Zeus F16 CFT Mod (HELP WANTED)

[Scoobyon]

Hey, Im scooby from the Virtual Zeus Team
Ive been working on the bl 52+ mod for a while for display purposes but now that the mod has been released im wondering if there is any way for it to hold fuel. Ive been told that it was possible but that person never got back to me after that. Does anyone have any ideas?

Download link : https://mega.nz/folder/cZYXSSqZ#edKAWH3LyzURREZQvCCkmg

Discord : https://discord.com/invite/9Y7FgzRw6D

[Nightstorm]

I've not figured out how yet, but I'll share what I have found in the hopes we can get this to work.

 

I modified these lines in the lua file and the weapon/fuel weight reads correctly in the Mission Editor display but once in the aircraft it was still reading normal fuel level.

Weight_Empty    = 410, 
Weight            = 410 + 442.5 * 3.78,  

 

I've been trying to determine where fuel level is controlled.  For example if you edit the F16C.lua file line:

    M_fuel_max                    =    3249,    --NIGHTSTORM    7163lbs internal fuel

 

It will also show the change in ME but not in the cockpit.  3249 is kg of fuel which equals 7163lbs and that's the normal internal max fuel for the Viper.

 

In the file db_weapons.data.lua there are configurations for the various fuel tanks.  For example this is the Viper's 370 wing tank:

 

            {
                CLSID    =    "{F376DBEE-4CAE-41BA-ADD9-B2910AC95DEC}",
                Picture    =    "PTB.png",
                Weight_Empty    =    215.5,
                Weight            =   215.5 + 364 * GALLON_TO_KG,
                attribute    =    {1,    3,    43,    11},
                Elements    =    
                {
                    [1]    =    
                    {
                        Position    =    {0,    0,    0},
                        ShapeName    =    "fuel_tank_370gal",
                    }, 
                }, -- end of Elements
                displayName    = _("Fuel tank 370 gal"),
                Cx_pil         = 0.00175,
            }, 

 

Note the attribute line:                  attribute    =    {1,    3,    43,    11},

 

Copying that line into the CFT lua just makes them not show up visually and not give any additional fuel.  However, those lines reference two more files.

 

Types.lua and wsTypes.lua  and the numbers appear to represent the various attributes assigned to the "weapon" from a table in the wsTypes.lua.

 

wsType_Air      = 1

wsType_Free_Fall  = 3

wsType_FuelTank   = 43

F_16_PTB_N1 =11;    

 

I tried adding a new entry to the table and editing the attributes line to use it's name/number however that had no affect.  The CFT's were invisible and didn't add fuel in the plane.

 

A piece of the puzzle I haven't found yet is this:  What controls how much fuel the air craft is given from internal fuel and external tanks?  Where is it defined that a 370g tank gives x amount of fuel to your total and a 300g tank gives y amount?

 

I looked in the F16C.dll file with a hex editor and I could find references to "get internal fuel and get external fuel" but nothing that indicated they were defined there.

 

So...that's what I know so far about this.  Maybe this will be helpful and I'll keep poking around.

 

[Nightstorm]

A little more testing and I've found that if you place the CFT's on station 5 or 4,6 on the Viper and take them instead of the normal tanks there you do in fact get extra fuel in the jet.  Of course the positioning of the rendered models is incorrect but that can be adjusted.  I put them on in place of the 370's and I got 12k lbs of fuel with a centerline tank fitted.  It showed both in the ME and in the cockpit.  So...progress.  And that also means that the amount of fuel is indeed controlled by the weight and empty weight as defined above.  

 

So what's interesting about this.  For the Viper, fuel was only added when attached to existing pylons that are capable of accepting fuel.  I tested adding 370g tanks to the new hard point created for the CFT's and got nothing.  So...it might be a one or the other type of situation.  300g center/370g wing or CFT's.  Still testing.

 

What we need to know now is, how can we make the new hard point one that "accepts fuel".

Edited December 15, 2020 by Nightstorm

[Scoobyon]

Id prefer if it was available on the extra pylon to allow for the travel pod/fuel tanks to be on whilst having the CFT. Could it to be that the CFTs are defined in a different place to the actual fuel tanks?

[Nightstorm]

Yea I'm still testing a few different things and trying to get the extra pylon to work.  I'll update when I have more.

[Nightstorm]

So, it appears that someplace it's been coded what hard points can accept fuel and only those hard points.  In addition to that, there is also a limit placed on the center station hard point of something around 2090lbs of fuel.

 

Here's what I found:  I can't get fuel to register from tanks placed anywhere except on stations 4,5,6 on the viper.  Even if I create new hard points copied from the existing ones etc.

 

If I place the CFT's on station 4 or 6 I get the full amount of fuel.  I also get the pylon attached to the wing and the CFT's are not positioned correctly.  That part can likely be corrected.

 

If I place CFT's on station 5 the fuel is limited to roughly 9250lbs total which isn't much more than the normal 300g tank there.  I don't know what the fuel limit is on stations 4/6 as I actually tested adding CFT's to both 4 and 6 with the though of creating a Left and Right CFT tank instead of both in one and it added ALL of the fuel.  It's was like 16k lbs.

