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Author Topic: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks  (Read 14881 times)

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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #72 on: October 28, 2021, 10:04:01 AM »

Vamps,
I added the ClearCache item to the [Game] section of conf.ini, but after re-starting that entry disappeared upon conf.ini  being re-written. I had assumed it was no longer supported, and didn't bother to check the cache. But your indication that it was indeed supported inspired me to look again, and lo and behold; a folder was present containing the 4 skin files.

Another little issue conquered!
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Fulmen

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #73 on: October 28, 2021, 11:37:27 AM »

Fulmen,
I checked out that little collection of photos; wonderful stuff! Thanks. You know what they say about gift horses, but it would have been nice to have a pic or two showing details of the canopy frame construction. We enthusiasts tend to concentrate on the instruments, but an important aspect of a sim is the canopy, as that's what we have to look through into the outside world.

But this stuff is invaluable, so I'll stop my moaning now.  ;)

Cheers!
Glenn

I'll PM you.

Some observations from limited testing of Vasya's FM for the B-239. Also I ran the mod on BAT and first with WxTech's rework installed as well, and then without the latter because its tachometer rework was overwriting Vasya's tachometer.

+The tachometer seems to be around what it should be. I think it might show a tiny amount too much RPM at higher altitudes? Might also be a flight model issue. WxTech's fix is still off by quite a lot more; recommend using Vasya's fix.

+The supercharger seems to behave more realistically. IRL you needed to switch it at 3,000 m, not 2,000-2,500 like in the game before.

+The aircraft seems to be about as fast as it should be.

+The aircraft is noticeably more agile, might still need to be even a little more agile but this would require looking at data and doing some more elaborate testing to ascertain.

-The speed gauge seems to be far too accurate. Just now whilst testing at 5,000 altitude I had an IAS of almost 410 km/h and my TAS was 421 km/h. IRL in a test with BW-356 on 10.8.1943 with full power at 5,000 m at 2,100 RPM and 90 cmHg manifold pressure IAS was 332 km/h while TAS in standard atmosphere was 461 km/h. At 3,000 m with the same aircraft IAS was 332 km/h when TAS was 429 km/h. Also at least when using BAT in WxTech's rework the gauge is currently all over the place. I think this was a result of BAT having already adjusted the gauge?

A couple of notes here as well: I had to disable NG-HUD to get accurate TAS from the HUD in "no cockpit" mode, as NG-HUD replaces this with IAS... Furthermore the IAS shown in the lower bottom-left corner by both the vanilla HUD and NG-HUD is not what the speed gauge in the cockpit displays, generally it's far from it.

The desired outcome here is that cockpit IAS matches with HUD IAS, and that the error with IAS in relation to TAS matches with the real-life IAS-to-TAS error.

-If I'm reading the manifold pressure gauge right, it's wrong in all versions. EDIT: No wonder, the in-game manifold pressure gauge is completely wrong; it's a 0-50 inHg one, where as the real one was 0-120 cmHg.

-RPM decrease from overly rich fuel mixture is not modelled, only the decrease from too lean a mixture is.

-Damage from leaning mixture too fast and at the wrong temperatures is not modelled. Haven't actually tested what happens if you run WEP for too long. I have a suspicion that it may not destroy the engine like it should, but this needs to be tested.

But dear gentlemen, historically the LKk - 42 (Browning clone) appeared later than the Buffaloes themselves in Finladia. I would like to add that it was not a successful construction, cracking the barrel. And we have it included in the modification B-239-63. LKk-42 were used in Buffalo and Curtiss Hawk 75, which were in service in Finland in the later stages of the war. and here the author of the modification has kept the historical reference.



The VKT's (State Rifle Factory) 12.7 mm LKk/42 (Aircraft Machine gun model 1942) was installed on the wings of five Brewsters in total. It was tested in the autumn of 1943 on BW-382 with good results and during the winter of 1943-44 four other Brewsters received gun as well: BW-373, 377, 384 and 386. It could not be installed on the fuselage, because the charging mechanism was too heavy to be operated by hand by the pilots.

But then AFAIK the Finnish Brewster's were delivered in natural metal with just national insignia on them but no camo....

They were delivered in parts and assembled in Sweden and then flown to Finland, where FAF insignia was painted on them. They arrived in Finland looking like this:


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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #74 on: October 28, 2021, 01:03:18 PM »

Fulmen,
The Vasya tachometer code is 'bi-modal', with one scaling applied when RPM is <1000, and another scaling when above. I've adopted that.

My airspeed code uses fm.getSpeedKMH(), which I selected to make scaling to the metric ASI gauge straightforward. The stock (and Vasya's) code uses fm.getSpeed(). I don't know if there is a difference between these methods in theirhandling of indicated vs true airspeed...

I've integrated my compass changes into Vasya's cockpit class for 4.12.2, and will shortly post it. This is OK certainly up to BAT 4.1.1, and possibly for any BAT 4.1.x. For BAT 4.2, I don't know for certain if the 4.13.4 version is OK; I'll see about tweaking it as well.
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #75 on: October 28, 2021, 01:19:19 PM »

I should add this.

The stock airspeed code scales such that for speeds between 0 and 41.15554, the needle moves between 0 and 30 degrees. For speeds between 41.15554 and 246.9333, the needle sweeps from 30 to 340 degrees.

Note that the 246.9333 value is a hard limit, I believe, meaning the needle will stop there at 340 degrees on the dial, even if the speed exceeds this. I'm assuming the units are m/s, which when doubled roughly corresponds to kt. Meaning the limit on needle response would be roughly 500 kt.

