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BobSeaman

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  1. More than likely, your deck height is wrong in your Arrcab ArrestorCables.dat file. There are several reasons why this may have happened, so fixing it may be tricky. Your altimeter is a help, but you'll also need to find some variables in an aircraft.cfg file to get an accurate deck height on your carrier. Basically, make sure you zero out your altimeter (B key) and place your plane on the deck. Read your altimeter setting. This is easier if your altimeter has a "hover spot" where a numeric altitude is displayed. Write this number down, you aren't finished yet. Open the aircraft.cfg file for the plane you just used. You need two numbers, the vertical part of your EYEPOINT and the height of the nose gear in the [contact points] section. Add these two numbers together to get the true height of your altimeter. Now, go back to the altitude you measured on the flight deck. That number minus your true altimeter height should be the deck height of your carrier. Now, you'll need to open your ArrestorCables.dat file in Notepad. You should see text that looks like this: [Zone02] CarrierIdent=CVN-74 near San Diego FrontRightCornerLat = 32.617205 FrontRightCornerLon = -117.170786 FrontLeftCornerLat = 32.616998 FrontLeftCornerLon = -117.170812 BackLeftCornerLat = 32.61692 BackLeftCornerLon = -117.170518 BackRightCornerLat = 32.617180 BackRightCornerLon = -117.170488 DeckAltInFeet = 72.00 CableCatchZoneHeightInFeet = 2.4 RunwayHeadingInDegreesMag = 264 Make sure the deck height you calculated matches your carrier's data in that .dat file. Most aircraft carriers in FS should have a deck height between 68 to 75 feet. You may also be having issues with Arrcab itself, or with your install of FSUIPC. Unfortunately, both of these programs are no longer supported for FS2002. Good luck. :)
  2. Robin, I think its safe to say that there are a LOT people between here and SOH who are pulling for you. :) Get well soon and if you get a little bored, feel free to post some pics of the new project. :D Bob
  3. I was hoping you'd jump on this one. :D I started out helping folks understand what was going on in the Apollo Aircraft Factory manual, which was translated from technical German to English. :rolleyes: Eventually, I found FFDS and Paul wanted me to be the "jack of all trades" guy but I had the most fun brainstorming what was going on inside the .air file with Sam Chin. "Glue? What the #### is glue??" :confused:
  4. Well, as I recall, there were several reasons why VCs were a pain to include in any aircraft. By the time FS98 and FS2K rolled out, you could find how to design one in the SDK. There were more limitations back then, you had to use very simple gauges and you didn't want to include too many unless you wanted to see your frame rate plummet. Most VCs at that time were more of a novelty, a kind of demonstration of what was possible. The coding was also VERY complicated, so only the true die-hard designers would try it -folks like Bill Lyons and Dennis Simanaitis would goof around with adding them but the VCs were, again, more of an oddity. FS2002 and FS2004 were more suited to virtual cockpits, the default aircraft included VCs. That didn't make adding them to a freeware project any easier, though. A lot of this is due to how the sim displays .MDL files (convex and concave parts) and how you define which parts are visible. The programs the freeware designers used took some time to catch up, so a lot of this stuff came down to trial and error. So, the short answer to the question is that they were complicated. Very, VERY complicated. :rolleyes:
  5. https://www.pcaviator.com/store/home.php?cat=606 Just be aware, VRS no longer supports this version and its pretty pricey. You will most likely have issues getting it installed and I don't think you'll be able to get it registered. There are many issues in terms of support and running on a modern OS, even if you get all of that resolved- the VRS plane requires you to remap your flight controls. :eek: There is no way I'm recommending that you buy it, I just understand having that un-scratchable itch. :pilot: All you will be really doing is taking two 20 dollar bills and setting them on fire. While the KBT (freeware) Superbug has MDL and texture issues, you can fly it. :cool:
  6. Just for laughs I tried loading the Bug again. Sometimes it pays to keep aircraft installed. :p Its working now, after something like 8 months. :confused: I don't know if this was something that got fixed during a Win update or if VRS checked their old registrations? I'm still not in a hurry to remap my stick and keyboard and the Bug is a bit of a procedural nightmare :eek: but I did manage to do some shots and traps off a carrier after I got the feel for the inputs. Still not recommended unless you run the correct home cockpit and big $$$ controllers (you'll want a DCS grade HOTAS and stick). There's too much finger dancing when you're in the pattern for my tastes. :p
  7. Hands down, it would be the VRS Super Bug for FS9 (F/A-18E). I finally found a web store where I could buy the software (which I'm not going to list, just check the title of this thread) and I knew it was going to be an uphill battle. :rolleyes: The Super Bug is supposed to be a stand-alone aircraft in FS9 as it is (you're supposed to reconfigure your keyboard and joystick inputs from the start), the separate load and config program had Win 10 sending me "Gee Dave, I don't know about this?" messages and I finally just gave up. The aircraft looks great. You can get through a limited start-up and the sounds are very convincing, you'll just never get the flight controls to do much of anything. :confused: You can take a similar aircraft up to altitude then switch over to the VRS Hornet and it will drop like a brick as the engines spool down. :p Still, I was able to borrow the main sound folder for the KBT Super Hornet and while its limited, it works really well. :cool: VRS also supplied a full set of voice pack callsigns you can add as needed. Otherwise, stay away and fly the KBT version if you really need a Super Hornet. :pilot:
  8. BobSeaman

    Incoming..

