Musings of a sim-plane painter

It's weekend again!

2011-06-04T09:33:00.000+02:00

Achieved this week?

Well, it's been a quiet one, so all I can admit to having achieved is having kept the lawn watered. But that despite strict 'instruction' from family. Don't you just love it, when everyone else plans your time?

WPR... (wrist progress report) - no improvement. It has now progressed to the stage where I am almost permanently 'retired' from active painting and testing of sim-flight planes.

Other news - George and Meek are behaving like cats now. Furious chases around the flat, waking me up for food.

All in all life's quiet. Too quiet perhaps. Oh well...

Well now, there's cheerful!

2011-05-30T08:32:00.000+02:00

About time to commit to an update I think. Amongst other amazing things, I have discovered the www.stayfriends.de website. One of the members there uploaded a class photo from around 1963.

It won't be difficult, but see if you can find me

Other news:

I have moved home yet again. This is now something like the 65th postal address change I have undergone in my life. Busy, busy, busy... This newest address is the house my uncle and aunt built in 1963. We've got a big garden here so there's more than enough work to keep me out in the fresh air.

The wrist damage isn't improving and the white-coated faction have more or less given up. Basically, the only option left - according to them - is to fuse all of the wrist bones together. "That might stop the crepitus pain..." with the emphasis on "might".

Well, if you look on the Internet you can find all sorts of things, including fora where people with similar injuries tell there tales. The feedback there is not good and most people who hav had that operation say that if they had the chance again, they'd refuse. That's not exactly a good advertising program for the operation. I think I'll give it a miss...

Notable interest:

I am still beta-testing and painting aircraft for flight simulator, but with the wrist and all that garden, I am low key on the PC. Two aircraft are on test at the moment, but I am becoming disenchanted with the standards of some 3D developers. They use the word "impossible" too much and their quality of research could be a whole lot better. I get the feeling that some young 3D developers think they are "God's Gift"and only want professional hooray sayers to give their new model a "yippee" rating. But they are not prepared to correct errors, glaring errors to some trained eyes or those who look...

The excuse is almost always the same - impossible!

Total and utter BS! I have no real idea about 3D modelling, other than it is indeed time consuming. But I do know that to correct and re-map the wireframe model is neither impossible nor really all that difficult. And of course - enough "real" 3D modellers have fixed model and mapping errors after my beta reports for me to know what can and can't be done within the "pain threshhold".

My view is basically that if you (the 3D modeller) want to make a model and be paid for doing it, then you are honour bound to do good research, plan the project thoroughly and then make the best possible model for customer satisfaction. When I hear things like "impossible" I get really concerned about the developer's true skills. But most of all I get really upset by phrases like "The customer won't notice..."

OK - you can see I am better again - I am ranting over others about things I can't do myself. So I'd better sign off for today.

Your kitchin cynic

EagleSkinner

(Chairman o the irony board)

I've been away...

2011-05-14T09:02:00.000+02:00

After a busy last year, I have not been online recently. A move to a new home, the wrist injury and a whole host of niggly problems have held me back.

But worry not - you can keep up with me on "the other blog" over at Facebook.

Murphy's Laws

2010-11-17T08:58:00.003+01:00

(as remembered by Chris Brisland)

Introduction

Everyone should have heard of Murphy’s Law by now – you know, the one that goes: “If it can happen, it will.” You haven’t? Oh! Murphy’s Law proven again!

Who was Murphy anyway?

Does it matter? It certainly wasn’t the Robocop Murphy – although in the end he does prove a few Murphyisms in his films…

He was probably related to Kilroy (you know – that pair of eyes peering over the wall with the words “Kilroy woz ‘ere” written across the top…) In other words, Murphy is probably a Nom de Plume for anyone with a word to say about the probability of something happening being inversely proportional to the value of the part that can go wrong. I have read various tales that Murphy was a WWII aircraft mechanic, a building engineer, a worker on the Ford production line…

With the passing of years, the real Murphy has faded into legend. Like Kilroy and Odysseus Kostoglakis.

What? You’ve never heard of Odysseus? And yet you use his name thousands of times each day. OK, his real name might not have been Odysseus Kostoglakis, but he was a Greek gent with those initials who was chief of a Boston Newspaper many decades ago. Whenever he okayed a feature for publication he would do so by writing his initials of the reporter’s copy.

O.K. Got it?

On the other hand – the Greek Words “Ola Kala” mean “All Good”… It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? O.K? Perhaps his name was Giorgos Mitsoglou? Perhaps he just couldn‘t write “all good” in English? So perhaps he just abbreviated Ola Kala?

But I digress… I was going to talk about Murphy. Like all good stories, there is a clear beginning” – there is one law, just like the one ring, to bind and form all other Murphy’s Laws. One Law to lead them all and in confusion bind them. I wrote that one law right at the beginning of this feature...

“If it can happen, it will.”

Six simple to understand words arranged in such a well known saying that anyone who reads them for the very first time immediately understands the total truth and depth they convey. And that phrase is something that engineers and designers have been trying to combat since the dawn of time. Our Murphy is reputedly a twentieth century character and his law, with all its amendments (just like the US constitution) is a twentieth century “life form”, but there was certainly some pre-historic Murphy who uttered the same sentiments as he tried to make a flint axe and ended up with a spark to ignite a fire.

Now quite a few readers might comment that Murphy’s Law really states “If it can go wrong it will.” A mere technicality of semantics – it’s just that the Law appears to cause more negative situations than positives… as you will see.

Murphy’s Law

If it can happen it will

First Amendment

If it can go wrong it will go wrong

(Written to the sound of snapping pencil lead and “Buggerit!”)

Section 1: Murphy’s Laws on Mechanical Engineering

1. Murphy’ Law of Selective Gravitation

A dropped item will always fall in the direction of least accessibility

Example from real life:

An aircraft mechanic was part of the team replacing a main rotor gearbox on a Bell 47 helicopter (if you’ve seen the TV series M*A*S*H, then you know the one). The gearbox was suspended over the engine while the mechanic threaded washers onto the mounting bolts before he put these into the holes on the gearbox. Of course – he dropped the washer into the opening at the top of the engine. There was a sudden hush which came over the repair team… but not a sound could be heard of a washer falling “plink, plink, plink…”) (oh… see 2 below)

…not a sound… except for “Phuket!!” (I went on holiday there once – a lovely island)

Extensive searching failed to reveal the hiding place of that washer. Everything was tried – even shaking the helicopter. Would you believe they even removed the engine and turned it upside down! In the end, they found the washer in the bottom most cylinder trapped between the piston and the cylinder liner.

2. Murphy’s Law of (in)Audible Tracking of Falling Items

A dropped item will always bounce in the opposite direction to the “pling” sound it makes

amendment a: (If the dropper manages to call for silence before the dropped item’s first impact)

Rebound surfaces are noise absorbent.

Example from real life:

See 1 above

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

<<< inserted during writing: Murphy’s Law of Selective Save Functionality) >>>

Discovered right now, at time of writing, this Murphy is apparently becomes effective whenever you are trying to write a feature article.

The success of Ctrl S to perform an interim save during editing an MS Word document is inversely proportional to the amount of time expired since the last save.

Example from real life:

The more you write without performing an interim save, the less likely you are to actually saving your work. I lost the original draft of Murphy 3, below.

This law appears to have a few variations as well, so make sure you look out for the chapter on “Murphy’s Microsoftisms”

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Continuation of Murphy’s Laws on Mechanical Engineering, 2.

Example from real life:

See 1 above

amendment b: (If the “Pling” is heard)

The rebound speed of dropped items is inversely proportional to the square root of minus one.

3.         Murphy’s Law of (in)Visible Tracking of Falling Items

A dropped item will always fall behind some obstruction to direct eye contact.

amendment a: (Effective if there is no physical obstruction to visual tracking of dropped items)

The likelihood of visual distraction increases in direct proportion to the square of the distance fallen under visual tracking.

Example:

You drop a nut from a typical “nuisance factor” height (i.e. you are on the top of a ladder). You realise immediately and switch on your visual tracking mode. But thanks to Murphy’s Third Law of Mechanical Engineering, amendment a, Sam Fox walks through the hangar doors wearing a big smile just half an inch before the nut reaches the floor. At this point you find that 1, 2, 2a and 2b all take secondary effect and the nut is lost forever – or at least until Murphy’s Law of Lost Items, amendment c.ii.a, subpara f takes effect.

amendment b: (In the event of eye contact being maintained until the dropped item comes to a standstill)

A dropped item will come to rest at a point one centimeter beyond reach

Murphy’s Laws of Motion

1.         To every action there is an unequal reaction in some direction
2.         A body might remain at rest or in motion in a straight line
3.         The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear. Whenever it suits them; see the rebound examples above.

Murphy’s Law of Female Selective Memory

(That’s memory you fool, not mammary!)

The strength of a woman’s memory is inversely proportional to the value placed upon the event by a male mind.

