posted 03-13- 05:30 PM
Well here is the steps I use.1) Rotate the plane about a bit, in wireframe, and look for good places to cut the plane up in to the following key parts:
Inner wing
Outer wing
engine(s)
Tail
Tail Surfaces (not control surfaces)
Gear (if present)
2) Single side the plane, optimize vertices and faces, and then double side the single sided parts.
3) 'Cut the selected object' on plane into the above parts, checking to make sure that I cut only the faces I want.
4) Move each piece to 0,0,0 - optimize verticies and surfaces again, just in case, and export each piece into different .lod files. Make sure you name them something you recognize.
5) Load up OPS, pick a victim plane, and 'save as' it into the new plane's directory with the new plane's name.
6) Import and position each part to satisfaction.
7) Decide which of the original parts you aren't going to use and delete them.
8) Adjust the plane parameters (airArea, engHP, etc) to resemble the target plane.
9) Copy the original plane's loadout.ppf into the new plane's directory.
10) Edit the loadout.ppf file to match new the plane, ie change the name, delete deleted gun references....
11) Test fly that puppy.
12) Mix between adjusting the model, FM, DM, weapons/loadout, and texture adjustments as desired.
13) Gasp for air when it finally looks like a SDOE plane.
Notes:
- Save and backup often. I had to start over numerous times after a stupid mistake.
- Don't do it all in one sitting. Goof off some.
- Make sure you have good 3-views and data for the plane
- Don't worry about control surface deflections if you don't have the data, find the data and change it later.
- Use the current lods for level 2 lods as you will be making detail enhancements to the model, and use the rest of the orgininal .lod files to fill out the rest of the lod levels.
- People love new planes, just don't stop at a single beta release, periodically update it.
- CTD's on your first flight are common. Just check to see if the plane references models that are no longer there. More often than not, deleting the reference doesn't hurt anything.
- If your plane has a seperat .sm file for the cockpit, initially, change the name and path of the cockpit to match the plane you currently are working on or any changes done to it will affect the original plane's cockpit - OPS saves every .sm that it opens on a save. More to the point the external cockpit file IS the original cockpit file.
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posted 03-11- 03:59 PM
posted 03-12- 10:15 AM
