brianacooper11

Yea, I give CFD the evil eye without flight test results, or at least performance numbers. I should have a flight manual (Руководство по летной эксплуатации, РЛЭ) once I go to Ukraine. The Tu-22M3 Practical Aerodynamics document that I linked to also detailed some stability derivatives, so my plan is to use Cart3D to generate flight dynamics derivatives and induced drag across the envelope, and to have a look at how shocks develop vs mach number, alpha and beta. If the Cart3D derivatives match the document, I'm probably going to consider them good. Drag is probably going to be an ugly mix of hand calculations, Hoerner's Fluid Dynamic Drag, and a few (emphasis FEW) RANS runs, plus Cart3D. If Cart3D shows shocks developing unsatisfactorily, I'm going to have to re-evaluate everything, but the aerodynamics document says that they are relatively benign. That was meant for engineers. When the process is done, I'll make a youtube video and walk the non-engineers though what I did. Brian

Update 21 June 2016 I should have Wag's tagline, 'EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE'. - I decided to delay the trip to Ukraine by one month. The trip to Ukraine is a hold up for the programming and modeling efforts, but the early July date was rushing a number of things, and it also gives me time to make some cost reductions that make the effort less stressful, at least for me. For one thing I'm delaying a scanner purchase, and it won't coincide with this trip; I've found someone who can rent us a scanner in Kiev for a reasonable price. I'm also cutting out the Russia portion of my trip. Part of the motivation was to try to scan some cockpits at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino, but they have actually made good progress with getting airframes preserved against the elements, and that involves sealing off the interior entirely. When a fellow DCS'er asked them about scanning opportunities, he says they said NO!!!, with the exclamation points. So I'd just be going as a tourist at this point. I'll get there some day. It also frees me up to take my time in Ukraine, if I feel I need to extend. My programming goal before Ukraine is to complete a first pass at the EFM. I have an awesome performance and dynamics study on the Tu-22M3 from a Russian Military graduate course that is really good. See here. With that guidance, I'm using a combination of openVSP, Cart3D and hand calcs, and praying (really hard) that I don't have to go beyond that to get the fidelity I want. I'll try to do a post about that process sometime before Ukraine. - AI/Multi-crew: separate post shortly. Brian

Changed my mind again. Please keep the donations coming, no matter how small. And lets forget the swag; 100% goes toward expenses. Every little bit helps at this point. As stated previously, I'll give an acciunting after the trip on where the money goes. I just ask that you balance out concerns with the past history of crowdfunding against what this could become, and even if it's 5 dollars it helps. If you even want to earmark funds to go only to the museum, just PM me. I'll also try to post some more detail to feed the discussion mill on the main thread

Don't worry folks, i get it, Im a little wiser now

In retrospect, the swag idea was not a good one, certainly not for my morale. Pressing ahead, but please do not donate any further until I can take the Paypal link down; I'm on vacation. It's not worth the time overhead on the project. Funds will be returned to the donators. Brian

We have received $140 in donations so far from 5 people, and my sincere gratitude to them. I've been through ups and downs about that amount, whether it indicates a lack of interest, etc. I was expecting more. I think the inability to tie donations to future modules is part of it, that the notice can't go on the main thread is part of it, that we don't have anything to show is part of it. I've been repeatedly told by many, many people, that our focus needs to be on getting the work done that ED wants to see to grant Third Party status, and they're right. Our problem is, we won't have what they want to see until after Ukraine, plus some time after while we get the models and design document polished up. In the mean time we have the trip expenses and scanner expenses on day one. I'm unsure how popular and hence how profitable this project is going to be. It will appeal powerfully to a subset of the DCS community, but no matter how much I try to offer simplifications to the experience, it's going to be a steep learning curve to get bombs on target, or missiles away at a carrier, etc. It will always be a procedural sim. Combat flight simmers are a small part of the larger flight sim community, and I think the Tu-22M3 will be a further subset of the combat sim community. That leaves several things to think about all the way through the development process. Do I proceed because I think it will make money? Do I proceed because I'm too proud to quit? Do I proceed because I love the idea so much that I'm willing to go ahead, knowing that I will always be taking a loss, relative to what my time is worth doing other things? I don't think the answers to any of those will get clearer until we submit our package to ED. My plan right now is to proceed, but to proceed 'at risk', as we say at GE, going ahead with the Ukraine trip, and doing a lot of work, but leaving an exit open after talking to ED. Brian

The flight model is EFM. I was referring to other aspects of the simulation

If anybody has a prospective project that I might scan at Monino or the Ukraine Museum, PM me.