Example from real life:

Er… I don’t think we need one here fellows, do we?

Look out for the Kitchen Cynic!

2010-10-12T17:59:00.000+02:00

You know... it has a relationship to a 'Stoic' - exept that the Stoic is what brings the babies, but the cynic is what you wash then in.

With me so far?

Good!

Well, the Kitchen Cynic is going to be an offensive little oik to some folk, or maybe not. I don't know. But keep your eyes open - I may address topical current affairs with the Kitchen Cynic's viewpoint.

For instance - why are TV producers so unintelligently unimaginative? "Hells Kitchen" For God's sake! (and everyone else's) Who the hell is this Gordon Ramsey fellow who can't even criticise a lousy apprentice cook's offerings without swearing most foully?

Just because it's "modern" to use foul language in public does not mean we need it on TV where we can force our next generation to learn that swearing is good.

Dear Gordon effing Ramsay, your effing language is so effing puerile that you deserve to be effing kicked in the effing jacksie you effing excuse for an effing third rate effing caterer! Effing swearing using effing eff words is NOT effing clever you stupid effing effnose!

It merely shows a lack of intelligence on behalf of the swearer. It shows that he paid more attention to the window in school (if he ever went there) than to the teachings of men and women still far wiser than he ever will be. Swearing is a sign - even today - that that person has lost the game.

Now being the Kitchen Cynic, I also know that if anybody reads this I am likely to get an "eff off" from about half the population. So let me just say that there are far more clever ways to run someone's performance down without resorting to such language. I for one would comment something like:

"Obviously you have a deep flaw in your character if you would refer to burnt as “slightly toasted,” you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous, pervert! Call yourself a cook? You couldn't even cook a pulp fiction comic book!"

...well, actually I wouldn't, but maybe Cleese, Chapman, Idle and co. would.

Oh, and if you're looking for a good curse that you can use in the presence of young children, then perhaps you could try:

Shitbumfiddlearsepiddlewiddlestinktit!

So anyway, "Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen now rates lower than the Kitchen Cynic cares to have imagination for. I'd sooner watch Baldy Man re-runs...

An Autumn Roundup

2010-10-12T17:32:00.000+02:00

Hi there all you faithful followers of the EagleSkinning muse! It's been a while since I rummaged around for something to add to the blog. Let's just start with the fact that I have updated the website quite considerably...

...ooh lookit! He's gone and got a Facebook link on his website. And... he's even working on a "tailored" Facebook page...

Don't everyone get all excited at once please.

I have even created an aircraft livery design service. If you have an aeroplane, I'll prepare the pimping papers... And there's even an EagleSkinner logo that I could get used to - we shall see.

No, this 'ere E isn't the logo. It's the "favicon". You know when you visit websites, you often see a mini icon in the address bar? Well they're called "favicons" and this one is the Eagleskinner's.

Well I guess that's it for this entry. Oh no, I will add some prose with, of course, humble apologies to John Masefield...

I Must Go Fly my Beaver Again

I must go fly my Beaver again, the lonely Beaver in the sky
And all I ask is Limp for P2 and a bucket of 'Five' to steer by,
And a slick paint and the Pratt's growling song and a wabbit's tail shaking,
And to get p… MISSED! on a face full of Elmer's great brew - that's the making!

I must go fly my Beaver again, for my beautiful… terrible… 'Bride'
Has a wild call and a clear call that pulls me outside;
And I care not what the task, whether storm clouds are flying,
And not even fuel lines a leaking or sick passengers crying.

I must go fly my Beaver again, or my Havilland Gypsy Moth,
Or the Red Bull's BO or the SAAB Safir and fly on the Edge of a knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over…

(The last two lines were kept - for the same reason Masefield wrote them)

And then ther'es my little iconic budgien in a couple of different formats below:

The appropriateness of malapropisms

2010-08-20T08:18:00.001+02:00

I know medicine can replace hips and knees... when will they be able to do wrists? Oh fine, I can type - but there is an effective word to add - "still". I am down to well under 20 wpm now (used to peak at 40 once). And while they are doing my wrist, I certainly could do with a right knee, a new neck, some ankles...

Whinge whine...

Oh! There's another anachronism of the English language - the letter H
in "whinge" adjusts the letter "G". Try pronouncing this pair:

Whinged - winged

...But take away the wobbleyou and you get the condition a door needs to be to open:

Hinged.

But the guilty murderer was hanged in the past in England...

Hmmm... that letter H is a right little sod! Doesn't work the way it should. Try this word pair:

Ginger and Gingham...

Oh deary me - and then there are words that work both ways. For instance:
...
Lunged and Lunged

In the one case I mean that sport with pointed sticks and what was done
to put the point in the opponent's lungs (ooohhh groan!) and in the
other case as a descriptive:

"Lunged organisms breathe air" (as opposed to gilled ones that breathe water)(unless they're newts I guess) (Later edit: of course, the GILL - as pronounced for the alcohol measure would easily describe why we say "I am pissed as a newt" - probably one had far to many gills).

Which is why I get soooo scratchy when folk can't rite proper like and
fill in their text with so many misspooled words. They haven't really
misspelt the word, they have just used the wrong one. Examples:
...
"... ring his neck"

"... welcome to my websight"

‎"ICQ" and all thos other little SMS shortcuts (groan!)

"... icey roads"

"... I've bean to ..."
...
Of course one can forgive the odd malapropism, but lately I have been
reading a few e-books by writers who probably submitted their work and
got rejected... Some of these stories are just hopelessly full of
malapropisms and that really spoils a story.

Oh well. That's my wing for the day. Doesn't it make you cring?

(Do not call me on the phone for the next hour or so - my tung is firmly stuccoed in my cheek)

Have you ever wondered...

2010-08-20T07:12:00.000+02:00

...just how many little details you need to remember when painting a 2 sim-flight model?

Take my current work in progress. I foolishly approached the owner, Jason Newburg, and asked if I could adapt his Pitts "Viper" livery to the Iris Christen Eagle for FSX. The gent said yes.

...and now the problems start. That gorgeous snakeskin livery has to wrap between fuselage side and top. Hold on, let's rewind and show you a picture of the real Viper (by the way, if you want to see more, then visit Jason's website here).

Incidentally, many of the photos on the Viper site were taken by Jon Nash - if you have followed my paints, you'll see his Eagle's livery on my site somewhere too.

Anyway, the problem with wrapping the snakeskin around the 2D textures for a 3D model can only be described in pictures. So here's one showing a first flight trial:

Do you get the picture? Some of the lozenge shaped scales stretch where the 2D texture is curved around a 3D model. I am afraid there is only one way around that and that is to draw each single hexagon as a separate object and stretch/distort each one to allow for the curvature of the plane's 3D shape. Here's a shot from Corel Draw, where I am currently struggling along:

Why the yellow? to act as contrast when I take the paint to ther model. I don't worry about colours yet, that's going to be the next bit of fun - Chromalusion flip-flop...

See now what I mean? Probably not, but by repositioning the first row of yellow hexagons to wrap the side ones to the top, there is now an offset when I adjust the next row. I'll be adjusting each single node of every single hexagon around that curve for a few days more yet... and that with a bad wrist (the right one of course).

Oh well, it'll take time, but I'll get there in the end. I certainly couldn't do it for the money if I were being paid; no boss would live with my speed.

More news as and when folks...

Variations on a theme

2010-08-15T09:58:00.000+02:00

I just took a look at the last shot of the 412 in the post below. Not quite happy with the out of focus effect. Needs something. What do you say?

What say you? Or perhaps:

Long time no see...

2010-08-15T09:46:00.000+02:00

The wrist has been fixed, but not as well as I'd hope. In fact there are some aspects that are much worse - especially for a right handed person.

Anyway, I am back on the other end of the paintbrushes and doing some sim repaints. One particularly interesting livery is the air rescue livery used on some of the Intensive Care heli-transports in Germany. These are different insofar as they are primarily used for the transport of patients in need of intensive care in flight. These aren't the normal crash rescue helis - there is a slight mission difference.

Still, as I say, the livery looks good and was a bit of a challenge. See what you think...

Something to read...

2010-06-05T09:56:00.000+02:00

Many years ago - more than a gog's lifetime in fact - I wrote a story on behalf of my dog...

You can read it here

In it, Sam tells a fictionalised version of a true story.

You can read that story here

Enjoy!

The Saturday Cynic...

2010-06-05T07:59:00.000+02:00

While I am waiting for my wrist to be repaired so that I can get on with my hobbies...

Here are my satirical Non-PC thoughts for today:

Gulf of Mexico fishermen can now can their catch without an in-between step. Shrimps or Tuna or sardines in oil - from net to tin in one go... and maybe even provide a laxative dolphin-sushi for the Japanese market.

I used to be proud that BP was British... but now BP means blackened pelicans...

And guess what - some eejit has seriously suggested that the US NUKE THE LEAK! So not only will you get instant sardines in oil, you can even open a can and have a nightlight that will glow in the dark for the next 350 million years....

