RKSL 3 - A new start... Discussion

[jprice94 16]

So Jet DLC is out now, does that mean you'll be working on and releasing eurofighters/ f-35s soon? :o

[R0adki11 3949]

10 minutes ago, jprice94 said:

So Jet DLC is out now, does that mean you'll be working on and releasing eurofighters/ f-35s soon? :o

I would imagine they will be released when they are ready and not before. 

 

Please note asking for updates is against the forum rules 

[rksl-rock 1300]

1 hour ago, R0adki11 said:

I would imagine they will be released when they are ready and not before. 

 

Please note asking for updates is against the forum rules 

What he said ^

 

It will happen just not enough hours in the day for it to happen immediately.

[nikiforos 450]

Guys be  patient the mod will be ready before Arma 4 release  :)

[rksl-rock 1300]

I've just spent 3 days solid fighting with the Advanced Flight model to get this flying properly despite the lack of decent documentation.

Not to mention continuing with detailing and unwrapping the LPD

And trying to work out how to implement the new engine features on the other Aircraft in the RKSL catalogue.

 

And all that this week alone.    Imagine what i'll do next week! 

Click the pic for more Puma Pics

[TheLimbo365 70]

2 hours ago, rksl-rock said:

I've just spent 3 days solid fighting with the Advanced Flight model to get this flying properly despite the lack of decent documentation.

Not to mention continuing with detailing and unwrapping the LPD

And trying to work out how to implement the new engine features on the other Aircraft in the RKSL catalogue.

 

And all that this week alone.    Imagine what i'll do next week! 

Click the pic for more Puma Pics

Looking really cool Rock! Its nice to see stuff being made for AFM on release!

 

Out of curiosity in the pictures it looks like theres a bank of spotlights just aft of the side doors? What are they actually?

[rksl-rock 1300]

13 minutes ago, TheLimbo365 said:

Looking really cool Rock! Its nice to see stuff being made for AFM on release!

 

Out of curiosity in the pictures it looks like theres a bank of spotlights just aft of the side doors? What are they actually?

Ah they are the Chaff & Flare packs.  In 2003 invasion of Iraq they were very concerned about the IR/Manpad threat so they decided to improve the CM coverage.  I'm not sure how effective it was but they are still flown today on operations so it must have been an improvement.

[carlosxx 63]

Wow, really nice chopper!! Hmmm maybe the Lynx is next ;o) ???

Keep up the fine work!

[rksl-rock 1300]

On 2017-5-21 at 7:31 PM, carlosxx said:

Wow, really nice chopper!! Hmmm maybe the Lynx is next ;o) ???

Keep up the fine work!

Maybe... or maybe not.  Maybe...meh...depends

Let me explain.

 

Ok so I've got a few things rolling right now.

 

Albion Class LPD - (Not the Ducks) 

This is proving to be an epic job.  I knew it was going to be a big job.  A really big job.  And It is going to hit 250,000 faces very soon. But this thing is proving to be even more of an epic than planned. I've already rebuilt the interior 4 times. Every time I think I’m getting closer I realise that I should/could/would be more efficient if I do something in a slightly different way.  The ship will be made up of four sections multiple floors, lots of proxies or maybe several proxies with lots of detail in each.  And that is subject to some judicious pruning so that I don’t melt everyone's PC into a puddle of plastic, metal and tears under desks everywhere.

 

LCVP - Landing Craft Vehicle/Personnel

If you know anything about the Albion class LPD you'll know the LCVP mk5 is a key feature of the ship.  Externally the model is done.  Internally I'm just waiting on some pics I’ve been promised before finishing the wheelhouse.  Initially at least they will only be released as part of the Albion Class ship.  There will be a standalone later if demand is high enough though.

 

Eurofighter Typhoon - V3.011

Now this is not quite a direct port from ArmA2.  It’s a huge texture rework.  And if I’m honest not my favourite job right now.  Having been working primarily in another game engine for the last couple of years I'm having to relearn some basic ArmA skills and change my approach to texturing and baking materials. It’s just taking a long time to get it looking right.  And of course, the new engine changes add another few layers of complication re weapons and pylons etc.

 

Puma HC1 - V3.005+

Graphically its done.  New higher res textures better rvmats and features.  On the standard flight model it’s a dream to fly.  But accursed Advanced Flight Model/Rotorlib is another matter.

 

This is a nightmare worthy of a Nordic saga.  I am writing a "RotorLib - How-to-guide” I’ve even created an excel spreadsheet to help calculate the attributes...but this is now being re-titled "DON'T EVER DO THIS!".  Jamison and I have sat up over several nights well into the dawn to try and work it out. The lack of practical documentation is horrible.  

 

RT Dynamics give out a Rotorlib SDK to its customers.  You import a model, add some basic parameters like blade radius, chord size, mass etc. and out comes a lovely XML file... you go back to the SDK and tweak some values until you get something realistic/fun to fly.  Now we don't have access to the SDK.  Some things aren’t that hard to calculate or find info about.  But a lot of the look up tables that affect lift etc. are generated by the SDK.  These are not easy to calculate and to be honest I'm not even going to try.  Even moving the ground contact points seems to mess with the flight model in very small but interesting ways.

 

Other Helos.

