CV-7 in the Med

[smilo]

in 1942 the USS Wasp CV-7 transported
Spitfire MKVs to help reinforce besieged Malta.

with that in mind, i put together
the Wasp Carrier Task Force in the Mediterranean
located off Tunisia and heading 120*
that would be straight for Malta.

uploaded it today at the Free Flight Site;
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Smilos.htm



carrier take off can be a challenge, but is doable with practice.
especially in a Spit MKV from the Spit V Collection, available here;
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Aircraft.htm
the Beurling and Weaver models are very good period representatives

it is important to note, that it is highly recommended
to downloaded and install the Corsica and Italy package
by No_Dice from here;
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Cors1941.htm
otherwise, there is no Malta


one other quick note;
did you ever notice that the stock cfs object,
SHCargo with wake heads backward into the wake?
after all these years, i had not noticed.
while beta testing, No_Dice pointed it out.
after many days of fooling with it,
i turned to hubbabubba, who fixed it in a snap.

[Ivan]

Cool Subject!

Can we also get a nice close up shot of USS WASP's Profile?
What would her aircraft complement be at this stage of the war?

- Ivan.

[smilo]

sure, i can do that in a few.

technically, the object is the WWII era straight deck carrier
by Dan Geis, reworked by hubbabubba.
it's the same object that was used for Saratoga Out of Pearl,
just repainted to reflect CV-7.

the deck is empty, as is the case with this object.
i don't know if AIs can be added, never tried it.
for this scenario, the Spit MKV is being delivered.
as i recall, 35 were sent to Malta, with only 15 making it.
Joe Amodea built a very nice Spit V package.
although, i find it a bit nose heavy, elevator trim up works great.

the carrier is set up as an airfield with two starting points.
one farther aft than the other for those who have a problem
with short field takeoffs.
she is also landable with an adf of 907.
and, as are all the ships, collision/damage enabled.

this one could be a lot of fun for multi-player missions
and hopefully, a mission builder can put it to good use.

[smilo]

got to thinking about it and remembered
that i had downloaded some Brit AC apis
by Edmundo Abad. he even had a spit v trop.

just for grins, i placed a few on the Wasp
just to see what would happen.
of course, the AI and the player textures
aren't the same, but what the heck?
it's always somethin', right?

now, i need to decide if i want to modify the release
or just let it be. any thoughts?

[smilo]

or, perhaps maybe, this;



i find that i can't place more than eight spits.
don't know why.

i also thought that i could place the spits
at an Image complexity of, say, Dense.
reason being, if a player wanted to land,
the deck could be cleared by changing to Very Dense.

finally, you might notice that the carrier is overly large.
actually, it's scaled at 2m.
this was done because, some months ago,
my friends at the AAC had difficulties landing
on the original 1m Saratoga, so i doubled the size.
at 2x, it's still a challenge to land on.

[hubbabubba]

My two cents...

Make it as another project. You should also add Wildcats; Wasp own aircraft gave cover to the Spits departing!

A "fouled deck" should make it interesting, especially for those who like a challenge.

P.S.- Your last post overlapped mine. The density setting is a good idea. But your Spits are too neatly spaced; they were all "spotted" in a tight bunch, some were in the lower deck hangar. And don't forget that, in a surface wind situation, you may get very weird effects.

And why not use Library Spitfires? They're not very detailed, but what the heck!

That's another two cents. You now owe me a nickel...

[smilo]

since when does 2x2cents=a nickle?
sorry, my friend, but you've got to give me another penny's worth.

oddly enough, this morning, when i first started playing with the aircraft idea,
i, initially, went to my library.sca, but found there was only a MKI.
no big deal, but then i remembered the MKV api and went with that.

just to let you know, i also have a wildcat api, by Edmundo Abad.

thanks for the input, i will keep it in mind.
gotta go now. we're off to a super bowl party.
not that i'm a big fan, but i can go to a party.