Listening to the financial news... Oh dear... BP announces that there will be no dividends on their shares this year. Oh dear - better check your portfolios!

The quickest way to plug the leak would have been to wad last year'sprofits into the hole. There were enough dollar bills to stuff into the hole and make a paper mache plug. Or an even more non PC suggestion would be to send the management down as plugs... Oh no - hot air wouldn't work.

Instead of hair, perhaps they could use shredded dollar bills to absorb the mess?

Cynic's thought: what do we do with all those poor dead seabirds? Wick them and light a chain of mourning candles all around the oil multi's head offices?

The swamps used to be hotbeds of illegal bootleg stills during the prohibition... will we soon see bootleg oil refineries?

Heyyyyy - beach holidays with free sun tan oil...

Maybe now we'll see fewer mutts down on the beach, cr@pping in the sand... YAY!!! Let's hear it for dog-free beaches.

Aha! It's SLD - and no, that's not a Mercedes sports diesel...

2010-05-14T19:08:00.000+02:00

I went for an MRI scan recently and now I have the doc's report... What a read! All medical-speak with hundreds of long words like "Scapholunate Disassociation" I Googled that and other terms. Isn't Google wonderful? Anyway, the upshot is that my wrist isn't "just" sprained and I don't have so much a tendon inflammation problem. There is a definite need for surgery.

So now I join the waiting list and wait and wait and wait...

Oh well.

A New Blog

2010-05-02T09:23:00.000+02:00

I am currently still plagued with several inflamed tendons in my wright wrist, so my FS stuff is sadly way into the background. My hand has been splinted for simply ages and using a mouse is a pain.

But I have dug out my graphics tablet (an old Wacom A5 tablet) and pen, so why not pay George a visit? Who's George? Go see:

Accidentally George

Can't see the wood for the trees

2010-03-21T11:18:00.001+01:00

Thoughts to all those scenery makers out there...

This idea came to me while thinking about adding orchards of olive trees to Greek sceneries.

One thing very typically Greek is the Olive - there are orchards everywhere and most look pretty much the same. But putting orchards into the sim adds polys!

OK, instead of individual trees, let's look at the nature of tree objects: A tree is three transparent polys with a front, side, top view.

A 200 by 100 metre orchard with trees every five metres means 800 trees (40 x 20) or 2400 polys. Just one orchard! There are thousands in Greece... (and technically you can say the same for forests)

So instead of making individual tree objects, why not make long transparent strips with a tree every five metres and then simply place strips in a grid patternwith 5 metre spacing? The above orchard would then only be 61 polys. (40 lengthways and 20 widthways plus the horizontal one.

Level ground? OK, so of course not all orchards and forests are on level ground... so maybe a sloped orchard is in tiers... 40 long two wide? You can simply use varying length strips of trees and map from one texture accordingly. I could even conceive a way of programming autogen forests for some areas. With the right programming, you could even add randominter spaced single trees and tree rows that would break up the regularity of an "orchard".

Especially when you consider commercial cultivated pine forests...

Take a standard FSX square of 1.4 kilometers. The default autogen max load is 4500 trees - that's 13500 polys. Put a flatland cultivated "forest" on it and you would need only 561 (280 each longitudinal and lateral plus one horizontal).

Yes - it could look odd. But only if you don't create the grid intelligently. You could even used honeycomb pattern transparent "walls" with tree images at random interfaces. You may increase polys slightly more, but you would be creating less "objects". I'll see if I can work out any pictures that help illustrate this...

Oh... by the way, in my suggested 561 poly solution abouve, you would get a tree at each intersection, so that means 280 x 280 or in other words...

78400!

It is March and I thought the snow had gone...

2010-03-07T13:30:00.000+01:00

That was Monday this week...

The weather has been fine for a couple of days, the snow had melted almost completely - except for the remnants of the heaps where people had shovelled the white stuff into a corner...

...and then yesterday morning I had the surprise of the year. Eight inches of the white stuff as far as the eye could see.

Global warming?

More Musings about Lameness

2010-02-25T11:26:00.000+01:00

Sometimes it's the little things that get you down - like having to lay off your favourite pastime because bits of the old body don't want to play...

Ah, now that could be read in different ways, ooops. I am actually referring to my ability to use a PC at the moment. My wrist is still sore after my slip on the ice recently. The snow is thawing out now, but the injuries aren't. My typing is sloooow to say the least and as for using a mouse - well, all I can say is "wimp wimp". 'turts to stretch the tendons over my wright rist (oh yes, and my speelong isn't much better now either)

I could guess that I have aggravated things with my base over apex fandango recently. I might not have broken things, but CTS may be rearing it's ugly head - and that could mean surgery.

Oh well, either that or get me a left handed mouse.

The snow has been here ten weeks to date.

2010-02-20T17:31:00.001+01:00

...and it's still keeping my car in the garage. Not that I couldn't get it out, but there are fifty metres of ice, a flat S bend and two narrow passages between buildings to negotiate before I even reach the road.

I think I'll leave it be - besides, a family of mice seems to have claimed the battery bay as a nest... walnut shells and chewed battery matting...

I think I need a cat.

As for the painting world, you'll have to wait, I don't feel up to painting at the moment. Bags of other diversions to keep me occupied.

Doing the ice-scape "Paso Doble Para Uno"

2010-02-12T10:24:00.000+01:00

This probably belongs in January, because that's when I did the pack-ice fandango on the way to work. It's quite silly really - it's been snowing and freezing since before Christmas and I manage to get all the way through five weeks of slippery paths only to go base over apex a mere ten metres from the front door to my place of work.

A week later and still no improvement in the sprains, so I had to go to the specialist for work-related injury. By the way, having an accident on the way to work is classed as being work-related, so employers are more sensitive to these accidents. Anyway, off I goes to the casualty clinic and on the way there, the ice-worm trips me again - just to add insult to injury. Oh well, I guess I'm just lucky like that.

So anyway, February will be light on postings because there's not much to say and I even have problems typing anyway - with one wrist splinted, I am back to hunt and peck typing; as for using the mouse, that is more difficult than usual.

See you around soon...

Done!

2010-01-31T17:00:00.000+01:00

That took some doing... now what?

This one's finished and has been uploaded to my website - go there and help yourselves.

Sometimes it Goes Right First Time

2010-01-30T11:12:00.000+01:00

But I am now on week three... (but getting there)

Yes, yes, I know... "Stunning", "Wow", "Your best yet"...

Well, I've got news for you - my next one's always my best and my last one's a nightmare. So. Let's check my readership - who wants me te write a book about painting FS models?

Taking You a Stage Further...

2010-01-24T15:31:00.000+01:00

oops - sorry there, got carried away as I just remembered a drill lesson oh so many years ago...

When you've got nasty paint schemes that wrap over half a doz different pieces spread over three UV sheets, you really have to get into the nitty gritty with those colour grids. In the case of the EC120 I have been playing with the way the pattern wraps over the tailboom. I have a multi-layered vector graphic drawing (11 layers with several dozen separate vector objects and jpg background images...)

All I have to do with these now is copy the black bits over, spray the points red, copy the white bits over... blah blah... all time consuming stuff. After all that it's make up a set of dds images and try them out. I'd like to think I can get it reasonably right in one go, but there'll be adjustments for sure...

You can look at this picture small here or doubleclick it for the full-sized one - which is only a quarter sized to save bandwidth. The vector drawing I am working with is 8000 by 2000 ish...

Anyone notice how the underside texture panel of the tail boom is lopsided? The makers mapped this model somewhat unevenly. Oh well - that's all part of being a painter.

Back to my Musings...

2010-01-24T09:36:00.000+01:00

Enough of this frivolity I say! I came here to moan about painting sim-planes...

Anyways, I'd like to share some pictures, but I have used copyrighted photos as comparisons, so I can't publish. Still, when you are painting, it does help to have photos that you can open in a window over the FS one. That aside, I am going to let you in on my current paint project and share a few screenies with you.

In that first shot, you can see that I have overlaid a coloured grid pattern over the textures so that you can see where the textures should wrap. Here's another on the right. Notice how the lozenge shaped paint over the top of th eboom seems odd? Well, now that I have added a grid, I can correct that.

Why a grid? Why don't I use the wireframes? Well, you can use the wireframes as a guide, but often you find that the polys that the modeller has mapped are a tad too large in places, or the lines that he unwrapped from the 3D model are just too thick. But hey, don't blame the makers for this. It's just an inherent part of painting - if you want detail, you have to be fiddly...

Well, that's enough musing for now. It's time for a cuppa...

Totally Off Course (of course)

2010-01-22T22:13:00.009+01:00

I haven't really ever been on track with this blog, have I?

Well today I have one or two cross-links to music videos - I really can recommend these for the sheer cleverness of what this guy does.

Oh - and I may plug a laugh or two as well... (So that's what "Plug 'n Play" is all about...)

