LanceCriminal86

Definitely interested in any template upgrades. I'm a sucker for big sexy textures. I keep meaning to do some Prowler skins but Grumman's big sexy cat keeps eating up all my time.

I did some snooping today, there are models out there for the Long Beach, Virginia, and Texas CGNs that would be pretty neat, but they were either cheap and mdeiocre, or very expensive and had 600k polys. There's a USS Midway though and it's really tempting to look at. Not megacheap but, maybe when I get a few flight gear things knocked out, I might be tempted to grab. It would have to be rigged and animated, probably some additional texture work, add PBR ie Roughmet, normals, etc. but there is experience on the boards with animating a carrier to have elevators, blast and blast shields. It would be even neater if there was a way to give it supercarrier hook-ins if you have the module but unlikely.

Has there been discussion around adding different helmet options? The current one is spot on for late 80s/90s Aggressor use, but something more like an APH-6 or perhaps an HGU-33 would be a closer fit for the general timeframe of the A-4E. APH-6 Single Visor: APH-6 Dual Visor, aka the Ram's Horn: HGU-33, as seen in the Heatblur Tomcat and in Top Gun. Primary Navy fixed-wing helmet 70s to late 80s & early 90s: This one possibly from a USMC A-4 Agressor squadron https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/275108-bought-this-hgu-33-what-squadronaircraft/ The HGU-55 or rather converted HGU-33 style presently in the mod came about in the very late 1980s and into the 90s to present. http://www.salimbeti.com/aviation/images/helmets/hgu34-13.jpg One option may be, like the F/A-18, use an animation argument to add on the visor housing model, then control it through the livery file. Alternately set the whole helmet up in animation argument and swap out the pilot helmet or whole head maybe.

There's a decent chance this is my helmet, either during or after the guy traded it in for a new one: More on topic though, I'm starting to work on fixing up my F-14B template with the needed changes/deletions and am going to update my old VF-32 CoNA skins.

When you start nerding out on Tomcats and flight gear for skins, it leads you to the same places. Then it turns into collecting and you bank account suffers. I could easily have had a Virpil stick, extension, and pedals but instead there's this: Now I have 7 helmets and shells and none of them are "complete".... But hey, one has been identified as being part of VTAS testing at Pt Mugu in Tomcats and Phantoms, and the same or similar helmet seems to be in a few photos I've found.

81 looks to be the last cruise with the blue helmets, there may have been some all blue done in 82 but by the time of their cruise book, they were white tape base.

I know whose that is, I will try and ask if he knows when the last cruise was for the full blue helmets. If you're doing 1981 and they still had them, then totally do it. VF-84, 114, and 213 stuck with the fancy painted helmets a bit longer I think than some other squadrons, but by 82 for sure it looks like they were using the taped base helmets in white, as the Navy made it mandatory fleet wide.

First note, that helmet in the photo is a rare 70s transitional helmet as the HGU-33 came online. You can see it's an APH-6 Custom with the Swingaline mask bayonets. If you're not in the Tomcat Association FB page, get there. There's a good photo of a 1982-1983 cruise helmet, but so far nothing detailed showing 1981 or before. It's hard to pick out from the 1981 cruise, might be the blue helmets still but none of the pics are clear enough here: https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv66-81/576.htm Photos from VF-114 did show they still had their Black with Orange helmets, so maybe they hadn't been hit with the Navy order for all white base taping. By 1982, they had white helmets, taped. You can see it in the 1982 cruise book here: https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cvn65-82/386.htm https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cvn65-82/390.htm https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cvn65-82/396.htm Need to build yourself some non-taped base textures. I took the original from the VF-74 Adversary skin and used a lot of clone/blur tool to eliminate the tape lines. Then used a lot of blur tool to blend in the background to create a "base" un-taped helmet. Once you get a plain base you can start building layers and groups with some masks, and go wild. Then you need to basically do the same in the Roughmets and the Normals, eliminate the tape lines. Ideally you also should relocate the Velcro to pilot's right. It's where most of the IR strobe patches have been in lots of Tomcats and USN helmets I've seen. Then move the velcro roughmet/normal portions over. After all that, you can tweak the blue and green layers of the roughmet to give the helmet some shine. Can't really do the metallic flake but maybe use heavy noise on the metallic layer to have brighter/shiny points all around.

Have you guys come across any models for Korea era carriers or perhaps the later converted Essex? USS Midway, Hornet, or Lexington would be a great find since they were used actively or as training carriers (Lex) all the way into the 80s or 90s I believe.

