Brand New N-2A sight for the F4F-3 and P-40B/C, by WxTech
Get it here...
https://www.mediafire.com/download/9xm4cq34c4jttdh/00_N-2A_Gunsight_F4F-3_P-40B-C.7z
The original gun sights in the F4F-3 and P-40B/C are horrible representations of a 'sorta-kinda N-2'. The two-level boxy construction looks more like some primitive, Victorian era lantern slide projector. Steam punk, anyone? This cries out for fixing!
Here's my attempt at an N-2A, based on photographs. It would have been so nice to have an actual unit in hand. Dimensions are based on a stated collimator aperture of 2-1/8", or about 54mm. (It could well be the case that the clear aperture is 2", or 50mm, the 1/16" outer annulus being covered by a retaining ring.) I measured various photographs in order to build up a model of reasonable proportions and dimensions. But I would not be surprised to learn that there are errors in some dimensions of 5% or thereabouts. In any even, this is vastly superior then the original thing, I think.
I was tempted to incorporate numerous rounded corners and edges, but in the end elected to keep things simple. For one thing, a smaller polygon count is less demanding. But more importantly, this model was built without aid of 3-D software; I used Excel and Notepad. This is very much a laborious, hand-made job, the two versions together having required well over 70 hours to complete (and fuss over, in my detail-oriented fastidiousness
).
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At least two variations of the reflector plate housing (sight head) were produced for the N-2A sight. I include the tall one for the F4F-3 and the fairly similar but shorter one for the P-40 (whose cockpit is more cramped for vertical space). Note that these heads constrined the reflector plate at the top and bottom edges by use of horizontal rods held in place with screws. These rods are seen in silhouette, in contact with the upper and lower edges of the reflector glass.
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The actual sight heads had protective glass covers at the very tops of the cylindrical portion. The collimating lens within the lower main body is some distance below this cover glass (the latter being much easier to clean than the former, hence its use.) I represent this with a texture, giving the illusion of peering down the tube when your POV is near to the sight and at something of a look-down angle. For POVs which are far to the left or right, the prespective is incorrect; I point this out only to explain why more radical viewpoints will result in an odd appearance.
For these cover glasses (and thyeir surrounding retaining rings) I created additional textures to overlay which give *very* strong specular reflections. With the Sun at the right angle you'll almost feel blinded by the glare!
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The original sight heads in the game employ a U-shaped texture on the near side, through which is seen the reflector plate/reticle. This texture is merely one side (the left half) of the object, and are drawn as mirrored, in contact. This can result in a flickering vertical line at their joining, right up the middle of the sight picture, becoming visible at wider FOVs. Distracting! And a similar flickering line can appear at the texture top edges, too.
The new tall sight head which has such a U-shaped aperture (actually two, now, at front and rear) is built as a 3-D object, with line segments every 15 degrees over the 180 degree arcs. Not *just* a texture anymore, and so no more flickering ghost edges!
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I added an extra layer in the Sight_Base.mat files, which overlays an additional texture to supply an extra specular reflection component to the shiny bits such as screw heads and the manufacturer's I.D. plate attached to the sight base.
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The sight in the Wilcat has been moved rearward nearly 90mm compared to the original, so that it not (like the original) be partly merged into the cowling hood and dash. The sight was also raised 10mm, to better match a photo of this sight installed in a Wildcat. This was effected by altering the relevant locating dimensions in the hier.him file, which is included. I reproduce below the (undamaged) gun sight section from hier.him...
[Pricel_D0]
Mesh Pricel_D0
Parent _ROOT_
Attaching 0 -1 0 0 0 1 -1 0 0 -0.65 -0.0005 1.2299 // F L U
The last three numbers (in meters) when increased move the sight forward, left, and up, respectively (hence my comment, "// F L U"). The values were originally
-0.56127 0.0 1.2199
As can be seen, The sight was moved rearward from -0.56127m to -0.65m, which is 88.73mm, upward from 1.2199m to 1.2299m, or 10mm, and rightward by 0.5mm. If you wish to change this, edit with any text editor.
In similar vein, the P-40 sights were moved farther rearward in order that the sight head not merge into the armored glass windscreen.
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Mounting brackets have been created, so that the sights not just float detached in the air. This will be more appreciated by 6DOF-equipped players. These brackets are not accurate recreations, being more suggestive than realistic.
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I also include for each plane a Body.msh file, because the viewpoint hooks are located here. This file is named "-Body.msh" so that it not be read by the game. If you would like to experiment with with the POV (point of view) settings, change the file name by simply removing the preceding '-' character. Note that after doing this you must exit and restart the game so that the 'new' file is recognized.
The movements of the POV are effected in the same way as is the gun sight, as outlined above. But here the order and sense of movement are different; the files are annotated accordingly within.
If you already have a POV mod, or some other mod which uses the plane's Body.msh, do not enable this one. (But you can open it with any text editor to see my own POV settings.)
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Circular reticle masks were made, and dimensioned so that they just barely fit within their reflector plates. While these masks are a bit larger than the collimating lens apertures, they are not egregiously so. The main thing is that the corners of the square reflectors are masked off, where the reticle could not possibly be seen.
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I include my 50 mil reticle. The Reticle.mat file has the line:
tfMipMap 0 //1
(The "//1" is a remark, not read by the game, and simply indicates the other possible setting.)
When tfMipMap is set to zero (as here), the texture is drawn as always 'crisp'. The disadvantage of this arises at large FOV settings, where the reticle appears quite small and is hence undersampled. This results in a 'shimmery', pixellated appearance.
When tfMipMap is set to 1, the texture is resampled by factors of two as it's drawn over a range of size on screen while changing the FOV. This prevents 'shimmer' when undersampled. But it results in a blurring when drawn at a scale between the next lower and next higher sample scalings (particularly just before that last bit of zoom suddenly transitions to the next higher sample.)
The ZZ_RETICLE.msh file controls the size of the reticle.tga as a physical object, the distance out in front of the plane being set in Hier.him. It's required with my reticle. If you disable my reticle, ZZ_RETICLE.msh should be disabled as well, else your default reticle will likely be drawn at the wrong size.
Don't like my reticle? Alter, disable or delete:
Reticle.mat
Reticle.tga
ZZ_RETICLE.msh
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I include my canopy glass treatment. Don't like? For the F4F-3, alter, disable or delete:
GlassCanopy.mat
GlassCanopy.tga
For the P-40, alter, disable or delete:
Glass.mat
Glass.tga
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For the P-40 I include my armored glass treatment. Don't like? Alter, disable or delete:
zGunGlass_II.mat
Glass_Pricel.tga
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I hereby give permission to any and all to use this work, in whole or in part, in any other work without restriction.
WxTech
March 7, 2015
Get it here...
https://www.mediafire.com/download/9xm4cq34c4jttdh/00_N-2A_Gunsight_F4F-3_P-40B-C.7z
Author
Topic: N-2A gunsight for the F4F-3 and P-40B/C (Read 11100 times)