    I just uploaded IRIS_FS9_F14AB_Glass_and_Slime.zip for the IRIS F-14A and B Tomcat for FS2004. These are simple texture edits to add a darker green or blue tinted center windshield panel plus some "toned down" formation light panels with a little blue/teal color. Read the README file for install directions, its pretty simple but check out the new textures on ONE aircraft, first. Any questions or comments should be posted in this thread. You've been warned.. :cool:
  9. While the carrier scenery in Abby's Flight Deck 4 has its own catapult and arrestor gear built in, it only seems to be available if you use the included flights. To do catapults and traps in all modes using Arrcab 2.6, add the following entries to your ArrestorCables.dat file: [ZoneXX] CarrierIdent=CVN-76 Bengal AC20 FrontRightCornerLat=21.594807 FrontRightCornerLon=90.438139 FrontLeftCornerLat=21.594831 FrontLeftCornerLon=90.438315 BackLeftCornerLat=21.595158 BackLeftCornerLon=90.438262 BackRightCornerLat=21.595135 BackRightCornerLon=90.438086 DeckAltInFeet=70.9 CableCatchZoneHeightInFeet=2.4 RunwayHeadingInDegreesMag=172 [ZoneXX] CarrierIdent=CVN-76 SD AC21 FrontRightCornerLat=32.615470 FrontRightCornerLon=-117.341199 FrontLeftCornerLat=32.615496 FrontLeftCornerLon=-117.340989 BackLeftCornerLat=32.615824 BackLeftCornerLon=-117.341065 BackRightCornerLat=32.615799 BackRightCornerLon=-117.341258 DeckAltInFeet=70.9 CableCatchZoneHeightInFeet=2.4 RunwayHeadingInDegreesMag=158 [ZoneXX] CarrierIdent=CVN-76 SCS AC22 FrontRightCornerLat=20.253141 FrontRightCornerLon=114.114297 FrontLeftCornerLat=20.253165 FrontLeftCornerLon=114.1144471 BackLeftCornerLat=20.253493 BackLeftCornerLon=114.114424 BackRightCornerLat=20.253464 BackRightCornerLon=114.114250 DeckAltInFeet=70.9 CableCatchZoneHeightInFeet=2.4 RunwayHeadingInDegreesMag=173 [ZoneXX] CarrierIdent=CVN-76 Greece AC23 FrontRightCornerLat=38.297476 FrontRightCornerLon=25.257798 FrontLeftCornerLat=38.297501 FrontLeftCornerLon=25.258006 BackLeftCornerLat=38.297826 BackLeftCornerLon=25.257942 BackRightCornerLat=38.297806 BackRightCornerLon=25.257734 DeckAltInFeet=70.9 CableCatchZoneHeightInFeet=2.4 RunwayHeadingInDegreesMag=169 Highlight and Copy the four zones above, making sure to change the XX to the next sequence of numbers. ex., [Zone35], [Zone36], [Zone37] and [Zone38]. To edit Arrcab's dat file, make sure you right-click the file and use the Open With Notepad option. Trap zones are based on the tail hook of an F/A-18C touching the wires and the centers of the two wide white lines on the deck. While the zones are fairly "tight", the width gives you a little wiggle room for cross wind landings. :pilot:
  10. I just uploaded us_navy_f-18_pilots.zip for the good old Dean Reimer/Aerialfoundry F/A-18 C and D models. These are various texture edits for the pilot and helmet. Uniforms have the correct squadron patch for the stock aircraft plus many of the available texture downloads. Helmets are a mix of the stock "tactical gray" and fancy CAG/Cruise schemes. Plus some other odds and ends to make your Hornet more of a joy. Any questions, post them here. :)
  11. Z; check your PMs. :)
