RedBeard2

<sigh> Two steps forward, one step back. Ok, I've managed to get an aircraft looking reasonably correct for the moment and have managed to animate the canopy open / close, so I'm pretty sure I understand that. However, ... I've tried installing a human cockpit so that I can start experimenting with controls, but I can't get the cockpit to display in the correct location. It appears to be using some default location. Again, I started with Wunderluft and modified it. I started with just changing the cockpit_local_point in Cockpit/mainpanel_init.lua to where I thought it should be for my model { 5.5, 0.81, 0.0}, but it doesn't move. I've tried, 0, 0, 0 as well, but no change. I've commented out all of the gauges and most of the Wunderluft devices except for TEST and ELECTRIC_SYSTEM. I also created a Dummy connector called POINTER to match the required registration in clickabledata.lua. In one last desparate attempt at random change and assess, I tried modifying this in Wunderluft.lua: crew_members = { [1] = { ejection_seat_name = "pilot+ejectionseat", drop_canopy_name = "Wunderluft_canopy", pos = {5.5, 0.0, 0.0}, canopy_pos = {5.5, 0.81, 0.0}, }, -- end of [1] }, -- end of crew_members Amazingly, that did move the human cockpit, which has now confused me beyond all hope. This pos here is not the same pos I have in mainpanel_init.lua. So, it appears that these positions are somewhat related, but in unknown ways as I can't find a way to rationalize the model's origin with the display. Can anyone shed some light on this? Once this is solved, I need to understand why canopy animation works, but landing gear animation does not. <sigh>

Awesome! I don't know what Export Space: Land means, but it definitely does the trick. I was using the default of World.

However, if I rotate like you said, then when I export the model from MAX 2012 and display in game, the AI flies the aircraft sideways and the Wunderluft HUD is offset by 90 degrees. This is a screenshot with the cockpit view zoomed way back and looking between the HUD (cockpit fwd) and the nose of the aircraft (off to the left): I don't know why MAX 2012 appears to be different in this regard, but it looks like the rule is that when exported, the standalone Model Viewer needs to have the model oriented with the nose along the positive X axis.

I was so happy finding out it was an editor problem that I missed this. If I rotate the model in MAX so that the nose points to the top of the screen and export, then the model viewer shows the aircraft pointing forward along the postitive Y axis. This is different from all other models I load in the model viewer. Is this a difference in MAX 2011 / 2012?

Many thanks! I've been banging my head on this for days and couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Is there an error log somewhere that I could have looked at to see that it was complaining about an ill-formed lua file?

I did a quick (I thought) exercise to validate this: 1. Created a VERY basic model: As you can see, it has its origin at the CG (more or less). 2. I extracted the Wunderluft sample and added the EDM file to the Wunderluft/Shapes directory. 3. Started DCSW and created an instant mission. Since I didn't update the Wunderluft.lua file, I expected it to look odd when started: As expected, the wheels are below the surface of the concrete. So... 3. A quick change to the Wunderluft file should fix that: This should extend the nose gear forward a bit more and raise the aircraft by an additional meter. 4. Restart DCS, create an instant mission, and: The aircraft doesn't appear to have changed it's position at all. There's some kind of magic going on that is not making sense to me.

If I create a mission which uses the aircraft and the first waypoint is takeoff from ramp, the aircraft will (should) have it's wheels on the ground. Is the nose_gear_pos, main_gear_pos responsible for this or is it handled by collision_shells around the wheels or is there something else?

Aha! I wasn't aware of the animation argument to turn off the pit. That's interesting. So what controls the position of the external model when it sits on the ground?

