OldCrow

Looks great as always guys! ;)

Uhm, you guys know there are a separate argument exactly for this purpose right? So its possible, I've done it on one of my models, and it works. ;) Cant remember what the argument is called right now, but take a look at the F-18 in model viewer and try some arguments in the range of 70-100. EDIT: I think maybe it was 89 and 90

Ok I see If you want to add an argument animation to a part that already has an animation argument from before, you don't have to click on the small button with the question mark anymore. The only reason to click on this button is to tell the program that this part should use arg based animations, and is only done the first time you add an argument animation to a part. So here's what you do when you already have an argument animation, but want to add another: On the right side, you have your argument panel, or what you want to call it, it shows what arguments you have already added for this part. To add another argument, press the add button. Then you will get 2 arguments in this panel. To animate in your newly added argument, dubble click it on the argument panel, so that it gets a small arrow to the right of it. Then you can animate it. So, remember always to dubble click the argument in the argument panel before animating so that it gets this little arrow in front of it. Otherwise the animation wont be saved in the argument, and thus will be viewable in all arguments + not work in lockon. Also keep in mind that rotation animations and position animations are separate. So even if you have added an argument based rotation animation to a part, it wont work for a position animation. So these must be animated and treated separately.

This is possible, however for a tornado forexample, the pylons on the wing would then not follow the wing sweep. In the "wing sweep" animation however, they do. So imho the best way of getting this to work would be to "activate" this argument so that it is visible for the player aircraft aswell. In the meantime, the flaps trick is a good workaround for planes that doesnt have pylons on the moving part of the wing

Hmm, so if I get this right, when you have animated in argument 1, you can also see this animation in argument 0? There can be two reasons fro this: 1. The animation slider in argument 1 is not set to 0 2. The animation is not done in its argument, and thus can be seen in all other arguments (though not in game). To check this, pick an argument (in lower left) you havent animated in, lets say 100. Then move the animation slider. If you see any of the parts move, then you will have to redo the animation for that part. If 1 is the case, dont worry, it is normal. The game will interperate it correctly And remember when animating in arguments, make sure the argument you are animating in is active. you can do this by dubble clicking on the argument in the animation panel. Also if you want to animate a part that already has an argument animation, simply click add on the animation panel to add another argument.

For gear suspension, there are 3 arguments: 1 = front gear suspension 4 = right gear suspension 6 = left gear suspension The way to animate is: 0 = no suspension 50 = suspension at parking 100 = Max suspension I would believe the F-18 in lockon also was animated like this, you can see how they did it on that aircraft in lockon model viewer.

To make an object invisible you ahve to animate it in the "visibillity" channel. This is done in the track view in 3dsmax. There was a video showing how to do it a while back, I will see if I can find it EDIT: Forund it Check this link of how to animate in the visibillity channel: http://tigroukam.free.fr/Hotel/Lockon/Models/Doc/LomacAnim.rar It describes how to add damage model, but you use this visibillity method for everything you want to be invisible at a certain point (forexample the landing gear when they are retracted) Here is also a link to the thred, some usefull info in there: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=40307&highlight=visibility&page=2

Just shooting in here, the tools works for both 3dsmax 7 and 8. And as Krieger sayes, you can make most of the model in another version of 3dsmax, or even another 3d application (blender etc). But for animations and mapping, you have to use 7 or 8. (Alittle unsure if you can do the mapping in 10 and import to 7/8. most safe would be to do the mapping in 7 or 8 )

Press the small button on top left with a small question mark in it From there you add argument based rotation/possition etc

Try these tools: http://www.simwolfs.com/1/PluginsMax7-8_b2.rar

Yep, you just add another argument in the visibility track;)

Have you tried using the "night cockpit illumination" argument along with taht landing light thing you made? then maybe it would only show in night time and not in daytime. Think thats how the ada guys managed to get different (longer) burners in hte night then in daytime

Awesome detail on that pilot! You should put him in avatar2 when he's finished:D

Shaggy!! You're back!! Awesome work as always mate!:thumbup:

I'd guess its for dcs. Biggest Differances between c model and mlu I guess is mostly the parachute pod on the tail. But that model sure looks good

This looks very good!

The movie is now available for download: Part1: http://www.virtualavia.com/vra_movie/VFAT_2009/Virtual_Red_Arrows_VFAT_2009_Part1of4.rar Part2: http://www.virtualavia.com/vra_movie/VFAT_2009/Virtual_Red_Arrows_VFAT_2009_Part2of4.rar Part3: http://www.virtualavia.com/vra_movie/VFAT_2009/Virtual_Red_Arrows_VFAT_2009_Part3of4.rar Part4: http://www.virtualavia.com/vra_movie/VFAT_2009/Virtual_Red_Arrows_VFAT_2009_Part4of4.rar

hmm, those burner cones are a mystery to me mate, if you've painted the forsag.tga's alpha channel black, I have no clue what those are in your pic there, sorry edit.. : Woow! Mirage f-1 two seater!! :D Me want!!

For the default afterburner cone, you can "turn this off" by editing the forsag.tga texture. Simply paint the alpha channel black and the default burner will dissapear. For the heatblur, its possition is hardcoded it seemes, so it cant be moved. You will find FORSAG.tga in one of the cdds files in lockon, probably something in the line of "worldtexturesTGA.cdds"

Yep, also make sure you set the material values correct. Check my pics below for some settings that works for lights. The texture I use for lights is the Bano.tga texture. Its a default texture for lights in lockon, so you can find this in some of the cdds files in lockon (world textures tga maybe) Then to make the light in 3d, you just place the texture on square planes and adjust the size so it looks right.

Sweet! And that Harrier looks awesome now!:thumbup:

Yep, I think its just a matter of smoothing groups of hte harrier. Redo the smoothing groups and it will look stunning! ;)

Yea, I think this mod is gonna be a big one, maybe alittle underrated atm, but seemes like alot of things are added in this mod, and it looks great! ;)

hmm, the ada mod guys managed to change possition of heatblur? Maybe someone from ada team can add in on that? ;) For cdds, I dont know how to make them, so im afraid I cant help you any further there. Skinners speak up! :D For the damage though, this sounds like it has to do with the colision model (note colision model and NOT damage model). The collision model is what tells the game where the plane takes damage etc. Tigrou/beczl made a great post about this: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=27716&highlight=collision

For the effects on the aircraft (afterburner cones etc) this is hardcoded in the sim, and to my knowledge there is not anyone that has figured out how to move these (by all means proove me wrong :)). Though, for the afterburner cones there is a workaround: You can make the cones in your aircrafts max file and animate them to the afterburner arguments. Then to hide the "game cone" you simply paint the alpha channel black on the original afterburner texture (forsag.tga). The good thing about this method is that you can customise your burners just as you want yourself. The bad thing is that the original "game burner" will be invisible on ALL planes in lockon. For cdds I am very uncertain as I have never made one myself, but I think you have to devide the bmp's and tga's. So all bmp in one cdds and all tga's in another. Also these cdds files should be located in bazar/world (I think). You also need to add a line in your graphics.cfg in order for the sim to read the newly added cdds files. I can do some more research on this when im on my lockon pc. hope it helps