SOH P-61 project

***Crusader*** · December 11th, 2010, 05:15

I am really impressed by the talent and expertise involved here on the P-61 project . You all are to be really commended . I am in envy and would love to have just a fraction of it .

Just a special thanks to all involved . We are really looking forward to it .

Rich:salute:

**warchild** · December 11th, 2010, 11:20

Thanks crusader

.. We're gonna do our very best.

. I admit that we arent going for bells and whistles on this plane.. But we are trying to make it as accurate as possible.
Last night we got together and hammered out a sound set for the guns.. The first time i fired them, even my cat came up off the couch where he was sleeping.. And i hadnt turned the volume up.. Theres just no way to put into words, what that noise is like. I need to do some timing adjustments but so far so good, and if we can get David to do his magic with sound for us, We'll have a complete 360 degree environment. :;chuckles:; i have a feeling a lot of mothers and wives are going to hate us because of those sounds.. They're gonna be that close to real

..

**warchild** · December 11th, 2010, 11:28

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr Bill Rambow to the SOH P-61 team..
Joining us in our QA section, Bill comes to us from MAAM-Sim and the Mid Atlantic Air Museum.. With his extensive knowledge of the development process as well as years of history working in and around almost every type of aircraft imaginable, not to mention the only Northrop p-61 currently being rebuilt to flight standards, I know that his addition to the team will allow us to bring you all, the most accurate rendition of the P-61 imaginable.
Please, everyone take a moment and welcome him to our family

..
Pam

**N2056** · December 11th, 2010, 11:37

Awesome!

It just keeps getting better. Welcome Aboard!

***PRB*** · December 11th, 2010, 11:52

Great news! Welcome Bill Rambow!

**OleBoy** · December 11th, 2010, 12:20

Welcome to the team Mr. Rambo. It will surely be a pleasure sir.

**whitney17** · December 11th, 2010, 12:32

Originally Posted by warchild

Not a dumb question at all.. Well map them to the trigger ( which is usually also used for braking ) or some button that will allow for ease of use.

The eight files in uestion are really only two files, one for the 50 cal and the other for the 20mm, but they've been duplicated and copied to each of the barrels so that each individual gun has its own effect.. What i'm attempting to achieve is a differentiation between the guns so that its closer to realistic than having them all under the same effect.. There may be better ways of doing it, but my lack of knowledge is whats in the way of me knowing what they are.. I'm making my best guess, but admittedly, its a lot of guessing..

Please don't map them to the trigger/brake button or (.) the brake command. If you do that, the toe brakes on rudder pedals will fire the guns. This is an issue on the FSD P-38 and the IRIS A-10 (yeah I Know you have to arm the guns first etc., etc., been there, done that).

The SkyUnlimted P-38 uses the Afterburner command to fire the guns, so you can assign any key or button to fire them. There are 26 unassigned commands in the "A's" alone in the list of FSX commands; so I think you can find some obscure command in the entire list to assign to the guns, rather than use a command we all use and complicates the use of our toe brakes. That would give us the right to decide which key/button to use, rather than being stuck with your decision.

I appreciate everyone's work on this and plan to purchase the aircraft when it's finished. Please reconsider the gun command.

Thanks,

**N2056** · December 11th, 2010, 12:41

Thanks for that idea. Since I will be writing the code for the guns any suggestions are welcome. I am currently assessing how I will go about the task, and one of the big things I am keeping in mind is not using any "common" commands to trigger the effects.

**whitney17** · December 11th, 2010, 13:27

Originally Posted by N2056

Thanks for that idea. Since I will be writing the code for the guns any suggestions are welcome. I am currently assessing how I will go about the task, and one of the big things I am keeping in mind is not using any "common" commands to trigger the effects.

Thank You!

By the way, does the P-61 have an autopilot? If not, could you include simple altitude and course hold commands, like the LionHeart Pasped Skylark has?

Thanks again,

**N2056** · December 11th, 2010, 13:45

The P-61 used a very early Sperry autopilot, pretty much the same as the one in the DC-3. It will be implemented in the final model.

Attachment 25350

**Pips** · December 11th, 2010, 15:51

This project just keeps getting better and better! I hope you guys take a well earned rest over Christmas!!

**warchild** · December 11th, 2010, 16:38

Originally Posted by Pips

This project just keeps getting better and better! I hope you guys take a well earned rest over Christmas!!

