Converting Fms Models To Clearview Using Ac3d

Transcript

Converting FMS Models To ClearView Using AC3D This is an updated version of converting FMS models into ClearView. AC3D and Clearview have updated and changed a little and a lot in some aspects. This is my own process and may not be the way others would do it, however, I find this process to work very well. 1. There are four areas basically. The first is the initial import and clean up and cutting and grouping and naming of all the parts. 2. The Second is inserting the hidden XYZ objects that make the control surfaces move and props spin. And collision points to put the model in and react in a 3D environment. Also setting and adjusting some basic, and advanced parameters to suit your model, and setting the exhaust parameters. 3. The third is applying and adjusting the texture / paint scheme onto your model. 4. The forth is creating a collision model and all of the adjustments within it. This is for when the model crashes the collision model takes over and separates all the parts. You will need an updated version of AC3D 6.2 or even the latest version 6.4. A version a ClearView, 4.98 or earlier, A program to work on paintbrush / BMP images, and a way to convert them to a Jpeg file. Most Windows operating systems have this capability through paintbrush. And lots of patience. After loading ClearView Then selecting file, then import model. Choose the location where your future model is at. Be it in the FMS flight sim folder under model or where ever you have it stored. Make sure the model you are converting has a directx file. That is the only file type that the ClearView import / converting program will recognize. Then choose the parameter type. Helicopter or Plane. Once you have done that you will receive a message stating that is only the first step. When you select the model in the plane category you will see there is no preview picture. That’s ok the program does not instantly provide the one given in the FMS program. We will insert one later. The first task that I do is to make a complete new copy of the texture / paint image of the model. Go to C / ClearViewRC / clearview /models / In older versions of CV, it will be under programs in C/, then your models folder / data folder, then select your texture file and open it up and you can now edit it and modify it. I right click on desktop and create new bitmap image then start cutting from the old texture image and paste what I want and where I want into the new Bitmap image. Then give it the name I want. Just a lot of cutting and pasting and touching up edges and adding colors. . One reason for this is, if you notice the original on the left has a chopped tail section on the left side view. In AC3D that can be very frustrating to line up on the body of the model. So I have realigned it in a new texture file. It is basically a bunch of cutting and pasting and repositioning the images around. Also I add more paint to the edges of some of the images because the AC3D program spreads and lays the frame of the model out a little different than the metesequoia program does. Also, I add some colors I think I might need. Such as landing gear, wheels, wing spar, engine, and exhaust color for this model. This also allows more room to work with the body frame in AC3D. We will insert the new texture file later for now just save it to desktop or where ever you choose. Save as a BMP file. It will be easier to work with. 1 Open Clearview and click on and select the model. You will see some of the reasons for finishing the conversion through AC3D. Here you can see the shadow of the plane cuts right through the middle of the plane. That is because we have not yet given it a 3D position in the 3D flying space of the simulator. Also, there is no Prop to spin. The Propdisk does not spin. None of the control surfaces yet move. And there is a lot of paintwork and realigning textures to redo. Also the position of the exhaust exit point is way off. It will fly but not like a real plane yet. The parameters that are set for it are at a very basic state of operation and will need some adjusting. Note that once we start making changes to convert everything over. It will then not be able to fly until we finish the process. 2 Next, open up the folder ClearView / model folder and find your model. Then open up that folder, and then open up the data folder. You will see the body AC3D file. Open it up. Now you have a page of four different views of your model. Notice the paint scheme is backwards and misplaced in parts. This varies from model to model. Some actually get the paint correct on some or part of the models. Familiarize yourself with the toolbars, options, and menu choices to start learning where everything is at. In the top left there are four button selections for Whole object, Objects, Surfaces, and Vertex. We need to do a quick clean up to improve the memory usage during the conversion and also to improve the frame rate during flight in the Flight Sim. First we will get rid of a bunch of extra vertices created in the original design. Click on Edit / Select all / then click on Surfaces. When you first open up each time everything is usually already selected. In the top right of each window you can select that window to make it bigger. Now with your left mouse, click on the view of the model in the lower left window and drag it way to the left out of view. You will see all the left over vertices not needed. 