Remove fuel tank pylons

[LanceCriminal86]

42 minutes ago, Uxi said:

OTOH, it basically could be a F-14A-95GR for both US Navy and IIAF.  If the base F-14A model is really being sorted out from the composite  F-14A/F-14D we have now, that's an excellent opportunity to do that one without the pylons.  Definitely recognize it's work but it's work that's already kinda being done though maybe not on the lower nacelles, so another feather in the cap maybe to have complete.  I for one would love to see the proper VF-84 Final Countdown version (which should be a 95GR without pylons). 

Glove vanes would just a bonus.  

 

 

If the pylons were modeled and just sunk into the mesh, that would be one thing. But if the area where the pylons meet the airframe wasn't closed off so to speak, then "cutting" the pylons means you're going to leave open polys/faces, which will screw the UVW maps up, the ambient occlusion maps, normals, all that stuff when you have to shift around or add new vertices to close the hole up. Same deal with adding dynamic MODEX from what I've heard. Potentially the same even with the TCS pod as well but there appeared to be geometry underneath it.

There's a point in the 80s where Tomcats on cruise appear to always have had tanks mounted, eventually it apparently was SOP. Ashore, RAG, demos, quals, etc. seems to be where you would see them without at various stages.

[Uxi]

19 minutes ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

If the pylons were modeled and just sunk into the mesh, that would be one thing. But if the area where the pylons meet the airframe wasn't closed off so to speak, then "cutting" the pylons means you're going to leave open polys/faces, which will screw the UVW maps up, the ambient occlusion maps, normals, all that stuff when you have to shift around or add new vertices to close the hole up. Same deal with adding dynamic MODEX from what I've heard. Potentially the same even with the TCS pod as well but there appeared to be geometry underneath it.

Right.  Isn't there a duplicate or mirrored nacelle that isn't right? Maybe it was already corrected... or maybe there's no plan to, but if it were it seems some work still needs to be done in that regard beyond pulling out the D features we see... or maybe that got dropped and I missed it.  That never really bothered me that much tbh, though I understand some were and thought it was basically decided to correct but I might be remembering wrong. 

WRT TARPS are you talking about the aft Sparrow slot that gets covered or something else?  I was kinda suspecting that be seen as minor  and it would just be mounted like a large piece of ordinance. Preferable to not getting it at all if it's too much work.

[LanceCriminal86]

12 minutes ago, Uxi said:

Right.  Isn't there a duplicate or mirrored nacelle that isn't right? Maybe it was already corrected... or maybe there's no plan to, but if it were it seems some work still needs to be done in that regard beyond pulling out the D features we see... or maybe that got dropped and I missed it.  That never really bothered me that much tbh, though I understand some were and thought it was basically decided to correct but I might be remembering wrong. 

WRT TARPS are you talking about the aft Sparrow slot that gets covered or something else?  I was kinda suspecting that be seen as minor  and it would just be mounted like a large piece of ordinance. Preferable to not getting it at all if it's too much work.

There's a reason I have the "rivet counter" title in my sig, all those things have long been documented and provided for bug workflows. We're just awaiting a determination of the level of effort to fix as some fixes apply to the A and B, some just the A, and then there are corrections and enhancements submitted but they may take a while to work through. Things like the nacelle panel lines being a little off, some differences in the actual panels and latches between the A and B, smaller vents and details between them as well. Some stuff can all be done in textures, roughmets, and normals while others require mesh changes. Filling and cutting in a NACA duct may be lower impact than the pylons, same with gun vents we are hoping will be on the earlier external model.

Some were easy fixes where a UVW or part had the wrong texture assigned and should be coming down the pipe, really only an issue for those who did camo schemes and found small areas around the flap actuators that were using the opposite wing's texture. Or a flipped vertex or normals. Others, again the impact may be more widespread and require a lot of skins to be heavily reworked.

[RustBelt]

18 hours ago, Uxi said:

Most of the mods are based on FC3...  and haven't seen anything touching the Tomcat unfortunately or someone might have done an ST-21 by now.

I said REALLY want to, not casual fc3 want to. The A4 and i believe the goshawk are not fc3 mods.

[RaisedByWolves]

On 7/14/2022 at 11:13 AM, IronMike said:

For anyone who asks about glove vanes, we are delaying the decision whether or not to make them for another year.

 

Jokes aside: we said it many times now: lowest of all low priority items (okay maybe not lowest lowest, and admittedly they are cool), but if we do them, then only visually without impact on the FM.

 

 

[IronMike]

2 hours ago, RaisedByWolves said:

 

Not to worry though, it is likely you will get them at some point - for now we just don't want to promise them (and we've discussed this ad nauseam I would carefully suggest.)