The last vid above is intended to be played with this one opened in a separate window. Simply right-click the link and select "open in new window". Do that and hit pause, then come back hereand wait for MGM in the video above to give the countdown.

[edit] and just in case you are wondering what that should look like, then here's a screenshot of what it could look like...

Wayyyy too cool!

Want to know more about this guy? Go to youtube and search "Mystery Guitar Man"

Bernoulli Sucks

2010-01-18T22:28:00.002+01:00

I guess that caught your eye then...

It should also give you a hint as to my faith. I am a Newtonian. Action and reaction. Try leaning over a piece of paper and sucking it up into the air. Now lean under it and blow upwards...

David Anderson can describe it more succinctly - look him up in Google. Add "Fermi Labs" to your search - and "how planes fly".

...and yet clever heads still insist on teaching young engineers the Bernoullian theory of flight.

It's like some sort of masonic movement out there. Engineers and counter-engineers. I think I have been reading too many Dan Browne books and watching too many films of his lately. I am seeing good teaching ignored and dumb teaching promoted as gospel. Oh, don't get me wrong - Bernoulli's numbers work in a tube - that's why venturis work - and thus carburettors and internal combustion engines; but wings?

Research David Anderson and prepare for enlightenment.

(Anyone worried about my mind yet? It's all these dark conspiracies, doncha know. They're out to keep us dumb.)

Now Why Would Anyone Make Textures 4096 Pixels Square?

2010-01-17T18:18:00.001+01:00

I have often been asked this by people who complain that FSX eats frames. Everyone insists that creating 4096 px textures for FSX paints adds wayyy to many bits and bytes and slows FSX down. Well folks, I have a three and a half year old PC. It's based on the AMD FX62 chip. It is grass roots minimum for FSX. I generally fly with at least 25 to 30 fps in even the heaviest and slowest planes (as far as file-size and FPS goes) My 4096ers are not noticeably slower than standard 1024s.

All I say is take the advice offered by people like Mathijs at Aerosoft.

Anyway, I like 4096 because of the detail you can get... look, you can read the small print:

This is the kind of detail I had been looking for, ever since I started painting aircraft textures. Would you believe that it's only a little over five years ago, that I started painting planes? The first paint I shared online was a Christen Eagle (of course...) and it was a fictional paint with the registration G-EAGL. Anyone remember this one?

I have fond memories of this livery - it still resides in the hangar and is waiting for me to do an FSX version of it. Mind you - this was not the very first livery I painted. I think that was my "Fire Eagle" aka "hot stuff". Without any experience I barely knew what to do, so I made an all black skin and added some default paintbrush flames. Again, this was on a Christen Eagle. Some time in the late summer of 2005 if I remember rightly.

AS I look back with the experience of hindsight I'd say that is a pretty "basic" paint. But it worked for me.

Anyway - that was in the days of 1024 pixel textures and dxt3 formats. So now we can just about use four times the size textures and thus sixteen times the amount of data per image map.

One major aspect of creating such ultra high detail images these days is the fact that the painter versions of these textures can easily reach half a gigabyte in size. I paint with Corel Draw Suite version X3 now, and when I have added all the little details, a single photopaint texture weighs in at around 70 MB for the detail texture I show at the top of this post. Then there are the specular sheets - here I usually "get away with" making only 2048 pixel square textures. But even so, there's over one gigabyte of data on my hard drive for the basic skin and for all the current EC120 textures in my Hangar I have clocked up over four and a half gigabytes storage space.

So why do we do this to ourselves?

It's simple - I like screw and rivet heads to look like the right size of screw and rivet heads. A pixel is a pixel. It's the smallest "blob" our monitors can display and if you measure the size of a Beaver texture sheet in FS9 and then make a line of rivets, you will see that a pixel takes more space than a single rivet head, so it looks awfully clutzy.

Nowadays we painters are able to achieve around 250 pixels per metre for even the larger jet liners and I have even managed to get some sheets up to around one pixel per millimetre - but of course - that is only when I can work directly with the developer (and they are a right conservative bunch at times, you mark my words...).

Anyway, here's a few more clickable high-detail images of my recent paints of the Nemeth EC120. It may not be the greatest FSX addon, but it sure as heck can be photogenic!

...and of course, as a painter, I do have to leave a mark of sorts so's you all know who dunnit!

Catch you all around again soon.

I seem to be losing it...

2010-01-16T09:15:00.004+01:00

...my affinity for the Christen Eagle that is...

Shock! Horror! Dismay!

Well, it's not quite as bad as that really, it's just that I have re-installed FSX and all the addons recently, after converting to Windows 7 (big improvement there, MS, well done!) and now I am finding fun with helicopters again.

As much as I could slate them, the Nemeth Brothers made really pretty EC120, EC135 and MD500 helicopters. Their standards have dropped a bit with the FSX version of the EC120, but these helis are good to fly and good to paint despite quite a few niggling little bugs. I hope we'll see patches for the EC120 - she's just too photogenic not to have in the hangar.

...and that is just some of the fun I have been having with this chopper!

The best one at the moment though, has got to be the CERA Bell 412. It is great to fly - realistic procedures have been programmed into it and she is also really nice to paint. So without further ado, here are some more piccies:

There are more to see on my website in the downloads section.

I have had my knuckles rapped

2010-01-03T10:05:00.006+01:00

Good morning all and a Happy New Year.

Hasn't it been a long time - again!

It seems my last post has caused umbrage amongst the modelling fraternity. I make no apologies for putting a few noses out of joint. After all - standards ARE dropping.

You want proof? I shan't name names, but when you buy a model and see that text on the instrument panel is mirrored, then you absolutely know that is sloppiness.

When you put your right foot in and the little "Turn and Slip" bubble resolutely tells you you are flying balanced, then you know that is sloppiness.

When you turn on the nav lights and red is on the right, then you know that is sloppiness.

When you sit inside a VC that looks like it was made for FS98, then you know that is just laziness. Especially whe the exterior has been modelled so well.

When you browse through an aircraft's folder structure and wonder why the plane takes up hundreds of MB storage space - and even a numty like me could apply a texture.cfg to reduce such a waste of space, then you know the developer has missed a trick.

When you try to take off in a plane that, in real life, can clear the runway in a few feet and it takes you half a mile to get airborne, then that is more down to the difficulties of creating air files.

There are so many more examples I could show - but that would overload the system...

Now I have been accused of talking without knowing how difficult it is to make models.

So... with over two dozen beta tests behind me and co-development on a couple of commercial models, I can possibly say I have more experience at making models than some modellers. Hubris? Am I arrogant? Quite possibly. However, I have spent hours, days, weeks and months working with some of the best developers in flight simulation and I am basing my statements here on my blog on what I know from these developers. As for making the 3D models myself. Well, I know what can be done - I just don't (yet) have the necessary skills to make a model.

But I do know what can be done.

On a lighter note...

I have managed to get myself thrown out of a chat forum... Well, it looks that way, as I can't log on any more.

[edit]
Maybe or maybe not - I still can't logon to that forum, but there were some odd looking cookies there. After I cleared the cookies, I could see more of the forum, but still cannot access the site - so who the heck is "rubiconproject.com"
[/edit]

I was being my usual provocative self and trying to look at things from a different viewpoint. There was an action by the site owners that might have been viewed as discrimination by some. Well at least by one - me.

Perhaps I should have held back and used the private message option? Sorry guys.

You see - I AM becoming that boring old fart I always snigger at.

If you have read "The nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nitt (witch)" then you can see me turning into an archetypal "P. P. Taylor"

And finally

Whilst I won't name and shame the less able developers, I will gladly name the ones I have worked with or discussed modelling issues with.

Thorsten Reichert - developer of the Bushhawk at Aerosoft
David Brice - Iris Simulations
Michael - Flight Replicas
Alex and Andrey - Sibwings
Rob Young - Realair Simulations
William Ortiz - Lionheart
Joachim Schweigler - Aerosoft Glider
Sascha Normann - Aerosoft VFR Germany Sceneries
Kevin Lechmanski - Long Island Classics
Francois Dumas - FSaddon
Holder Sandmann - Vancouver and Victoria
Christian Stock - Various New Zealand sceneries

...and quite a few more. These guys are the top in their specialities and they do know what they are doing. I have even been quite a PITA to these people - more to the point: I have been a right nit-picking 'arris of a beta tester in quite a few of their works and I have also made quite a few wishes about their projects that couldn't be included in the models - yet.

You have listened to me though gents. despite my often self-righteous moments.

I am just the painter - you are the masters of the flightsim world.

It's been an interesting year...

2009-05-11T20:52:00.004+02:00

I suffered a certain amount of illness, was unemployed and found a new job. An amazing year really. And now I am back where I started, before I launched myself on the downward slide a little over two years ago.

And what has happened sim-wise? In my favourite pastime? i.e. painting planes?

Naff all (to use an "only fools and horses" quote). I am slowly getting not just disappointed with the aircraft modelling set, I am getting downright angry at the sheer laziness of model makers.