Update Update The previous update was out of date the moment I hit send, so I deleted it, and substituted this one - The trip to Ukraine and Russia is firm. I leave on 1 July, and return approximately two weeks later. The State Aviaiton Museum of Ukraine is closed 4 and 5 July, and is giving up full access to the Tu-22M3 on those days. We will be 3D scanning the cockpits and other geometry with an Artec Eva. I will be viewing additional reference material and finalizing systems and cockpit instrument functionality in order to complete the 'design document', from which programming will proceed. After that I will make a trip to Poltava to meet with Backfire pilots, and from thence to Moscow, and the Central Air Force Museum at Monino. It would be fun to hook up with any DCS or ED types in Moscow... At Monino, I want to scan several cockpits that I will post online for others to view or use in their own DCS content. It's a little give back for those donating to Black Cat Simulations. I am arranging to volunteer at the museum for a few days in exchange. To summarize, it will be a cool trip, my brother is coming along to make a documentary of the trip, and Oleg (ExtremeArtist3D) will be there to supervise the modeling needs. After the trip, we should have everything we need to submit a package to ED for Third Party evaluation, and to commence programming and modeling at full speed. Brian

Thanks, mate!

Just so everything is clear now, we are selling swag at http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=168290. Those sales will not get you a module at a later date.

No Facebook page, it's not a priority at the moment. Personally, I'm on Facebook every eighteen months or so when my wife gets mad that I'm not commenting on our kids' photos. :( For now the main Tu-22M3 thread on this forum is the heart of communication for this project. Feel free to chat it up there. Brian

Finally figured out how to get Paypal to let people enter their own donation amount. First post updated accordingly. Thanks, Brian

.9 July 2016 -The trip to Ukraine is firm, in early July. I'm also going to Moscow on the same trip to have a look around at Monino. We should have a cool story to tell after the trip. - We now have a paypal link at http://www.blackcatsimulations.com. The purchase amount is up to you. I want to reiterate that we do not have a Third Party license (yet). Per the EULA, we cannot take commercial advantage of DCS, so officially, we are not offering future Tu-22M3 Backfire modules in exchange for your purchase. No promises. A purchase does not equal a future DCS module! Purchases of $50 or more entitle the purchaser to some swag. We've got some really nice thermoses (thermi?), some interesting wood mousepads, and shirts. I tried to avoid stuff that you would find useless, and I own a prototyping business, so these were easy things for us to put together. Some of the precise details on the mousepad and thermos may change (fonts, positioning), but you get the idea from the pictures: - We are a long way from a final product. A purchase now is essentially an investment in the future of Black Cat Simulations, and we really appreciate that. Many efforts like this die off for any number of reasons, and neither you or we want it to be due to a lack of funding. We think you deserve to know how your money is spent, that we have a realistic plan to get to the final product, and we want to tell you a little more about what the simulation will be like. We want a solid case that a purchase of swag now is worthy of your hard earned $$. Finally, many thanks to those who have already given moral support, and offers of support already. I'm excited. Brian Black Cat Simulations As someone that is very excited to see this project succeed I want to help these guys out. I want to make sure we conform to the rules so everyone starts out on the right foot. Any purchase made here are for their company swag only, no DCS product will be awarded or promised at this time, any purchase should be assumed that you will only receive the swag items they list in this thread. Any questions, feel free to PM me. SiThSpAwN

Duh..long day.

Здравствуйте, Я ищу программиста для проекта Black Cat Simulations Ту-22М3. Знание C++ и LUA необходимо, Matlab/Simulink хорошо. Русский беглости и некоторые владения английским языком необходимо. Русский ординатура хорошо. Ответить на PM. Спасибо, Brian Cooper

Black Cat Simulations Tu-22M3 Update Update 31 May 2016, - We are looking for a fourth person, to do programming. It is necessary that the person be fluent in Russian, and living in Russia is a huge plus. Nominally a full time commitment. -Paypal accounts to be set up soon. I say accounts plural, because there will be one for the core Tu-22M3 team that you can give you. #2 is for collections for the museums that we will be visiting. We are giving some, but it would be helpful to have a 'purse' to help them out further. Finally, I will announce my own cockpit 3D scanning non-profit, essentially separate from this, and that will have a third donation option. - I own a prototyping business, so for the team paypal we will be selling cups, mugs, and anything else I can think of with a Black Cat Simulations and Tu-22M3 logos. - These websites and Paypal accounts should be alive by the end of the week. - Modeling and programming proceeds apace. As a side note, one reason I found the Tu-22M3 cockpit very familiar is because I'd flown the Project Tupolev Tu-154 (B-2 and M models) extensively in FSX. They would give you some systems familiarity with the Tu-22M3, plus there are very thorough manuals in Russian and English. The Mach indicator goes a bit higher, but it's still bad form to peg it at either end... Brian