3 Now click onto an area where there is nothing. That will unselect the model. Now in the lower right window you can use your arrow keys to quick turn the model around and see it at different angles. I suggest a slight down view angle for the next step. In the top left of the program, select Vertices. In the lower right window again left click and drag a box around all the vertices you can. Then hit delete on your keyboard. This is a long process but it’s the way I do it to make sure all of those extra vertices are gone. I just hold my delete key down and keep dragging a box around the vertices until all those not within the plane are gone. 4 Now we need to insert the new texture / paint file that we touched up. One reason for doing this is this is a good stopping point for a break. So in AC3D select edit / select all / then file / save as body.ac. This will be the name that is loaded in the parameter file. Also a good tip if you grab or move something that you did not want to, just select edit and undo or hit ctrl Z. If you really mess up you can always close the program out and choose not to save and start over again. This is why it is a good practice to save every so often. Now find your folder for your model. Sometimes I leave it on the desktop to work on them so I don’t have to keep going into C/ ClearView / model / then the model folder / then data folder. Find the jpeg or BMP texture image and delete it, then take your new BMP paintbrush image and insert it. I usually give it a name that matches the model. This one is MX2 FG For now we want to keep it as a paintbrush image, they are easier to touch up and work with until we are done. When it gets saved as a jpeg it can become distorted on its colors. This is fine for the image will still work. But some of the models however I think benefit from having their file as a BMP rather than a JPG. They simply look better on the model when it is done. On the other hand a reason for making them into a JPG. is to save on memory. A JPG. file take up less space. It will be up to you on which type you save as. For future renderings and changes I keep an entire folder of each model I work on as BMP’s. I name the folder Models Paint. Open up the model folder then open up the data folder. This is where you will find the texture file to delete and replace with the new BMP file. Another reason for using a new texture / paint file is now when we open up the AC3D body file the model will appear blank because we have not chosen the new texture to be on the model, Yet, and we want that for it will make it easier to work with for now. While we are here backup to the folder of the model and change out the WAV folder, the param file, and the smoke file. You don’t have to but I suggest find a set of parameters that best suits your flying and or the type of model you are working on and copy and paste it. The smoke file I have played with on several models and have a preset smoke file that I use. You can keep the WAV folder and keep that sound that is provided. I just choose not to. I have created a new plane wav file and modified the crash sound. There is a list of what the parameters affect on the Sim model further on in this manual. Every plane is different so the parameters that are provided can be set to just about anything you need. Plenty of time to study those later. For now try to pick something close to what you want from another models folder. To create a new WAV file record the engine sound you want at about half throttle for four seconds. You can use your sound recorder form your pc. Once you’ve recorded it then select properties, then convert now, and then the playback format [ PCM 11025 kHz 8 bit Mono ] then save it and name it plane. Then drop it into the Wav folder and replace your old plane Wav sound. 5 Now lets open up our AC3D file again and see it now. Now there is no paint texture on the model. This will make it easier for adjusting and working on the model. I have gone ahead and deleted the propdisk. The one provided in the import was doubled up and not necessary. Also now it is out of the way to work on creating the cowl. Now click in the gray area anywhere outside of the green 3dimentional box to unselect everything. Notice how everything except a few parts are all combined as one part when you click on the model in different places. Usually they’re named unmesh 04 or some numerical unmesh part. The parts we are going to separate out and create are as follows. Cowl maingear1 maingear2 LWing RWing LAeleron.LAeleron RAeleron.RAeleron LHStab RHStab Elevator.Elevator Ruder.Ruder Ruder2.tailgear Canopy Prop.prop PropDisk.propdisk Pilot Also the names for other types of control surfaces are LAeleron1 and RAeleron1 for biplanes LElevon and RElevon for V tails LAeleron2 and RAeleron2 for Tri wing planes It is important that the control surfaces be named as such or the CV flight sim program will not recognize the parts and the movement in the sim. It is also important that whatever name you give to a part that it is the same in colbody file and the param file under its breakpart. If it mismatches, the part will not break off when it crashes. Then you end up with a part hanging on when it should have popped off. IE> the cowl comes off before the prop does. 6 In the top left of the program select Surfaces. Now you can start collecting surfaces to combine and merge them into one object called Cowl. Hold your shift key down while you drag a square around and over all the surfaces you want. This will keep adding on your surfaces to collect them all. After you are certain you have collected all the surfaces for the Cowl. In the top tool bar above the 4 different views select cut. Those surfaces have now been separated from the rest of the model and temporarily added to a clipboard. You might notice a lot of extra or hidden surfaces left over. Make sure these are surfaces that you don’t need. If you need them hit ctrlZ and bring back the cowl as it was. And roll, drag, zoom the model into position to grab those surfaces also. Don’t forget to hold your shift key. Try again and cut the surfaces