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FSXA Vtail questions

Flyboy_6cm

Flyboy_6cm

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us-michigan
Hello all. I am very new to modeling, and have been trying to work my own way through and figure this out (didn't want to bother the pros here with my noobish question, I know how tiring it can get answering the same thing over and over again), but I have been unable to find my answers in the SDK or here on the forums so here goes.

1) For a Vtail aircraft, what are the proper animation tags for the left and right sides.

2) For a 3 blade adjustable pitch prop, how do you get all three blades to rotate simultaneously when one (the parent) is rotated. Also where should the pivot be set and on what alignment.

3) When I start my normal Gmax (no FSX gamepack), everything runs fine, but I still have the FSTools tab (none of them work though). When I start Gmax through the FSX gamepack shortcut, everything works fine for a few seconds, but then crashes. Also does the entire aircraft need to be made in the FSX gamepack version of Gmax, or can I just port over what I made without the gamepack to do lights and animations and such?

4) When I try to setup a reference box for a 3 view drawing, I only get extremely low res texture, even if the texture is huge. Any way to fix this?

5) And last, For animating 3D gauges and such, are there actual tags listed in the SDK that we use for animating them, or do we have to go about it a different way? I'm asking this way because I know most of you guys can't really tell me the entire thing, but a few hints would be nice.

Thanks for any help, and sorry I heaped all of this into one thread of fail :(


PS: Is there some kind of tutorial out there on how to use bones. I hear you guys talking about it quiet a bit, and I get the general idea, but I have no clue how to even start using them.
 
Can't answer all these, but the drawings resolution I can:-

driverconfigrc3.jpg
 
Hi Flyboy,

that's quite a lot stuff you're asking, but there is absolutely no need to apologize, as we're all learning from each other here!

Flyboy_6cm said:
1) For a Vtail aircraft, what are the proper animation tags for the left and right sides.
Click to expand...

I have no clue. In a first attempt you could try to use dummies and the stock-animations for that. I.e. you add two dummies at the pivotal center of the tails and rotate them in order to align it with the axis. Animate both, the actual geometry and the dummy but don't give them the full deflection. Next you link the actual control surface to the dummy accordingly. FS-Animate-Tag the dummies for instance with the elevator_percent_key flag and the control surface with the rudder_percent_key. Export, and have a look if it works. If not.... errr..... it wasn't MY idea! :D

Flyboy_6cm said:
2) For a 3 blade adjustable pitch prop, how do you get all three blades to rotate simultaneously when one (the parent) is rotated. Also where should the pivot be set and on what alignment.
Click to expand...

make sure that you have the hierarchy setup correctly! in the case of the prop I would recommend you to link the props to the spinner and animate the spinner with the "prop0_still" tag. However, it gets more fun (or frustrating) when you start dealing with the slow- and blurred propdisc. Make sure to have a look how to tag "visibility" properties to parts.

Flyboy_6cm said:
3) When I start my normal Gmax (no FSX gamepack), everything runs fine, but I still have the FSTools tab (none of them work though). When I start Gmax through the FSX gamepack shortcut, everything works fine for a few seconds, but then crashes. Also does the entire aircraft need to be made in the FSX gamepack version of Gmax, or can I just port over what I made without the gamepack to do lights and animations and such?
Click to expand...

Gosh, that sounds strange! Does it crash with an error message? Are you sure you have the gamepack installed correctly?

You can of course start modelling without the gamepack, but I wouldn't recommend it, as there are some features that you would miss out. So for now please focus on getting the gamepack running properly!

Flyboy_6cm said:
4) When I try to setup a reference box for a 3 view drawing, I only get extremely low res texture, even if the texture is huge. Any way to fix this?
Click to expand...

yep. Open the "viewport" section in the preferences and check out a different 3D driver. At the moment I am running Direct3D and that works pretty good, but that depends on your systems.
Also check the "configure driver" dialog and make sure that you have set the texture properties correctly.

Flyboy_6cm said:
5) And last, For animating 3D gauges and such, are there actual tags listed in the SDK that we use for animating them, or do we have to go about it a different way? I'm asking this way because I know most of you guys can't really tell me the entire thing, but a few hints would be nice.
Click to expand...

oook for that kind of stuff, there are no stock animations. It works like this:
with the sdk comes a modeldef.xml in which ALL the 3D Animations can be defined. You need to setup a new part animation with a unique GUID (which is just a random number in a specific MS format) and define the corresponding Variable. There is a huge database on working XML code over at the FDFSSDFSDFSSDFFFDSS forum (or... whatever :D), which can help you a lot to get started. Also make sure that you read the "user defined animation" section in the sdk.

Flyboy_6cm said:
Thanks for any help, and sorry I heaped all of this into one thread of fail :(
Click to expand...

Yeah! Shame on you! :p

Flyboy_6cm said:
PS: Is there some kind of tutorial out there on how to use bones. I hear you guys talking about it quiet a bit, and I get the general idea, but I have no clue how to even start using them.
Click to expand...

aaah that's Bjoerns question. I think he recommended a jetway-animation-tutorial for that which I never reviewed... :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Vitus
 
Thanks for the quick help guys.

