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Statis float planes which move with waves

jparnold

jparnold

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311
Country
australia
I have successfully created a static Otter aircraft using SAMM but it does not move about with the wave action like the FSX Super Cub Float aircraft does.
Is it possible to create a 'static' float plane which is not completely 'static' and bobs up and down with the waves?
Also is there a fix for loading aircraft in SAMM which don't cause the error "file name is too long" (or whatever it says - sorry I'm not at the PC I use with SAMM at present)?
Thanks
 
John, static aircraft are scenery models. Scenery models display at a fixed elevation. If you want a "static" aircraft to follow the wave action, you'll have to program as AI.

As for the "name too long" message, there's no fix because there's no error. As explained in the manual, texture names in the .mdl file are limited to 64 characters. (That a limitation of the compiler, not SAMM.) Texture file names are often duplicated across various aircraft. So that you can put more than one static model in a scenery file, the texture names in scenery modele are the assigned model name followed by the original texture name. The model name assigned at startup is the aircraft title from the aircraft.cfg file.

What the message is telling you is that the aircraft title concatenated with the longest texture file name exceeds 63 characters (64 - the seperator).

Since aircraft titles may be longer that 62 characters, even substituting texture names of a single character doesn't fully solve the problem - and introduces other complications. So, I'm afraid you'll have to continue shortening long titles.

Don
 
Don
Thanks for the explanation and advice.
I am a little worried about changing (file) names as it isn't as easy as just changing a name as you then have to find .cfg files etc which may also need to be modified (so the renamed files are found).
I may have a go at AI sometime.
 
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John, no need to change any file names. Just shorten the name shown in the Static Model Name field - though you'll probably want to keep the (shortened) name distinctive.

Don
 
Thanks Don shall do although that doesn't get around the need for a 'scenery object' (float plane) which moves about with the wave action.

I noted that when placing standard FSX default scenery objects (vehicles aircraft), using 'Aircraft Design Editor' for each floatplane available (eg C185_float) there is also 'static' model (eg C185_float_static), the static one does not move with wave action and the other one does.
I thought that it must be a more simple exercise to create a 'bobbing' aircraft scenery object.

I have never used AI aircraft only AI boats (using aibtc).
I would appreciate it if you could briefly advise what would be necessary to get a float plane to 'bob around' with wave action and what application to use.

I just determined that you are in BC. What area? It must be cold there now (did a coach tour in September).
 
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Better the cold we have than the heat you have. I can always put on a sweater.

For planning AI, you can't do any better than AI Flight Planner by yours truly.

You can get it from my website http://stuff4fs.com. Basically, establish a parking spot where you want the airplane, assign it a unique parking code, assign the same parking code to the aircraft you wish to use and set up a weekly flight plan that does one TNG each week in the middle of the night. The AI aircraft will just sit there, (hopefully) bobbbing in the waves.

Good luck,
Don
 
Thanks again Don,

I may already have AI Flight Planner, if not I will download it. Something new to learn which I don't mind as it keeps the mind active.

You are correct about being easier to get warm than to get cool. Last Tuesday I was at the top of Mt Wellington in Tasmania (over 1200 metres) after a cool change had arrived and with a strong wind from the south it felt like below 10C. When I arrived back in Sydney around 9pm it was still 34C and stayed there until after midnight when the cool change arrived.
Loved Vancouver, Banff, Jasper, Whistler, Victoria. I could move to any of them to live any time especially Vancouver and Victoria.
John
 
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