pyramid,
double-sided for texturing.

Similarly for handrails,
double-sided textured polys.

Lastly:
Is it possible to mount both regular lights,
and a glideslope light on the boat?

Yes should be possible using attached effects.

I've a WIP,
detail to follow later.



HTH
ATB
Paul