Very good stuff JU_88 :up::yeah::sunny::rock:

Thank you for your head-up, divingbluefrog :salute:

I have just halved diffuse color luminosity. This resulted in no washed out colours but it also made the problem with light reflections lesser evident. Moreover, I had to move elevator and rudder coordinates so to match their pivot point with x and y axes. Before doing it, they were rotating around a point located at the center of the plane :yep:

I am currently working on crew meshes (moving them from the main model to a separate file). When done, I will send you the files I have got ready, and I will include a single mission for you to have a closer look at your plane :up:

Great models!

B-25 update:

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/9156/b25j1.jpg

Imo, textures look much better now.

Sounds, as well as aircraft physics need for a rewamp: right now our bomber looks as agile as an F-16 jet fighter, and the reverb of its engines is not up to par with the reputation of very noisy aircaft that the Mitchell gained during its service.

As you can see, the dorsal turret is visually trained and elevated, though it didn't get any ammo yet and there was no enemy aircraft where it seems to be aimed. :hmmm:

Finally, for some reason crew and external armament assigned in the eqp file don't show up in game (need to figure out why), but as soon as it spotted my sub, the aircraft started turning in circles as if it wanted to attack us.

To be continued... :cool:

yet another view of the plane
 

:yeah:

B-25 Mitchell pictorial update
 

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/3862/b25j3.jpg

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1082/b25j4.jpg

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/6415/b25j5.jpg

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9184/b25j6.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6193/b25j7.jpg

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8628/b25j8.jpg

Wow :yeah: just wow :)

Some notes on the below screenies:

Equipments: As you can see, I have solved the problem with aircrew and armament loadouts not being loaded. I had to simplificate the eqp file a bit. It is possible that the game engine can't handle more than a given number of equipments and/or that only two armament loadouts (besides the basic configuration) can be set. On a side note, if you look closely at some of the screenies, you will notice that I gave the B-25 an African American crew (see Tuskegee Airmen). This mod is pro-war, but against racial discrimination :D

Physics and AI: I am not an aircraft expert, but it seems to me that for a medium bomber the handling of our B-25 is a bit too good. It dives, steer and roll way too easily, as if it was a fighter. A nice detail that you can appreciate from some of my pictures, is that it moves rudders and diveplanes according to its maneuvers. In my test mission, the planes drops its 3x500kg bombs at once, and with an acceptable accuracy (aginst my stationary sub), but it takes 2 or 3 attack dives for it to release its explosive load.

Light reflection: under some light incidence angles, outer wings and back fuselage look still a bit darker than main fuselage, but you must be very close to notice it.

Finally, though attacking our sub, being displayed on the TAI map as an enemy unit, and being recognized as a target by our gunners, during my tests (always using the same single mission) the watchcrew regularly omits to announce "aircraft spotted". I will investigate on why this is happening, but I guess it depends on how the mission is set rather than on a flaw affecting the unit. :hmm2:

Hi Gap - not sure how you set up your mission.
You could try making sure that the plane starts well out os sight of your watch crew or even outside the 30km draw radius of units:hmmm:

Hi Trevally, :salute:

I have just run another set of tests and I have noticed that when the plane is in sight from the beginning of the mission, it isn't reported at first. Nonetleless diving and emerging shortly after, triggers the "aircraft spotted" message. :up:

Since we are at it, do you have any suggestion about equipment loadouts? Seeing that ME displays any number of defined loadouts, I had set five of them, but equipments didn't show up. Now I have reduced their number to three, and they work correctly. I am going to add one more and see what happens... :hmmm:

Moreover, I seem to remember that something was wrong with airborned DC and that TDW had to set up some dummy DCs in IRAI. The problem with them is that they are... dummy: they are not visually displayed until they are dropped. During my tests, the B-25 dropped its stock depth charges when I was on surface, but seemed a bit reluctant to do it while I was submerged at periscope depth. Can someone confirm that this is the problem with them? :)

Great Job Gap, sorry ive not replied to your email yet - as I still havent had a chance to test it out :(, but it look superb from your screen shots, good job with the turret, elevators and rudders - all really nice touches :)
Just let me know when and if you want the C and G versions as discussed.

Hi JU, still the same problem? :hmmm:

Currently, only the dorsal an the tail turrets have (unfinished) gun controllers. I need still to add them to the remaining guns. It involves a lot of reserch, as I am trying to give them realistic traverse/elevation, sound, ammo types and loadouts, etc. Moreover, I need to set appropriate fire restrictions, in order to prevent dorsal and waist guns from firing at wings and propellers... :yep:

Not yet, but there are two favours that I need from you:

1. about the wrong reflections, I have an idea on why possibly they are happening: I had to rework some model parts, for splitting meshes or for centering moving parts around their pivot point. I did it using wings3d, but I am under the impression that mesh normal get messed up. If l send you a list of the modified parts, with all the modifications done, could you redo them using your program?
   
   
2. look at the following link:
   
   http://pbjmitchell.com/pbj1c
   
   At around mid page ('Bomb Bay Configurations' section), it details all the possible bomb loadout configurations used on PBJ-1 Mitchells in US Marine Corps service. Further details and correct designations of US WWII bombs are found at this other link:
   
   http://www.303rdbg.com/bombs.html
   
   I am now prepairing a list of all the bombs possibly used on the Mitchell, with specifications, sizes, and blueprints/pictures when available. It would be nice modelling them in game, as they could be used also with other aircraft, and currently we only have in game models for 3 bombs (500, 250 and 100 kg), 1 depth bomb type and 1 air torpedo. SH3/4 models that -with some modifications- I could also use for the new bombs, are too poor, and SH5 ones are in a format that cannot be read by TDW's editor yet, so I cannot duplicate/modify them. What do you think? Could you create 3d models of the new boms? Indeed, we don't need for especially detailed or accurate models. Just something which vaguely resembles them, at least in sizes and general shape :yep:

@ Gap, sure, no problems to both :up:

Okay, I am now prepairing both my lists, and I will send them your way as soon as possible.

Thanks :D :salute: