F-15EX Mod

[Spino]

On 12/7/2022 at 2:01 PM, Geschirre said:

He' talking about the cockpit, since it is closer to what the strike eagle has then the F-15C.

I am very impressed with this mod and how far it has come.  When I randomly found your upload on combatace (before it was posted here).  I have learned a lot about weapons .luas and CLSIDs from messing with the F-15EXs load outs.  Now that you adding the additional pylons on to the wings to make it "anatomically accurate" it looks even better.  I saw the video you posted of your F-14 mod vs the Indonesian F-15EXs.  Nice camera work hiding the missing pylons, but here we are with photo evidence that you have added the pylons.  Even if they are inactive, because the F-15EX (F-15E) weapon stations only go up to 15 (I think, 7 a side and centerline) and you are adding two more.  I would think it could be pretty difficult to add to more "functioning" pylons to a legacy DCS aircraft.  Keep it up Spino and thank you for this mod.

I actually ran into an FC3 limitation trying to add the outer wing pylons.  The F-15C avionics only support 11 or 12, but you need 13 for the EX at a minimum.  I got around it by splitting the upper wing pylons, so what used to be the outer missile rails is now the attachment point for the outer wing weapons.  This means that you can only carry one type of weapon on each wing station though, so no more AMRAAM and AIM-9X combo on the rails.

As for the cockpit, I had started on it, but decided it would be easier to work from an existing model, so now I am in the process of re-doing the main instrument panels of an F-15D cockpit to make the F-15EX pit.  It's coming along well, so far (famous last words...), but I am afraid the whole cockpit may have to be re-textured once the model is finished.  It may not be 100% accurate, but I hope to get it fairly close.  Also it will NOT be clickable, at least not any time in the forseeable future.  The EX pit isn't exactly close to the Strike Eagle pit, it has a panoramic main display like the F-35 instead of the 3 MFDs the Strike eagle has.  Also it seems to have more of an F-15C style HUD instead of the wide-angle RASTER HUD that the F-15E has.

[Spino]

On 12/8/2022 at 4:01 PM, Valium said:

I'm a bit surprised that EX has hud. I expected something like in F-35 tbh.

I'm not totally sure if it does TBH.  I see pictures with and without. 

For simplicity I will probably make it with a HUD, since the F-15C avionics have a HUD and I can't easily change that without going full custom avionics (at least as far as I'm aware).

[Spino]

With all the different photos out there getting this right is going to be a nightmare.  I'm probably going to go for something that looks close unless I can find a clear solution.  I am working with an F-15D cockpit that someone was gracious enough to share with me, and basically all I have to do (I think) is redo the main instrument panel (already started, as you can clearly see here).  Then comes re-texturing...

Edited December 11, 2022 by Spino

[Spino]

On 12/6/2022 at 1:13 PM, SilentSparrow said:

Since we're talking about strapping weird weapons onto aircraft do you think you could take an F-15EX and strap a GBU-57 onto it? It's 30 thousand pounds but that's only 500 more than the max payload capacity and it'll be below the max takeoff weight so you might want to add lots of weapons to this F-15EX (Smart ones could be guided by something else)

 

Well I have seen photos here and there of things like this, and since the F-15EX is supposed to carry outsized AAMs, I might give this some more thought.

[SilentSparrow]

2 minutes ago, Spino said:

Well I have seen photos here and there of things like this, and since the F-15EX is supposed to carry outsized AAMs, I might give this some more thought.

The AIM-260 could also be carried, so yeah the Grim Reapers could share that with you. The modern missiles pack may also include the AGM-88F and AGM-88G so that's nice.

[Spino]

I will add AIM-260 when GR makes that mod available.  The HARM variant I currently have implemented is a WIP AGM-88E AARGM.  I have my own AIM-260 version already implemented, but it is very WIP.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Spino

[SilentSparrow]

1 minute ago, Spino said:

I will add AIM-260 when GR makes that mod available.  The HARM variant I currently have implemented is a WIP AGM-88E AARGM.  I have my own AIM-260 version already implemented, but it is very WIP.

 

Oh, AARGM? Nice! An AARGM-ER would be the exact same shape of the AIM-260 that GR has, so maybe it'd be easier to implement. I hope that GR can release his modern missiles pack soon, but I've talked to him. He says that the GR team is conflicted on what to do with the pack. Some want to take it different directions than others, but I hope it can be released soon.

Although I've talked with many in the DCS community on Discord and here and they don't have the best opinion of GR. So, on another note, I hope that they can accept the GR Modern Weapons pack.

[Spino]

I may implement AARGM-ER as well.  My AIM-260 model is a bit shabby, but it will do for now.  Main thing with the longer range missiles is fixing the code, range is too low at the moment.