It didn't make the cut, but still working on the VF-201 1998 CAG jet and now some line jet skins. I found the RIO of the jet from the below photo, and have been working on AF112 to represent her in the last year of VF-201's Tomcat era. Waiting to hear about stencils and such, but got info that she had red striped tails. Apparently 201 had a smattering of different tails that last year. Making changes to the TPS paint colors, notably turning off some adjustment layers in the template. This seems to get really close to later photos of VF-31's cats with modern cameras, fresh paint samples, and when you mess with lighting and account for paint fade as well as camera film from the 90s, seems to replicate the general colors of TPS IMO a bit more accurately. In bright light it washes the contrast out almost, and in the shade you get a striking contrast. This is before I got the corrections from the RIO. A lineup of VF-201's cats in 1998, their final year. After I got the info that they had the older style red tail stripes on 112

Got it added to a tracker I've been running. Stumbled across a couple model issues again last night, going to see if I can get those submitted as well.

I blew away the old folders entirely before trying the 2x beta, but I did install the beta 2 release and then the "dev" build on top of that. It sounds to me like a looping sound conflict of some kind, so I'll just blow the folder away and try the Dev build only.

No, this is outside idling the jet, in flight, etc. and is not the slats. And was only when behind the jet. I may delete the folder and only drop the dev build in, see if that's it. This sounded like a looped sound as it was consistent and timed and was not based on flight. On the radio side, I haven't gotten any comms from the ground, carrier, etc. Yes I can launch the jet on the carrier. Perhaps I've missed something? I can't remember what radio settings I have as far as easy comms etc. but doing the same I normally do in a full fidelity module I'm not getting comms with ATC or Supercarrier.

Sometimes it's fun to set your graphics settings to "slideshow" for taking screenshots of skins you've worked really hard on. I'd love to see an alternate GPU melter config just for taking screenshots, wallpapers, loading screens, etc.

Wow, the EFM is MUCH different from what I remember, bravo! Honestly aside from the radio issue due to no SDK, the only thing I picked up on was an external cyclic "booming" sound. It sounds like a looped general engine sound but it reminds me of the caterpillar sound from Hunt for Red October. I downloaded the latest beta release and then the dev build and dropped it in, could there be a conflict of old engine sounds and new? I noticed there was a set of engine_disabled folders and such.

Further inspection, the TCS we have incorporates the ALQ-100. Not seeing what is missing here. There's a small fin antenna I see in some photos but that's not the -100 itself. The lower portion of our TCS has the correct red position light then the alq-100 housing with a bare front area, just like on 161134. This looks to be the same shape of B models I'm seeing from the late 90s.

Reference jet for the TCS is 99% 161134 at Valiant Air: http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason/f-14a_161134/index.php?Page=2 Displayed with a bullet fairing, probably swapped the TCS out when it was stricken. Block 110 jet so it should have ALQ-100 in the housing but it may have had a different housing switched in when it went for loan to the museum. Interestingly that jet has the older beaver tail we'd need for the -95 and also lacks the -126 ECM antennas. It's one of the 3 reference jets, another A and a D were used. It looks like there were a number of TCS housings used on later As, challenge is finding the right ones for the B and separately for a -95 or -135. And many jets shipped with bullet fairings.

Take the current feature set of the "early" -135 we are slated for, and swap the visual model. There's your systems difference as long as ECM in DCS continues to be on/off. Otherwise the -95 would have a slightly different, maybe less effective ECM suite, as they lack the ALQ-126. Past that, the -95 model would need to optionally have TCS or TCS with the bullet fairing instead of the ALQ-100 only like the Iranian cats. No LANTIRN and probably restrict A2G based on dates until early 90s when Bombcat testing started in earnest. Skin would not be an accurate term as the -95 has some slight visual model changes, as mentioned previously the ALQ-126 antennas by the intakes and the older beaver tail that lacks the ALR-67 housing. You can paint on earlier markings but to some it's just not right seeing late features on what's supposed to be an older jet. As didn't get the -67 apparently until later 90s or 00s, if at all. Some stuff slated for upgrades on 1998/99 training docs may never have been deployed. B's had them and the D I think had a different RWR. I personally would rather have the -135 just be the late A, and drop the early work into the -95. Easier to pretend a late 135 is a late 80s one than to take a 135 and pretend it's a -95.