:::LOL:: What is thing thing you call..... rest??? :::LOL:::
yeahhh.. we probably will, but these guys are insane.. Every time i call for a break and they take it, this is what they do to rest..
I'm feeling a lot of pride in this project and this team.. The kind of pride we used to have as Americans.. These guys are fantastic..
Pam

**OleBoy** · December 11th, 2010, 16:50

nose art; work in progress

http://img153.imageshack.us/slidesho...d=54831664.jpg

**roger-wilco-66** · December 11th, 2010, 17:17

Originally Posted by warchild

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr Bill Rambow to the SOH P-61 team.. [...]
Pam

That's really awesome. Welcome, Bill. MAAMs DC3/C47 is still one of my most favorable aircraft in my hangar, after all these years. I think this will have a great influence to the project!

Cheers,
Mark

**N2056** · December 12th, 2010, 15:45

One thing I have always wanted to learn was how to do the L-39 style landing lights...
This is very preliminary. I still have a lot to learn. Many Thanks to Fr. Bill for providing the raw files I started with, and to 'Varmint' of VRS Simulations for providing the base info to the developer world about a year ago. :salute:

Attachment 25441

**OleBoy** · December 12th, 2010, 17:08

Right-Click and choose "view image"

**Cirrus N210MS** · December 13th, 2010, 13:02

wow looking Nice

War child Your Group is doing great work on this Plane

:salute:

painting Warbirds is alot of fun

**fliger747** · December 13th, 2010, 14:21

Question: Did most planes with nose art have it on both sides or just on the left?

I don't know! T

**OleBoy** · December 13th, 2010, 14:43

The nose art is mainly for display of effect and final appearance as I go through them. Final placement will have to be determined after scanning as many photos as possible. The artwork seems to be on one side in one picture, and on the other side in another picture. So at this point it's a guessing game until we find out for sure. The pictures I've posted are just to show something about what's going on after I get them retouched/resized.

Here's an odd one. "Lady in the Dark" nose art is shown as the blue like in Pams plane. But we've found that there are also pieces of the same art, are in red. Two planes with different registrations= more research to find the correct answer.

Most all of the pictures are in black and white depicting the real aircraft. So it makes me wonder if the colors are even correct on the redraws. A guessing game to say the least.

**warchild** · December 13th, 2010, 14:50

It was a hodge podge mixture of both.. We know MoonHappy had it on both sides, anonymous 3 had a different name on each side, and others jut hd art on one side.. The difficult part is finding the photographs for both sides of the planes, and worse, color photogrps as its almost impossible to tell which color is which from black and white photo's, and as is the case with Lady of the night where in some drawings shes wearing blue and in others shes wearing read, it can be very frustrating..

**OleBoy** · December 15th, 2010, 18:05

I uploaded to the file browser some very nice, and rather large photos. The file name is New P-61 Photos 12-14-2010.zip

***jankees*** · December 18th, 2010, 07:57

here's a fun pic I found:

Attachment 25804

**warchild** · December 18th, 2010, 08:18

I like it.. I wonder if it was just that one spinner or of they were both painted like that. I would guess both, but,, ya never know..

**OleBoy** · December 18th, 2010, 09:28

Jankees,

That's a unique shot of the spinner. Did you get lucky enough to learn what unit/plane it was on to make use of it?
....On another note, the spinner it is painted on seems less conical. Hard to tell from the angle though.

**warchild** · December 18th, 2010, 23:21

It's been a while since i said anything in here.. We've all been busy though.. Roberts been plugging away at the externals mapping, jankees an Oleboy have been plugging away at the textures, and me?/ Welll, i've been trying to make myself useful by working on the gun effects.. for my part, things move ahead slowly.. We've discovered a problem playing more than one looping sound file at a time when its connected to an effect, or set of effects, and its beginning to look like we may have to layer all the gun sounds in a single file. Of course that means that you could never elect between 20 mm or 50 cal, and would have to listen to all eight guns each time you pulled the trigger ( and believe me, thats a lot of noise ). David is taking a look at them though so i have hope..

It being christmas this week, many people are traveling and spending time with loved ones and friends. I think this is wonderful, but it also means that for a week here, the p-61 team will be taking a well needed and deserved break.. I however not having any concept of a life will continue to plug away at what i Do ::lol:;..
I hope you all have a fantastic holiday and a very merry christmas..
Pam