USS Nimitz

[Pascal]

Hello,

I was looking at this excellent model by Javier Fernandez (from 2012) and found there is an annoying bug with VSF updated, as there is an invisible deck (which supports vehicles eventually) in front of the ship and which goes about 300m ahead with the bow wave :



I think there was a topic about that on the old forum and wonder if anyone remembers about an eventual solution for this problem ?

Greetings

[pbhtankerman]

I see you seem to have the dreaded midship wake effect (no bow wake). This seems to happen a lot especially with VS model imports to vsf. Sorry I cannot help you with the strange 'thing' appearing forward.

[Pascal]

Thanks for answering, the strange thing is in fact the bow wave due to the extended (hard but invisible) deck going about 300m ahead.. finally, I found (with difficulty) a way to solve that bug and everything seems working almost normally now.. the bow wave and rear wake are perfect :



the deck is still hard but only on the ship and no more 300m ahead .. this is the most important as it allows also to place the bow wave with precision :



the only thing is that the two main radars don't rotate anymore, but really not important as the others still do.. with the new fonction in VSF since 2.6.5 "Shift + MouseWheel moves forward inside cockpit", I walked around into the interior and discovered for the first time a lot of places I never saw before:





all the interior is modelled , the hangars, the rooms and even the kitchen ! this is really a great addon from Javier and nice that it can be used again in the updated VSF. With 75 fps near a big scenery and with the SDB_Dauntless, it is very well optimyzed : I hope it will still work With the New Game version.

Greetings

[syrphid]

Now she needs to be repopulated with mighty metal birds.
Take-offs and landings promise to be exciting.

[Sailorjohn]

Pascal, since your post above I've been fiddling with Nimitz also. As Javier originally made it for Flight Simulator and later adapted it for VSF, it's an unusual file arrangement of components. I know that Boat is actually itself a component, as are all the interiors, planes, crew, etc. Were you able to edit Elements for Boat component ingame? Were you able to downsize the 'boat element' without resizing the visual model, which seems correct sized in company with other similar sized vessels? The Vehicle file itself is simply generic to get the model into VSF; there are no Properties, per se.

I was going to clone Nimitz, delete Profile.dds, and try revising Boat component elements downward to fit visual hull. Is that what you did?

[Pascal]

Hi syrphid and Sailorjohn, happy to see you here : I suspected that there will be some people interested by this post..

Yes, I tried these basic tips you just mention but it is more complicated than that because it seems the bug is due to the boat's model itself and not to the congif files.. as this one is encoded, the only options are in theory to have the source or to decompile it for modifing the model..

In fact, the Nimitz is build with components as this is the normal way to do now with VSF : the parts.cfg system that we still see often is totally obsolete. Vehicle Simulator is made to play with components and to test different variations for building the vehicle you want.

After many tests, I found that the anim.x , gear.x and pilot.x files have a displayed mesh that doesn't impact on the environment (water or other vehicle), that the first point.. as there is already an anim file and as the gear file bugs with the G key (GPS), I choosed to use the boat mesh as a pilot file.

As I said, this is tricky but it works.. and as there are already pilots files for the Nimitz (radars), it's quite easy to do : just make a pilot5.cfg in the "Nimitz" folder and MOVE the boat_CVN.x with all the corresponding textures from the "components" folder to the "pilots" folder.

Of course, doors, main radars and rudders into the model will not rotate anymore, but really not important I think (as I prefer correct bow wave and deck).. Note that your pilot5.cfg, must not have any animation in it to avoid any strange bug, so it must be something like this :

boat_CVN
0.0 [x_pos]
0.0 [y_pos]
0.0 [z_pos]
0 [auto_hide]

The second point is now to have a boat_CVN.x file in the components folder to complete the remaining boat_CVN.cfg : a simple invisible plane in the correct position will do magically the trick and allows VSF to detect here a vehicle.. this deck is hard and place the bow wave correctly :



This can be made easily with any 3D software, but I think you'll want to test mine : HERE

@Alexei : I remember that you made a very interesting post on the old forum about simulating catapult with towing.. unforntunately, I did not copy that, can you just summaryse your research.. for testing with the Nimitz ?

Greetings

[Sailorjohn]

Merci, Pascal

I can't wait to try this out! I had tried copying Boat_CVN as vehicle, and Boat_CVN.x as vehicle.x, but it had no effect. BTW, did you discuss this with Ilan? He might issue a bug fix to resolve whatever happened in last update, because Nimitz worked beautifully in the past. Did you clone your model in case he has a fix?