 

There may be a way then to have the CFT's IN STEAD OF the 370g tanks but I don't know yet if there's another way.  Still experimenting.

[Nightstorm]

Ok I do have an update.  I did find a way to make it work.  But.....there's always a but isn't there?  It does come down to the wing tanks OR the CFT's.  That also means of course that you can't use other stores on 4 or 6 as the hard points are "taken up" by the CFT's.  I had to do some re-working of things and essentially what I did is copy the main LUA file which I've called CFT.lua to CFT_Right.lua and CFT_Left.lua.  The main one is set at 0 everything like original and is only used for looks right now.

 

The other two each have values that are equal to what each tank holds with the correct weight and amount based on information I could find.  I've modified my F16C.lua file to add the new Left and Right CFT's each to station 4 and 6.  I specified on the lines to disable the wing connector so that its not rendered.  The end result is you have a Viper that looks like it has the CFT's on it AND it has the added fuel from them.  The downside of course is that you can't use stations 4 and 6 for anything else.

 

Those stations were the only ones that would add the correct amount of fuel.

 

Now this isn't ideal, but it does work and you can still carry the center tank for about 12k lbs of fuel.  What would make this work a little better would be a separate EDM file of each tank left and right.  At the moment I referenced non existant EDM files in those LUA's so nothing is rendered.  If we had actual models of each one I could use those instead.

 

The best option and one I'll look into would be a few different EDM models for use.  One with everything which we have, one with just the tail faring/ecm, one with just the two tanks and one each for left and right.

 

If anyone else can come up with a better idea I'm all ears.  I couldn't find where the the fuel use is limited to those pylons.  That makes me think it's part of the SDK and might well be imbedded in the DLL.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Nightstorm

[Scoobyon]

This is a great break in the progress. I can contact ED to see if there is a reason and if they are willing to allow fuel on all pylons. Im sure it would be easy enough to copy the files. I would also like to award you a virtual golden star for your efforts. You sir are a legend

 

 

[Nightstorm]

Lol thanks.

 

Here's the section of the F-16C.lua where I added the left/right CFT.

 

local innerLeft = {}    -- 4 left
joinTbl(inner, innerLeft,{
    { CLSID = "{CFT_Left}", arg_value = 1, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable",  attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},    --NIGHTSTORM CFT  (Forward/Back, Up/Down, Right/Left.)
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*MK-82}",                        Cx_gain_item = 2.813,        arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},        -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*MK-82_Snakeye}",                Cx_gain_item = 2.11,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},        -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 SNAKEYE
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*MK-82AIR}",                    Cx_gain_item = 2.11,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},        -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 AIR

    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*CBU-87}",                        Cx_gain_item = 4.146,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},            -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-87
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*CBU-97}",                        Cx_gain_item = 4.146,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},            -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-97
    })
local innerRight = {}    -- 6 right
joinTbl(inner, innerRight,{
    { CLSID = "{CFT_Right}", arg_value = 1, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable",  attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},    --NIGHTSTORM CFT  (Forward/Back, Up/Down, Right/Left.)
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*MK-82}",                        Cx_gain_item = 2.813,        arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},        -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*MK-82_Snakeye}",                Cx_gain_item = 2.11,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},        -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 SNAKEYE
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*MK-82AIR}",                    Cx_gain_item = 2.11,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},        -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 AIR

    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*CBU-87}",                        Cx_gain_item = 4.146,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},            -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-87
    { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*CBU-97}",                        Cx_gain_item = 4.146,    arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass},            -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-97
})

 

I created two new lua files and referenced them in the entry.lua.  Attached are all of the files I'm using and changes I made save for the F16C.lua and the code changes are above.

CFT.lua CFT_Left.lua CFT_Right.lua CFTGround.lua entry.lua

I renamed things just for simplicities sake in keeping things straight.  Feel free to do whatever you like with these of course.  The graphics files attached are referenced for the stores page in ME for each side.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Nightstorm

[Nightstorm]

After some flight testing another point to consider.  This actually works perfectly in my humble opinion.  The CFT's on hard points 4 and 6 show up as "wing tanks" as far as the fuel management system and controls are concerned.  So when you switch to wings or wings first its reading and using them.  Also, they are NOT jettison-able nor should they be.

 

I don't know if the drag will actually work or not but I have the value entered in my copies of the CFT_Right and CFT_Left.

 

That value is:               Cx_pil            = 0.00054,

 

That's 12% of the drag of the centerline fuel tank for 50% more fuel and no need to carry the wing tanks.  And you have full performance of the jet up to 9G.

 

If the drag isn't working in the addon lua files it could be added to the F16C.lua this way:

 

    { CLSID = "{CFT_Left}", arg_value = 1, Cx_gain_item = 0.00054, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable",  attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},  

 

    { CLSID = "{CFT_Right}", arg_value = 1, Cx_gain_item = 0.00054, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable",  attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},  

 

Of course is so small, I don't know that it really matters.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Nightstorm

[Neon]

On 12/15/2020 at 6:55 PM, Nightstorm said:

After some flight testing another point to consider.  This actually works perfectly in my humble opinion.  The CFT's on hard points 4 and 6 show up as "wing tanks" as far as the fuel management system and controls are concerned.  So when you switch to wings or wings first its reading and using them.  Also, they are NOT jettison-able nor should they be.

