Scenery and supporting AI for John's KC-390

[Firebird]

I haven't spoken to Greg since the first of the upgrade work but I definitely saw some changes on the web page after last weekend.
One of the changes being that there is a download link now on the header. It doesn't actually go the Hangar yet, just a holding page, but it shows that everything is moving in the right direction.

Greg is only able to spend time on this at weekends so my guess would be that Greg is hoping to do more work on it this weekend, real life permitting.

As well as putting the mechanism in place he is trying to make it as simple as possible to maintain for future upgrades.

If he is able to spend time this weekend I think that he would like to hope that this should complete the work.
One thing I know that he said the other week is that apart from setting the link up another big step was having to build the library index. He did say that he modified files so that more information and functionality was available to users. You modify any of the structure you need to build the index.
This became one of the issues for the overhaul of the site.

In an ideal world the linkage is already complete and it is index rebuild which is outstanding. He did say at the time that he thought that it might have to be a manual build and with the number of files that we have that could take some time.
Martin and myself are available to help with this if needed and if indeed the work can be split up.

That is all the info I have at this time.

[TimC340]

Thanks for the update Steve. I guess we'll expect it when we see it!

[TimC340]

For those interested, I've completed a Scope/Overview spreadsheet of the entire project. It's in the Documentation folder of my FTP. At the moment, it includes up to 41 airfields of which 31 have been started - and mostly completed, or very close.

I've organised the airfields into 5 geographic groups. The first, and primary, group includes SBAN, SBBR, SBGL, SBAF, SBGP, SWNS and SNMH (the last two are local airfields used to absorb some traffic from SBAN).

John is taking on all of the helicopter AFCADs and traffic files, apart from the SBES/Navy Lynx ones already completed.

Once SBAN is complete, and we are happy with the traffic in this region, I'll release it alongside John's KC-390 and E/C/R-99s and Ray, Jon and Mark's paints - subject to the Hangar being available. The helicopter stuff will release when John's ready, and I'll move on to the next regional group in turn and release them when they're complete. No timescale is implied or promised (and of course the Hangar may be the deciding factor) but I'd hope that the first group will be ready to go fairly soon.

Tomorrow I'll reorganise my FTP to reflect the groups, and redo the Progress document to fit the new structure.

And breathe....!

[f4nutter]

ok time for an update from me.

Brazilian Air force,H-36,VH-36 and H-60L are done.

Navy,UH-15 are done

Army, HM-3,HM-4 are done.

which only leaves the navy and army Blackhawks to do which i hope to finish this weekend and I will drop them into your FTP folders.
you can delete all previous Helo's i sent you as these have now been updated.

[John Young]

Tim, that is some spreadsheet! I was quite daunted too before seeing that, but now everything is laid out, I can see why you reacted as you did. It's a great help though and by breaking the project down into manageable chunks, it gives a lot of coherence to the project and a structure to manage.

Thanks Ray for the helicopter paints, they are timely and very welcome. I have nearly all the helicopter AFCAD overlays that we need, set up in P3D and working well with test traffic files. The overlays should work fine in FSX too and I will set them up where I have Tim's FSX versions of the scenery. I can now add in the additional paints and make the operational flight plans. For the Group 1 release, we only need the Brasilia VH-36s and they are done.

John

[TimC340]

Thanks Ray.

Question: with the A-29s, did you consider doing the Smoke Squadron ones? They’d be a nice addition to SBYS and a contrast to all the red and white! But no worries if you have other priorities. As with any of the aerobatic teams it’s difficult to write any kind of convincing traffic file for them, but it’s nice to have some flamboyance!

Right, more writing to do…

[John Young]

I thought the same thing too Ray, when I placed the prototype A-29 on the pole at the Embraer airfield. It's in the Smoke Squadron scheme and I have the .psp art work if it might be useful. It maps to my own static model that I created, but you can probably use the main elements. If you want to take this on, let me know if would like the file.

I could do some Black Hawk painting if you need to ease the load.

John

[Jobza Guddun]

As a 9-er none of this benefits me, but it's great to see artisans coming together on a project like this! Really nice work guys!

[Jorgen]

Jobza, you really have to get P3D to see all this - and other good stuff. I used to believe that FSX was as good as it could possibly get, but P3D is way way ahead of FSX.

If you do take the jump, my personal recommendation would be P3D v. 5 at this time.

Jorgen

[TimC340]

The Changes & Progress document has been updated to reflect the change of structure, as has my FTP folder. That's enough for today. Time for a beer!

[f4nutter]

John,Tim

I did consider doing the Smoke Squadron textures but can't find the correct font for the numbers ! so put them on the back burner.

John, I only have Army and Navy black hawks to do which I'm starting now and will send you all the helo's later tomorrow.

