New AH-64D Pack

[Bobcatt666 0]

T-Bird's config is updated units for a 1985 based era timeline being one of the few players here who was in the Army/Marines at that time. I point out to him when he's gonna screw the pooch during his addon aquisitions. the reskined AH64A Silstien (sp) made is better, the radar soaking black pain was also somthing that came in the lae 90s. So nice as helifreaks' is its also kinda too new.. Shame never finished the old vehicles I had made, like the M35 series 2 1/2 trucks. jeep pack and other junk.

He's looking for 85 era addons the AH64D came along in the 90s.

[franze 196]

Regardless, I didn't make the AH-64D for 1985. The first Longbows barely came off the production lines in 97, so if anything this would be for the more modern era opposition of the day.

[Bobcatt666 0]

first production AH64A tail number #82-23355 first flight on Jan 9th 1984, and began testing and certifcation trials in Mesa AZ, units really didn't see then mid to to late 86 due to only one plant was building them, by hand, and polits literly had to be fully trained on these beasts. Ft Rucker was the only aviation training area till the demand required others. AH64 got the nickname 'Apache' in 85 on the local Apache reservation when tail # 82-23355 was granted the tribal approval to have the name. Its been tradition all Army military choppers are named after Native American indian tribes.

Too bad the Comanche was such a $$$ failure, maybe it will find a way to comeback. Longbow mostly was pushed due to the constant friendly fire incidents caused durring the first gulf war. In which AH64s where unable to proporly identify enemy/friendly units and destroyed a number of armored vehicles in friendly fire incidents killing a lot of Us infantrymen. The gun on the A model was more spray and prey the 30 mm recoil was horrable making hitting targets smaller than tanks diffcult. The stablization was improved as a heavier actuator was implimented to steady the chaingun.

[franze 196]

I don't think the Comanche was a failure - it just got overweight.

[Bobcatt666 0]

Nore of overpriced, its main fail, then it was launched into dev teh same time the AH64 did, the AH64 won being the lowest bidder.

Funny seeing the AH66 durring its testing phase,Remebered them flying iy over the house, and they had done all sorts of odd things to it to make it hard to ID.. Fabricated all sorts of wierds things to it, mostlikely to confuse anyone trying to get intel off the test bed.

[Thunderbird 0]

Ok thanks for the infos , so I'll use Silesian ah64 , and itsn't hard to replace , you must just download the addon and to copy it to your addons repertory

[franze 196]

Topic is getting a few days old, but does anyone know if the AH-64A's display in the pilot's cockpit is a actual MFD or a simple flight symbology display?

[shadow 6]

The A-model has one MFD. It can show TADS (FLIR/DVO/DTV), weapon-status, flight-info (checkpoint info etc), fuel management and system-damage status.

[franze 196]

Thanks, Shadow - exactly what I was looking for.

[franze 196]

Small update... Working on a conversion to the A model of AH-64:

Screenshot

Changes are mostly minor, the bigger details unfinished (hey - just like the rest of this addon!) with the cockpits being the biggest. Slightly lower powered Hellfires in the AGM-114A form, for 1985. I'll also make a modern version of the A with the K model Hellfires and the same selection of rocket types as the D.

Lastly, I'm looking into making a WAH-64, but I need someone to provide me with the proper references - ie, what differences there are in the cockpit, if any, better pictures of armament, etc.

[agent556 5]

i love this version of the AH-64. all it needs is a little better skinning and its perfect. i killed 8 T80's in less than 20 seconds with this thing lol.

oh and will the M230 finally explode on contact on EVERYTHING it hits instead of just looking like a normal bullet impact on the ground yet exploding whenever it hits a tank?

[franze 196]

For the M230 effects, having the little "puff" on the ground is ideal - in my opinion, of course. It helps to identify whether or not you hit your intended target, since it changes to a small explosion when it hits a object. Moreso, with the explosion effect, it can lag things down REAL fast because it's programmed to spit out around 20 rounds a second (although I may change that later - I could have gotten the arithmetic wrong on the ROF).

[agent556 5]

http://www.army-technology.com/projects/apache/apache3.html

from the site

The M230 provides a fire rate of 625 rounds per minute.

