P-51B Mustang “Big Mac Junior”, 363rd FG, 382nd FS

[oboe]

North American P-51B Mustang 42-106647 “Big Mac Junior”, 363rd FG, 382nd FS.   Flown by Capt John R Brown.

The 363rd entered combat from England in February 1944, flying bomber escort and ground-strafing missions.    Capt. Brown  was shot down by AA fire from boats he was stafing in the Quimper, France area and made wheels-up belly landing near Benodet, France (8 August 1944). He survived, was captured and made a POW.

[Vraciu]

Great job.  I really love what you're doing with the pilots, too.   

Now if we can just get these shadow gaps fixed.   

[lyric1]

 

[Devil 505]

Excellent work!

[Greebo]

Beautiful job Oboe, really nice work.

Regarding the shadow gaps, these will never be fixed for the majority of existing rides. The reason for the gaps is that AH2 aircraft were originally designed with parts like gear doors etc. that have no depth but that have a texture painted on to either side. In AH3 this causes a Z fighting effect that looks even worse than the shadow gap. AH3 skins (TBM-3 and later) have no zero-depth parts, their gear doors all have an edge that separates the inner and outer skins and prevents the Z fighting issue. At some point HT will enable a flag on these AH3 shapes that will eliminate the shadow gaps for them but not for the earlier shapes.

[oboe]

Thank you guys.  I'll finish it up and submit it this morning.   Still trying to find the edge on the Environmental map where I can activate some level of environmental reflection without making it appear like a glass surface at shallow angles.  I haven't found the right formula or technique yet though.  Like everything, its a trade-off.

So far with my P-51Bs, each pilot possesses a unique face but I'm sure I'll run out of variety at some point.  They have a much more detailed life vest and accurate arm patches on flight jacket for the AF they are serving with.  Best one so far was Beantown Banshee's pilot, Mike "Felix" Rogers, where I was able to colorize a photo of the pilot himself and use it as the face of the dude.bmp file.   The resemblance turned out very well.

Interesting info about the shadow gaps, Greebo.   I agree with Vraciu on this, looking forward to their elimination.

<S>

[Vraciu]

Thanks for the explanation, G.  I am going to try to airbrush them out of screenshots going forward.

The E map is tricky.   I’ve been using a grayscale of the diffuse (with appropriate adjustments to painted surfaces, etc.) darkened 15% then 15% more.  It seems to work.  Conversely you can try a solid gray and adjust the brightness/shade of it up or down until you get what you want.  The disadvantage to the latter is it looks bad in the viewer.  It is a big help on the P-51B though in terms of controlling that massive, unrealistic (IMO) flare up you get with some angles relative to the sun.

 

[Vraciu]

Thanks for the explanation, G.  I am going to try to airbrush them out of screenshots going forward.

The E map is tricky.   I’ve been using a grayscale of the diffuse (with appropriate adjustments to painted surfaces, etc.) darkened 15% then 15% more.  It seems to work.  Conversely you can try a solid gray and adjust the brightness/shade of it up or down until you get what you want.  The disadvantage to the latter is it looks bad in the viewer.  It is a big help on the P-51B though in terms of controlling that massive, unrealistic (IMO) flare up you get with some angles relative to the sun.

 

I really am convinced there is something wrong with the P-51B and how it interprets the E map.   The exact same settings in as the D put out a completely different result in the B.   In this case an overall gray is the only thing that seems to work.  YMMV.

[Nefarious]

Looks great! <S>