I had to suspend or shelve many of these projects to re-focus my priorities and endeavours in late August and early September 2005. On the 3D modelling side of things I decided to focus on the Bristol Fighter until it was complete. The Bristol Fighter is a highly detailed model and has taken much longer than anticipated to complete but I am sure will have been worth the wait. The whole experience is very much one of learning in many ways - especially on the technical side of things with 3DS Max 7.0/8.0. I hope to take time out from aircraft modelling to learn more about rendering, lighting and animation. Despite having a long history with digital painting I am very much a 'newbie' when it comes to texture mapping and developing textures. The experience with the Bristol Fighter should stand me in good stead with future projects.
What will come next?
I'm not really sure. Firstly I probably will not have as much time for freeware modelling projects in 2006 as I have had in 2005. I have to earn a living and that has to take priority over pursuits such as 3D modelling. Thus modelling will be very much a weekend and occasional evening activity, at least for the first few months of 2006. The year 2005 has been a sabatical form my regular vocation which I will return to in 2006. I have used my time in 2005 to learn much, not only 3d graphics and other simualtion related activities, but much in the area of research , especially military and aviation history.
Returning to my meshes -
- Albatros DV/DVa - needs an engine and cockpit and of course textures
- Fokker DR-I - needs an engine, cockpit and textures.
- SPAD S.VII - needs wing struts, cockpit, textures
- Sopwith Snipe - needs engine and remainder as per SPAD
- Sopwith Baby - partial mesh - only fuselage and floats as yet.
- Sopwith Triplane - partial fuselage mesh and cowling. [OFF has a nice one by Polovski.]
- Junkers DI - fuselage - maybe wait until FS10?
- Hansa Brandenberg W.29 - partially complete fuselage. Along with the DVII will be another high detailed personal favourite.
Not all will be completed to the same level of detail as the Bristol Fighter. I am considering 3 ranges :-
- QAD - quick and dirty ... a bit better than AI.
- Midi - comparable to most freeware aircraft out there.
- HD - High detail - almost payware level - [I may consider payware in the future - a big If at the moment].
Anyway available time is the big question for 2006.
As a footnote I am no longer part of the OFF team. I originally left in early September for time management reasons as outlined above. There were other reasons too. I was asked to return to the team in mid October which I did. The deal was to provide the Bristol Fighter only, [as the others had been suspended] which I emphasised was very much WIP, with a lot of work still to be done as at late October. We agreed to touch base at the end of November. Anyway the guy in charge could not wait and I became ex OFF once more. The on and off of my association with OFF which is sort of off at the moment. ;-)
Don't worry the Bristol F2B should work ok in OFF, in CFS3 QC mode and CFS3 Mission Builder missions, as should any aircraft built in accordance with CFS3 SDK guidelines.
Edit : 14-1-06 - I have deleted some of the aircraft in the WIP list above as some of the aircraft will now be payware projects. Any aircraft project listed as freeware will remain remain freeware.