 

I don't know if the drag will actually work or not but I have the value entered in my copies of the CFT_Right and CFT_Left.

 

That value is:               Cx_pil            = 0.00054,

 

That's 12% of the drag of the centerline fuel tank for 50% more fuel and no need to carry the wing tanks.  And you have full performance of the jet up to 9G.

 

If the drag isn't working in the addon lua files it could be added to the F16C.lua this way:

 

    { CLSID = "{CFT_Left}", arg_value = 1, Cx_gain_item = 0.00054, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable",  attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},  

 

    { CLSID = "{CFT_Right}", arg_value = 1, Cx_gain_item = 0.00054, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable",  attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},  

 

Of course is so small, I don't know that it really matters.

 

So I am actually trying something along the same lines. But I am attaching it to the centerline. Only issue I am having is that the attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},  is still attached to where the pylon is. Is there a easier way to find out the coordinates for placing this thing?

[Nightstorm]

8 hours ago, Neon said:

So I am actually trying something along the same lines. But I am attaching it to the centerline. Only issue I am having is that the attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}},  is still attached to where the pylon is. Is there a easier way to find out the coordinates for placing this thing?

I'm not sure about an easy way for the co-ordinates, probably just trial and error unfortunately.  Did you find a way to get the full amount of fuel on station 5?  Whenever I tried it I hit a limit of 9200lbs or so.

[fagulha]

Hi,

 

The mod breaks the Rearming/Refuel menu in mission.

In Mission Editor it works without probs.

Can you check it please?

 

Thank you.

[Nightstorm]

24 minutes ago, fagulha said:

Hi,

 

The mod breaks the Rearming/Refuel menu in mission.

In Mission Editor it works without probs.

Can you check it please?

 

Thank you.

 

I just finished updating it for 2.7.

 

Updated on DCS user files to v1.9 or here:

 

Modified lights:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eogqpjbzzo27w67/CFT_Mod_1.9.zip?dl=0

 

Stock lights:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g92nkb2g8bugsn4/CFT_Mod_1.9.1.zip?dl=0

[fagulha]

20 minutes ago, Nightstorm said:

 

I just finished updating it for 2.7.

 

Updated on DCS user files to v1.9 or here:

 

Modified lights:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eogqpjbzzo27w67/CFT_Mod_1.9.zip?dl=0

 

Stock lights:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g92nkb2g8bugsn4/CFT_Mod_1.9.1.zip?dl=0

Incredible! Thank you! 

[fagulha]

Hey Nightstorm,

 

The mod needs update, it´s possible? Current version breaks GBU-38 in ME (no GBU-38 in loadout) and also break the Tarawa (won´t show up in ME).

 

Thank you.

F.

[Nightstorm]

 

The mod was updated on 6/22/21 after the GBU-38's were released that previous week.  As you can see here in the screen shot I just took.  

 

Also, this mod would have absolutely nothing to do with the Tarawa.

 

You might need the updated version because if you're using one older than 6/17/21 the GBU's won't work.  The version number didn't change b/c it's just a compatibility update.  No new featuers.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eogqpjbzzo27w67/CFT_Mod_1.9.zip?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g92nkb2g8bugsn4/CFT_Mod_1.9.1.zip?dl=0

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Nightstorm

[fagulha]

8 hours ago, Nightstorm said:

 

The mod was updated on 6/22/21 after the GBU-38's were released that previous week.  As you can see here in the screen shot I just took.  

 

Also, this mod would have absolutely nothing to do with the Tarawa.

 

You might need the updated version because if you're using one older than 6/17/21 the GBU's won't work.  The version number didn't change b/c it's just a compatibility update.  No new featuers.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eogqpjbzzo27w67/CFT_Mod_1.9.zip?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g92nkb2g8bugsn4/CFT_Mod_1.9.1.zip?dl=0

 

 

 

Thank you very much for your help/reply.

My version was 1.9 and i know it has to do nothing with Tarawa but the 1.9 erases Tarawa (i don´t know why because it doesn´t make sense) and GBU´s 38. I tried the 1.9.1 version and it´s all good now.

 

Thank you once again.

F.

[Nightstorm]

The current 1.9 and 1.9.1 are the same except for the lighting on the Raptor.  So both issues you reported are now fixed with the latest version correct?  

 

If that is so, I would suspect there was something incompatible with the older (before 6/17/21) version of the mod and the current open beta.

[fagulha]

On 7/4/2021 at 7:11 PM, Nightstorm said:

The current 1.9 and 1.9.1 are the same except for the lighting on the Raptor.  So both issues you reported are now fixed with the latest version correct?  

 

If that is so, I would suspect there was something incompatible with the older (before 6/17/21) version of the mod and the current open beta.

My first understanding was that both versions were the same except for the lightning, as you said, but for discharge of conscience i tried 1.9.1 and it worked as supposed.

(Missing the GBU´s was one thing but the oddest was the missing Tarawa).

 

Thank you for your help.