Given what I’ve said above and the fact I’m already bald and going grey you can imagine that helicopters may not exactly be my favourite thing right now.  We'll see how we get on with the Puma before committing further. But I will say regarding the Lynx family.  I don’t plan on bringing the AH7 back in to the ArmAverse at this time.  I will bring the AH9A and AW159 Wildcat over though.  Largely because Siddy keeps nagging me on TS, Facebook and IM but I did promise. Other versions may appear but that depends on time and my interests.  

[nikiforos 450]

Maybe it's time to change the title :D I wouldn't call it a new start 

[rksl-rock 1300]

Just now, nikiforos said:

Maybe it's time to change the title :D I wouldn't call it a new start :D

Anything that gets "ported" will effectively be 'New' trust me.

 

V3.1xx + of anything will be almost completely new. I mean really new 

[Rich_R 1087]

Hopefully this phrase

 

Albion Class LPD - (Not the Ducks) 

 

Will go down in Arma lore :)

[rksl-rock 1300]

6 hours ago, Rich_R said:

Hopefully this phrase

 

Albion Class LPD - (Not the Ducks) 

 

Will go down in Arma lore :)

You might be interested to learn there is the possiblility of the "Empire of the Duck" mod.

[willgh96 7]

Any chance of cold war era jets such as the English Electric Lightning or the Blackburn Buccaneer?

[rksl-rock 1300]

7 minutes ago, willgh96 said:

Any chance of cold war era jets such as the English Electric Lightning or the Blackburn Buccaneer?

Probably not.  At least not really anytime soon anyway.  But you do seem to have perfect timing.  I was talking to someone about the Bucaneer this morning.

 

I've been collecting info for the Lighting for a long time so that might happen at some point.  But I'm not a Bucaneer fan as such.  I used to volunteer (briefly) at the Manchester Air and Space museum (Now called Museum of Science and Industry) and fell in love with the P.1A Prototype there.  Its a brilliant story and an amazing plane.  Its on my wish list but other projects are queueing up in front of it. 

 

 

[willgh96 7]

2 minutes ago, rksl-rock said:

Probably not.  At least not really anytime soon anyway.  But you do seem to have perfect timing.  I was talking to someone about the Bucaneer this morning.

 

I've been collecting info for the Lighting for a long time so that might happen at some point.  But I'm not a Bucaneer fan as such.  I used to volunteer (briefly) at the Manchester Air and Space museum (Now called Museum of Science and Industry) and fell in love with the P.1A Prototype there.  Its a brilliant story and an amazing plane.  Its on my wish list but other projects are queueing up in front of it. 

 

 

Great i would be happy with either of them to be fair. I went to bruntingthorpe aerodrom yesterday for the cold war jets open day where they do all fast taxi's and i realised there was lack of british cold war jets on Arma 3. ps thanks for the quick reply. :)

[rksl-rock 1300]

7 hours ago, willgh96 said:

Great i would be happy with either of them to be fair. I went to bruntingthorpe aerodrom yesterday for the cold war jets open day where they do all fast taxi's and i realised there was lack of british cold war jets on Arma 3. ps thanks for the quick reply. :)

Its a good day out and the sound of the engines makes your hair stand up. Love the place.

 

By way of a WIP Update

Progress with the LPD continues.  But i am burnt out making all the little greeblies and signs, vents, hooks and detail thats will eventually be either baked or proxied off into nothing.  Ive had a seriously positive breakthrough with the Puma HC1 and a few other whirlybirds thanks to Jamison of the 4IB 

 

So all thats left is some small tweaks and 3rd round testing.  Oh yeah and the addition of the door guns.

 

So its Bank Holiday Monday in the UK which means its raining.  Which means its cold and damp eveyone is inside and thinking about BBQs and DIY.  So me wanting to be different, I've been painting the Hawk T1A.

Quick and dirty screen shot but it will do for now.

 

Click the pic for the gallery.

 

[sentryuk 25]

so now you've made huge progress on  the puma HC1 ? whats chances of an HC2 :-) and I am gonna ask, suspect i already know the answer but I would love to see a sea king, its been sorely missing all these arms years... :-)

[rksl-rock 1300]

Just now, sentryuk said:

so now you've made huge progress on  the puma HC1 ? whats chances of an HC2 :-) and I am gonna ask, suspect i already know the answer but I would love to see a sea king, its been sorely missing all these arms years... :-)

 The HC2 will be part of the v3.1xx series.  Techincally the real world vs Sim conversion is not a huge amount of work to be honest. There are some things I want to improve on the HC1 model too so it is actually a pretty significant model change.  I've been working on new models for a long time now anyway and they are pretty far along.  But in the short term  I'm using these V3.0xx refreshed versions to get the engine setup and Advanced Flightr model setup properly.

 

Seaking...erm...ahhh....arrrr....naaa....yeeerrr....(this may continue for some time)...arggghh....oooooh....ma... (You see where this is going yet?)  

[sentryuk 25]

Oh so seaking that a yes then ;-) and technically it's still currently in service 

[rksl-rock 1300]

1 hour ago, sentryuk said:

Oh so seaking that a yes then ;-) and technically it's still currently in service 

I didnt actually say Yes.  Or No.

[heavygunner 179]

2 hours ago, rksl-rock said:

[...]Yes[...]

Does this count?

[rksl-rock 1300]

7 hours ago, heavygunner said:

Does this count?

Nope 

[wld427 1705]

Sea Kings and Pumas always look great in RACS cammo..... just sayin.... 

[p_siddy 58]

Great work Rock! First time I've got to look at the thread in two weeks. Nice to see you've been breaking down walls on the Puma :)