MadMaxter

Greetings, I would like to reintroduce myself and make an exciting announcement. My name is "MadMax" and I am the last surviving founder of the original Virtual Naval Air Operations, also known as VNAO. Though VNAO faltered over the years, it lived on in a few individuals who kept the spirit of VNAO alive and well. Thanks to the efforts of Jar with the VFA-113 Stingers and Icefire with the VFA-213 Black Lions, that spirit and spark has been ongoing, though not as visible as it was at its peak. What Jar and the Stingers have achieved in the years since is nothing short of amazing. The carrier operations are second to none other inside the sim community. The Stingers has shown unswerving dedication to realism and training and it shows. Icefire has remained active with his close knit group of Black Lions over the years and recently announced his standing up of the VCVW-11 Virtual Carrier Wing. It has garnered much interest and is seeing a tremendous amount of growth and dedication in anticipation of the arrival of the new modules for the Hornet and Tomcat. He is now proudly leading four squadrons. In addition to the VFA-213 Black Lions, there are the VFA-154 Black Knights, VMFA-232 Red Devils and VT-22 Golden Eagles training squadron. So, today, I would like to announce that these two groups are standing up Virtual Naval Air Operations once again. And in addition, I would like to announce that I will be recruiting for the VFA-103 Jolly Rogers squadron as I will be retaking the reigns as I did at VNAO's height of popularity. Our goal is simple. Do it like the pros do. Emulate what our heroes achieve and give those things the respect they deserve. If you want to learn, train and perform the way they do, this is the place to get that done. All three of these groups and any future groups that live up to the spirit that embodies what we do, will fly the VNAO logo and banner on their respective websites and other media. Congratulations to Jar and Ice for their achievements and looking forward to many more achievements to come. As far as the Jolly Rogers group, I will be announcing a discord channel that will be used temporarily as a meet and greet for new pilots and a place to get to know one another. Work has already begun on textures for mod we will be using until the DCS Hornet releases and work will begin in earnest on the skins for the new birds as soon as they arrive and provide texture templates. Looking forward to seeing everyone in the skies, and on deck. CALL THE BALL!!! Discord channel https://discord.gg/FSH8rFd

I do love me some PLAT cam vids. Nobody does it better

Tried all of the above. Still a no go. I also checked to make sure that windows 10 had .net 4 installed and it does. I am pretty sure this is something simple that I am missing. Just don't know what it could be. Incidentally, here is what happens. When I start a profile, I get a "Helios has stopped working.... etc." box and the program dies.

Well I must be doing something wrong then. Like I said, I have fooled around with this for around two weeks off and on. Last few days mostly on. When I test a profile on the Control Center, absolutely nothing happens on the second monitor.

Anyone working on getting Helios to work with Windows 10? I have been trying this for the last few days, with no success. No matter what I do, the profiles never run. Any suggestions? Windows 10 Enterprise 64 bit i5 4690 GTX 970 x 2 SLI 16g ram Thanks

You make some valid points about realism. When I go look for completely realistic planes in FSX I am very picky. Having said that, the environment that MS created with the SDK and moddability has made it so that some really beautiful third party companies have emerged with astonishing realism. Captainsim is a notable one. Their birds are usually the last word on them when they come out. The C130 is so realistic that my father, who was flight engineer on the LC-130H ski-equipped herc that flew to Antarctica for the navy, could not find fault with its avionics, flight model and even the sound. Caranado is a great civilian aircraft designer that has created some brilliantly realistic aircraft for the sim. And there's another sim out there that has seen the writing on the wall with regards to making third party aircraft. XPlane. With Xplane you can use a freeware modeller (Blender) a freeware paint program (Gimp) and its own built in plane builder to create astoundingly realistic aircraft. Down to the design of the airfoil. The T-34 mentor for Xplane is a noteworthy example. The integrity check only targets the stock aircraft? I was unaware of this, but even so, thats something that ED could remedy if they wanted to. I have been simming for going on thirteen years and this has always been an issue and it is proven right, again and again. Xplane's sales are up, and more importantly, its community is growing. There are many factors for this, but certainly the ability for the game to grow beyond the limits of what is on the disk has something to do with it. Thanks, Max

I like ED as much as the next guy. But the only reason they are the only ones that can do it right is because they are the only ones that have the tools to do it right. FSX got the way it did by allowing the community the tools needed to make these beautiful mods. This F111 is not designed and sold by MicroS0ft, it is done by a third party developer who had enough of the tools needed to complete such a complete bird. ED limits this by keeping key components close to the vest. Does laying down such restrictions help in sales? Not if you look at which sim has the biggest fan base and community and sales. Its MS, the one with the more complete SDK available for modding. This is an excellent F111. But it didn't happen by accident. And it could happen here too. If ED would allow it. And so far as multiplayer? The integrity checks seem to work well. At least for us at VNAO. Our mods are thick, but they are all the same. The weapons behave the same, and the odds are even. Max

an A6 Intruder is underway, screenshots can be found here

Landed on it, pressed U for takeoff position, flaps down, afterburners, didn't get a cat shot like that video. What am I missing here? BTW, checked the key commands for the 33, didn't find anything there either. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Max

Really? A cat shot? How exactly?

