My first couple of models for FMS

[clawson]

Hi,

I've just started to use Metasequoia to build models for FMS and I think both pieces of software are quite extraordinary! Extremely professional and at a price that can't be beaten.

The first plane I have tried to model is the Vicker's Vimy World War I bomber - it's also the plane made famous by Alcock & Brown when they flew it across the Atlantic. I drew the model in Metasequioa because I'm thinking of scratch building an electric powered model for twin SP280s and wanted to have a 3D model I could look at to see how it all goes together.

The way MQO lets you load in side, top and front 3-views and then "build" the model on top means it only took a few hours to come up with the initial model.

This is a picture of what it looks like:



After that I then had a go at building a model of my favourite aircraft of all time - the 1903 Wright Flyer. I tried to draw in all the ribs and everything but this lead to a model that's a bit to highly detailed for my PC:



So then I re-did the wings but used 2 sided polygons with less vertices for all the ribs and the perfomance is much improved:



I left both "wrighthi" and "wrightlo" in the archive so you can pick which one works best for you.

You can download the or the from my web site. Enjoy! And let me know what you think. I've included the .MQO files for anyone else who builds models so you can edit them.

BTW, I've added some rigging wires to the Vimy in the above download and, at home, I have modified versions of the Wright models with rigging added but haven't uploaded them to my site yet.

Cliff

PS All three files use the slowfly.wav and have a .par based on the "litemoth.par" (the FMS model of the GWS Tiger Moth) I don't think these .PAR values are quite right as I doubt whether even the Dare 40" span R/C model that I'm currently building will really be able to loop!

[ThermalQuest]

Cliff

The models look and work good. Good job! They do seem to slow down my frame rate though. Don't know why...

Travis

[clawson]

Thermalquest,

Thanks, the problem with the Wright Flyer, especially the "hi" version is that has about 3,500 faces in the model and FMS will need to calculate the position of each for every frame it draws. The "lo" version only has 1,500 faces and that's why it has the improved frame rate. My Vimy only has about 750 faces.

I think that anything up to about 1,800 faces in a model makes one that works at a reasonable rate on any reasonable performance PC. Anything above that and the PC needs to be quite a powerful one with a good 3D card.

Things like the "Litemoth" model (the GWS Tiger Moth from Shinchiro) have about 1,750 faces and that's why it is a good performing model.

Cliff

[ThermalQuest]

Cliff,
You explained it well enough so that a rookie like me can understand. Thanks. I am new at this and have been toying around with already existing models. There are some models that I have changed the color on. I open up the .bmp file that has the colors on it and tweak away. I was wondering if you could tell me how to change the color of an airplane that uses an x file format, like the fun10. I have no clue here...

Thanks

Travis

[clawson]

Travis,

To do any more editing of FMS models than just changing the BMP "textures" that are mapped onto some parts of some models you need to use a program called Metasequoia but I'm afraid this won't let you read in an existing .X file unless the person who designed the .X model also had the foresight to give you the .MQO file they used when building the model. As long as the .MQO file is there you can load it in to MetaSequoia, change the colour (shape and EVERYTHING else! ) and then finally save out a modified .X file for it and then go fly it in FMS and see the effect of your changes. Quite a lot of the Japanese modellers do include the .MQO files and some also have them available for separate download.

The whole process of editing and where to get the free to download Metasequoia program is explained and there's further information about using Metasequoia .

Cliff