gospadin Beta Tester

Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: 'Murica Posts: 1,948

HoggitDev A-4E May 2016 Update







It's raining gauges!



After a bit of a lull in late March, we picked up some momentum again in April and May has been a hectic month for the team. There are two big changes this month.



First, we've finally imported a draft version of our team-developed cockpit into DCS (thanks to Merker6!), and thus are now using that model instead of the placeholder we'd been using previously. With our own model, we've been able to start animating and connecting clickable gauges, as well as programming up the systems behind them. While the shapes and unwraps still need a lot of work (though we've been able to integrate plusnine's gauges), this has allowed us to learn how to build a DCS cockpit.



Instrument panel with temporary unwrap while we work on functionality:





With all of this work from Merker6, plus a lot of code and debug from gyrovague, kryb and myself, with a special contribution from uboats for the nav system, the following gauges and systems are now working in our A-4E:

ILS glide slope support (fictional/hidden mode)

Attitude and Direction Indicator (ADI)

Standby Attitude Indicator

Bearing Distance Heading Indicator (BDHI) w/ TACAN bearing & range (needle 2) and NDB bearing (needle 1)

Fuel flow & Fuel quantity (internal and external via selector pushbutton, works accurately through refueling/defueling and tank jettison)

Armament Panel (master arm switch, gun ready switch, weapon mode dial, and pylon selector switches)

8 day clock

Barometric altimeter w/ Kollsman window & adjustment knob

Radar altimeter w/ adjustable warning altitude

AoA Indicator w/ cruise, landing and stall markings

Vertical Speed Indicator

G-meter

Engine RPM & Temperature gauges

Airspeed Indicator with Mach dial

Flaps & Gear Indicator Panel

Primary & Secondary electrical busses



The second major evolution is in the external texturing. Jones and plusnine have finished the "huffer" model and textures, which appears automatically when the airplane is parked with the engine speed below idle. Further, plusnine has been putting a lot of time and energy into the effects layers for our external model, and combined with Kryb's model tweaks and bottom unwrap improvements, plus the beginning of the undercarriage and connector unwrap, our model is starting to look a lot more realistic in-game. I have a lot of work to do improving the liveries and we're constantly making improvements, but all-in-all it looks a lot better than two months ago. plusnine has also generated our first specmaps, to vary reflection across the salt-worn fuselages.



The start of our A-4E "elephant walk":





Additional animation includes nose wheel steering (rarely installed on the A-4E, but we can't do differential braking in the SFM so we're going to keep it), pilot head turning/position, canopy animation inside-and-out, and a working gunsight.



Lastly, we've been tweaking the SFM and gyrovague was able to get our landing spoilers to work in the SFM through a neat trick. While they are modeled relatively simply, arming them will cause them to deploy automatically at touchdown, and they will shorten overall stopping distance by about 30%. Brake strength isn't something we can adjust in the SFM so landing rollouts are quite a bit shorter than actual, but it's still neat to get the spoilers working and feel their effect.



Spoilers just before touchdown:





Spoilers at touchdown:







Finally, here's a link to a quick mission video that shows off most of the working systems:





Part 1: Startup, Taxi and Takeoff (5 minutes)







Part 2: Attack run on a convoy of trucks using Mk-82 Snakeye bombs. (3.5 minutes)







Part 3: TACAN navigation, approach, and landing. (5 minutes)







Thanks everyone, hope you're having as much fun as we are. Until next month!



--gos After a bit of a lull in late March, we picked up some momentum again in April and May has been a hectic month for the team. There are two big changes this month.First, we've finally imported a draft version of our team-developed cockpit into DCS (thanks to Merker6!), and thus are now using that model instead of the placeholder we'd been using previously. With our own model, we've been able to start animating and connecting clickable gauges, as well as programming up the systems behind them. While the shapes and unwraps still need a lot of work (though we've been able to integrate plusnine's gauges), this has allowed us to learn how to build a DCS cockpit.Instrument panel with temporary unwrap while we work on functionality:With all of this work from Merker6, plus a lot of code and debug from gyrovague, kryb and myself, with a special contribution from uboats for the nav system, the following gauges and systems are now working in our A-4E:The second major evolution is in the external texturing. Jones and plusnine have finished the "huffer" model and textures, which appears automatically when the airplane is parked with the engine speed below idle. Further, plusnine has been putting a lot of time and energy into the effects layers for our external model, and combined with Kryb's model tweaks and bottom unwrap improvements, plus the beginning of the undercarriage and connector unwrap, our model is starting to look a lot more realistic in-game. I have a lot of work to do improving the liveries and we're constantly making improvements, but all-in-all it looks a lot better than two months ago. plusnine has also generated our first specmaps, to vary reflection across the salt-worn fuselages.The start of our A-4E "elephant walk":Additional animation includes nose wheel steering (rarely installed on the A-4E, but we can't do differential braking in the SFM so we're going to keep it), pilot head turning/position, canopy animation inside-and-out, and a working gunsight.Lastly, we've been tweaking the SFM and gyrovague was able to get our landing spoilers to work in the SFM through a neat trick. While they are modeled relatively simply, arming them will cause them to deploy automatically at touchdown, and they will shorten overall stopping distance by about 30%. Brake strength isn't something we can adjust in the SFM so landing rollouts are quite a bit shorter than actual, but it's still neat to get the spoilers working and feel their effect.Spoilers just before touchdown:Spoilers at touchdown:Finally, here's a link to a quick mission video that shows off most of the working systems:Part 1: Startup, Taxi and Takeoff (5 minutes)Part 2: Attack run on a convoy of trucks using Mk-82 Snakeye bombs. (3.5 minutes)Part 3: TACAN navigation, approach, and landing. (5 minutes)Thanks everyone, hope you're having as much fun as we are. Until next month!--gos

My liveries, mods, and missions for DCS:World

M-2000C English Cockpit | Extra Beacons Mod | Nav Kneeboard | Community A-4E __________________ Last edited by gospadin; 03-07-2017 at 06:42 PM .