[hubbabubba]

since when does 2x2cents=a nickle?<br>
sorry, my friend, but you've got to give me another penny's worth.<br>
<br>
oddly enough, this morning, when i first started playing with the aircraft idea,<br>
i, initially, went to my library.sca, but found there was only a MKI.<br>
no big deal, but then i remembered the MKV api and went with that.<br>
<br>
just to let you know, i also have a wildcat api, by Edmundo Abad.<br>
<br>
thanks for the input, i will keep it in mind.<br>
gotta go now. we're off to a super bowl party.<br>
not that i'm a big fan, but i can go to a party.

<br>
You forget, my friend, that Canada no longer uses cents; we round-up to the nickel once over 2¢.<br>
<br>
And, even if you're not a football fan, congratulations for "your" Seahawks....<br>
<br>
<br>

[smilo]

i was not aware that there are no more mapleleaf pennies.
you've got me there.

just got home...what an amazing game.
probably boring for some to watch a blow out.
but, i remember the old AFL Seahawks
being undone by Denver time and again.

sure am glad i'm not a Denver fan.

[hubbabubba]

It's a relatively recent event. You can still take your pennies to the bank, rolled in 50¢ plastic containers, or donate them to charity.

I have a jar full of them. Will probably keep them as paperweight.

[arfyhun]

Gentlemen, would the task of posting all the different formats be too difficult or time consuming? For my money's worth I would love to see them all available. As my skill in these matters is zero, all the different possibilities would definitely be a matter of 'scope over dope', something I would be more than happy to put up with!

You know it makes sense!?

Graham.

[smilo]

hello Graham
first and foremost, thanks for your input.
stating the obvious, on a personal level,
i sometimes wonder if anyone is interested.
even though it is my hobby, i can't help but think
that i might be wasting my time.

be that as it may, i have moved on to other projects.
but, i would be happy to do a carrier project for you.
all i need to know is what you want,
where you want it, and your patience.

[smilo]

first, a little back ground in red;

in 1942 the USS Wasp CV-7 transported
Spitfire MKVs to help reinforce besieged Malta.

with that in mind, i put together
the Wasp Carrier Task Force in the Mediterranean
located off Tunisia and heading 120*
that would be straight for Malta.

uploaded it today at the Free Flight Site;
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Smilos.htm



carrier take off can be a challenge, but is doable with practice.
especially in a Spit MKV from the Spit V Collection, available here;
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Aircraft.htm
the Beurling and Weaver models are very good period representatives

it is important to note, that it is highly recommended
to downloaded and install the Corsica and Italy package
by No_Dice from here;
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Cors1941.htm
otherwise, there is no Malta


one other quick note;
did you ever notice that the stock cfs object,
SHCargo with wake heads backward into the wake?
after all these years, i had not noticed.
while beta testing, No_Dice pointed it out.
after many days of fooling with it,
i turned to hubbabubba, who fixed it in a snap.

okay, okay. the whole thing is a shameless plug,
but, there's more to the story.

while i was waiting for hubba to fix
the SHCargo ship direction problem,
i started fooling around with building a cargo ship.
(like many stock cfs objects,
i am not pleased with the visual models)
along the way of the ship construction,
i started having problems with the scale.

as i recall, at the time, i asked hubba and Dave
if they knew what the actual size
of a scenery texture tile was.
i figured, if i knew that, with a little work,
i would be able to repaint a scenery tile
to create a way to measure an object
and get the scale relatively correct.

no problem. RIGHT? RIGHT!

knowing that water.r8 is the default, off shore ocean tile,
i opened it and repainted a few strategically placed pixels.
but, unfortunately, i was still unable to get a measurement.
just for the heck of it, i went into the scenery editor
and laid down a 100x100 foot concrete runway at S0* E0*
i played around with it a bit,
but, as things often go with me,
i got distracted and went on to something else
and promptly forgot about measuring scenery objects.

so, to make a long story longer,
a few days ago, Ivan sent me a copy of his new P-40K
to have a look at before it being released.
i like to go to S0* E0* for testing.
mainly, because there is nothing there to distract.
this time, there was something there.
a 100x100 concrete runway sitting in the middle of the ocean.
i slewed above it an looked down
and happened to notice the way it lined up
on those pixels i had painted months ago.

forgetting about the P-40, (sorry Ivan)
i went into the scenery editor,
moved the runway around, aligning it with a pixel
and then, resized the runway with the editor.

but, the tile pixels were blurry
so i couldn't get the runway sized quite right.
i decided to take a screen shot anyway,
but had to open the program folder to get to the snapper exe.
having two monitors, when i clicked on the program folder
on the secondary monitor, this took away the focus from cfs.