We are infact working on a retro mod for the FJ3 Fury and the Mig15. Its a fun guns only mod. But thats kind of the point really. VNAO exists to offer a special niche. As does other squads. A squad might focus on dogfighting for online competitions in a favorite plane. Or work on co-op missions. VNAO focuses on naval aviation realism. Thats the wonderful part of the community. There is something for everyone. Having said that, being able to create complete aircraft brings the community around to full circle. Then there would be something for everyone to create. Retro jets, to modern fighters, to large bombers to even the aerobatic jets for VFAT. All of these things we have now are the best we can make, but not complete. Sure, some will be better than others, but thats kind of the point. One person makes a Fury, the second guy likes it, but thinks he can do better and gives it a shot, and so on. Competition like that will breed quality and quantity. Max

All of them:) I agree with the person that said if we are waiting for the modules to end, then we will never get the tools to complete a fighter from tip to tip, top to bottom, stem to stern. Because the modules will always be coming. During one's construction another will be research and development will begin before the current project is even released. It is safe to say that no one will make a mod of the A10 after this one, because ED has made it as good as it can get. So the modules will simply end any need for community development of that particular module. So, if you are working on an Eagle, forget it, ED will do it and make money for it. Which is fine, its their right to do so. Hell, if they did the tomcat and the hornet next, no one would be more pleased than me. But, unfortunately that won't happen. So what's left for those of us who would like to mod things that will never be in a module? That is what the tools are really for, after all. Max

I am hoping for them to be the X-plane of modern combatsims. X-plane recognizes the need for open source and as a result, a plugin for exports using Blender have emerged. That kind of treatment would be the best thing ED could do for the community. And ultimately, themselves. DCS and FC2 sales would go through the roof if outsiders got whiff of that kind of modability. As for this project though. We may have just enough to get a decent mod with a working cockpit. Still too early to tell. Lack of an SDK makes the process fun.... not. lol Max

Too early to tell what flight models will be utilized. Still a long way to go before the LOM is even ready to mod up. However this is an open project, so progress will be posted. The thinking now is that the Su25 might be right for the job, but who knows?

The VNAO has begun work on a Guns and heaters only mod. The idea is to go back to the bygone era of the early jet-age and emulate the FJ3 Fury and MiG 15. It will be just a fun mod and will be released publicly as well. The Fury will have a working tailhook, of course. Though the MiG will not. Weapons and FM will be determined later but for now I am releasing these early modeling WIPs. Keep in mind it is way too early for a release date. Enjoy! Comments welcome Max

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com

The Blender crew is made of people, like us in the modding community, who use blender to enhance their endeavors. As Moa said, since Blender is open source, if ED would kindly release the necessary data and source code for EDM, someone could step up and build an exporter for Blender to EDM. This has already been started for FSX. Someone, not affiliated with Blender, took their open codes and created a plugin for it. Same for X-plane. X-plane, in fact, has embraced Blender as well as a few other 3d programs as a way for the community to enhance X-plane. This has exponentially increased X-plane's bottom line, since Micro$oft is no longer interested in putting anymore sims out. X-plane has begun building their client base by allowing the end-user to create what makes them happy. I understand why ED is reluctant, but with the advent of the integrity check and such things, many of those worries are now moot. Look at what has been accomplished with the limited release of source code thus far. Vast amounts of models and whole mod packages, scenery, texture and soundpacks that rival anything seen or heard before, and endless utilities designed to make tactical life easier. If the needed code was released for free 3d programs like Blender or Gimp to be able to use plugins for DCS or FC2, the sky would literally be the limit. I for one would have several dreams be realized, should I be able to use Blender to create the next level of VNAO mods. Food for thought, Hope this becomes realized. Thanks, VNAO MadMax CO Virtual Naval Air Operations http://www.virtualnavairops.com

I have registered as well, is this thing still a go? Its been about 24 hrs.

I am gonna bump this one. Does anyone have that pdf anymore? That link is bad now. I realize its old but I sure could use it. Thanks. Max

As I said, for LOMAC specifically.

Ok, Now that FC 2.0 is coming out, I think it is time that you modelers out there started making some tutorials. I have searched high and low for tutorials geared specifically toward animating, lods, damage profiles, exporting into LOMAC. I know pretty much how to model and skin, the things I need to know involve skinning, animating and all that specifically for Lock-On. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. Max

Here is the work I have begun on a North American B-25 Mitchell. Possibly for fundraising for CAF squadrons in the US. I use blender, then port the model into Max or Gmax for materials, animations, and texture mapping. This project is still in the very early stages, but I hope to be finished with the model by Dec. More to come Max

I have brought this subject up in other forums. Blender is a good and powerful, and yes, FREE software. It definately has the power to do what is needed in any sim, even DCS. And yes, the problem right now is that there are no plugins available for it. Tigrou's Grippen was done in blender and filtered through Max. As far as I know his next project is going to be done the same way. But, he has both Blender and 3dsMax. It is going to take a fan of Blender who is also a programmer who is also a fan of LOMAC or DCS to take a stab at writing an exporter for Blender. In addition, it will take ED releasing the 3rd party goodies for DCS before that can be done. But for LOMAC that already exists for 3dsMax 7 and 8. It is my opinion, based on the success of VNAO and the mods we released and also on the Grippen by Tigrou, Simmod's A-10, and many others, that releasing better SDK's and such for DCS can only promote better sales for DCS itself. Hopefully someone in charge at ED will realize that. Thanks, Max

This is true, but limiting yourself to a 3 thousand dollar program is going to limit the mods to talented guys who use max to make ligit money with it. By opening up to free modeling programs like Blender, you can attract aircraft enthusiasts who just want to do one thing, make a model in their favorite game. This exploded MSFS when Gmax was introduced. And it can explode LOMAC/DCS too. Wouldn't you rather have an F-4 Phantom made by someone who wants it to look authentic because they love airplanes? Or made by someone who happens to use max for work and may or may not be an aircraft enthusiast. I take the enthusiast everytime. See Captainsim for a group of enthusiasts who decided to take their hobby to the next level. Max

PHEW! thought it was wtf backwards... lol Seriously though, watch for Tigrou's release of his gripen as the first example of what can be done in blender. I can't wait to see it myself. Max