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Author
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Topic: Catalina?
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li'l bastard
Pilot
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posted 06-28- 10:13 AM
   
so how's the Cat project goin on? I posted some time ago the "water" message and somebody had a good idea about the floating problem, dunno if u big head engineers out there read it, but it was a good one: to put an invisible vertical line in the baricenter(? dunno how to say it, the point where all the forces are balanced or something) with a 4 wheels trail under it, so the wheels would run in the lower surface of water(the one which makes blow up our planes, forgot to say that some terrain guru should change the "explosive surface" in a more realistic non-explosive 1...)...this should work even for the torpedoes...maybe my explanation hasn't been that clear, anyway go to check my "Water!Water!!Water!!!" post of some time ago, maybe you would understand it better. I really care about the water thingie (as many of u I think...), I would love to help u in any way, if only I could understand something of 3D models and stuff... :-)li'l b. out ------------------
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jedi
Pilot
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posted 06-28- 11:12 AM
Seems to me there are two ways to tackle this. One requires reprogramming the source code, and one doesn't (I think).If we could create new coding, we'd need a couple of things: 1) the ability to create a new property: CPontoon. This would be like CTire, but instead of creating a "wheel point" for moving over the land, would create a "hull point" for moving over the water. Obviously, this property could be attached to the lower portion of a flying boat, torpedo, skip bomb, and even a player-controlled vessel like a PT boat (or a SUB!) 2) a damage modifier: obWaterResistant, like obFireResistant, to modify how much damage the water imparts to the vehicle. For a PBY, for example, the hull might have obWaterResistant set to 0.9, but the wings would be 0.1. The other approach is to modify the water itself. It's possible to set parts of the plane to be "invulnerable" to damage. If you create a LAND subsurface just below the water, you should be able to design "water-gear" that is invisible but supports the plane (torpedo, bomb, etc) by "colliding" with the land surface and holding the plane just level with the water above. You could key this gear to, say, the pontoons on a PBY so that it didn't interfere with the operation of the main landing gear. The drawback would be that if you accidentally dropped your torpedo on land, it would "bounce" before it actually hit the ground  I think our terrain gurus and plane gurus could probably make that second idea work, but the first one would need "hand of god" type assistance... ------------------
--jedi-- IP: Logged |
Snickers
Pilot
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posted 06-28- 01:08 PM
I think Nat was working on the second concept for the Pacific..... The first one is more than a matter of damage (I can do that now....) its also a matter of anything with mass will sink. There needs to be a way to come up with a zero buoyancy (if is 0 it doesnt sink) This would help our ship builders enormously too. In fact it would greatly change what can be done. (You would need to make the game engine start on water which it also currently wont do....)As far as the "Cat" herself? In the process of arming it. There may (hopefully) be a surprise regarding the model itself, but I wont count on it... Please remembet that I am learning all of this stuff at the same time.... (Plus I like to fly PLUS I involved in the WAR Oy! ------------------
Snickers
=FC=
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Nat
Pilot
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posted 06-28- 06:39 PM
It would be possible to add a second layer to the water.. adding a "land" layer below the water, it would only need to be ,aybe a couple of feet below as the water does the damage, and the sinking it pretty much un needed (cept it makes my ships look cool when they go down.. lol)This would best be done in Max (or AC3D) by importing a water tile, changing it's material property to land, the reimport the tile again, moving the reimported tile so it sits just above the now land tile, export this and import it to every water tile object in OPS. Problems with this mayb be that you will have to remap each and every water tile with it's corresponding texture, but it would enable you to basically have an "extended" water landing gear, with no obhits value, that would pass through the water layer without taking damage, and "land" on the level below.. it might mean that the aircraft would sit above the water slightly, but who cares  Thing is, it's one helluva lot of work, and since we haven't fully cracked building new terrian (although I know almost enough already) it would not be something that we could do easily and quickly, plus any terrain download is going to be atleast 9mb in size, and they would only be able to land on this new terrains water.. bummer.. Codeing is the best way to go, but may not be possible at all, I don't know. again, as I've said in the past, the basics of building new terrain, and Terra Forming in SDOE is actually very easy, so if anyone want details, just mail me, I'd be more than glad to pass on the infor.. one day I should type up a basic tutorial, or tips and tricks for it and post it up here. ~Nat~ IP: Logged |
li'l bastard
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 07:55 AM
ok, so let's make the point of the situation:
1)the new coding idea would be the ultimate and better solution, but u think is there somebody who has enuff guts to start what seems to be a so massive recoding?