Those idle so and sos do not follow the ground rules that ACES set down as conventions in the FSX SDK. And because they don't follow the guidelines, the standards of FSX models is still barely better than TOTR models for FS9. If I was to analyse how many FSX models I had paid for, I would probably be horrified. For it would have been wasted money and I might as well have stayed with FS9.

Most of the "bad" FSX models are poor FS9 conversions. The rest are FS9 models exported with the FSX SDK and merely have poor quality bumpmaps and NO specular textures.

The use of specular texture mapping was the single most innovative improvement to FSX models and yet the modelling fraternity have ignored this. Only a few modellers actually use specular. IRIS for one of the fixed wing modellers and Nemeth in the rotary scene.

Of course I have worked my way through several aircraft betas where the models are non-specular, but in the end, I have never flown them after the beta closed. Not even the Aerosoft Catalina has made it into my heart - despite a jaw droppingly beautiful level of detail and love in the paintkit.

...and then you get the odd freeware model and there are gorgeous speculars included.

Guys, I am sorry, but if you can't build decent models which can be really loved by painters of my "bent" then I give up on you and your models, no matter how accurate. I am going back to those that do give you the freedom - like that beautiful little Bushhawk.

2008-05-14T05:24:00.001+02:00

Still here, still got eye problems, still hanging in though.

My latest projects are still on the slow burner.

Sick, lame and lazy...

2008-04-20T19:13:00.002+02:00

Well, I am back again...

Oh? You didn't notice I was gone? Oh well, never mind, you weren't to know. So what has happened in the interim? Moved house, changed jobs - to a job I have yet to start. Rebuilt the PC to a Vista 64 bit system... You know - the usual stuff in the life of a nomadic PC addict. Spring is finally looming after a fashion, the mornings are still fresh but this afternoon was gloriously sunny out on the balcony. Got a decent one this time with enough room for a lounger and table for the cocktails. All I need now, in my quest for the perfect domicile is one that faces the afternoon and evening sun - I just get the morning sun here, which is a bind for someone who has to go to work.

Anything new on the flightsim scene? Not really. I have been "down" a lot recently with that IKEA building, furniture arranging, living out of a suitcase... It's been almost three months now, since I packed up at my last home and started all this move thing, and now I am slowly reaching that stage, where I can say comfortable.

Still - I have set out my library and am working through the Pratchet section again.

I'll keep in touch.

Once more into the breach, dear friends...

2008-03-15T17:09:00.006+01:00

Bloody Blogs, you start 'em and then, ages later, you realise you haven't said much in a while. But in the meantime, my forum post counts have shot up beyond count. I have passed five and a half thousand on SimFlight and almost eighteen hundred on Aerosoft plus thousands elsewhere - and no, they aren't all pithy "one worder" posts either. I usually write pithy thousand worders *ggg*

Here and above, you can see a couple of shots of my "Don't mess with Texas" paint for the Iris Raytheon T6. Basically an American redesign of the Pilatus PC9, but a bit more modern. A real fun plane to blast down the Grand Canyon in.

I have been beta testing like Billy O until recently, I have been "threatening" forum posters with all kinds of dire consequences (big nasty moderator that I am) and I have been painting too. One thing that pleases - and puzzles - me is that I get a lot of "fan mail" asking to do someone a paint. Either I am getting better, or folk just don't know better. I also find myself answering all kinds of questions about how to do "this, that or the other trick" on a skin.

The Aerosoft Twin Otter was a real fun plane to beta test and to paint. These two are proving very popular on the downl0ad fora. I wonder? Should I write a book and solve everyone's problem? Good scheme! Make some money...

So, let's catch up with the "now" in my life. Real world wise I have been busy too. I landed a new job with Eurocopter - Hoorayyy! I am back working on helicopters. Well, I am doing it primarily to keep "off the dole" and the fact that I am "tech clerking on helicopters" is a coincidence. There are better things I could be doing - like simming. But that evil Mammon just keeps pulling at my soul and the needs are there. So that also means another move to another home in another town. All that is keeping me rather busy real world wise these days, more's the pity.

Anyway, let's see about tagging a couple of screenshots of recent paints to this post. The Harvard above is another fine plane to have in the Hangar by the way. As for painting, this offering on the left is a real challenge - to the artistically minded. Who on earth would do a photo paint like this on a real world 747?

It was an excercise in seeing what can be done with the default 747... oh well. "It's Cool to be Hot"

Another day, another year

2008-01-01T12:05:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year to anyone who stumbles across this blog. I don't expect it to be too many ;)

So, how did you spend your new year's eve party?

I went way off the beaten track and flew a "Tube" - shock, horror, dismay! Some youngster had pestered me enough with an interesting challenge to repaint an Embraer 170, so in the end I did. I am not overly happy with the result, but I wasn't too unhappy either, so in the end I caved in and let him have it "as-is".

But those of you as knows me (and my little grammatical and authorial idiosyncrasies) will know that I don't fly tubes. That is not real flying. It's bus driving... Horrible ghastly thing to do.

Anyway, I painted the beast, so I had to go fly it, didn't I? Gawd 'ow borin'!!!

Set cruise altitude, set height hold on the AP, set speed on the speed hold, push the throttle forward. Retract gear once up, set bearing on heading hold. Keep your radios n and follow ATC instructions. Set flaps, switch AP off, lower gear, land and follow taxi instructions. Shut down.

Enjoy the slide-show:

I've "gone aero"

2007-12-30T19:55:00.000+01:00

Being a professional aerospace engineer, the idea of having an "Aero" TLD has been on my mind for a while now. So I finally treated myself and registered www.brisland.aero for myself.

Feel free to pay the site a visit - and feel even more free to drop me a line to critique the content.

Oh my God!

2007-11-05T18:26:00.000+01:00

It has been months since I last posted! Not that I have had nothing to say, but more due to the fact that I have been busier than sin! Betas all over the place. Repaints - well, a few. Job hunting too and now I find myself eligible for a .aero TLD.

So watch out folks - Eagleskinner could be going .aero - but that domain will have to be more along my professional status - with some sim-work thrown in for good measure...

Anyways... this was just a post to let you know I am still alive and kicking.

Area Alpha - One Man's View

2007-06-12T11:46:00.000+02:00

(This is not a "commercial review"; just some subjective feelings from a Beta Tester)

Originally I chose to volunteer to "fly beta" on this particular area, because the original Vancouver addon had a great little "read along" adventure about Chuck Merryweather. OK, his adventure poaches a bit of the neighbouring terrain, but I had flown that area quite a lot in FS9.

Was the FSX version going to live up to it?

Yes! Cubed! And then some!

But whoa there, don't take me at face value. Let's look a bit closer and deeper into FSX and it's new features first.

FSX can cope with a far greater tree density - Vancouver "outlands" just happen to be very "treed". Point one to FSX for a greater level of detail.

Next, the meshes. Again, FSX can handle a far greater LOD than FS9 did. You go flying low around the FSX version of the Vancouver hinterland, and you are going to be low - in some rather realistically unpleasantly steep-sided ravines in places. Point to FSX

You want crazy flying? In the "9" version I would set a strongish wind from the town and land a Beaver or later the DO27 on the helipad at the Grouse Mountain lodge. In the "X" version I have discovered the ski slope nearby. More fun even, than Courchevel in France. Point to Vancouver and X for "original landing sites"

Visuals. I am not a real world pilot, although I used to be one - gliders - and have collected a few chopper hands-on hours as perks of the job as well. FSX isn't there yet, but the visuals are so much improved, that old pilot habits are coming back. When I approach a new field (well, any field now) I find myself looking for the visual clues to landing. They aren't there yet, but the flight experience is going the right way. You find yourself looking a lot more respectfully at the scenery. Point to X again

Over the past few weeks of testing, I have clocked up over 100 hours day and 25 hours night on both a modern "fast CPU" PC and my "slower" one. Microsoft have "paid the ferryman" after the FSX launch disaster and fixed it with SP1. A lot of other wise folk have added tweaks to our knowledge base. You really do have to "work" with FSX to get your rig enjoyable - it was a lot easier in 9. Point to 9.

The Vancouver scenery is addictive! See above - so many hours collected and I still have not had enough of the scenery! The landscape is simply perfect for bush flight. There's "wild country" to land in - start up your Tundra-tyred Beaver and fly up a river - there's plenty of gravel banks to use as a landing site.

Someone (Erich) posted this video as a very surprised member on Simflight and asked "Whe re in the X world can we do this?"

In a couple of days, this guy is one guaranteed Vancouver customer! There's plenty of places to do that in the Vancouver scenery.

This is not the place to plug someone else's addon, but I am going to anyway. Hi Fi Sim have brought out Active Sky for FSX and X Graphics. Add the three programmes together, and you really get one hell of a bundle. The Vancouver hinterland is absolutely amazing when the weather closes in. Misted valleys, haze, city grot - it's all there. Simply amazing!