John, I did put the VH-36's in your FTP.

[TimC340]

Understood Ray. No worries - I’m extremely grateful for what you’ve already done!

[TimC340]

For those who may not have noticed, the Hangar is back. We can download, but we can't yet upload. John and I are busy refining various aspects of the airfields, but I'm hopeful that Part 1 (Central) will be ready to upload fairly soon. This will include my SBAN, John's SBGP, the modified stock SBBR and a few other airfields in this area. The package will also include the traffic files, and John's KC-390 and C/E/T-99s, plus Henry's C-208/208Bs as we have permission to distribute these. The documentation will include links to the needed, existing AI aircraft which we can't include. Jon had already uploaded his relevant paints to the Hangar before it was taken down. I'll include Mark's F-39s as they aren't accessible anywhere else. Ray, do you want me to include your paints or would you rather they were accessed separately, either via the Hangar or your site?

[f4nutter]

Hi Tim, please include my repaints with all the relevant packages or package.

all the helo's are now done I can zip them and send them to you and John later, please remove (delete) any previous helo's you have.
I would like to thank John Young for NEW blackhawk models including the H-60L, and the SH-16 (new Seahawk).

air force:

H-60L

H-36

VH-36


Army:

HM-2

HM-3

HM-4


Navy:

SH-16

UH-15


I enjoyed working on this, whats next ?

[John Young]

Brilliant job Ray and many thanks. We have 7 P3D airfields fitted out with AFCAD overlays for the helicopters and they are working fine with test flight plans. I just need to update the helicopters with your paints and make the operational flight plans. There is a bit of work to do on the FSX overlays, but I should have those done in the next few days.

John

[TimC340]

Knocked it out of the park again, Ray! Thank you so much.

John's found the secret error in my technique of reformatting my P3D airfields for FSX so I've got a bit of remedial work to do. I hope that I can use the remaining downtime of the Hangar upload system to fill in a few details in some of the airfields - and fix the problems that John has found!

I was going to say that after this is over I never want to see anything Brazilian again, but then again...

[Victory103]

Only a slight bias towards the H-60s, but they look great along with the rest of the WIP pics.

[TimC340]

Hi all. It's been a bit slow this week as I'm involved in a big concert this upcoming Sunday, and rehearsals are taking up a lot of time! I've just resigned from an admin position at another club I'm involved in, however, which will give me a bit more time going forward.

However, I've just uploaded a new version of SBAN for FSX to the FTP. There is a little tidying up needed, but John and I have been concentrating on the FSX airfields for the last week or two and there have been a number of issues found which were caused by the fact that I started by making the P3D versions first, and the conversion to FSX format was less straightforward than I hoped. This new SBAN, however, is basically a completely new production using only a few objects from the P3D version. The phototile is the same as the P3D version, however, and I'm a bit concerned that it may be too large a file for some users' installations. Have a look at it and see what you think. Comments welcome!

[TimC340]

Sorry I've been quiet for a week or so. John and I are continuing to refine the airfields for Part 1 and 2. I'm taking a weekend off, but thought I'd better check in and see when I last posted. Those who can visit the FTP will see some progress (it all in the documentation - easier than a random trawl through the files!). We are almost at a point where we can assemble the first package, awaiting the reopening of Hangar uploads. The subsequent parts will follow at intervals, the spacing of which will depend on how much the weather allows me to work on my garden and little house extension. I understand next week is forecast to be wet, so anticipate a good deal of work on the project!

[John Young]

As well as testing for Package 1, I have been continuing my work on enabling the beautiful helicopter paints that have been contributed by painters here. It involves creating overlay AFCADs to some of the main airfields. It has not been easy, but I think I have cracked the back of it. Firstly finding suitable sites for parking and access to a helicopter runway is not always obvious. The full length runway is not usually good for an overlay because the helicopters tend to jump AFCADs and freeze. The AFCAD overlays are in different formats for FSX and P3D, with sometimes different elevations between the two sims and between the published elevation and the sim elevations. On top of that care needs to be taken that the right models (FSX or P3D) are being set up in each sim version or they won't necessarily show.

Manaus has been a nightmare. I have spend over 20 hours trying to get the helicopters to behave. They all complete the test circuit fine but freeze when they leave the hold point to park, causing the sim to crash. This happens in all 4 runway directions (Air Force and Army) in both FSX and P3D. There is nothing in the main AFCAD to conflict with the helicopter paths. Tim will take a look in due course, but as they are Package 2, they are not a priority at the moment. At least the helicopters are all set up and flight planned for the airfield.

This is my work plan showing the completed elements so far:



The green entries in the "TYPE" column are my tasks for the coming week. They greyed out ones need a bit more research to check locations, numbers and the availability of helicopter models.

John