away to clipboard. Now those extra surfaces and vertices can go away. Left click your mouse and drag a box around them and hit delete on your keyboard, not cut in the program. Keep doing this until they are all gone. Once the cowl area is clear then in the toolbar up top, select paste and your selected surfaces for you Cowl will reappear. Note that on some models not all the surfaces will be together as one object. So to make the Cowl all one object, Select Object box in top left of program. All the parts that were selected as surfaces are now as parts or part. Now we need to merge them into one part to name it. Select Object in top menu and slide down to merge. Once clicked notice the name of object box lower left corner is highlighted. Now you can name your object / part =Cowl. 7 Now we are going to add a new pilot. One that I have worked over and have made to have a working arm that moves with the Elevator and Aileron movement. I have not created it simply modified it. You cannot copy and paste objects and parts from other AC3D files but you can select them and save and store them into the AC3D object library. To save an object / part Open up the file you want in AC3D / select objects / then click and highlight the part or parts you want. Then select file in the top menu, then down to object library in the drop down menu. Then click on store, then check the circle for store selected, give it a name you want it to have then click store. After a while you will build a good size parts department of sorts that you can pick objects and parts out of. Now I reopen my model file, unselect everything, then click on file then object library in the drop down menu. Then scroll down my list and double click on the moving pilot or retrieve and it appears in the model. Note that it is too small. In the top tool bar there is a provision for – or+ 10% I think I clicked on +10% twice to get the pilot up to size. 8 Lets move onto the landing gear. Select Surfaces then use left mouse to drag a box around all of the surfaces you need for the landing gear. Be sure to hold the shift while collecting surfaces to keep them all together. Basically the same procedure as the Cowl. Same thing happened here as with the cowl. After selecting Cut in the tool bar, there were still left over surfaces inside and underneath the surfaces that I had collected. So now we can select them and hit delete on the keyboard to get rid of them. Then in the tool bar select Paste and your landing gear will reappear. Now select objects in the top left tool bar. Now your reappeared gear has turned into objects and not surfaces. Note that there is no name yet for the gear. That’s because there are 3 different parts. The wheel, the, wheel pant, and the leg of the gear itself. Now in top menu select Object then in the drop down list select merge. Now you can name your landing gear. I usually name the left gear maingear1 and the right maingear2 of coarse. Collecting Surfaces Cut to Clipboard Left over Surfaces to delete 9 Ready to Merge Now Merge and Name Now a quick cheat that can also be utilized for the Wings, Elevator Stabs and almost anything left side and right side mirror imaged. Select all the surfaces on the other gear. Note that you can’t use object yet, it is still attached to the rest of the model. You have to select Surfaces in the top tool bar. Once you have all of the other landing gears surfaces collected just delete them form keyboard. Even all of the extra surfaces too, until nothing is left. Then click on the maingear1 object you created. Now in the top toolbar select Copy then paste Notice nothing looks changed or added. Now in the top tool bar select Flip Z Axis. Now use the coned arrows that are on all six sides of the green outline box and drag the copied gear over to where the other gear use to be. Now all you do is change the 1 to a 2 in the name=maingear2. Flip on Z axis then Drag into Position. 10 Now lets go back to the Cowl and touch up a surface that got deleted. To create an ordered surface connected to an existing surface is fairly easy. First select Vertices in the top four selection choices. Then click on the vertices around the open area of where the surface is missing one at a time. Make sure to hold your shift key while gathering the vertices around the surface, also be sure to click on the vertices in order like going around a circle in one direction, It does not matter which way you go so long as you go in order not back and forth. Then select Vertex in the top menu, and then slide down to Create ordered surface and click. Now you will have a discolored surface. Now in this case the surface I am creating only has three vertices. If it were any more it is always a good idea to triangulate the surface. If the vertices are not all flat on the same plain, then the surface is disordered and bent and when you try to fly it in the sim you will see a hole where that surface should be. Even though you can see it in AC3D. When you triangulate, it connects the dots and if the surface is bent then it will sort of follow that bend and create little surface within the surface you just created. Now the sunlight will reflect off of it and the texture will have something to sit on to create the painted image. Now select Objects in the four choice tool bar, top left. Now you have the whole Cowl selected. In the bottom left, select your base/primer color and apply it. Should just click on it while the cowl is selected. You can wait until near the end to do this task for I make the whole model minus the canopy and the propdisk all the same base color. But now you will see the Cowl has all the same surface color. One more step. Now in the bottom left click on Poly / Smooth / 2S=for making it 2 sided. Now it will look and reflect light properly. Also in the Cowl was another surface that was missing. Same procedure. If you right click on the color of choice you can edit it to get the right light reflection and shadowing or transparency if needed. The levels I use suit me best but it is up to you how you want your model to look. Selecting vertices around edge to create surface. 