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Author Topic: Have started on a new PBP-1 gun sight. Mod released.  (Read 6226 times)

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WxTech

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Have started on a new PBP-1 gun sight. Mod released.
« on: February 07, 2016, 03:36:02 AM »

[Mod released April 4, 2016.]

Get it here:

https://www.mediafire.com/download/1s06af5s8o318sb/00_PBP-1_gunsight_RU-fighters.7z



The stock early RU sights for birds like the Mig-3, LaGG-3, Yak-1, etc., have long bugged me. And so I've just started to build a better PBP-1.

The first will be for fighters. Then I plan to add the second, horizontal axis adjustment as found on the sight version installed in, e.g., the early IL-2. This will address a good chunk of my stock planes as of 4.08.

I might have some love to spread around in a couple weeks or so... (I won't boldly issue the "Two weeks, be sure!" kind of promise. ;)


State of development as of 17 Mar, 2016. Essentially finished for most RU fighters. A few more pics in a later post...

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SAS~Malone

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2016, 05:30:57 AM »

well, in the IL-2 world, 2 weeks can mean any length of time you require... ;)
looking forward to these improvements! :D
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WxTech

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2016, 11:00:38 PM »

The polygon vertices are all done, and the faces are mostly created. Next comes the .tga files and mapping the materials to the polys.

I still do the modeling using excel (or rather, the Open Office equivalent.)

This sight is going to look far better than the old ones. Even the currently better PBP-1b in later planes like the La-7 will be jealous. ;)
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henkypenky

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2016, 04:48:21 AM »

Code: [Select]
This sight is going to look far better than the old ones.Well, we didn't expect anything else.. :) :)
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Fresco23

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2016, 11:15:15 AM »

Epic! Can't wait!!
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WxTech

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2016, 02:29:18 AM »

I just made a quick test for the LaGG-3, using some simple, plain, 'dummy' textures, just to verify that things were going according to plan. Looking really good! I found a few polygons not showing, due to having defined them in the wrong order, which makes them visible for the opposite side (and hence invisible from the normal direction.) Easy fixes.

Now I have to construct the .tga files. (The collimator lens is already in hand, it being taken from any one of a number of previous sight projects.) There are a total of over 670 polygons to paint, making up more than 3 dozen discrete surface groupings (e.g., outside of collimator cell, inside of collimator cell, top surface of collimator cell, lens surface, top surface of main body. Right surface of main body, right side cover plate face, right side cover plate edge, etc., etc.).

Like some other sights, this will be something like a 70 hour job...

I was surprised to see the original iron sights still showing, which of course means another mesh than the sight mesh (pricel.msh) is used to make these. Another thing to have to track down and eliminate from another mesh.

I really wish the developers had originally dedicated just ONE mesh to the sights. With some planes' sights having parts scattered among two or three meshes, this makes for a far greater potential for conflicts among mods which involve altering these meshes for other cockpit elements. Maddening.
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WxTech

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2016, 12:40:06 AM »

I forgot to add...

As an indication of the level of detail, the knob which turns the dial for adjusting the reflector plate tilt (such action not modeled in the game) has been made like the real thing. It has a thin wall surrounding a deep, 'cup'-like hollow, with the attachment screw well down inside.

And I've constructed the surface normals so that the lighting on the interior wall is not like the exterior surface, which would be the case if the normals were naively made perpendicular to each polygon. Instead, the surface normals point mostly rearward, angled 75 degrees from perpendicular. This better emulates the lighting as would occur when the Sun shines into the opening more from behind. Otherwise the interior wall would be brightest (not accounting for specular reflectance) when the direction of light is coming *through* the wall, directly from the side.

Incidentally, I first tried this kind of surface normal scheme with the bullet casing chutes feeding the MGs in the Zero. Formerly the lighting would be appropriate for a plane having a completely transparent nose, which of course is not the case. Now these items light up much more like they really would, when the Sun shines into that forward compartmenundert from a more rearward direction.
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WxTech

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Re: Have started work on a new PBP-1 gun sight
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2016, 08:50:56 PM »

To show the current state of progress... Almost no texturing in detail has been applied yet; just a solid color on most parts, to verify all polys and lighting are good.

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henkypenky

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Re: Have started on a new PBP-1 gun sight, w/ progress screenie
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2016, 12:12:27 PM »

Great!
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WxTech

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Re: Have started on a new PBP-1 gun sight, w/ progress screenie
« Reply #9 on: March 05, 2016, 04:58:31 PM »

Progress is progressing. ;)

I've not yet got around to creating the .tga with which to texture the sight, although I've been gathering and working on individual bits to collate into the final image.

I've got the sight integrated into several stock planes thus far, such as Mig-3s, LaGG-3s and I-185s. In some cases this required to cut the stock sight out of an existing mesh, so that I could incorporate my sight as a 'standalone' element in hier.him. This makes it so easy to move the thing, or replace it if desired. In case I haven't been vociferous enough on this score, I really dislike it when a sight is mixed into a larger mesh, with its bits scattered about helter skelter. It's a chore excising it and then renumbering a pile of face group entries.

Another byproduct is the filling of gaps in the I-185's sight mount platform (the cylindrical base upon which the sight sits.) The new crash pad's smaller size more readily reveals the missing polys, which even before were seen with 6DOF. And the power cable running from the panel has been altered in its path somewhat more appropriately to the rear of the sight.

That last plane has such a good looking stock leather crash pad model and texture that I adapted it. I rescaled it to a more cubic shape and of the correct size, and added a few new polys to fill in big gaps at the sides, as well as tweak the top forward portion where gaps were present. It looks far better than the simple thing I started to cook up and which you see in the screen grab above..

This one sight mod will impact a lot of planes, its having been used probably well into 1943, or even '44. It's too bad a different different version (having azimuth adjustment via a screw feed) was used in attack planes like the Il-2 and Peshka, for this sight I'm showing here could otherwise have been adapted to them as well. But I will be making up a correct sight, having that horizontal adjustment with vernier.
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WxTech

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Re: Have started on a new PBP-1 gun sight, w/ progress screenie
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2016, 10:02:11 AM »

The model is all textured, and I'm putting the finishing touches to the details. I haven't decided whether to release the mod in one go for all planes using this sight, or to put out a few planes to start. I'll see how I feel after looking at the remaining planes which I haven't examined, to see if there's any time-consuming massaging of existing meshes to attend to.

Looking good!
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Whiskey_Sierra_972

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Re: Have started on a new PBP-1 gun sight, w/ progress screenie
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2016, 10:18:03 AM »

Great news mate!
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