If you're on the Livery Art Group shoot me a message, we got a log of good Tomcat stuff to share like stencils and layers. Hopefully with some pics of the Pima F-14 we can finalize the areas under the nacelles for the A and get some permanent -A textures sent through the pipe. You can do the changes yourself, it takes a little work but the final textures shouldn't change a ton.

Couple notes for folks doing A model skins: - The turbine stripes along the rear fuselage are in a different location vs the B, and need to be shifted to behind the rear slime strips along the vertical bulkhead panel. Varies between jets/squadrons but this general location: - Fire punch-in stencils need to shift downwards to right about on the top edge of the NACA duct. You'll have to make adjustments in the weathering, base, component layers of diffuse and of course the roughmet & normal maps but it's a worthwhile touch. - Intake warning stencils: Typically the As seemed to have a different style of stencil from the default Heatblur ones, with a narrower angle, different starting points, and not coming up as high on the intakes. They're a PITA to get right, but some strategic use of the line tool and making reference points from photos and in the model viewer can get you really close. I've been using a 40px line I believe on mine. Note the distance from the top of the intake to the stencil, how it relates to the landing gear door angle as well: Versus some of the stencils on B models: And D stencils because at least one D was scanned, and its stencils may have been used as the basis for our B: That all's not including the panels and bits that need to be deleted from the roughmet/normal/diffuse but working on trying to get some of that done for updated templates and such. Trying to see if someone can get really good pictures of the underside of a specific engine panel that has to be modified from B to A. A couple of us did it by hand but hoping to get some better reference material that could be used for a permanent solution. There's a few tweaks that can be done to the B as well to remove D and A bits from it. At this point I have like 3 separate copies of the template and now 30-40 gigs of my hard drives are gone trying to keep all the changes and skins separated.

We're not getting "early" Cats, we're getting the second to last batch of As somewhat as they rolled off the line in 84/85. I tried to see if they'd swap the "early" 135 for a US -95 but we're basically just getting the exact same thing we already have but with a different RWR and maybe LANTIRN turned off. Not that a -95 is a super early jet but it at least better represents the 80s jets and can pretend to be an older one if they solve the TCS swapping puzzle.

The Block 135 has the ALR-126 antennas, so that would not be right. The B has the antennas as well, and as mentioned above back to Block 120 the ALR-126 blisters were added around the intakes. But the Block 135 did have the ALR-67 style beavertail even though it appears they weren't shipped with the ALR-67 itself. The reason ours doesn't have the antennas is because an F-14D is among the 3 jets they scanned, none of which were B models. The other two may have been older block jets or the antenna were overlooked when compiling the model. But the -135 and B should both have them and be externally the same aside from the engines.

Based on a few replies here and there from HB, I'd be betting on March's major patch for the next major content drop.

We absolutely had Block 95 Tomcats, they just weren't specc'd with the same systems. Block 95 Tomcats are what shot down the Libyan SU-22s in 1981. A US Block 95 would be different from the planned early Block 135 in having the ALR-67 housing-less beavertail and no ALQ-126 blisters by the intakes. These are the only visual or system changes I can find between the two. The ALR-67 beavertail appears to have been added in Block 110 and the ALQ-126 antennas in Block 120. The 1989 shoot-down jets were an 80 and 85, which had minor differences from the 95. I'm in the process of cross referencing this guy's breakdown here but so far it seems accurate for showing the production block changes: https://modelingmadness.com/review/mod/us/usn/fighter/gar14adiff.htm F-14A-80 (BuNo 159430 - 159468) Gypsy 202: BuNO 159437 F-14A -85 (BuNo BuNo 159588 - 159637) Gypsy 207: BuNO 159610 F-14A-95 (BuNo 160379 - 160414) Fast Eagle 102: BuNO 160403 Fast Eagle 107: BuNO 160390

Blind protection and failure to provide any criticism doesn't improve anything either. I have already stated elsewhere that due to the many issues above, I don't actually fly DCS anymore. I do my best to provide skins for the community so at least those that can look past them, for now, can enjoy their time. F-14 module users have been clamoring for historic skins to go with the various carrier airwings that served on the Supercarriers we have, and on the forthcoming Forrestal/class as well, so I'm putting my time towards helping make that happen. A community manager's JOB is to take gripes, moans, and complaints and keep tabs on them. People being active and complaining means they're at least still here, and still engaged in the product. When it's too quiet, it usually means either everyone is too engrossed to play, or, they've all left. It's not too quiet around here so, at least that means people are still playing, checking in, and buying modules. Why don't YOU sit back, conserve YOUR energy, and let ED address our concerns while you happily look past issues that others can't.