Praise over! What can I say against Vancouver Plus?

A fair bit actually. But nothing that can be directed against the Sandmann / Patch / FSAddon team. There are still some limitations within FSX that cause strange overlaps between the MS scenery and the FSAddon textures. Roads break off in places up in the woods. Sometimes scenery floats past in the sky (well, trees) - this is caused by having your settings really high. As you change views, the PC will forget to redraw some tree objects and you'll have floaters for a while, until the next scenery re-draw. Some object alignment is a wee bit off (there is still some object placement inaccuracy in the sim itself it appears) - but if you're a "normal" flyer, you aren't going to notice much.

One thing about this scenery addon... it's going to save you money for a while. How so? You aren't going to want to buy anything else for quite a while! (Even if you do go and get the Hi Fi sim stuff)

I'd like to comment more about this marvellous addon, but I don't have the time - I want to go fly some more!

This is a "must have" with all the bells and whistles!

Eta Beta Pi

2007-06-02T20:02:00.000+02:00

...or "To Beta or not to Beta?"

I really have been remiss, haven't I? How long has it been since my last post? Months? Seems like it.

The trouble is, so many exciting things have been happening, so much is going on, FSX has finaly been tamed by SP1 and we are nearer to DX 10 Graphics. A couple of months ago, you could have chased me up the garden path and back again - Fly FSX in very high detail mode on my PC? Not on your Nellie!

Well first of all, the pundits have been coming up with all sorts of FSX tweaks - Fiber Frame Fractions, Max Autogen Trees or Buildings per Cell, Texture Bandwidth... FSX was improving already before SP1. Now SP1 is here and the difference is staggering! I can fly in X at 15 to 20 FPS no problems.

"Huh, I hear you say, "I get 50 in FS9 all sliders right..."

Well, FSX is a LOT heavier on our systems. 2500 Trees 1200 Buildings, most sliders way up towards the right... and 15 SMOOTH Frames / second. I can live with that. The scenery is so much improved now and the payware addins are really coming up trumps in ways we really didn't think about six months ago. And planes...

Don't get me started folks! The airplane market for FSX is amazing. Freeware, Payware... it's all there and more than there was this time last "iteration" - at least that is the feel I am getting. It's also been so busy in the scene, that I have even started pulling a few FS9 planes across, like my beloved Christen Eagle. Anyway, where have I been? Well, I can safely tell you about a couple of Betas closed - First of all, there was the Aerosoft Beaver and the Helgoland scenery.

The Beaver is really an update based on the FS9 paints. OK, there's far more paints for the Beaver X now, but it is still basically "poor" in the paint sense. Instead of fully implementing the FSX paint techniques to the full, Aerosoft have chosen to do a simple adaptation of the FS9 skins. No, don't get me wrong, the Beaver is a great value-for-money payware. It's just that I have been spoiled by some pretty damn good FSX painting recently.

The Helgoland Beta was an amazing experience. The trouble is, my most recent Beta invitation is Helgoland to the power of ten! If you thought Helgoland was good, you wait till you see the jaw dropper "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" Sorry! I can't tell you. More to the point, there's another Beta I am on - "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" and that is even more stunning! Folks, you are in for a HOT summer.

And then there's Vancouver X - go visit the FSAddon site and have a peek at THOSE previews - and take a drool mop for your keyboard!

Then there was another little project I had started to get involved in. This little darlin' is amazing! A pity that it is not going anywhere. I did some paints six months ago, bu the dev team has not yet managed to pull the chestnuts out of the fire yet. But just think! This plane will have a level of detail hitherto unknown in the FS world. We're talking up to 800 and more pixels per foot resolution in places and rivet heads that can be modelled - and not just painted or bump mapped.

OK, let me see about som images to pad out this post...

There you go - business as usual. Don't forget to go explore my Photobucket... loads more there. Have fun!

Stits and Farts

2007-04-14T06:25:00.000+02:00

Yep, this blog is moving along in stits and farts...

Again it's been ages since I last posted - but at least I have an excuse folks. But who cares? I just hope you are enjoying this as we go along. Anyway, what's my latest escapade? Let me see now...

I quit my old job, moved house, am settling in to the new town and job, started some fitness training - the trainer is a distant relative of the Marquis de Sade - I've almost sorted all my baggage out after the move and my main PC
is online again. That sums it all up I think.

Anyway, I've been invited to join the Aerosoft Catalina Beta Test team - an honour and a pleasure! It'll be a while before anything useful comes from that, but she is looking great already. As for the fun side of sim flight, well I had a session over New Zealand doing a dog fight with two Spitfires. That was fun. Otherwise there's no real news to report.

Enjoy the scenery...

And this makes three

2007-02-25T20:05:00.000+01:00

Third post in two days! What's all this? Well, this is a predominantly graphical post to show another series of pictures.

That recorder module is fun, but I am still not "cutting it", as they say. I can get aeroplanes in the same "lump of sky", but true formation is still eluding me. Personally I'd be the bad workman and blame my tools... I "need" a wraparound six axis full motion simulator so that I can really "feel" where I am in this simulated 3D world.

But I managed a reasonably close straight and level with nine BAe Hawks today. I set up one plane straight and level, locked in the autopilot for heading and altitude hold, let the plane settle with the throttle at the top detente (Saitek X52, you can feel an interim "3/4 throttle" position) and then saved the flight.

Using the recorder module I now let the plane fly on for six minutes. Right, I now have six minutes of steady straight and level flight to work with - should be a piece of wee wee to set up a sequence, no?

No!

Even starting the module on record with traffic and the two planes overlapping, you very soon end up drifting up or down or off the track.

More practice is needed - and next time I'll do it without FSUIPC and turbulence :) :)

And then there is a spate of entries

2007-02-25T19:53:00.000+01:00

Well, a second one in just a few days that is :)

First of all: big surprise, my blog is read! I just noticed a comment and I also checked the stats counter...

But most important entry in the blog today is:

I HAVE FOUND THAT ELUSIVE YETI!!!

I can't remember exactly when I installed the Lukla scenery, but I have been up Kali Himal so many times I just can't remember. Today I thought I'd have another atempt and lo and behold, I departed Lukla in my EC 120, looped round to the south, headed east and then north. Flew past Kali Himal and did a right turn up a likely looking approach for the mountaineers and there he (?) was, right out in the open...

Where has it all gone? Time that is...

2007-02-24T15:09:00.000+01:00

First blog this year - and the years nearly over already! It's been a funny old start to the year, has this one. Job worries, health worries, various mid lifers - you might know the sort of things. You know, the ones where the only answer is "Sh*t happens".

And it certainly has for me... Car crash too.

Although one of the "events" must have been a bird of paradise one...

Because despite an adverse start to the year, I am now getting a fresh start in a fresh new permanent job and even if this is a very positive move, it does mean a lot of extra work with all that house hunting and packing of boxes. Ah well. New job, new town, new friends...

Anyway, this is just a short post to let anyone who does read my musings know I am still alive.

Of Specs, Bumps and Other Practical Things

2007-01-12T08:17:00.001+01:00

On the principle that a day without learning something new is a day wasted, I guess I am now entitled to "Prof. Emeritus", because I have been learning like Billy-O. FSX has done some interesting new things for us painters, and not all of them nice. A texture set for an aircraft now has up to four sheets. OK, the emissive map we don't need to touch (those are the "night textures"), but now we have specular lighting and bump mapping to play with.

"Ah well," the pundits might say, "you don't need to create a new bump map or specular when you repaint a model." and this is generally true - if the people who made the plane also made a sensible bump and spec set.

So what, in simple terms, is a "Spec" and a "Bump"

Let's start with "specular" and say a prayer of thanks to Wikipedia, because the answer is pretty easy:

Specular reflection is the perfect, mirror-like reflection of light (or sometimes other kinds of wave from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction is reflected into a single outgoing direction. Such behaviour is described by the law of reflection, which states that the direction of outgoing reflected light and the direction of incoming light make the same angle with respect to the surface normal; this is commonly stated as $θ i = θ r$ .

So... is that all clear now? No? I thought not. Nor for me. Oh the quote makes sense enough, but what does the specular image do in FSX? Why do Microsoft's default aircraft have such funny hued images as their "Specs"?

Let me see now, metal reflects differently to plastic or glass or a silvered mirror... OK... and a red surface reflects differently to a green surface... Riiigggghhhht... (google gooogle goooogle...) I found one interesting reference somewhere, where the author wrote something like "I have found the best specular for me is a 180 shift..."

...and it was that "180 shift" that finally got me going in the right direction. Whoever it was, he (or she) was talking about degrees, and 180 means opposite - as in the opposite side of the colour wheel, as in colour wheel in your paint program. For those fashion conscious among you - think "complimentary colours". Look in your graphics program and you'll probably see a section where you can edit the colours, and one of the options there will show a circle with options to pick out different kinds of complimentary or opposite colours.