[syrphid]

Great thing, Pascal. Your method is elegant. I tried a bruteforce solutions to the issue. The 3D model is supposed to has skipped extra object far ehead.
Since Javier permits the usage of the Nimitz model, the faulty polygon could be removed from the mesh. But any convertor I used gives the 'corrupted file' message.
Did you try to open the file? As can be seen, any Ilan's program manage to do this.

[Pascal]

Thanks Alexey, but there is still a flickering effect with this famous deck if you watch well.. we had an exchange with Ilan who confirms the bug in the model. I finally found a way to import the model in my 3ds Max and the faulty polygon is the one with the skids marks on the deck : so with some cleaning on the deck (in fact removing this poly) all is ok. I also converted all the textures of the model to the dds format for optimyzing :



So, the Javier's Nimitz pack can be just updated almost as identical to the original, allowing full compatibilty with the updated VSF and I hope, the New Game. I am happy if I can help to extend the life of this excellent addon. I am thinking to allow me to just add a small animation as eastern egg in the model , easy to do, with a clue in the screen above.. all we have to do now is to make a petition for Ilan about a catapult system..

Greetings

[syrphid]

It is my dream and it already works.
The plane can be attached to the hook point of the carrier, then cable is streched out either by own reverser thrust or by another powerfull vehicle that tows the plane backwards. When done, park brake must be on and rear tow may be released.
Another trick is to save situation and to decrease [length] in situation.cfg file.
So much for catapult.

The idea is to use the same towing dialogue, but cable length should not be adjusted by the programm to the distance between the vehicles. It simply should stay as it has been inputed. Now we have the plane on its place, but the cable appear to be streched once the towing is just selected.
Be ready to rapid take off!

[Sailorjohn]

Wow. I had been preparing an email to Ilan to the same end...how to either remove the invisible flight deck extension, or allow user input to manually place bow splash. I drove the Porsche down the flight deck and the invisible extension, right up to bow splash to illustrate.

Glad to see it's already resolved, Pascal. Is the solution to remove the 'skid mark' texture and replace it with the one you linked above? Or are you planning to re-release the updated model in toto, with the Easter egg...maybe a working elevator?

[Pascal]

Hello,

@Sailor John : I can't see your image but I understand what you mean.. No, the cleaning of the deck was not done with water, but by removing totally the old skids marks to give a new start to this excellent add-on by Javier Fernandez : all credits are for Javier and many thanks again to him ! Ilan just placed a total new pack in the vehicles's page : http://www.hangsim.com/vehicle-simulato ... one=mShips

To celebrate that, we will adapt with Thomas a T-45 for real training with the USS Nimitz and I am making also a small pushback tractor for towing :



@Alexei : about your excellent idea about towing to simulate catapult, I made a test but I have some problem to pull backward the plane (even without attaching it at the front to the carrier).. may be this due to bad config physics for the pushback ? the plane behaviours as if it has full brakes on..

Greetings

[syrphid]

The mass and cable force of towing vehicle seem to matter. Both of them should be high enough. But cable force of the catapult and therefore of the vehicle towing backwards should not be too high. Even park brake with enormous [gear_max_kf] is unable to keep the plane on its place. The plane starts to toss and turn and then runs in zigzags.
Another obstacle is arrester. It reacts on any sudden move and always tries to connect to the plane with its hook down. So acceleration of 6g is problematic. The moderate 2 and may be 3g are achievable.

[syrphid]

All the above entails a further additional suggestion: hook and cable should be separated.

And it's not the only solution...
This doesn't look like catapult and is more appropriate for jet-assisted take-off, but additional powerfull engine with few seconds of fuel works perfectly and does not have restrictions. Instead of towing dialogue, the 'catapult' fuel in the elements should be edited before every take off.
That won't be necessary, if all fuels were saved.

[Pascal]

Thanks a lot Alexei for all your searchs and precisions, as usual.. yes, the pushback's physics are important and I discovered also that the wheels 's plane were a little bit down into the Asphalt of the deck which gave the effects of brakes ON ! the tip to see that is there was not any shadow on the deck.. now, all works fine. I noticed also quickly, as you said, that the plane tries to connect often to the arrestor cable..

Playing with the animation and the components of the Nimitz, here is a standard configuration for training of T-45.. two of them are ready to go :



I also talked with Ilan about a catapult system and he answered : " Well it can be done, but you need to select "ground tow", I know it is funny but gives it enough speed and it will work even when the carrier is moving. "



Greetings

[syrphid]

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