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MRTT tanker liveries

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MRTT tanker liveries

Postby RobAndrew » Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:05 am

Hello everyone!

I have recently been doing some in flight refueling on the sim, and wondered why there was no livery for the A330 (with the two hoses and baskets) Instead, it's just a metallic grey. I've found a livery for it on the www, and was hoping on implementing it to the aircraft. How would I go about doing this? I'm not exactly sure where to put it!

Thanks
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby J Maverick 16 » Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:16 am

Hi Rob,
there a few MRTT versions in FG, some older and incomplete. Which one are you using?
Regards, Mav
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby RobAndrew » Thu Jul 26, 2018 5:50 pm

Hi Mav,

Thanks for the reply. I have in fact decided to change my opinion on the matter, as i've installed the IL78 tanker instead. I'm hoping to change the IL78 model to an A330 with the livery that I found. Not sure how to do this yet, but i'm sure i'll figure it out!

P.S. I had no idea there was more than one A330 Tanker livery! I'm on 2017.3.1 Flightgear. The tanker just came with the sim. Not sure which version it would be?
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby J Maverick 16 » Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:48 pm

RobAndrew wrote in Thu Jul 26, 2018 5:50 pm:P.S. I had no idea there was more than one A330 Tanker livery!

More than a livery it's a whole different model! I highly suggest you to try this accurate A330 which also contains two good tankers: the RAF Voyager KC and the RAAF KC-30 (both MRTT versions).
Remember once you downloaded the model to rename it to "IDG-A33X" before putting it into your Aircraft folder. Enjoy!
Kind regards, Mav
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby Avionyx » Fri Jul 27, 2018 8:13 am

Think you forgot the link Mav ;)
https://github.com/it0uchpods/IDG-A33X

I agree it's an excellent simulation of the MRTT (and the 330 in general of course)
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby J Maverick 16 » Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:26 am

No way, I even copied it but forgot to paste it.
Shame on me :oops: .
Well, that one's the download place for it Rob.
Regards, Mav
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby RobAndrew » Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:08 pm

Haha! I was about to mention it, but someone beat me to it! :wink: clearly this forum is more active than I thought! I will add now though, I was hoping on using this as an AI tanker. Probably should've made it clearer from the start! Can what has been linked to me, be used as an AI?

My turn to be embarrassed now :oops:
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby RobAndrew » Mon Aug 06, 2018 7:52 pm

Okay, so I just found out that its possible to edit the AI Tanker Scenarios to put said scenarios in whichever position you want. Which is great. HOWEVER, is it possible to edit an AI tanker so its holding both a boom AND a hose and basket? just to confuse matters even more :lol: Would this even be a realistic scenario? Has it been done before?
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby RobAndrew » Mon Sep 03, 2018 5:58 pm

So I'm really trying to figure out how to change liveries of the AI Air refilling scenario A330 MRTT. At the moment it is still a Dark grey with a sheen. I've looked through the XML and have tried to implement a livery from the A330 Package linked earlier in this topic. The problem is, it just won't show! Ive tried linking it Via the A330 MRTT xml. with:

Code: Select all
<property-base>sim/model/livery</property-base>
    <texture-prop>texture</texture-prop>
    <texture>Models/Geometry/A330-MRTT/Models/effects/ZZ331.xml</texture>


and the second <Texture> tab is the correct location of the ZZ331.xml. of the livery, which then links to the ZZ331.png. in the same folder. Have I put the xml of the livery in the Wrong folder? Maybe it should just be inside models and alongside effects?