Anyway - I don't want to make this too long. Just suffice to say that the specular component of a texture set defines how the model shines. A polished paint surface will reflect white light as white light, so your specular needs to be "180 shifted". A slightly matt (satin finish, for instance) surface will add its base colour to the reflected light. So here you'd need to tone your spec image differently.

So for shiny airplanes, all you need to do is to flatten your image and then shift the colours by 180 degrees.

That, in essence, is what it's all about - finding the right section of the colour circle and shifting your specular image to suit. There is more - brightness for one thing. A spec image also carries an alpha component, which is not like the alpha we know from FS9. No, in FS9 the dark part of the alpha means more reflectivity. It's the other way round in FSX for the specular. A darker alpha for the spec map will make the reflection less harsh and a lighter one... well, let's put it this way - if you have too harsh an alpha for your specular, you'll end up seeing all the polygons on your model.

Lord, so many words already and I still haven't gotten anywhere. My suggestion is to read the SDK and try to remember. Here's what I have written on a note pad on my desk:

Specular - a two part image (base plus alpha). Shift the base colour by 180 for reflected light. Make the alpha channel grey scale. Experiment with different values of light and dark until you find some you are happy with. My values - 180 clour shift, 35 - 50% lighter for the colour image, save copy as-is but grey scale and use as alpha

Bump map - "flatten" a copy of the texture sheet (remove things like text, logos, emblems and other parts of the skin that don't usually have depth). Go to your "effects" section and choose the "Emboss" effect. Not too high. Select target colour to "greyscale" - that way the height map separates out into thre channels - RGB. MS have declared that the red channel is used for the alpha, so click off the blue and green channels and make the red into an alpha channel (grey). Back to the RGB channels and flood fill RED with black colour. Then flood fill the BLUE with white. Switch on all channels again and you are left with a blue toned image, just like the microsoft bump maps.

It's that time of year again...

2006-12-26T10:12:00.000+01:00

Well, actually, it's over at last, and the days are already getting longer. Won't be long now and we'll be looking at Easter Bunnies on the supermarket shelves.

I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas. Did you remember the Christmas Spirit? Or was it just the Christmas spirit?

Hasn't tempus fugitted this year? It seems like ages since I last had anything to blog about. Not to worry, the Dornier has taken up a lot of my free painting time and of the rest of my available hours, my day job has been responsible for hacking those away.

In the meantime, FSX has come and (in a few cases) gone from our PCs. Some folk are dismayed at its (lack of) performance, others are pragmatic enough to realise that it's been designed to have breathing space for the next few generations of PC growth. I have been playing with this tenth generation of FS and fortunately have a computer that can handle the load reasonably well, although I still have to adjust my settings before each flight.

I've also been invited to do some beta testing, so now I have a mission as well as a cause. And I have also been asked to do a commercial paintkit for someone in the new year, so my card is relatively full for a while.

What really has pleased me has been a plethora of new goodies for FSX - just in time for a Christmas CC bashing session. There's been the Tiger Moth (a little disappointing but not a total waste of money), Some new sceneries and - much better - some excellent freeware released. Although I've only had her on my PC for a few hours so far, Rick Piper's Chipmunk for FSX has already won her place in my heart for FSX. Even as installed (she's still a work-in-progress) the Chippie is a delight. The only mistake I made with my first flight was to set up weather in FSX and not spot an errant zero in the windspeeds settings...

...I had 10 (ten) knot winds gusting 150!!!!!! And bear in mind that I also use FSUIPC and have effects such as turbulence activated. Man, can you imagine the bumpy ride I was getting?

Anyway, here's a couple of images to show what I am up to these days. There's more on my photobucket link. Have a happy New Year's Eve and remember - it's not much longer till Burns' Night!

"Beavering towards Sitka" in somewhat minimal conditions - FSX

"Chippie over London" using the real weather as provided by ActiveSky for FSX

Flying Chuck Lischer's F260 over Oshkosh in FSX

Chippying over High Wycombe... ATC has just told me that Booker is IFR, but I'm still going in!

"Vingt et Un" pair doing a very close pass at Wanaka.

Been Away for some time....

2006-12-03T16:07:00.000+01:00

Ah well, we all need a day job so that we can pay for our hobbies. It has been a wee bit busy at work of late, so I haven't had much time in the way of feeding the blog.

Another thing keeping me busy these days is the Dornier DO27. 'Tis a wonderful plane, with an excellent paintkit, but the more you delve, the more you find inconsistencies with the scaling and aligning of the various parts of the model. If you pay a visit to my Photobucket album, you can browse to the various albums to see what I am up to.

Thing is, when you get down to the detail, you find you need things like a detail grid so that you can locate and line up details on the textures. I do this with a simple scaled and multi-coloured grid - here you can see a couple of examples. Try it yourselves sometimes...

Recorder Module and Smoke

2006-12-03T16:05:00.000+01:00

Bazzam posted a comment recently - er well, some while ago - and asked about smoke in the recorder module.

You can show smoke and record smoke in the recorder - there's an option in the setup of "recorder" to record smoke.

Let's do a DO?

2006-10-20T21:52:00.000+02:00

One of my most recent acquisitions has been the Digital Aviation Dornier DO27 and i must say, this plane has one of the best paint kits around. OK, I can nit-pick about a few very minor inconsistencies, but all in all, this is one pretty plane - whether you fly her in "ugly" mode or in a prettified paint.

My first re-skin was - foolishly enough - a zebra-striped one; D-EDDY. I was approached by the guys over at Digital Aviation and given a nudge: "Perhaps I'd care to do this skin?" Ah well, I'm game for a laugh and I went and did it. Bl**dy Nora! What a lot of aligning work that needed! Anyway, the results let themselves be seen, so here you can see a few tasters.

After this one, I went for something a little easier: a Swiss registered Dornier in yellow. Hah! Little did I know! First of all I got digs about the tone of yellow... "Perhaps you could make the yellow a touche more reddish and not so lemony?" And then: "Hey, you haven't painted the cowling in the VC view!" Ah well, we live and learn.

Next up on the drawing board - and still work in progress - is a Portuguese Air Force "27". I saw this one on airliners.net and liked the look of the squadron crest. I couldn't read the motto underneath the shield, but a fellow forum member told me. "Lealdad e Perseveranca" - with a cedilla.

Thing is, the crest is not well shown anywhere on the net, so I got out my Corel Draw first and created a vector graphic crest and a Portuguese cross. Also while in paint, I made some jacking and tie-down point symbols. _It may seem like a lot of work for something that is almost invisible on the FS9 plane, but knowing the detail is there means a lot to me.

Anyway, you have a look and see what you think. I shan't be doing any more until Sunday - tomorrow is the Aerosoft Flight Simulator show in Paderborn, and as it's a three and a half hout drive, I guess I could be up early. I need some beauty sleep!

Let's talk dirty...

2006-10-08T13:14:00.000+02:00

No, you fools! Dirt on aircraft paints!

So far most of my painting has been along the lines of "It's just come out of the spray shop, so it should look clean. But of course, planes wear... after a few landings on a grass strip you have things like mud splatters along the underside. Eventually panels chafe and you get that typical black gunge where metal has rubbed agains metal. If the aircraft stands outside in the rain for a while, the pollutants in the atmosphere wash over the aircraft skin and leave dirty grey streaks...

With that in mind, I have started "dirtying up" some of my planes. The first candidate is the Tiger Moth paint of the "Mount Cook Flightseeing" plane. I have a photo of the real world version, so I decided to "take a hint". Take a look and judge for yourselves.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the middle of the night...

2006-10-05T22:02:00.000+02:00

..beware! You'll set the bush alight.

Well, I have been busy skinning tigers of late - a risky business at best of times, and certainly not something to do while they are still live!

OK, not tigers, but Tigers! DH 82 Tiger Moth, to be exact. I just got this urge to do a new series and stumbled across the Warwick Carter Tiger Moth again.

The paintkit is, well, not the best (shall we say) but it has one endearing feature, and that is each part of the plane has it's own skin texture. (Except for just a couple of very simple items which are mirrored - undercarriage legs for instance).

So far so good! I have managed a handful of skins in the clean and pristine versions; that is to say: "Fresh out of the spray shop". Thing is, these are all paints of real world planes, and some of the research photos i have show some very dirty Tigers. Next on my list of things to do then, is to make some dirt layers to "Sex them down" a bit (if I may deliberately misquote a reason for going to war...)

I also found yet another new toy! A neat little addin to Photobucket, where I hide a lot of my screenshots. It's a slideshow tool. If anyone does ever read this, here's the link: Photobucket Slideshow

Multiple formation flying

2006-09-14T23:29:00.000+02:00

If you read my recent post about "Flying with yourself" then you'll be aware of Matthias Neusinger's addin module for FS9.

Well, there's 1.3 version in beta and this modification allows multiple recordings of multiple flights.