1) I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the Vtail. I thought they would have a separate tag since there is a Vtail section in the aircraft config files. If nothing else I could give a go at creating my own tags.

2) I guess I could have phrased that better. I have it set so that the three blades spin with the spinner hub whenever I move that, but what I want is for each blade to spin upon its own vertical axis for pitch and feathering. I would really like if I could just adjust one blade and have them all move.

3) Still no luck on the Gamepack problems. I'm not sure I have it installed right at all. I thought it was just a drag and drop thing but now I'm not so sure. All it says when it crashes is that "Gmax stopped responding".

4) Thank for solving this one right away. I changed my driver and my settings, now everything looks so much better I can actually model in the perspective viewport now.

5) Once again I will give a go at creating my own tags for this (yay, I get to learn another code language :mischievo)

Also, I keep seeing you guys refer to that other forum in that way, is there any particular reason?
 
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Freeflight Design = FFDS (http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi)

not to be confused with...

Flight Simulator Design Studio = FSDS

...although sometimes it is hard to keep 'em separated since FFDS seems to be the most common hangout for FSDS users... :rotfl:

As for the ..\FSX_GmaxGamePack it is not a drag-and-drop installation, it is a copy/paste installation (this leaves the original in the SDK folder!):

C:\gmax\gamepacks\FSX_GmaxGamePack

Right-click on the FSX_GMax shortcut and Send-to-Desktop.

Right-click on the new Desktop Shortcut and set the Properties to launch with the options "Disable visual themes" and "Disable desktop composition" and "Launch as Administrator" active.

Open your plugin.ini file and make certain the paths are set properly:

[Directories]
Standard gmax plug-ins=StdPlugs\
Additional gmax plug-ins=plugins\
FSX=gamepacks\FSX_GMaxGamepack\plugins\
[Help]
Click to expand...

As for the prop pitch question, the easiest procedure is to animate one blade, then use the Array Tool to auto-generate the other blades. The Array Tool will instantly clone/rotate your animated blade for you... :D
 
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Thanks, I never though of arraying it for some reason. All I meant about the ffds thing is I've seen it posted FFSDFDFFFDSSDFFFDSDSDF and the such a couple of times. I didn't know if it was a banned phrase or what.

And for the gamepack thing, I set it up like you said and it seems to be working, we will see if there are any lasting ill effects.
 
Flyboy_6cm said:
Thanks, I never though of arraying it for some reason. All I meant about the ffds thing is I've seen it posted FFSDFDFFFDSSDFFFDSDSDF and the such a couple of times. I didn't know if it was a banned phrase or what.

And for the gamepack thing, I set it up like you said and it seems to be working, we will see if there are any lasting ill effects.
Click to expand...

Nah, it's just that the two acronyms use the same letters albeit arranged differently, so it's hard to keep 'em straight! :D

I've been using the FSX Gamepack without any issues for nearly four years now... (I had it during the beta process.)
 
I guess I will be asking another question.

I have it ground into my head that all objects must be manifold, but if this is true I can't figure out how to do glass. I am actually trying to do a nav light lens cover, but am kinda stuck right now.

On that note, do for something like the nav light, should it be detached from the wing and called something else, or can I leave it attached and just texture it differently than the rest of the wing.

Sorry again if I'm asking stupid questions, I really haven't gotten much of a chance to read up on texturing, and I would like to get it setup right the first time.
 
You could set up a multi-material for the wing, with the light assigned a glass-like material and the rest of the wing something else.
Mapping this would probably be more awkward, so I detached the landing light polys as a separate object and also capped the holes in the wing that resulted.

I'm new to this too, so if anyone has better ideas?

snap115.jpg


snap116.jpg
 
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Flyboy_6cm said:
I guess I will be asking another question.

I have it ground into my head that all objects must be manifold, but if this is true I can't figure out how to do glass. I am actually trying to do a nav light lens cover, but am kinda stuck right now.
Click to expand...

That is an incorrect assumption. There is no requirement for any object to be manifold, save in the very special case of an interior model when it is desired to enable self-shadowing of individual parts in a virtual cockpit...

...and even then, I'm not so sure that's even required post SP2/Acceleration.
 
Vitus said:
aaah that's Bjoerns question. I think he recommended a jetway-animation-tutorial for that which I never reviewed... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Here's an article I wrote about an example for the application of bones in FSX.

I took the opportunity and updated it with information on exporting.



n4gix said:
That is an incorrect assumption. There is no requirement for any object to be manifold, save in the very special case of an interior model when it is desired to enable self-shadowing of individual parts in a virtual cockpit...
Click to expand...

But, but, but...an STL Check showing no errors at all is so...beautiful... :( :D
 
And one more: for off axis animations like gear doors, is there a way to get it to rotate around the "hinge" line or do I have to rotate it via a combination of x,y,z rotations?
 
Flyboy_6cm said:
And one more: for off axis animations like gear doors, is there a way to get it to rotate around the "hinge" line or do I have to rotate it via a combination of x,y,z rotations?
Click to expand...

I've animated mine with a combination of rotation and movement.

If you're really patient you can also find the real hinge line via trial and error.
 
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