Zephyr Net

I successfully edited more shapes (so far) for use in FAF...

One is the AA105.sh that I use for the artillery cannon on my new artillery vehicles...

This shape has the 'gun shield' that is still visible in certain areas, even when you blank out the skin file textures of the gun shield, certain sections of the shield (two to be axact, on either side of the cannon from the rear view)...

(See Example 1 and 2...)

Example-1

I was successful at removing them...

(See Example 2)



I am going to post an article on "CAG's Corner" on the http://VNFAWING.com website later today that will go into detail on how to do this editing...

I expect to be successful soon at a P-3 without the lower radar dome, a IL-76 transport without the radar dome of the A-50 Mainstay... etc...

I hope you like the pics!

CAG out...

Looks very good. BTW your VNFAWing link has juxtaposed letters. A-50 and P-3 are very good choices to edit, also don't forget the E-2 could have the radome removed so the gearless damaged shape doesn't have to be used for C-2s and S-3s.

Zephyr

Awesome, I hope the shape editing will be possible fore some more of us.

_________________

excellent excellent excellent , really like the latest version of the arty piece

Do you think you be able to ADD 3D intakes to the wing/body as well as remove the wing pods?

_________________
Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

Well, adding or expanding current polygons is currently well beyond my capabilities...

I am simply 'erasing' certain polygons from visible view... They are still there but dont show up, even when textured...

However I have run into a very strange problem that has stpped me dead in my tracks on the TU-16 covnersion...

The last engine pod on the far left (looking at the aircraft from nose on) will not erase... When using the same procedure that I have used on the three toehr pods I can only get the last pod to dissappear on 2/3s of the view (when you swivel around) it reappears in certain angles... THe bottom of the pod was 100% successfully 'wiped' but the top two sides of the triangle will simply not fully dissapear... unless I wipe out the entire wing from the mid spar region outwards...

It is very strange and very frustrating...

I will continue to experiment with it, but I simply do not understand the hex code enough (I am doing this directly in a regular hex editor by overwriting the polgons in the example below...



If I am unseccuessful I may have to send it to Hotfrog (if he is willing to look at it) to get it finalized...

I will keep everyone informed...

CAG out...

PS - Thanks Zephyr on the headsup on my typo on the Link...

I will not be posting the article on shape editing until I understand it a bit more to overcome these sorts of problems...

Here is a shots of how far I have come in the TU-16 edit

THis is how she looks so far...



THis shape is now complete is all stages with the engine pods fully removed...

CAG out...

Man I love that camo. I love how it gives the illusion that it shines in the sun. How long did that take you?

_________________
Centurian

I have also learned some additional info from this experiment... and successfully edited all threee stages o fthe shape of the SA-9 and turned it into the BRDM-1 Armored Recon Vehicle...

As you can see below...




The new BRDM vehicle will be included in the next release of FAF

Now this type of editing has opened up all sorts of possibilies for FA - 2 Stage 1... editing the missiles to delete that damn flame effect on the far shape, even when the missile is out of fuel...

Creating tanks with turrets that swivel instead of the entire tank turning...

New combined shapes (Like the new artillery vehicles) with edited origianl shapes to create all new vehicles...

The possibilities are endless...

The skin? It took alot of time ...

1) to determine the convulted way that the skin was laid out on the shape and...

2) to mix the greys and blues together to have an aluminum sort of look and to get the roundels to look half decent...

The shape itself isnt a very well done shape, very very low polygon count...

CAG out...

LMAO, got to love the BRDM.

Tanks with moving turrets, that should really be a high priority if you ask me. Will it be able to have shoot on the move (even when not driving into the direction of the target)?

_________________

I think Cag did that somehow with it shooting in a different direction then its moving. I know he mentioned something about that with ships so I imagine it corrleates to tanks very easy. afterall, they both are .NT

_________________
Centurian

Hey guys I see that all my hard work has been put to good use...Great edits hotshot! Unfortunately I havent been able to do anything else FA related...You know work and real life...And I got me for my birthday LOMAC and Saitek X45 Stick and Throttle (possibly gettin TrackIR as well). But dont despair I'll take a look at your shape and see what I can do...

hotfrog

Thanks Hotfrog I appreciate it... I can send it to you so you can see what I have done to it, I am sure it is much cruder then your own work...

Additionall...

I have accomplished an additional two modifications this afternoon...

We now have a IL-76 Candid Cargo aircraft... I successfully removed the dome and support bracket on the close in shape. I was only able to remove about half of the dome on the far off shape, because when I erased the rest, segments of the tail also deleted from view, so I blended the colors of the dome to the same color as the wing and tail and you have to look very hard indeed to notice it now in the far off shapes...

The close in shape is very stable, no CTDs whatsoever and is quite beautiful if I do say so myself! I will post a few shots tomorrow...

The other accomplishment today was that I was able to make a version of the Ticonderoga that is a fully functional helo pad, without having to add the invisible helo airbase to it...

