Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Now that the Goshawk has been released...

Well, now that the Goshawk is done...I'm still working on the Goshawk. By my standards the T-45C has been an outstanding success so far as has been downloaded several thousand times in less than 3 days... still, a couple of observations set the spotlight on a couple of defects of which I was aware of... and I considered minor issues.
So, I'm still trying to fix some of the issues that still plague the v2.01 release... namely, so far I've already:
- fixed the sound bug while opening the canopy (by making the opening faster...trivial fix!)
- fixed the weird red reflection that happened sometimes (in the "glass" the separates the two cockpits)
- (almost) fixed the "stance" which was way too high. This is not as trivial as it may seem as involves quite a lot of trials and tweaks to make sure that the gear dynamics work properly in every condition, while landing on a carrier. At the moment it is not perfect, but the aircraft sits more or less in the way it is supposed to. Still...more tweaking to be done on this. Here is where we are right now:
I know that the most wanted improvement would be the addition of the instructor VC... but at the moment I cannot promise I will do it.
I will gather all the modifications and improvements I can implement before my summer vacations (that will start on August 1st) and release an update before leaving.

Also, as you might be aware of, I am working on two "remake" projects: the Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat and the F-35A Lightning II.
At the moment, it is really hard for me to tell what, when and even if they will be available... I am working on them, but I am also sitting on the fence for Micorsoft Flight. I think (and hope) that there will be a way to convert .X files into whatever format Flight will support (I guess it would be another iteration of the .mdl format...). Anyway here is the situation.

F-14D Super Tomcat: the external model, based on professional meshe, is 80% done and works quite well. The virtual cockpit will be a (almost) complete remake of the current one. I know that a working RIO station would be great...but that is far beyond the scope of the project. If I had the time, I would do it...but I don't.
At the moment, this project is likely to be freeware. I had to face some significant expenses for the 3D mesh, but that was covered by the donations and the income from the payware F-35. So, unless I incur in some unexpected events, it will be free. It may well take 5-6 months before a test release is ready.

F-35A Linghtning II - This, too, has been created starting from professional (and quite expensive) 3d meshes. I cannot say I do not like my current F-35...but it does not capture some of the details of the F-35 design. The problem, with this model, is that the original mesh is using way to many polygons...so the optimization work is long and tedious. What I have on the screen is quite amazing...but a lot of work is needed to make it run at an acceptable speed.
The current plan for this project is create a "production" model (albeit the picture shows the AF-1), improve the virtual cockpit (but most of it would be reused from the current one) and use the current flight model. So this project is mostly a visual improvement. Most likely this project will be payware - but as for the previous F-35, the price will be low.
As it is not a complete remake, I expect this to be flyable in late September.

Of course, every sentence above is subject to change... mostly depending on the Flight release date, characteristics and (mostly) the possibility to import/use my models in the new Simulator (which looks amazing IMHO)...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good day.
I haven't tried yet your new rendition of the Goshawk, but I did try the previous version.
I must say that I greatly appreciate the high quality of your work, and the fact that you keep at least a part of your work freeware is quite an outstanding fact.
I'm not much a fan of military aircrafts, but I'm looking forward to do a few carrier traps of this beautiful bird of yours.
Keep up the good work and best regards from a great fan of yours.
A. G.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dino,

glad to hear from you today!

In my meaning you are really an artist..

But please keep your main stuff aviable as freeware!! If you sell it as payware, there will be other standarts...
You are currently one of the best freeware designers, please hold that role!!

Thank you very much,

Stefan

Anonymous said...

Dino ottimo lavoro,è possibile integrare un vc rain effect?

Brandon Thetford said...

Dino,

I am not getting any of the BINGO or LAW sounds to play in the new Goshawk. I see the indications in the HUD whenever I pass BINGO fuel or go below the LAW altitude however the sounds are not working. Someone else has also reported this problem. Any ideas or fixes? Thanks!

Brandon

ScimmiaSpaziale said...

@Stefan

Being the best in any field does not really matter to me. I just wish I do the best I can in whatever thing I do.
Freeware is gerat and all, but creating high quality add-ons is an expensive job. Acquiring high quality meshes, for one, can cost up to 1000 dollars or more. Now, I can do this just for fun, yes. But that is not a small amount of money by my standards.

@Anonimo

Non posso promettere niente, se non di dare un'occhiata alla fattibilità...


@Brandon

The BINGO and LAW sounds have not been implemented in this release - they are just missing for now.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mate
Great work on the T-45, it is a wonderfull aircraft and I admire your work. I'm from Australia and have, for years now, wanted a Hawk-127 in RAAF colours. The Hawk-127 is a CTOL version of the T-45. I just want to suggest for you to make a RAAF texture of the T-45 if you have any spare time in the future.
Cheers

Jesse

Thisdale said...

Hi,

It feels wierd posting here, i feel like i missed the boat completely on your quick amazing work. I just recently came across a post on a forum mentioning your work on the Tomcat. Being a FSX flyer (amongst other sims) and the fact that the Goshawk and the Tomcat are amongst my favorite airplanes (along with the T-38, Dassault Mirage F1 and A10...) I was really excited to try yours out.

I'm sort of disapointed you removed all your previous work from downloads. Did you remove everything because you are working on new versions? or was there other issues with them which made you take them out of circulation? I'd really much like to fly those planes if at all possible.?

On a side note, have you tried DCS's A10? Combat sim, but quite cool.

Cheers,

Antoine

Thisdale said...

Actually, replying to my own post, i've just noticed that they are still on flightsim.com so getting them now. Sorry for the trouble, i'll be checking those out once they are done DLing. So far, just by the comments and screenshots, i am very excited and quite impressed with the level of work! Any chance for a Dassault Mirage F1 or a A10C warthog? ;P

Cheers mate,

Ezio Marcori said...

Dino,
il tuo lavoro è decisamente quanto di meglio abbia mai scaricato (o acquistato) in termini di accuratezza dei dettagli sia interni che esterni.
Ho però un problema: gli MFD non mi funzionano.
dipende dal fatto che ho FSX deluxe senza FSXacceleration?
grazie per l'attenzione
Ezio

Josef said...

Not sure if I'd be interested in a remake of your F-35A. Know I want a F-35C please... and a B model too to buy. Yes, to buy :-).

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Oh - F-35C catapult test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkNZfu3EdvA
~ neutrino