Wheelus AB Question for the masses!

[falcon409]

I have completed the scenery which also includes the Bomb/Gunnery Range at El-Uotia. Richard (tgycgijoes) is adding sounds and the American flag via SODE and once that's complete I plan to upload to the Warbirds Library.

In FSX everything is fine, AI Traffic operates as it should with F-100's flying TNG's in the pattern, flying out to Malta or El-Uotia and C-47's flying supplies to El-Uotia daily. However in P3D_V4.5 the F-100's are invisible when viewed up close but become visible once they taxi beyond a certain distance. No one has been able to figure out why that happens. I have gone over the ADE files looking at parking spots, taxiways, etc, to see if something could be amiss there but nothing stands out. I looked at settings in P3D_V4.5 thinking maybe something there could be the cause but after turning most effects, shadowing, lighting off and then back on a little at a time. . .still nothing. Henk was kind enough to look over the MAIW package for me but was unable to reproduce the problem on his system and didn't see any reason that it should happen since the AI is FSX native. I haven't gotten any response on the ADE Forum at FSDeveloper after a quite a few views so I'm guessing it's something they haven't seen either and have nothing to contribute.

So, the question:
Do I release for FSX Only?
Do I release it for both Sims and let the Community work it out?

Let me know what you think!

[SgtT]

Hi Falcon409.

First great job. If possible my thought would be to release them for both. I think the scenery would be a great addition for each sim.

[TSquare]

Seems to me putting it out for both would be a "Win-Win" for all parties involved. just my opinion.


TSquare

[oldmsgt]

I have FSX/SE and P3Dv3. Both are pretty much just FSX... My suggestion would be to release for both and let those with the newer P3D live with the minor irritations with the aircraft and enjoy the rest of the scenery. Another option would possibly be to make the AI static only in the P3D version maybe?? Either way, thanks for your effort on Wheelus, much appreciated Ed!

The Old Master Sergeant

[TARPSBird]

I would go ahead and release the whole package and provide an option for P3Dv4.5 users to have AI traffic in spite of the disappearing F-100's or just have parked static aircraft. I suspect somebody will eventually come up with a fix for the F-100 visibility problem.

[falcon409]

Thanks for all the comments. I sent Henk the entire scenery package as it is right now along with the AI package I'm using in the hopes that he might spot something by testing in the same environment that I am. Fingers crossed. If he comes up empty then as soon as the sounds have been added I'll package everything up and release it with the caveat as recommended by TARPSBird.

[p14u2nv]

Thank you very much Falcon, it is truly an astounding creation with so much detail and depth....truly a payware quality piece that you have produced. Thanks again.

[falcon409]

Unfortunately after closer scrutiny, it appears that in P3D_V4.5 (on my system) not only are the F-100's invisible but the special animations do not work. . .this means it taxi's with the ladder still in place, the intake and exhaust covers are in place, the pitot tube is stowed and I'm not certain there is a pilot in the cockpit (I can't get close enough to see because they disappear). This negates any reason to keep them for P3D_V4.5. I considered Static aircraft however they would have to be native FSX and to my knowledge there are none. I have reached out to Guy Diotte to see if he has done any but a search of flightsim dot com doesn't turn up anything and again. . .it would have to be native FSX.

F-100's were a major part of the flight line at that time and an empty flightline?. . . . .

[ian elliot]

Have you try' over at the MAIW forum's, Michael Pearson used to be active over there, and im sure they'll be very interested in your scenery.

[falcon409]

Have you try' over at the MAIW forum's, Michael Pearson used to be active over there, and im sure they'll be very interested in your scenery.

Thanks Ian and yes I've been working with Henk and TimC340 in the MAIW forum to try to figure out the problem with the AI in P3D (which has been fixed by the way). Henk has the scenery package as he used it for testing purposes but didn't show any interest beyond that but I will check with Michael.

[awstub]

I'll have to double check, but I think I have some P3Dv4.5 F-100 AI that works properly. I was using them while working on a version of Da Nang AB that I compiled without static a/c.
It worked very well with 100% AI instead. For what it's worth, I tried the same with FSX and it couldn't handle it.
Anyway, I'll check it tonight and get back to you.

Unfortunately after closer scrutiny, it appears that in P3D_V4.5 (on my system) not only are the F-100's invisible but the special animations do not work. . .this means it taxi's with the ladder still in place, the intake and exhaust covers are in place, the pitot tube is stowed and I'm not certain there is a pilot in the cockpit (I can't get close enough to see because they disappear). This negates any reason to keep them for P3D_V4.5. I considered Static aircraft however they would have to be native FSX and to my knowledge there are none. I have reached out to Guy Diotte to see if he has done any but a search of flightsim dot com doesn't turn up anything and again. . .it would have to be native FSX.