[SilentSparrow]

21 minutes ago, Spino said:

I may implement AARGM-ER as well.  My AIM-260 model is a bit shabby, but it will do for now.  Main thing with the longer range missiles is fixing the code, range is too low at the moment.

Just a thought, the AARGM I don't think were ever used by the USAF. They instead used the AGM-88F HCSM (HARM Control Section Modification). However, it would be nice to have that for newer USN aircraft. Also, the AARGM-ER is going to be used by the USAF.

Edited December 11, 2022 by SilentSparrow

[Spino]

4 minutes ago, SilentSparrow said:

Just a thought, the AARGM I don't think were ever used by the USAF. They instead used the AGM-88F HCSM (HARM Control Section Modification). However, it would be nice to have that for newer USN aircraft. Also, the AARGM-ER is going to be used by the USAF.

 

I'm assuming that the HCSM is similar to the AARGM in appearance, and not like the AARGM-ER.  I can easily rename it.

[SilentSparrow]

On 12/11/2022 at 11:15 AM, Spino said:

I'm assuming that the HCSM is similar to the AARGM in appearance, and not like the AARGM-ER.  I can easily rename it.

Thankfully, yes, the HCSM has the exact same body of the AARGM. In fact, the only difference between the AARGM and HCSM is that the HCSM has a better Inertial Navigation System (If I remember correctly).

The AARGM-ER however, well, that's a different story.

Edited December 12, 2022 by SilentSparrow

[FupDuck]

This looks great, can't wait to see the Cockpit once it's done! 

[SilentSparrow]

16 minutes ago, FupDuck said:

This looks great, can't wait to see the Cockpit once it's done! 

Oh yeah, we all want to see the cockpit. But one thing better than that? The impact. With a missile truck with 22 AMRAAMS in DCS, we will have so much fun absolutely beating up a whole squadron.

[Spino]

19 hours ago, SilentSparrow said:

Oh yeah, we all want to see the cockpit. But one thing better than that? The impact. With a missile truck with 22 AMRAAMS in DCS, we will have so much fun absolutely beating up a whole squadron.

Not sure if it'll be 22, 20 is the max you can have unless there is an AMBER on the centerline.

nullHopefully progress on the cockpit.  Now if only I can get the front panels textured...

[SilentSparrow]

2 hours ago, Spino said:

Not sure if it'll be 22, 20 is the max you can have unless there is an AMBER on the centerline.

IIRC there are 2 outboard pylons on each wing. Last vid you posted showed an AMBER rack on there as well as an AGM-88F on the very outboard. Replace the AGM-88F with the AIM-120 and you have the 22 missiles.

[Spino]

3 minutes ago, SilentSparrow said:

IIRC there are 2 outboard pylons on each wing. Last vid you posted showed an AMBER rack on there as well as an AGM-88F on the very outboard. Replace the AGM-88F with the AIM-120 and you have the 22 missiles.

No, only one outboard pylon on each wing.  Not two.

null

[SilentSparrow]

19 minutes ago, Spino said:

No, only one outboard pylon on each wing.  Not two.

null

Oh, I was mistaken.

By the way, the pilots have their visors up. Will you update the 3d model to have the visors down?

Edited December 15, 2022 by SilentSparrow

[Spino]

1 hour ago, SilentSparrow said:

Oh, I was mistaken.

By the way, the pilots have their visors up. Will you update the 3d model to have the visors down?

 

Well that depends.  The model that I'm currently using is the F-15E model that comes with DCS, so it's not super accurate (that's why I had to add those wing pylons).  I would love to replace it with a real F-15EX model, but there are a couple of roadblocks to that right now.  I barely know how to texture things, and have never done animations before.  I have an F-15E model that I have started to modify to be more like an F-15EX, but it has no textures.  Making it look good would take months for someone who knows what to do, longer for me.  My other option would be to purchase an existing 3D model of the F-15EX that has textures, so all I have to do is animations and export.  Doing so would make this mod considerably more expensive to me than a high-fidelity module for DCS, and that isn't an option for me right now.  If people are interested in making contributions, I would get the model I need and update the mod accordingly, but that's up to the community.  I am up to my ears in trouble with this cockpit and that didn't even cost me anything!

[Spino]

I will post future updates in this forum: 

 

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

To admin: please close/lock/delete this thread as the official thread is now up.  Thank you.

[RafaPolit]

Thanks for this mod! It really looks interesting.

I was wondering: as long as this uses the F-15C Cockpit, can the clickable FC-3 mod be used / altered to work with the F-15EX?  I didn't out of the box, maybe I missed something obvious.

Thanks for any insight!

Rafa.

[greyseal494]

vaporware, eh?

[plott1964]

2 minutes ago, greyseal494 said:

vaporware, eh?

The F-15EX mod exists. Do you need a link?

[Jerec]

But uses the F-15C cockpit!

[plott1964]

Find the latest version here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3324876/