posted 10-01- 02:52 PM               

Now, finally, I want to know what this (Openplane) is. I went off and downloaded Bryan Russells thing for the laugh and now I'm interested.
So could someone explain all this stuff to me. Its seems to be quite complex yet interesting.
Please answer questions like what is OPS, what is Openplane and what are LOD's and DOF's?

How do you actually go about making a plane from scratch? What tools do you need and stuff like that?

All that kinda stuff- or else point me in the direction of learned knowledge.

Thanks very much,

Snake

posted 10-01- 04:57 PM               

What is OPS
OPS = OpenPlane Studio. This is a most excellent package developed (or rather in coninuous development) by Bryan. Everything could be done by hand in a text editor but without OPS I'm willing to bet none of this cool stuff would have happend. (Kudos to you Bryan...)

What is Openplane
OpenPlane is the desiged in structure that allows (and sometimes prevents ) us from making changes. Think of OpenPlane as Object Oriented Aircraft design. (If you know what Object Oriented Programming is, you will appreciate the power this gives us).

LOD's
LOD = Level Of Display. Simply put, you have the same part 2-3 different times each one gets less and less detailed. The cosmetic LOD (1st level) needs to be switched out as soon as possible. Why? The more detail you have, the more processoing power it takes. The 1st level LOD is the one you see when the plane is sitting on the tarmack waiting to take off. The 3rd level is what you see when its just a dot on the screen. There is no need to track all those vectors when there is no way the could be seen.

DOF's?
DOF = Degree of Freedom This is not a political statement but what (and how) things are moved. Its not really that hard and OPS makes it even easier.

How do you actually go about making a plane from scratch?

To the best of my knowledge no one has done this. Its far easier to take a plane that closely resembles what you are going to build and modify it. (For example if you were going to build a FW-189 you would probably start with a P-38)

What tools do you need and stuff like that?

You can find this at: http://www.schoolmusic.com/chickencoop/se5a/index.htm Follow the links to OpenPlane tools.

All that kinda stuff- or else point me in the direction of learned knowledge.

Check out the tutorials at: http://www.schoolmusic.com/chickencoop/se5a/index.htm

Whatever you work on, research the heck out of it....

Good Luck and Welcome!
Guys if I missed anything or if I made a mistake please don't hesitate to let me know...

------------------
Snickers
=FC=

[This message has been edited by Snickers (edited 10-01-2000).]

posted 10-01- 06:05 PM               

I think LOD means Level Of Detail though...(Same thing really...Maybe it can mean both?)

Snake!

Good luck with whatever you´re building (what is it?) and don´t hesitate to post more question here. There are a lot of people here who are more than glad to help you.

/Robert

posted 10-02- 04:17 PM               

I never even knew this stuff. I'm gonna have to learn to build some stuff. I might start with a crate then try a bigger version of the crate!

Thanks for your replies. Maybe a FAQ should be put together for newbies to FS rather than newbies to building (me)?

Thanks

posted 10-02- 05:12 PM            

especially, the bit about, using another plane to create a new one, and them not being made from scratch!

if what youv'e just written above gets but on a webpage, under "So you want to build a plane" i wouldn't get lost one week later! in this forum!, i think it's a real shame,!!

posted 10-09- 02:08 PM               

I, too, am new to this. I'm still trying to figure out what I need. Right now I think I know:

1) 3D modeling program (trueSpace 4)

2) Open Plane Studio

3) .par extraction tools from OpenPlane website (www.openplane.com)

One thing I'm still in the dark is the significance of the Fighter Squadron file system (such as the Media file and its importance). People need to know what all this means and where all the plane files go.

Once I get things together and try to build a plane I will put up a solid website pronto for newbies like me who are in the dark about building planes. There are some good tutorials out there, but they are for people who have their foot in the door, so to speak.
The more people involved, the more planes we'll have in the future. We need a good beginner website ASAP.

posted 10-09- 02:29 PM               

media
  Aircraft
    airfoils
      all airfoil files in here
    B17g
      B17g sm files and loadout.ppf file here
      Sounds
        B17 sound files here
      Textures
        B17 texture files here

------------------
-Sv =FC=

WWI in SDOE!

posted 10-09- 05:59 PM               

I downloaded Open Plane Studio and the ONLY plane that had an .sm file was the Bf110. Otherwise, there weren't any of these ".sm" files.

I was able to open the bf110 plane and edit it (I created two new engines and placed them on the wings saved it then flew it -- it flew pretty good, except that the new engines did not start). Bear in mind this is the first time I've done this.

I'm guessing I have to use stuff like Hippie and BigMunger to extract .par files of planes and create a .sm file -- who knows, I still don't know what the hell all this stuff is for.

I downloaded BigMunder and tried to "create" a .sm file or a .par (who knows) and I used the B17G as the main file then created a par filed called "g.par" -- everything seemed to extract fine and I ended up with a .par file that was around 176k.

Now what? I'm just stuck with this "par" file.

I want to create an .sm file since that seems to be what works with OPS where I can actually edit stuff.

And just how the heck do I get a file into AC3D or trueSpace? Once I get it in there what do I save it as? OBJ? DXF? 3DS? And what do I load that mesh into? Open Studio only accepts .sm files. How do I turn something into an .sm file?

Sorry....

CRTF

posted 10-09- 06:40 PM               

You must unbig .par files, they are just compressed files. The best thing to do is download user created aircraft, these are not in .par files. The 5.3b plane pack uses .par files though - just find one-off downloads, then you will see all the sm files, texture files, and sound files.

I believe that MC MultiGen is a tool to convert back and forth between sm files and Creator files. Inertia used Creator to design the aircraft and terran for SDOE. Creator is quite expensive, over 3k.

The site I referenced above will explain how to start a new plane, edit the mesh using AC3D, and how to use OPS to set up the basic flight and damage models.

And do post questions here, many like to help. I know it feels like we answer the same quesions again and again, but it is much faster for new people to ask when they are confused than to poor over tons of links looking for the tidbits they need to get started. So ask away!

------------------
-Sv =FC=

WWI in SDOE!

posted 10-10- 01:27 AM               

I UnBig-ed the B17 file out of the SDOE directory to a new file. I eventually got a bunch of tiff files but no .sm file. I had to sort of create a par file from the original b17 par file and then extract that. Nothing happens when I extract the original b17 file.

I just don't know what the steps are. I followed the readme file, too.

I'll keep try'in.