I'm trying to work through the basics of models and their placement, so I thought I'd start out with some observations and ask for validation or clarification. First, all models should orient looking forward along the positive X axis. Second, pretty much every aircraft model I've seen has the origin going through the aircraft centerline. I'm not sure if this is convenience for the modeler or by design, but I'm guessing it has an impact on how the aircraft rotates (pitch up/down, yaw, ...), which I assume happens about the origin. Intuitively, I think this should actually be located at the aircraft center of gravity and not just a convenient location for the modeler, though I'm not sure how much this would be noticeable. Third, it appears that cockpit models should locate the origin at the eyepoint. Fourth, when flown by a human, both the aircraft model and cockpit model will be drawn superimposed over each other, with the cockpit model origin located at the Cockpit/mainpanel_init.lua:cockpit_local_point delta distance from the aircraft model's origin. So, how do the two models display without overwriting each other when the aircraft model already has a non-functioning cockpit? Also, I see how the cockpit gets positioned relative to the aircraft, but what positions the aircraft relative to the concrete it sits on when parked? Thanks

More experimentation shows that if I raise the model from the model's origin point, it raises it on the tarmac spawn point as well. However, I can see no relation of the model's origin to anything special. The origin is not at the base of the bounding box, it sits between the wheels and the bottom of the fuselage. There's got to be something funky here I don't get.

Thanks, merge works much better.

Ok, I need to clarify my message a bit after I did some more experimentation. The plane sinks into the ground when I start from ramp, but seems to behave reasonably (i.e. it will sit at an appropriate height from the ground) when I start from the air and then land.

LOL! I have a Phantom model I've been working on for this purpose, but I've had to set it aside and start work on a Dummies Guide to Adding a DCSW Aircraft Mod since I kept running into problems. It seems to me that the model is a fraction of what is necessary to know and handle. You have to build not only the 3D aircraft model, but a cockpit model as well. These appear to be used together and superimposed, though I haven't figured out how that works yet without bleed through from one to the other. There's lots of texture materials, animations, sounds, collision models, damage models, avionics and aircraft systems modeling as well, and that's just for the SFM. The F-4 has some interesting flight characteristics with the wing tip dihedral, so an AFM would be desirable. Tuning the flight model may be problematic / guess work given the lack of flight test data (a few performance charts from the Dash-1) I have though. I'll try to get some ex-Phantom pilots I know to validate it as much as possible. Another interesting gotcha is that it's a 2-seater, with the WSO managing the radar and other systems. That may require some compromises to make it work well single player and I really don't know how 2-player with separate front / rear cockpits would work. I'm hoping that a more or less unrealistic HOTAS mapping of function will solve the single player requirement, but that remains to be seen. Anyway, once I get a basic understanding of each of these and get it written down, I'll get back to my original desire, an F-4 Mod that supports F-4E and F-4G, A-A, A-G, and Wild Weasel roles. If a use could be found for the RF-4C in DCSW, I'd add it too. It ought to keep me busy for the next 10 years. :-)

I believe they are correct. I rotated the model so the aircraft nose is pointing along the positive X axis and validated it looks reasonable in the model viewer. I set the gear position as follows: nose_gear_pos = { 3.2, -2, 0.1}, main_gear_pos = { -1.2, -2, 1.3}, This seems to match the original Wunderluft positive/negative values and general range.

I'm trying to create a Dummies guide to creating an aircraft Mod while at the same time learning the basics. I have a very simple 3D model and have added a collision line around it and collision_shells around the wheels. However, I haven't been able to add the bounding_box (exporter doesn't like the bounding_box tag) and when I use it with the Wunderluft example, it shows up as sunk in the ground halfway up the landing gear struts. I corrected the Wunderluft nose_gear_pos and main_gear_pos for this model, but it didn't seem to have an effect. Does anyone have an idea of what I've done wrong? Thanks.

Is there something wrong with the servers? I've been trying to download the modelviewer for a few days, but all 3 ftp servers / mirrors appear to be inoperative. Never mind, I guess I should refresh the thread before posting. :-)

Hi, I'm new to modeling in DCS. I'm trying to get my feet wet with some simple models that I build up into something larger. In particular, I model parts separately, then combine them together in a different model using 3dsmax object references. If I try to export the individual parts to EDM, it seems to work fine. If I try to export combined reference parts, I get messages saying "Error: unsupported material ...". Am I doing something wrong or is it not a good idea to build up models this way? Thanks, Red Beard