However the downside is that the new Tico will not engage any targets and will not move, no matter what AI or motion settings are provided, because when you give it the aircraft carrier procedure file calls, that would allow it to move and engage targets, it CTDs to desktop... It is stable with the airstrip proedure file though, thus no weapons or movment, but it does give ATC and ILS and doesnt require any changes or additional items in the mission to load a helo and go...

I will probably move this off the Tico and onto one on the refueler ships that have a helo fantain pad... after I alter the shape to better resemble a landing ship dock amphip support ship...

Then turn the Ticos back into regular ships like the rest in FAF...

With this new power of editing shapes and adding new items like the new runway ships, I almost feel there isnt anything we can not do with FA right now... This new capability has opened so many options, so many possibilities...

All this and much much more will be available in the next version of FAF...

CAG out...

hotshot I took a look at the TU95 shape and even though it looks like a simple shape at first, the propellers add a weird touch to the editing...I guess you "deleted" them by making the polygons transparents. 'Cause when I tried removing them by using 1E filler, the wing dissapeared. The way the propellers are implemented is using 8 quads for each one. 4 quads for the front view and 4 for the rear. They use 4 quads because those are the animation frames that make the propeller look like it's rotating...Somehow other polygons get attached to the animation process (the wing polygons) when I deleted the propeller polys. I think the secret is in the Structs around those polys, which are the ones that specify the animation...I'll have some time tonight to take a look...

hotfrog

Hotfrog...

Good news, you dont have to work on the TU-95 shape (My TU-16)... I have already decyphered how the hex code for the shapes work for all coordinate points and I was able to rewrite the polygons that were causing me trouble and leterly remove them, instead of filter them...

I now understand how the code work for polygon manipulation. THe number of sides and faces each polygon has and how to change them to any form I desire, and to do it with stability...

I finsihed the TU-16 with no trouble on all stages of the shape and fully removed all the engine pods. Also the IL-76 modifications on all stages, I was able to rewrite the entire shape to eliminate the radar dome, instead of just filtering it.

I also created a brand new C-2 COD shape by removing the radar dome off the E-2... so now my COD aircraft has landing gear instead of being forced to use the E2_A.SH crash shape, which means that shape can be restored back to show damage effects...

Here is a complete list of all the changes to shapes I have made so far...

1) Artillery barrells with no gunshields to use on artillery vehicles
2) BRDM shape by removing the missile launcher of the SA-9
3)MT-LB APC/Armored tractor by removing the missile launcher off the SA-13
4) TU-16 by removing engines and props off the TU-95
5) IL-76,IL-78 by removing the radar dome off the A-50 Mainstay
6) P-3C/IL-38 by removing the lower radar dome off the current P-3C shape and using the default shape for the EP-3 instead
7) C-2 COD by removing the E-2s radar dome and a new S-3 by removing the props and reshaping the wings on this new shape to create another new shape, and by further editing I plan to create a bubble canopy on the top front of the shape and to alter the tail to allow its use as an IL-28 bomber also...
A main bridge support tower for the large suspension bridge by removing the mound of earth from the bridge end, now the suspension bridge in FAF has many towers...
9) Improved the water tower shape by removing the large rectangle radar dish from the round control tower shape's second stage shape.
10) Recolored the SU-27 shape that you provided to multiple shapes.
11) Recolored the E-2000 shape to better match the skins used in FAF.

Future plans...

New ski jumps on the Wasp shape and the removal of the lower side elevator to model bothBrisits carriers and the Italian and Spanish and Thailand vstol carriers...

New skijump to the kittyhawk carrier shape to better model the Kuznetsov with the improved detailed skin the kittyhawk shape uses. This will allow better detailing of the carrier to resemble the Kuznetsov, plus shape editing the carrier island to better simulate the Kuznetsov..

Flatten the nose and remove the side intakes of the Q-5 shape to alter it into a MiG-19 Farmer...

Reshaping the E-2000 shape to have a single engine so it can be used as the new J-10 shape. The standard shape if very close to the J-10 in many ways, except its multiple engines, so if I alter the entire layout and reduce the fuselage to a single engine shape then it sil substitute nicely...

I totally understand how everything in the shape files work, right down to the animation commands, since they draw on the procedure lists uncovered earleur when the FA-2 dev team began dissambling the default FA libraries for full access...

I believe that Hotfrog has fully to thank for me learning so much in such a short time. Once I saw what he had done to the SU-35b shape, I was given a starting point to experimentation and now I understand fully how all polygons are wrtten, shaped, and colored...

I will post some additional screenshots of the work I have accomplished tomorrow...

One thing is for sure... This release of FAF will be the very best release ever. No longer do we have to substitue inferior and unrealestic shapes for the aircraft we want to build...

And thanks goes to Kaptor and Cent for encouraging me to keep up the work until I had fully understood the hex codes...

CAG out...