T-38a and F-86 Freeware

[Priller]

Thanks Ryan. I couldn't tell from Priller's post that he was heads-upping us about an update a few hours ago, but whatever, I'm eager to try the plane. Was flying it in P3dv5 this weekend, always a favorite.

August

Here's the link on flightsim.to: https://flightsim.to/file/64410/milv...ive-conversion

Priller

[IanHenry]

I posted the updated (fully native) Sabre today as well. I haven't had much chance to test fly it since I updated the model, but it should work fine. I do know that this update breaks some of the add-on liveries that others put out for it because they copied the (now outdated) model folder into their own package instead of referencing the aircraft. Not much I can do about that, hopefully they update their files soon.

Many thanks for your work Ryan, very much appreciated.

[K5083]

Thanks Ryan and Priller. I tried the 86 last night, really fun, flight model feels just like the FSX/P3D plane which is great.

Ryan, are you planning to convert the F-86 paint schemes that are currently disabled? If not, I will (ineptly) convert the RCAF ones this weekend for my own use, but I'll wait if you are working on it.

I'm sure that the skinners are all working on fixing their repaints, but I've noticed that any of them can be fixed by copying a couple of lines into their cfg files, so the ones I want are working already.

August

[jankees]

Do mine still work?

[SeeRyFly]

Thank you all for the wind words, I am always very happy to see others enjoying the planes!

Thanks Ryan and Priller. I tried the 86 last night, really fun, flight model feels just like the FSX/P3D plane which is great.

Ryan, are you planning to convert the F-86 paint schemes that are currently disabled? If not, I will (ineptly) convert the RCAF ones this weekend for my own use, but I'll wait if you are working on it.

I'm sure that the skinners are all working on fixing their repaints, but I've noticed that any of them can be fixed by copying a couple of lines into their cfg files, so the ones I want are working already.

August

I am not planning on it in the near future, I was really hoping someone would remaster them with proper comp files to control the roughness and such but no one seems interested. Converting the files from .dds to png.dds is no big deal, but without comp updates they will look pretty chrome. I say go for it and see what you get!

If it helps, XNConvert is an amazing free utility that makes it easy to batch convert textures, just add an action to flip them vertically and save as a .dds with a .png at the end of the filename

[K5083]

Do mine still work?

Some of them. I don't have all of yours, but the ones whose aircraft.cfgs have the lines:

model= "\..\..\F-86 Sabre\model.msfs"
panel= "\..\..\F-86 Sabre\panel"

will still work. Although I think it would be better to change the first one to just "\..\..\F-86 Sabre\model" because, although the model.msfs folder is still in the addon, it appears just the plain model folder is now the one used.

However, some of the early ones you did, like Mig Mad Marine, where you copied over the model folder as "model.JK" and then had the line "model= JK" in your cfg file, I think are broken now. They can be fixed just by changing the model and panel lines per above, and your replicated model and panel files will be ignored and can be deleted.

August

[K5083]

Thank you all for the wind words, I am always very happy to see others enjoying the planes!




I am not planning on it in the near future, I was really hoping someone would remaster them with proper comp files to control the roughness and such but no one seems interested. Converting the files from .dds to png.dds is no big deal, but without comp updates they will look pretty chrome. I say go for it and see what you get!

If it helps, XNConvert is an amazing free utility that makes it easy to batch convert textures, just add an action to flip them vertically and save as a .dds with a .png at the end of the filename

Thanks Ryan. Yes, I will update the comps. They will be a bit crude compared with yours, like I will probably use just one yellow color for the non-metallic areas, rather than subtle gradations of yellow like you do. I will take a look at XNConvert. I don't do this often and don't have a good workflow for it. Photoshop is my preferred tool but it is finicky when it comes to png converted from dds. Gimp and paint.net are both better for working with png/dds but paint.net lacks a polygon select tool, which is really needed to trace the markings from the texture layer to the comp layer, and Gimp has such a terrible UI that it is just miserable all around unless you work with it often. But I will take a shot at it and if it comes out decently at all, I will shoot you the files for you to consider in a future update if you feel like it. The Bluenose RCAF scheme in particular is the one I always fly in P3D, and can't live without in the MSFS version.