By all that is Holy, that AI model sucks. Would be good to see something better happen to it.

bkthunder, you're not negative at all, just realistic. BTW, IndieGoGo would be dependent on a successful presentation and subsequent license from DCS. Brian Black Cat Simulations

That was very fluid ground, apparently. Watching the drama unfold with Starway and his DLC, and reading the EULA, whatever funding we pursue would steer clear of issues with the spirit or letter of the EULA for DCS. Brian Black Cat Simulations

So, somewhat fluid ground here, but the intention is to do an IndieGoGo campaign sometime after the trip to Ukraine. For a formal fundraising thing like that, we need to have a very substantial polished presentation, not of the final product, but of impressive progress to date with an achievable goal, and real estimate of delivery date. Right now, nothing is together, much less polished. I've got a programming environment in place, a structure for the flight and propulsion models, along with system modeling and cockpit indication programming, but it's an empty shell while I build up the design requirements for everything. I'm also doing several aerodynamic studies to get performance and dynamics data I believe and is validated by open source information. On the modeling side, ExtremeArtist3D and alieneye are butchering the basic model we started with, and are building it up into something as pretty as their past work. Basically, everything has its guts torn apart, but it is being put together in an organized, and relatively quick manner. That said, I think there are a lot of people on these boards who were hit very hard and passionately by the ideas and concepts behind the Backfire simulation. They get it, they're 'true believers'. I think they would be willing to take part in bringing the Backfire to realization, and reducing the risks to that realization. Translation: give money now to reduce financial instability. I have asked someone (the three of us do nothing but 'core' work) to build us a website, put a Paypal account on it, and offer some exchange of licenses, swag, and anything else I can think of in exchange for giving now. I'm also trying to find ways for this project to give back to the DCS community and future beyond the final product, in terms of sharing our development process and experiences openly, and making available what source code we can for others to learn from. To the degree we can help inspire future DCS development efforts, giving would be for the benefit of all. We're not greedy, just realistic that money helps at this point. I'll step away from the podium now... Brian

Black Cat Simulations Tu-22M3 Backfire Update 19 May 2016 Firm details: - 'We' is still three for now, ExtremeArtist3D, alieneye, and myself. - We'll be going to the Ukraine in July to poke around in a Tu-22M3. I'll be bringing my nifty 3D scanner (Artec EVA) to make scans of the cockpits, weapons bay, all the little details. I'm probably going to scan every cockpit they let me into so I can bring back material for others. - We'll be talking with Backfire pilots (alpha testers) while we're there.:pilotfly: - We're working on ways to take your money soon...scanners, tickets to Europe, some software tools, all that stuff is a hurtin'...:( - Meanwhile, we model, and we program. Brian Black Cat Simulations

I'm buying an Artec Eva to do 3D scans of the cockpit, weapons bay, wheel wells, landing gear, etc. for the Black Cat Simulations Tu-22M3. See this:[ame= ] [/ame]. So, I'm making a swing through Ukraine and Russia (VVS Museum at Monino) to scan some airplanes. It's very expensive, $20,000 but I will also use it in my prototyping business. I want to make it accessible to flight simulator developers of all ilks (DCS, FSX, P3D, etc). So, here's the deal. Freeware developers, if it's not out of my way (as in, I'm already going to a certain museum, or it's at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, I live less than an hour away), I will mesh for free. Payware developers will pay a nominal fee, haven't decided what yet, but the idea is for it to not be an obstacle:). I am also willing to lend the equipment, but there would be a fee, plus you would need some way to get local training. I'm hoping this spurs some momentum for DCS, but I also hope it steps up the VC quality in other sims. A note, for something like the instrument panel, you are still going to want to create a panel and place gauges, but for all the other little bits that make up a 'real' feeling cockpit, you get a very nice mesh, textured by the way, to start playing with polys. I hope people find this interesting.:) Brian

Black Cat Simulations Update 12 May 2016: Firm details: - It won't be ready by July 2017. See? Now you know we're a real developer. No word yet on when it will be. - 'We' is now three, alieneye has joined us in our quest to climb Mount Backfire. - As far as speculation about weapon systems, sensors, etc, it is going to be a period correct, late 80's to maybe early 90's Tu-22M3. There was some variation between construction batches; we will eventually fix on a particular serial number, and whatever it has is what it has. 'Period correct' means Kh-22's, Kh-15's, various FAB's, and no laser designator. It's a bomb truck though, so that doesn't mean somebody can't make a Mega-Backfire mod...:music_whistling: - We watch this thread, and lurk... Brian Black Cat Simulations

I can't believe I'm asking this. If there is anyone who lives in Moscow and who would be willing to help me translate a few letters into Russian and make a few phone calls, please PM me.