Board index FlightGear Development Aircraft

F16 on Tanker?!

Questions and discussion about creating aircraft. Flight dynamics, 3d models, cockpits, systems, animation, textures.

F16 on Tanker?!

Postby RobAndrew » Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:52 pm

Hello everybody!

Thought today i'd do a bit of Aerial refuelling practice! So, I put all the necessary data in and off I go! 20 minutes later I meet up with said tanker - With an F16 attached to the boom! Does this guy not know this tanker is reserved for me?! :lol:
It was a rather startling sight! Even more startling when I see it do a 360 on the spot, doing 480knts! The Demo I am referring to is the "Refuelling Demo" Neither 1 or 2. Is this meant to be the way it is, or has someone just forgotten to take this probe hog outta the skies? :P
I will say this was Offline, so there isn't any chance of air trolling at all!
RobAndrew
 
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:59 pm
Callsign: G-RAND
Version: 2020.
OS: Windows 10

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby Necolatis » Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:54 pm

I don't think those old scenarios has been updated in a long time.
"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo."
— Al Gore
User avatar
Necolatis
 
Posts: 2233
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:40 am
Location: EKOD
Callsign: Leto
IRC name: Neco
Version: 2020.3.19
OS: Windows 10

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby RobAndrew » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:01 am

It certainly doesn't seem like it, The KC135 had no Livery! I guess there isn't any chance of it changing any time soon!
RobAndrew
 
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:59 pm
Callsign: G-RAND
Version: 2020.
OS: Windows 10

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby Thorsten » Sun Sep 02, 2018 7:08 am

You should be able to just instance a tanker at your current location from the menu - that's actually the way it's intended these days.

If you're interested in the AI-scenario, you can easily change what models it loads and if you look into the model xml, you can probably also clear the other F-16 off (I'm a bit surprised, but I haven't done AAR in years either...) and put in a more detailed 3d model of the tanker if you have one.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby vanosten » Sun Sep 02, 2018 8:12 am

I just tested with the newest version of FlightGear. You do not need to enable any specific AI scenario. Just pick the AI > Tanker Controls Some of the wiki-page http://wiki.flightgear.org/Howto:Aerial_refueling seems to be out of date, or at least confusing.

The thing to note is that when you request a tanker, the time the dialog specifies the details is short. So if your memory is limited, then keep the flight level and TACAN code in memory. The rest you can get again by asking for the position.
Maintaining osm2city. Contributing with ground attack stuff to the OPRF FlightGear military-simulation community.
vanosten
 
Posts: 540
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:38 pm
Location: Denmark - but I am Swiss
Pronouns: he/his
Callsign: HB-VANO
Version: latest
OS: Win 10 and Ubuntu

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby RobAndrew » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:03 pm

Thanks for the replies,

I have indeed taken off the F16 now. The issue I get when calling a Tanker is that its altitude is always so low compared to mine. I usually fly up at around 35,000 ft or so. When I call a tanker, It spawns down much lower, usually at around 13,000ft. I then have to spawn multiple tankers to find one that is anywhere near my level! I would rather stay at my current altitude for refuelling. This is why I reverted to using manual input of its location and heading, through the menu, when pressing "/"
Interesting how you mention changing the Model...I would like to do this and am currently in the process of trying it out. I'm guessing its just a case of changing the location of model in the <Model> tags, in the Demo xml, to the location of the model I would like to change it to? also, does the new Model I would like to change it to have to have a boom/drogue or not? Is this somewhere else in the coding of the Demo's?

Thank you for your responses!
RobAndrew
 
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:59 pm
Callsign: G-RAND
Version: 2020.
OS: Windows 10

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby Thorsten » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:26 pm

I usually fly up at around 35,000 ft or so. When I call a tanker, It spawns down much lower, usually at around 13,000ft.


Poke around in $FGData/Nasal/tanker.nas and you ought to be able to modify the script to always spawn at 30.000 (or whatever altitude you like) - that's probably easier than rigging AI scenarios for you.

I'm guessing its just a case of changing the location of model in the <Model> tags, in the Demo xml, to the location of the model I would like to change it to? also, does the new Model I would like to change it to have to have a boom/drogue or not?


The AI scenario references a model file (that's an xml thingy) - that in turn references a 3d file (that's a path to a *.ac file). Boom location in the 3d file is pretty much irrelevant for what happens in-sim, I believe the offset of that is defined somehow in the AI scenario file (they're made to coincide in practice, but they don't really have to for this to work - refueling just checks your proximity to a certain moving reference location).

If you change the path to the *.ac file, you get a different 3d model loaded for the tanker. Basically the xml wrapper of a model contains stuff you do with the 3d model (animations, liveries,...), the *.ac file is the mesh itself. The xml file however needs to refer to objects which exist in the mesh, otherwise it ain't working.

So dependent on what you want, you may just get away with a text editor hacking the xml wrapper or you may need a 3d editing tool (blender, ac3d, sketchup) to change the mesh itself.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: F16 on Tanker?!

Postby RobAndrew » Sun Sep 02, 2018 1:57 pm

Brilliant! Thanks very much Thorsten! I'll give it all a go and see what happens! i'll report back the results I get.
RobAndrew
 
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:59 pm
Callsign: G-RAND
Version: 2020.
OS: Windows 10


Return to Aircraft

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: EC-ISR, wlbragg and 13 guests