  12. Well, it should go without saying but before you clone your drive, make sure its working to your standards. There's no point to cloning software that keeps crashing. The point being, do your back-ups before you need it. Likewise, when you clone your drive can depend on several things. For instance, you like your current install of FS but its getting cramped (I'm pretty sure most of us have long-term installs that resemble virtual junk yards full of old planes, gauges, scenery, and AI) so you're thinking of starting over with a clean install. Now would be a good time to clone the entire drive. :pilot: You already know it all works, you're just getting tired of how you set it up. Down the road, you may want some of those old files or you'll forget how something (mostly scenery) was set up or else there will be a download you just can't find anymore. With a cloned drive of old stuff, that's no longer an issue. :cool: On the other hand, you could clone your drive, delete FS and then re-install on the new drive. While you're at it, you could also dump most of the stuff in your downloads folder so it doesn't take 10 minutes to find a file you just downloaded. :rolleyes: Trust me, we've all been there. :cool: Your CPU really doesn't care if its talking to the old drive or the new clone, so take advantage of that.
  13. Knowing M$ back in 2003, yeah. They are probably write protected. ;) Try looking for FS9 on Amazon and EBay, I got my disks a couple of years ago and they even came in the metal box set. :cool: Another option is to clone your entire drive onto a new HD or SSD and just use it as bulk storage or swap the drive out in case the Zombies attack the old one. I've had no problems swapping drives and its a pretty cheap form of back-up. In the end, you have to ask yourself if saving 5 bucks is worth $200 of your time and effort. ;)
  14. I wish they had included some additional models for F-14B. :D If you're talking about an NSAWC F-14 flying out of NAS Fallon, remember that the F-14 already had some long legs without the tanks and they would have to drop them (somewhere over central Nevada), anyway, before calling "Fight's On". ;) Same deal for Topgun out of NAS Mirarmar and the Adversary squadrons out of Oceana, Texas, and Key West. If you already have the home-field advantage, you may as well keep the plane as slick as possible. Which sounds confusing when you consider that the whole point of adversary/dis-similar combat tactics is to teach the folks on the Blue team how to win the fight. :confused: Just recall, those folks had a cool job but a tight budget. ;)
  15. Do I post any other kind? :cool: This aircraft has a slew of great re-paints available for FS9 and FSX. Some of the later repaints feature fancy helmets and uni patches for the pilots.bmp file (Tomcat flight crews, it seems, were exempted from wearing the "tactical gray" helmets and visor shields). Just be careful with the FSX repaints in FS9. Check before you download, if the zip file contains DDS textures you really can't use them. Some of the early FSX repaints will contain BMP files however, FS will crash when you try to load the plane. To fix this, you'll need to load the textures in Martin Wright's DXT2BMP program and convert the DXT5 textures to DXT3 format. To check out the repaints available for this plane, search here, Avsim, and SOH using "tomcat IRIS" or "f-14 IRIS", do NOT limit yourself to FS9 only- keep the "sim" part of the search empty and see what shows up. :pilot: I found a whole squadron's worth of repaints for VF-154 (the Black Knights) and combined the helmets from that download with the "rising sun" visor shield from a VF-111 download to produce a cool custom helmet for my aircrew. :cool: I remember VF-154 from when I was homeported in Japan and they were based at Atsugi and the USS Kitty Hawk. This wasn't that hard. While it can be tough to edit re-painted DXT textures without having them "blow up", I used another program called FS Repaint (from Abacus but also still available from the program's author) to cut and paste the helmet visor from the VF-111 texture to the VF-154 texture and it worked great.
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