August

[SeeRyFly]

Although I think it would be better to change the first one to just "\..\..\F-86 Sabre\model" because, although the model.msfs folder is still in the addon, it appears just the plain model folder is now the one used.

Just to clarify, the model and model.msfs folders are identical, I found out that having it just named "model" is recognized by livery cfg files without any specific paths so I changed to that, but then I saw that several liveries already out linked to model.msfs so I left that folder so as not to break them. I may have made it worse in trying to be helpful :/ The relative links are the best way to go.

One good thing with this update is that the old .dds files can be done away with as everything uses the .png.dds files now. And no more CVT folders!

Thanks Ryan. Yes, I will update the comps. They will be a bit crude compared with yours, like I will probably use just one yellow color for the non-metallic areas, rather than subtle gradations of yellow like you do. I will take a look at XNConvert. I don't do this often and don't have a good workflow for it. Photoshop is my preferred tool but it is finicky when it comes to png converted from dds. Gimp and paint.net are both better for working with png/dds but paint.net lacks a polygon select tool, which is really needed to trace the markings from the texture layer to the comp layer, and Gimp has such a terrible UI that it is just miserable all around unless you work with it often. But I will take a shot at it and if it comes out decently at all, I will shoot you the files for you to consider in a future update if you feel like it. The Bluenose RCAF scheme in particular is the one I always fly in P3D, and can't live without in the MSFS version.

That would be great, even a very rough comp file would be a huge improvement. The ones I do are a uniform color for the whole sheet and I call it good enough. Someone else took care of the comps for the base textures that do work, but they didn't have time to get to the rest. I'll be happy to add them to the pack!

[K5083]

Just to clarify, the model and model.msfs folders are identical, I found out that having it just named "model" is recognized by livery cfg files without any specific paths so I changed to that, but then I saw that several liveries already out linked to model.msfs so I left that folder so as not to break them. I may have made it worse in trying to be helpful :/ The relative links are the best way to go.

That's what I thought you did, I think it was the right thing, and nice of you to avoid breaking more of the repaints that way. I dunno, is it possible to alias the model.msfs to the base model using the model.cfg? That way you would only have to update one model folder and reduce the total addon size while still not breaking the repaints, but might not be worth the hassle.

Thanks for the encouragement on the skins, will send you my results for sure.

August

[jankees]

Some of them.

I'll update the lot of them tomorrow I guess...

[Tom Clayton]

Here's the link on flightsim.to: https://flightsim.to/file/64410/milv...ive-conversion

Priller

Added to top post.

[SeeRyFly]

I'll update the lot of them tomorrow I guess...

I think only the ones with a model.JK folder NEED updates, the ones with relative links are still fine if you want to leave them that way

[jankees]

I think only the ones with a model.JK folder NEED updates, the ones with relative links are still fine if you want to leave them that way

But I want to get rid of the old dds files, so you don't get those cvt files anymore...

[Priller]

@Jankees, I just tried the three Sabre repaints of yours that I have, no cvt files. I only had to edit the aircraft.cfg file of Mig Mad Marine:





And a shot of the Talon, to stay on topic!


So, to be clear, all your repaints work just fine and don't create cvt files. It's the .MDL files in the previous version of the Sabre with the non-native interior that created the CVT files, not the textures.

Cheers,

Priller

[jankees]

well, I updated all of them anyway, they now use the right model and no longer have any of the old dds files anymore. They are all on FS.2.
Nice to see that in N86FS you can now look over your shoulder in the cockpit and see bare metal wings, for some reason that never worked before. Thanks for the update, Ryan!

[keithb77]

All three are great, many thanks Ryan!
There are many payware cockpits less attractive...but what would make them even more useful for cross-country flying would be working fuel gauges...maybe next update?

[collensr]

well, I updated all of them anyway, they now use the right model and no longer have any of the old dds files anymore. They are all on FS.2.
Nice to see that in N86FS you can now look over your shoulder in the cockpit and see bare metal wings, for some reason that never worked before. Thanks for the update, Ryan!

Many thanks for this JK