I elected to have the airspeed output in km/h, scaled such that 0-100 km/h occupies the range 0-47 degrees, and 100-750 km/h occupies the range 47-544 degrees. Suitable for the VSI gauge I use. (I measured the angles on the gauge texture, and found a nice linearity from 100 km/h and up.)
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Fulmen

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #76 on: October 28, 2021, 03:14:39 PM »

I should add this.

The stock airspeed code scales such that for speeds between 0 and 41.15554, the needle moves between 0 and 30 degrees. For speeds between 41.15554 and 246.9333, the needle sweeps from 30 to 340 degrees.

Note that the 246.9333 value is a hard limit, I believe, meaning the needle will stop there at 340 degrees on the dial, even if the speed exceeds this. I'm assuming the units are m/s, which when doubled roughly corresponds to kt. Meaning the limit on needle response would be roughly 500 kt.

I elected to have the airspeed output in km/h, scaled such that 0-100 km/h occupies the range 0-47 degrees, and 100-750 km/h occupies the range 47-544 degrees. Suitable for the VSI gauge I use. (I measured the angles on the gauge texture, and found a nice linearity from 100 km/h and up.)

The game actually uses the wrong airspeed indicator on the B-239.

It uses a 0-500 mph 1403-4J-D1 Type D-6 Pioneer:



https://aeroantique.com/products/airspeed-indicator-500-mph-bendix-1403-4j-d1-type-d-6?variant=20245156560985

What it should use is a 0-800 kmh Pioneer (the exact model is not mentioned in the papers and literature I have):

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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #77 on: October 28, 2021, 03:33:50 PM »

That's why I supply a metric ASI with my wee mod, and the code driving the needle scaled to suit.
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #78 on: October 29, 2021, 06:38:34 AM »

I've been re-building the instrument panel. The existing one is a single surface, which due to the transparency layer for the instrument hole cut-outs, allows the Sun to be seen through those parts of it not having 'solid' polygons behind.

An excellent example of this problem on a more egregious level is seen for the Bf-109. Almost the whole panel, and the cockpit framing bars, permit the Sun to shine through. Any polygons which are to provide opacity against this occurring MUST NOT have an alpha channel.

And so my panel has such an opaque plate, and the stamped 'beauty' panel cover is its own surface floating 6mm in front of the opaque plate. The gauges and needles will reside between, appearing through the transparency cut-out holes in the 'beauty' panel.

The entire canopy is to be built anew. As is the after cabin, with currently missing framing arches put in, and the 'roll bar quadrupod' (don't know what else to call it  ;)  ) and armor plate. For instance, the peak of the quadrupod in reality leans forward, where currently it is simply perpendicular to 'cockpit level'.

For the gauges, I might add dynamically lighted glass covers in the way I did so for the P-39. In short, modelers tend to let the design software orient the surface normals perpendicular to vertices and surfaces. In certain circumstances this is not appropriate. In the case of glass reflection intensity, it is strongest when whatever is reflected is most strongly illuminated. What do gauge glass covers reflect? When the look angle toward these covers is generally downward, they reflect stuff inside the 'pit, not often the outside world. And when is the 'pit interior most brightly lit? When the Sun shines in from above, and perhaps a bit forward. Therefore the usual perpendicular surface normals, directed rearward, are not valid. Here the normals should be directed toward that place where the Sun shines from so as to most brightly light the cockpit; up and a bit forward.

My dynamically lit collimating lens reflection present in a number of my other 'pit mods (and will be added here), takes the same approach. The texture faces the pilot, but the surface normals point straight up. More accurately, from the 4 corners of the texture the normals fan out, so as to make the reflection intensity dynamically vary across its face as the illumination source (Sun) direction varies.

My P-39 cockpit illustrates these glass related effects nicely.

I might continue to post development updates here. But to be sure, this new mod will be given its own thread, because it's a make-over on a whole new level compared to the quick 'n dirty llittle tweaks performed in this current, interim iteration.
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #79 on: October 29, 2021, 11:01:10 AM »

Assuming the overall panel dimensions are correct, from a proportionality standpoint the gauge faces are currently a bit undersized. (I haven't yet got round to determining the actual gauge texture sizing from the panel mesh.) Particularly so for the artificial horizon, which is roughly 120% larger than the bulk of the others. Specifically, the circular opening through which the cylindrical drum and horizon bar are seen is about as large as the full window of the most common standard gage face, with the surrounding annulus upon which are painted the fiducial ticks and numbers extending the total face diameter. Having the Sperry artificial horizon's face the same size as that for, e.g., the ASI, turn 'n bank and VSI just looks so wrong.
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Vampire_pilot

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #80 on: November 23, 2021, 11:57:29 PM »

Hey WxTech,

are you still working on this one?
How "finished" is that last download version?
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #81 on: November 24, 2021, 02:06:27 AM »

Still lots of work to do to achieve a satisfying conclusion. It could be a couple weeks or so, depending on how resistant I am against various distractions. I'm on the cusp of re-issuing my effects pack, after having touched up hundreds of files.

The  current state of the B-239 is certainly well shy of my ultimate aims. I want the kind of upgrade I obtained for my Wildcat 'pit. But as it is right now is something of a wee boost.  ;)  Do I take it that a BAT update is in the offing?
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Vampire_pilot

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #82 on: November 24, 2021, 02:25:25 AM »

yeah, let's say I am looking around ;)
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PO_MAK_249RIP

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Re: WxTech's F2A-1 (B-239) Cockpit Tweaks
« Reply #83 on: November 26, 2021, 04:33:14 AM »

A lovely Xmas present in store I suspect?? LOL
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