EUREKA!!! the cfs tile pixels were clearly visible.

i went back to cfs, adjusted the runway size and location
and then, jumped back and forth from one monitor to the other
which allowed me to get the runway to just cover one pixel.

the left side of the screenie shows the edges of the red pixel
beneath the gray runway before i settled on 64x64 feet.
(yes, it's a wee bit off, but it's close enough)




now, some might say,
so what, who cares, why bother, what's the use?
i would reply,
it's something i wanted to know for quite a while
and i finally figured it out.
who knows, maybe someday, someone might put it to use.
...someday

now where was i?
oh yeah, back to that P-40K
...so far, she's a beauty!

[papingo]

dear smilo
interesting stuff .Have you read FSstruct by Murizio Galvoni it covers

the measurment stuff as well.
I beleive fs is set up in meters .
I once made a city -scale 1.00-could'nt find it at first so tiny --yes scale IS
important!
papingo-still shakin' boss. still shakin'!--cool hand luke

[smilo]

sorry to say, no i have not.
i don't recall ever seeing it.
but, then again, i haven't been much
of a scenery construction guy.

[Dave Cumming]

I haven't forgotten you. On the back burner is creating a Mission Tutorial and is is getting to the top. In fact I plan to start on it in 2 weeks when I am on vacation.

I thought of basing my tutorial around Smilo's Wasp but had to get CFS1 working on my new laptop. I'm getting there and have downloaded the Wasp.zip. But where do I put it? I usually put added scenaries into their own folders so I can activate then when I want or replace them with better scenary. I cannot do this with the Wasp as my download does not contain any bgl file, only three R8 files in the Texture folder.

Where do I place the files? In the main Texture folder?

Has anyone seen an AI plane take off or land on the Wasp?

Dave

[smilo]

hello Dave,
well, that makes the Wasp in the Med
a worthless piece of junk.
all i can say at this point
is, it was there.

i'll talk to Dave and try to get it rectified.
i can't help but wonder,
how many others had the same issue?

in the mean time,
would you like me to send you a copy?

[Dave Cumming]

Smilo

Please PM me the file if possible.

Thansk
Dave

[smilo]

hello Dave.
how about i upload it here?
just in case someone else wants it.

[No Dice]

smilo,
You know I love all of your work, I have no idea on how this happened
but it has been fixed.

smilo mentioned in an email to me earlier that it may have happened during my last website hack.

I hope not, with over 1000 downloadable files I have no way to check all of them, so all I can ask
from everyone is to please report these type problems to me ASAP as smilo did and it was fixed as
fast as possible.

The Free Flight Site and I are very sorry about this problem, But I can assure all of you that I will
always do my best possible to host and insure that all of the artists work is represented and
maintained for all to enjoy, today and tomorrow.

http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Smilos.htm

Dave aka No Dice

[smilo]

thanks Dave, much appreciated.

[Dave Cumming]

Zip file uploaded and contains 2 Bgl files. Hopefully I'll have it installed later this evening. Just late in back from work.

Dave

[Dave Cumming]

Dave

[Ivan]

So Dave, What did it look like on the flight deck?

- Ivan.

[Dave Cumming]

Sorry for the double picture earlier. My preview only showed one picture.
Unfortunately I touched down too early and crashed! Need more practice.

In the week ahead I plan to do some simple tutorials on missions.

I would like to include seeing what happens when making the AI planes take off and land on the Wasp. I think the Wasp is large enough that AI can take off, but how many planes can fit on the deck?

For landing: 1, how well do they touch down? 2, will they taxi off the deck?

Dave