Damage Mod for BN-2 Islander WIP

Being a huge fan of Flight1's BN-2 Islander, I am developping a Damage Mod for it from Ismail Hakki Güzel's and Didier Lagaffe's versions.

The following systems will wear out and will be inflicted damage in case of improper use :

- engines

- generators

- propellers

- flaps

- flaps motor

- flight controls

- autopilot

- vacuum

- pitot tubes

- brakes

- structural deicing

Some extra features will be implemented :

- avionics dying if on when engine starts

- blown tires in case of hard landing

- foul spark plug if engine runs at low rpm and rich mixture for too long

- engine dies in case of quick throttle movement with fuel pump off

- door lock and alarm

All extra features were tested and work fine.

System wear and failure gauges were tuned from Ismail's and Didier's work for the Islander, but have not been added to the aircraft nor tested yet.

I have designed an "Inspect & Repair" panel which needs to be tested too.

I'll keep you updated with the progress of the project, but it should be ready by Christmas!

See you then!

Hello!

A quick update about how the BN-2 Damage Mod is coming along. Quite nicely I must say : I have been pretty glad that the maintenance panel code was not too buggy. So here is a link to a video showing the main features on a 2 system test gauge :

- Activation if engines cut and park brake set

- system selection

- system inspection and repair

I have also implemented what I think a big improvement from the existing damage mods : the inspection and repair are not instantaneous (even though I had them pretty short for the video). Fixing a failed system costs you a bit of time, hence teaching you a lesson so that you will not do the same mistake again. What is the whole point about the damage mod : paying attention to the gauges on the instrument panel. If you can fix evreything with one single click, why bother with these darn figures?

I have not been able to embed the video in my message, so please follow the link to watch the video.

The work on the other gauge has been mainly focused on finding a way to "hijacking" FSX logic so that I can model a sluggish, cold engine or the RPM loss on a faulty plug magneto dead cut test. Thanks to Tom Aguilo's XMLTools and Herectic's help, I am pretty close to reaching this target.

See you soon!

What's below is a PICTURE, not a video. Click on the link above to watch the video :

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See second image for the supported sites:

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So, what's up regarding the Islander?

I have mostly fiddled with the MDL lately.

Thanks to Arno's MCX, the throttle levers' positions are not depending on the A:var anymore, but on a L:var. So now the power loss due to a faulty mag during the dead cut test does not end up in a automoving throttle lever, and power restricted engine can be pushed to 100% without the lever springing back to 50%. It does not sound very impressive, but it's really nice immersion-wise.

One last point being tackled right now is trying to get rid of the overriding joystick's throttle movement : joystick inputs overide all other inputs including L:vars. I have to measure the joystick’s theottle position, but prevent it from being read by the sim. This means SimConnect and the C++ universe that is very, very intimidating. I have managed to compile and run two samples from the SDK so far, and Simon853 gave precious tips on FSDeveloper about how implementing a intercept and mask C++ gauge. So I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Stay tuned for the next updates!

Gosh, what a relief : I have managed to code the joystick throttle intercept gauge (thanks to the invaluable resources on FSDeveloper). Tested and validated in game. So now, I can control the engine outputs whetever the throttle inputs are (from the joystick or the mouse in the VC). A failed engine will look much more realustuc from now on! Getting into C++ was complicated and tedious, but it was well worth it.

I switch back to the individual system fail gauges that still need to be tested.

The Damage Mod for the BN-2 is getting.closer and closer to a releasable state! Stay tuned for more.

Hello,

Just a little comment about the last developments of the Damage Mod for the Islander with one good and one bad pieces of news.

I am finished with the systems gauges (tested and validated in sim), except the engine ones that are more complicated.

The prop pitch levers anim is going to be amended just like the throttle levers with the “Intercept, Mask and Pass” C++ gauge, since a damaged prop will not be able to be set to lower pitch. The panel gauge will be dealt with later.

The bad news is that my FSX files somehow got corrupted in the last few days, what has forced me to uninstall the sim and reinstall evertything from scratch. I am not done getting everything back to the normal, so my slow development pace is not accelerating much.

I am really sorry about that 

The good news is that the FSCaptain team has agreed to slightly adapt their code, so that failures will be passed from one module to the other! For instance, a wear-induced failed generator from “my” DM will be detected by FSCaptain, and a bird strike in the engine will modify the wear index in the DM.

So, as a former French president put it : “the slope is steep, but the path is straight”!

I wish you a pleasant year, clear skys in sim and in the real life. Stay tuned for the next update!

So, what’s up with the Damage Mod for the Islander?

The engine gauges needed a bit of work to have all the individual failures work together (warming up, wear, dead cut mag test). The missing bits are now ironed out. I have also taken the opportunity to simulate the sluggish response to throttle input of a cold engine.

The Joystick throttle Intercept, mask and pass C++ gauge was cloned to «*hijack*» prop pitch input from an external controller, so that the pitch response test can be fully and accurately simulated.

The Islander VC was missing a switch to toggle structural deice on and off, but such a switch is now standing just left of the airspeed indicator (thanks to Blender and the Blender2FSx toolkit).

Coding-wise, the last task is to amend my test control panel to handle the 36 systems and corresponding buttons. I have not decided yet if I want to include the FSCaptain interface as a default feature or an addon. The timeline for the release of the v1.81 beta will tell!

Releasing the Damage Mod has never been so close! So stay tuned for more!

A short update to show you the final panel layout. I am pretty pleased with how it looks, but I still have to make sure all lights glow where and when required!

Shouldn't be too long now...