2)the modifications of the sea layers sounds as the better solution, however it's always a big work to do... that's what I understood(always remember i dunno almost anything in 3d building )
there are 2 layers, the upper is water, the lower (how many feet?)is the stupid explosive layer (i'm still trying to understand why the activision programmers did it!!!  ). The lower explosive layer should be changed into a ground layer. The next step should be to create invisible trails to land on the new lower ground layer, but if so, wouldn't they work even when the plane lands on an airfield? We could have a Cat who floats in the air  !!!!! so these invisible landing gears should even be retractable...
Needless to say that anyway it's a great job...will anybody be so corageous to do it?
I swear I would like to help u, but right now I'm creating a 3d model for a NASA new shuttle  and their money offer is veeeeery yummy!!!!  li'l out ------------------
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Snickers
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 08:05 AM
No trails, the ground tile is just perfectly flat.. (or, all one big trail...) When the floats are lowered, then the invisible gear would come down. You didnt land a cat on a runway with the floats down. Heck the manual I have says that hard surface landings are for emergency only... IF you did, yes you may have a cat suspended in air.... By how far would be determined by the distance between the water tile and the ground tile. (There has to be some or the PBY wont settle in the water....) ------------------
Snickers
=FC=
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li'l bastard
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 08:14 AM
I don't remember how's exactly made a Cat, I thought she has a central hull and 2 FIXED wing floaters plus a landing gear which retracts almost like the 4F4 (i said almost...)...
well, maybe my english is not that good...anyway  li'l P.S.
maybe there's been a misundertanding, i didn't mean trail, but a gear, a truck or whateva... ------------------
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Snickers
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 11:55 AM
Wing floats on the PBY-5A and after retracted (don't know about before...) Also, Prior to the 5-A there were no wheels. They would land on water taxi, into a lagooon, attach wheels and tow them ashore. There were also ships that served as PBY tenders. Land and then they hoist the plane aboard for refuel and rearm as well as repairs. Other than that your description was pretty close. Can send you pics if you really want... ------------------
Snickers
=FC=
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li'l bastard
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 12:02 PM
I trust u dude!!!!! So which version r u doin?
Btw, u think u can start to post an alpha? I'm sooooo impatient!!!!
Li'l------------------
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semmern
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 02:11 PM
Wundah what 'twould be like to land the PBY on a hard-surface runway, 'cause in real life, the Cat had no flaps, the pilots just stalled it down on the water.IP: Logged |
Snickers
Pilot
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posted 06-29- 02:37 PM
Well fancy that! Tha cat wont have flaps in the game either! Hopefully we will all get to see what it would be like. Seriously? Not that bad. It didnt have flaps because it didnt need them. Wingspan was greater than a B-17. Wing area was 1400 Sq ft. Land speed was 75-85 mph depending on load. And a stall speed of 63 MPH with gear down meant you were not comeing in fast. (Actually you didnt go anywhere fast....)BTW - lb It will be a PBY-5A with weaponry like the guys in the Pacific used (not always in the original design...) Later on we could take it to a 6A with no problems espescially if that new fangled radar works out.... Then there is always the MAD variant. There was also one that was a mine sweeper, but we dont have mines. ------------------
Snickers
=FC=
[This message has been edited by Snickers (edited 06-29-2000).] IP: Logged | |
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