20 rounds a second is 1200 rounds a minute :-\

[franze 196]

Yeah, I got it wrong - changed it to just a tad over 10 rounds a second for a maximum of 650 spm. If anyone is curious, the gun will fire 625±25 spm - so I've modeled the maximum of 650 with the latest version.

Don't worry, the reduction in ROF doesn't make the gun any less dangerous.

[shadow 6]

I believe bullet reloadtime in OFP would be 0.13 which is close enough to 10.4 rounds/sec

[franze 196]

I set reloadtime to 0.09 - my calculations got me 10.83 rounds a second.

By the way, is anyone finding the LOAL Hellfire mode useful?

[Sgt_Eversmann 1]

It's a good idea but

1. the Hellfire flies very strange

2. I don't use it

I would like to see some working Flir MFDs but that not possible I bet at this time

[shadow 6]

Looking very promising. Nice helo model.

Did find some very minor bugs:

Pilot's "HUD" shows LOBL/LOAL.....which you can see from the outside when looking through the front window and the gunner's sidewindows.

Gunner's "HUD" has no indication on LOBL/LOAL apart from the action-menu.

A few stretched textures here and there. Very visible on the FLIR/DTV/DVO-side of the TADS and on top of the electronics bays.

Here's more of a suggestion; how about animating the altitude and true airspeed sensors the same way you did with the tail (aileron?)? Those sensors are'nt fixed, they are hanging free.

I agree with Eversman, the LOAL looks weird with that stair-effect when you suddenly move the HF a step at a time while its flying forward.

The ironsight colour is black. Should be same green colour as the "HUD". I'm guessing you chose black to simulate a fullscreen FLIR-monitor but it is'nt working IMO. Simulate DayTV (DTV) instead ....because Direct View Optics (DVO) can't zoom as much as the FLIR and DTV.

[Wonder 0]

Another important thing to add to the IHADSS (or HUD) is a VSI, a vertical speed indicator showing if the aircraft is ascending or descending.

I suggest you also make the horizon ball on the hud way bigger, so that the horizontal pitch lines coincide with the outer world (horizon line sticks to the true horizon). For a good example see how it's done on the Jaguar by Frenchpoint.

[franze 196]

SgtEversman - the flight path for the Hellfire in LOAL was the best I could do since there's no way that I'm aware of to actually control the pitch of the missile. Thus, it has to "step" up to a certain point before it assumes the right flight path. I found it to be very useful for hiding behind hills and launching missiles at targets with bob-up - but I guess not everyone flies the same way.

Shadow - The LOBL/LOAL "switch" had to be duplicated in almost all LODs or the system doesn't function properly sometimes. Can't figure out why, but it used to be if you turned LOBL/LOAL on, sometimes it wouldn't activate the right mode. Putting the switch in the pilot, gunner, and main LODs seems to have fixed this. Will add a indicator for LOBL/LOAL in the gunner's IHADSS.

Animate the sensors on the sides of the engines - will do.

The color of the ironsight seems to be fixed at black - the texture itself is actually the same neon green as the IHADSS. There might be a variable to change this - anyone know?

Wonder - will see about adding a VSI to the IHADSS and modifying the heading indicator.

[agent556 5]

well, the color of the tank optics are red.... also franze, would you think theres a way to make the TADS MFD function to actually work as a camera instead of a transparent 'window' to view the bottom?

[franze 196]

I'm afraid a real TADS page isn't possible within the limits of OFP. I thought I removed the TADS page in PR1.

[franze 196]

Ok, turns out the overlay for the gunner/pilot view was set to "always in shadow" - so changed it to shining and now it looks green, which is the way it's supposed to be (I think). I chose to call it FLIR because it's one of those modes that's effective at either night or day - it's pretty funny to use DTV at night, isn't it?

[agent556 5]

but FLIR is always black and white :-\

[franze 196]

Yes, that's correct... but I don't think we have the option to make actual IR displays in OFP. Regardless, the view system serves the purpose of being able to track and identify targets out to long range - whether or not it's FLIR, DVO or DTV.