In the A330 MRTT xml. There is also a second paragraph just underneath this (That I copied from) Which I believe gives the Aircraft a glossy cover, which is why I copied it. which looks like this:

Code: Select all
<property-base>sim/model/livery</property-base>
    <texture-prop>texture</texture-prop>
    <texture>texture-1.png</texture>


Can anyone help me on this?
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby J Maverick 16 » Mon Sep 03, 2018 7:24 pm

Taking a guess, probably the AI MRTT isn't textured at all so whatever texture you want it to wear it'll never show up unless you UV map it or change 3D model.
Kind regards, Mav
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Re: MRTT TANKER LIVERIES

Postby RobAndrew » Thu Sep 13, 2018 12:20 am

So back on the subject.... If you have 5 minutes, read on. If not, Come back when you do! :lol:

Ive tried various methods of getting my chosen livery on to the aircraft. Here are the results so far:

I've tried to go through A different A330 Model, a playable one so to speak and place it in AI/Aircraft, then link the scenario to the Main xml. The A330 player Model doesn't seem to load the Livery. I'm not sure how to implement the livery I want, as when flying the aircraft, there is an option of different liveries you can choose from (I saw something to do with this in the set.xml I believe? to scared to touch it though!). However I just want one default. Maybe if I found out how to make it default, It would load successfully?
The A330 Player model also doesn't show the Engines. Again, I believe this is an option for the player to choose between Pratt and Whitney or Rolls Royce. Correct me if i'm wrong.
I have tried to set up an AI A330 Via the AI/Aircraft folder, using the same file patterns as the current AI aircraft. Limited success. If I create my own A330 folder and put the files/folders in the right places (including the ac. file from the same model as above) It won't load the Livery. However, If I use the A332 folder and make the necessary XML's and folders in that for my livery, I end up with this:

Image

Now i'm guessing that either the livery doesn't fit the model (A330 Livery on an A332) or the ac. is slightly out of sync? I would also need to implement the Hoses to the wings. but i'm sure thats easy enough....right? :(

I feel it would really help if I could get access to the ac. files. When I open them at the moment all I see is lots and LOTS of numbers (With file editor). Is there a program I can use to see what i'm meant to see?
I'm really trying with this, and learning a lot as I go. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks
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Re: MRTT tanker liveries

Postby Thorsten » Thu Sep 13, 2018 6:28 pm

I guess you need to go through a crash course in 3d modeling (YouTube should have a gazillion of tutorials on that).

What you need to do is to map a texture image (the livery) to a mesh (the 3d model of the aircraft) - and that mapping can be near-anything, so you can not just take a similar plane. The mapping is done in 3d editing software, the native for *.ac is ac3d (which costs like 25$ or so), but there are others which can open it, blender is probably the most-widely used.

You need to understand this process (called 'uv mapping') before you will have successes...
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Re: MRTT tanker liveries

Postby RobAndrew » Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:00 pm

Thank you very much! I thought Blender was only used for scenery graphics but clearly that is otherwise! Is there anything that ac3D has that blender doesn't?
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Re: MRTT tanker liveries

Postby legoboyvdlp » Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:55 pm

FlightGear uses the .ac format, while it cannot use the .blend format. You'll have to use a converting tool in Blender. Blender has a very steep learning curve but is one of the top free (!) 3D softwares - if you want to use AC3D you'll have to pay for a license.

If you'd like to join a Discord server dedicated to 3D modelling and texturing let me know and I'll get you a link ;)
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Re: MRTT tanker liveries

Postby RobAndrew » Sun Sep 16, 2018 12:47 am

Okay so a quick update,

I've managed to download Blender, watch a few videos of it and work out how to use it over the past few days. Getting the Livery on to the model was tricky (Steep learning curve and all), even trickier getting it to show in sim! But alas, it was done. And the World rejoiced. :lol: ...

However, now I have a few other issues, that I was hoping someone could help with? For some reason, the Sim likes to show the aircraft with a double set of wings, one just under the other. both covered in the Livery. Anyone know what is going on there? It does not show in Blender.
Also the Landing gear seems stuck in the Down position. I'm guessing somewhere in either the "XXXX-Set", "XXXX-Main" or "XXXX"-xml. this is set to "true" I just can't find it. I did see this in other AI scripts This though...

Code: Select all
<animation>
      <type>select</type>
      <object-name>gear</object-name>
      <condition>
         <less-than>
            <property>velocities/true-airspeed-kt</property>
            <value>155</value>
         </less-than>
      </condition>
   </animation>


I've tried putting this in to said xml's but to no effect.
I'm so glad i've got this far and i'm not to far away from getting the right result!

Thank you everyone for all the support! Hopefully I can give such support to others someday!
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