If you really must know, this addin is payware standard. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it is possible to create some excellent multi-aircraft recordings and eventually some really fun flights. If you visit the simflight forum (link in the side-menu on the right) you'll see several sequences of what I (an amateur flyer) can do....

This really must be the most impressive addon for FS9 yet - and I hope Matthias does a version for FSX. Anyway, take a look at the pictures attached and see for yourselves. By the way, the multi coloured smoke schemes take a bit of thought, and I won't tell - except to my future multiplayer team members ;)

2006-09-12T06:18:00.000+02:00

Have you ever flown formation?

With yourself?

I have recently been pointed at a module that you can add to FS9 and record a flight. Once recorded, you can load up another plane, start the playback and fly with yourself.

Go here to see more about this recorder module

This is immense fun! I had a sleepless night (again) so I went flying - with myself. And discovered that I can do it! I don't know how many times I have watched the short sequence and flown chase or opposites. But if you go the the Emma Field Flying Club Forum, you will see a lot more shots.

Enjoy!

Doing a 720° roll while climbing behind myself

Me and myself doing a half loop with roll out

Something new every day!

2006-09-11T18:11:00.000+02:00

I have discovered a new bitmap in the FS9 folders - it's called envmap.bmp. Well, it's not new, it's been there all the time, but what I have learnt is that this image is what governs the reflections on shiny surfaces on your planes.

More to the point, you can use different envmap.bmp images to suit your individual flight - although you have to stop and restart FS9 every time you want a different reflection.

So what is this image?

Well, the basic one with FS9 is a stylised landscape texture bitmap 256 pixels square. The lower half is ground and the upper part sky. I have been playing around with freely available ones that can be found on the net and also with some I made myself. It seems you can also use a photograph. The thing to remember is that if you're flying under a cloudy grey sky, you aren't likely to get blue sky reflections or if you're flying over a city, then snow capped mountains are out.

A pity there isn't some detection utility that changes the envmap to suit the environment. You could have a whole library of useable envmaps and have the reflections change according to where you are. Anyway, here's a couple of screenshots - you judge. And if you look closely, you might even recognise the chase plane from which the photos were taken...

Here's one using a summery alpine photo for the envmap:

Here's the "Hawke's Bay Helicopter Rescue Service" Piper Cheyenne over a summery New Zealand - see if you can spot the camera plane.

Here's Dan Knutti's Cheyenne over a sunny, wintry alps - spot the cam-plane again

Sushi Time

2006-09-08T20:11:00.000+02:00

Well, I am back from a trip to the Emerald Isle - been a busy week and now I have to reload various drivers (MoBo and GraphCard and whatever) because I have discovered strange "effects" in FS9 - the scenery and/or the models suddenly break up and look like shattered glass.

Anyway, just thought I do a quick addition or two to the side bars - I've added "Helifreak's Autorotation" blog. As a 'Rotorhead' myself, I can't resist all things helicopter - I have plenty of real world "passenger - you have" hours - about 400+ actually flying and even some hovering. So I can only endorse Helifreak's blog in the highest tones. There just aren't that many "good" flightsim helicopters around.

My favourite helicopter for the sim has got to be Peter Salzberger's Lama (http://fsheli.ch/) - it's a really good helicopter and the only thing really missing is that "butt feeling". Of course, there are other good helicopters around - in fact anything with "Nemeth" on the box is a pretty well modelled chopper too, and there's a few good air files around that have been improved by various users over the years.

A good example is Nemeth's AS 350. There's plenty of work in progress and a passable version is in progress for the "B3" version of the Ecureul (squirrel) so that you can actually land on the top of Everest.

Also added this evening is a link to Aerosoft's blog - here the developers will get a chance to "come out" and tell us what they really think.

Anyway - time to go and unpack a suitcase - or just go to bed?

2006-09-05T23:11:00.000+02:00

Another day, another post - but I am away again. To the Emerald Isle.

Tonight's sim-session made a change - I finally corrected the butt end of the Cheyenne and then decided to try some multiplayer flying up in Alaska, By the end of the evening there were five of us on line - at one time all in helicopters. It was a nice relaxing bimble around the locale. We didn'#t go anywhere... just a spot of local "fling winging" around the Sitka area.

A pleasant evening was had by all.

Oh, and I als odid some sky dancing in the Eagle...

There's more on simflight / emma field - here's a successful first half of a "Cuban Eight"

2006-09-05T01:03:00.000+02:00

Well now... two posts in almost as many days. There was nothing particularly interesting on the box today and I was just munching a piece oc chocolate when I thought to myself "Hmm - haven't I seen that on a real world plane somewhere?"

Power up the PC - swift search of airliners.net - AH!

Well, the results can let themselves be seen - I hope. Anyway - published a few shots on Simflight and had supper.

Later... Still nothing wildly exciting on TV, so i went flying some more and then back to the forums to see if there was anything to read. After a few minutes of browsing, I re-discovered Simon Stansfields "Emma Field" shop. AH another idea snuck itself into my brain. OK, open of Corel Photopaint again and let's see what this one looks like. Fictional this time, but still interesting.

For those who are interested, go visit the simflight forums (there's a link on the right. The Chocy bar screenies are in the "Screenshots" forum and the "EFC" paint is in the "Emma Field Flying Club" one.

Oh, and lest I forget, the JU 52 is not new to me - I did a skin for a guy down under a couple of weeks ago - he was after a specific skin to suit his little business there - he's a scenery designer. The result can be see below.

Flying over St. Maarten in the FSX Demo

2006-09-03T17:39:00.000+02:00

So what to do on a rainy, well grey anyway, Sunday afternoon? i sat down and built a campaign bus for Emma Field. There's this sweet little Dornier 27 available as freeware on Avsim, so I gave it a try. I can't say I liked the thickness of the panel lines on this model - they wereup to 3 pixels wide and more round the doors.

Yuck!

Anyway - I re-drew them suitable for a freshly painted machine and have kept these new panel and rivet lines safely saved in a separate file.

You can't be too safe! If you could see my hard disc, you'd be amazed at just how much space is being taken up by backups! Anyway, it's a pretty little plane for sport flying - a bit dated now (she is, after all, 50 years old now).

HAH! still younger than me!

Anyway, here's a couple of WiP (Work in Progress) shots to give you some idea of what this little bird is looking like even now.

Click on the images for a large view.

Enjoy!

French cuisine and FS

2006-09-02T23:49:00.000+02:00

The two don't just mix well. A week in France means a week away from flightsim and all that is involved. There has been a flurry of activity while I have been gone and I have not been able to do much. The big surprise, though, was the Cheyenne paint job - 370 plus downloads already. Must have been a popular buy - well done Digital Aviation and Aerosoft!

AviaSim.ch have requested permission to host the skin on their site for "local" use - so why not? Seems that a few Swiss simmers know the real thing - I only hope they don't look too close.

Also good for a laugh is the new scenery by Bill Dick and friends - it seems there really is a place on this planet called "Shit Creek" - and it even has a "Paddle Shop". Weird!

2006-08-26T13:05:00.000+02:00

Saturday lunchtime - sitting down to a sandwich lunch. Pumpernickel and sliced meat.

Well, that Cheyenne is finished and uploaded. Time to pack my bags again as I am off to France again tomorrow. For those who fancy a bit of Swiss, the paint is up on avsim and should be ready for your downloading soon.

Going ballistic!

2006-08-26T07:03:00.000+02:00

Well, a parabola is a ballistic curve - and that's what the trouble is with this repaint I am working on.

Critical? Me? I only work in QA....

But take a look at the shot here (clickable to show full-size). You'll see what's getting my goat. That part of the fuselage covered by the trimlines consists of 10 segments on the 3D model. A Parabola drawn in Corel Draw is round - so it needs to be chopped into straighter bits...

If only I could paint 15 to 20 parallel lines - on the 3D model - it'd be a breeze! But we painters don't have the models at hand - nor the software all the time.

(Tobias - if you're reading this... )

I could then "unskin" the model and use the now curved lines to do the job.

The curved red and blue lines are straight on the Corew Paint image and the coloured trim lines are currently parabolic. If you look closely, you'll see a recurve towards the fuselage sides.

Now "that" is the annoying factor.

Curved lines

2006-08-24T20:11:00.000+02:00

Have you ever been close to screaming? I have... You know those pinstripe lines that go along the side of a fuselage? Well how do you paint them on a flat texture so that they are rendered as a curve around the rear lower fuselage - especially when the fuselage vertical cross section is not circular.

Fun... Like a visit to the dentist - and yes, I do know - I have been there a couple of times recently. Pity the tooth fairy doesn't visit us oldies, when we have to give a tooth back!

Anyway - back ends of aeroplanes... I have been buggering around with this Piper Cheyenne for over a month, on and off. I am finally getting there. Pretty bird, isn't she? I even have the owner's permission to do this paint.

Well, so much for a first post on the blog - maybe someone will read this.

First Post

2006-08-24T09:54:00.000+02:00

OK, just a test, but everyone does, don't they?-