posted 12-21- 02:21 PM
Well...The SE5a was never meant to be a real winner. I used it to learn and document the process. I figured the SE5a was good for this because:
1. It is not the most colorful or pretty anyway.
2. We only had one WWI plane and it was German, so an advisary was in order.
3. I know what the SE5a looks like off-hand best.
4. I could learn DOFS by animating the Lewis gun on the Foster mount.
Am am working with charmstar (thanks charmstar!) to finish the SE5a. He is working on the FM, DM, and collision points. We will continue to put out better versions - but if you want a real nice SE5a it needs to be started from scratch. For example, the dihedral of the wings is in the LOD - this is bad for looks, FM, and makes it impossible to skin the lower surface of the wings with a seperate texture than the top. Also there are too many polygons in most LODS 
The SE5a is still cool, but I want to make a plane now that I don't have to:
1. Document each step. This took like 50%+ of my time.
2. Learn basic OpenPlane/3D diting as I go. This probabloy took like 40% of my time heheh.
Also now I'm doing one of my favorite planes. I will also plan ahead more this time - decide the structure of the model for FM and DM purposes.
I am also working with Pang (Yes!!!) to implement the correct airfoils. This will allow the WWI planes to fly like, well, WWI planes!
Do let me know what you think of this plan though. If there are thoughts that the SE5a should be polished more we can work on that. The main reason for slowing down work on the SE5a is that it is not worth taking too much further due to basic fundamental flaws.
By the way, the Fokker DR1 suffers many flaws too - but mostly in DM and FM. The Fokker can be easily used as a baseline, unlike the SE5a due mostly to the fact that the SE5a has weak (sucky) 3d modeling.
I still suck at 3D editing 
Let me know your feedback please! Much thanks!
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-Sv =FC=
WWI in SDOE!