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Author
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Topic: "lighter than air" craft?
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juzz
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 11:11 AM
  
Is it possible to do balloons with OpenPlane?A few thoughts: Ballast: If fuel weight is added to a planes weight and removed as it is used in OpenPlane, add a motor to the balloon that uses fuel like crazy - simply turn it on to drop "ballast". Can you make a DOF that "shrinks" in length? - maybe use this for the tether rope for spotting balloons. Or can you simulate a "rope" and spool it around a rotating DOF to act as a proper winch? The Biggest question: HOW DO YOU MAKE IT FLOAT? IP: Logged |
spin
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 11:48 AM
Could you make a part of the object's weight negative? If you can then a balance would be possible with a lower part of the "plane" having a positive weight that would keep the baloon above the basket. What are the dynamics of the parachute /ejected pilot? It floats down slowly. Maybe it could be used with some added properties to make it go up. If you made it weigh 0 maybe you could make it go up and down with a couple of vertical props. One pushing up and the other down. Or if the object had a slightly positive total weight then only one prop would be needed.
[This message has been edited by spin (edited 01-25-2000).] IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 12:38 PM
Soon I'll attempt to "fly" my Zepplin I made some time ago. My plans are to do a thing like how Bessie (the flying cow) is made. She has inertia wings but you just can't see them. I figure make the Zepp light enough, with a large wing area and span, and some nice fairly slow motors. I'm SURE it'll kick butt! Can't wait to try it. Oh and of course the fins in back will work as adverstised (ok... in theory but there is no reason they shouldn't). In thinking about obBodypts, I'll just put them along the model, that way the invisible "wings" won't make it crash when near other objects. As soon as my F-14 is done I'll work on this as a nice diversion.  [This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 01-25-2000).] IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 01:15 PM
Why not use invisable bombs as ballast?Also you don't need wings I think, just an invisable prop to give vertical thrust. But now the pilot can adjust the throttle... Hmmmm... I guess make it only float at full throttle, let then turn it down at their own perill! SO you have 2 engines, 1 controls the floating and one controls the standard "real" engine. Also do break the ship into multiple areas - that way you can use model replacement to show bullet holes, maybe smoke too when hit? Or would it just go "pop!"? Also let them shoot the engines/flight deck off heheh. I want to make a WWI observation balloon... I'm still debating how to best impliment this. ------------------
-Sv =FC=
WWI in SDOE!
IP: Logged |
juzz
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 01:43 PM
The motor/fuel method would give you finer control over your weight I think, rather than heaps of little invisible bombs. Depends on whether they used sandbags or water for ballast; to determine which method is more realistic? The problem with wings is that you must maintain some airspeed - "hovering" will be impossible  A prop pointing up means you can have very instantaneous "weight" control, not very realistic - plus you might run out of fuel, not realistic either. Also wouldn't that prop make torque? so you would end up with a helicopter that "looks" like a zepplin. Can you actually make an object "float" in OpenPlane? Eg: make it's "density" really low? SDOE has simulated "fire" doesn't it? I guess you could have the zepplin sections catch fire independant and pass the fire on to the next section as it burns. Eventually there would be a big bang though!  I think the observation balloon would be the first hurdle - getting it to float, and then being able to raise/lower it on a tether cable. IP: Logged |
charmstar
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 04:31 PM
I remember I asked about balloons last spring sometime (was it that long ago?)... anyhow, the answer was something to the effect of there not being the ability to make floating things, UNLESS they have no inertia. So, you can make things that don't move, and which will stay in the air, but not a balloon that is free to blow about in the wind. At least, I think that was the upshot, but correct me if I'm wrong.Of course, it would be really cool if somebody found a way around this! charm IP: Logged |
Whirlwind
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 04:35 PM
You can set the mass of an object to anything you want, just as long as you don't set it down on water. I don't know how OP reacts to a negative number, but 0LBS should work. Just remember, fuel adds weight. A damage model might add weight as the vessel takes hits (no purple haze).IP: Logged |
Michael
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 05:44 PM
Some time ago I gave an airplane negative weight and it crashed the game. Anyhow, while it may be lighter than air, clearly a Zeppelin has a very large mass.I think you could make a convincing airship by having three or four invisible vertically mounted jet (so there's no torque) engines with unlimited fuel. You could position the engines well above the mass of the airship so that it "hangs" from the engines and is stable. Then add a couple of normally oriented prop engines to push the thing forward, some control surfaces and off you go. You could have a very limited throttle control on the jet engines movement to simulate venting gas and dropping ballast IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 06:52 PM
Sounds good Michael. Man all this talk is making me want to just go full speed into a Zepp project but I just got home with more F-14 books with nice instrument panel pics, so it's the cockpit first.IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 07:03 PM
Michael Now all we need is those jets
As far as i see there is know way of making a true jet engine in SDOE right now. Just a invisible prop. Sure hope we can figure this out though. Zepplins and balloons sound great.
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 01-25- 07:26 PM
Spanky,A jet is possible in the game. A fan/turbine in a jet engine spins as a prop does (although air is compressed inside the engine). In SDOE you can make the "prop" small to be that like in a jet engine, rotating at very high rpms to produce lots of thrust. So if you ask me, it can do it and does it well. Maybe not perfectly but it works. Just my opinion. IP: Logged |
juzz
Pilot
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posted 01-26- 10:59 PM
Erm, doesn't a jet provide thrust by expelling hot gases out the back end? The blades and crap at the front just compress the air into the combustion chamber I thought...?IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 01-26- 11:20 PM
True, the air gets compressed, ignited, and exits the exhaust. I guess this game needs work on the ignited part which would help with the exhaust part, ie thrust. My bad.IP: Logged |
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