F-100's were a major part of the flight line at that time and an empty flightline?. . . . .

[awstub]

The F-100 AI that I'm using seem to work fine in P3Dv4.5 but while parked they don't display ladders.
The cockpit is empty, the intake and exhaust covers are on, the pitot tube is folded and the slats are extended.
When they start to taxi from the parking spot, A pilot appears, the strobes come on, the canopy opens up and the pitot tube unfolds.
When they take off, the afterburner lights off.
I didn't have time to verify if the drag chute deploys on landing, but I don't remember it being an issue.

[falcon409]

A.F. are those MAIW AI's? I don't have any that are camo and there were definitely some on the base from Transient Squadrons from the UK.

[ian elliot]

If you look in Avsim, Michael Pearson released 5 separate packs, including twin seaters and NATO user's

[awstub]

A.F. are those MAIW AI's? I don't have any that are camo and there were definitely some on the base from Transient Squadrons from the UK.

Yes, here's the description from the aircraft.cfg file:

//* *
//* Model Convair F-100 Super Sabre (c) by Jake Burrus and Michael 'Mike' Pearson *
//* *
//* JMAI North American F-100 Super Sabre Flight Dynamics v3.2 by Michael MacIntyre - 1/19/2014 *
//* *
//* NOTE - due to presence of drag chute, this model is not suitable for VFR TNG flights *
//* *
//* FSX Conversion by Henk Schuitemaker *
//* Texture conversion by MAIW - Martin Gossmann *
//* Repaints Michael Pearson for MAIW *
//* *
//* Requires fx_ai_fighter_contrail effect by Michael MacIntyre *
//* Requires fx_f16_navgrem, fx_f16_navredm & fx_f16_navwhih effects by Henry Tomkiewicz *
//* Requires fx_nicksmokeAI_707 effect by Nick Needham

I haven't created any SEA base specific repaints for the F-100's yet, but I have done a bunch of Phantoms (366 TFW @ Da Nang AB) and Thunderchiefs (388 TFW @ Korat AB and 355 TFW @ Takhli AB) so far.

StuB

[DaveQ]

I'd be quite interested to play with this in P3Dv5.3 when it's ready; I have a few Milviz F-100D's converted to PBR so a chance to try them out at Wheelus would be great.

DaveQ

[falcon409]

Thanks for all the assistance from everyone as I dealt with what has turned out to be a true "Senior Moment". As it turned out the reason the airplanes weren't working in P3D was because of pilot error. . .I was making the changes that Henk was sending me but not to the correct AI Folder. They were only going to the FSX AI (which were fine) and not the duplicate folder for the P3D_V4.5 AI. The AI now works perfectly in both Sims. DOH!!

[TARPSBird]

The AI now works perfectly in both Sims. DOH!!

"I love it when a plan comes together!"
- Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, The A-Team

[gray eagle]

I'd be quite interested to play with this in P3Dv5.3 when it's ready; I have a few Milviz F-100D's converted to PBR so a chance to try them out at Wheelus would be great.

DaveQ

I just tried it in P3D V5.3 and it is a huge base. A nice job that Ed has done. One thing, in P3D5.3, there was some bleed thru from the stock scenery, i.e. some stock hangers were inside
some of the hangers that ED did. A common P3D5 thing, from what I remember, in ADE some exclude edits would have to be done to fix that.

[falcon409]

I just tried it in P3D V5.3 and it is a huge base. A nice job that Ed has done. One thing, in P3D5.3, there was some bleed thru from the stock scenery, i.e. some stock hangers were inside
some of the hangers that ED did. A common P3D5 thing, from what I remember, in ADE some exclude edits would have to be done to fix that.

Since I'm not familiar with V5+, I'm not sure about the oddities where a new scenery takes the place of a default. Wheelus has/had the same ICAO code from it's origin as far as I was able to find (HLLM). I did that search to see what it's actual ICAO code was during that time and what I found was that it was "HLLM". So in developing Wheelus I just replaced "Mitiga" with "Wheelus". That way, I surmised, if someone didn't want Wheelus after using it for a while they could simply deactivate it and restart and they'd have the default.

The fact that some parts of Mitiga show through at Wheelus is a head scratcher and as I said, I don't use anything beyond V4.5 and it wasn't beta tested for that version either. Interesting that happens though. The problem I see is that without the "AD4" file from ADE if you just open using the bgl file and then save. . .I think you lose some parts of the resulting file when converted. If someone plans on trying to remove the default buildings I'd be interested to know how it went.