11 Creating and smoothing out surfaces, and choosing base / primer color. Next I have skipped ahead and completed all the other parts and control surfaces. I have exploded the view of the model so you can see all the different parts. Also I have highlighted three parts that need to be combined and fused at the edges. The three parts are the Fuselage / the cockpit / and the dashboard cover. 12 First select objects in top toolbar then click on and grab the dashboard cover use the coned arrows to drag it straight down on the Fuse. Zoom in as close as you need to and drag it real close to where it needs be. Once in place then click on the Fuse while holding your shift key. Now you have both objects. Now select objects in top menu / then merge. Now they are one part. Don’t worry about naming your part yet. We still have one more piece to add. Now we zoom right in to the dashboard. Looking at the vertices. Now select vertices in the top toolbar. Now click in open area and unselect everything. Then left mouse click and drag a box only around two vertices that are next to each other along the edges. Next select vertex in top menu / then snap together. Select vertex again / then weld now you just got rid of an extra vertex and if you ever grab that single vertex it will stretch and pull all surfaces connected with it. This also helps in the Frame Per Rate. The more you get rid of that’s not needed the better the sim will perform. 13 Another way to merge all three parts into one object is to zoom in through the fuselage and you can see all three parts from inside. Then you can just click on them right there. Name object after merge Once you have all the parts merged as one object then name it Fuse. You can merge the pilot and his / her helmet with fuse but I choose not to so that in the future if I need to touch up something it will be a lot easier. MAKE SURE TO SAVE BEFORE YOU CLOSE OUT FILE. Now that we have all of our parts and named them and cleaned up everything that we can, we can add our prop and propdisk. First you have to either create a prop or swipe one from an existing model. Once you find one you like, select just the prop then file in top menu / then object library / select store / then store selected / give it a name then click store. Now, to retrieve it, go back to your new models AC3D file and select file / object library, then find your prop or what ever part you are inserting and select it. Keep in mind you might have to resize it to make it look right. 14 Adding a prop. Now zoom in real close to the front center of it. You will want it to be as close as you can to the gray centerline. Later on this is important for the look of a smooth spinning prop. 15 Sometime only a part of the object needs to be resized. For instance this prop was a good size but the spinner did not match the cowl extension where the two met. So I select surface in the top tool bar. Then hold shift key while I click on and collect all the surfaces for the spinner but not the prop. Then I can select –10% or +10% to make it fit right. Now lets add a new PropDisk.propdisk. This is how it needs to be spelled for it to work in the sim. Now select object in top left tool bar. Then in the mode area select disk / draw a disk. Now you will get an option underneath there to select how many segments. 20 – 24 is good. You don’t want to little or you might see the edges of each segment in the sim. 20 –24 will give a nice round smooth swept edge to it while it’s spinning. Adding a new PropDisk. Now face the model to you as level as you can and centered. Aim with your mouse toward the center of the prop spinner and left click. Now your disk will appear. First turn model a bit and grab coned arrow and pull disk out in front a little. Now zoom in and center disk as close as you can to that gray centerline. For color I chose the #14 very light gray then right click and select the edit color. And made it transparent. I chose a level of about 650 on the slider for this. For the Canopy it varies on how transparent I want it to be. 16 Now, final check on loose parts and surfaces. Also time to apply base / primer color to whole plane. If any of the surfaces within an object are different colors that too will make it so it does not break off when crashed. All of the surfaces within an object have to have the same base color. Now select Tools in the top menu bar, and then choose Hierarchy. Now you’ll have a drop down list of everything in this model so far. Click on the eye for the PropDisk.propdisk and the eye for the Canopy. Now in the top select all. This will select all objects and parts except the Canopy and the PropDisk.propdisk. Those two items are suppose to be transparent. Now in the bottom left in your color selection. Find your base color that you chose and click on it. Generally you want it to be an almost bright white with a slight shade effect when you turn it around AC3D. Applying base color. At this point with all the parts selected I also click on Poly / Smooth / and 2S for all the surfaces to look nice and smooth. You can leave the smooth unclicked and get that real RC plane look where you can see the ribs in the wing and parts of the fuselage. I also make sure that the canopy and propdisk are selected so they to can benefit from the Poly / Smooth / 2S process just not when applying the base color. 17 Check for extra parts and applying base color. While your in the Hierarchy box, look for extra parts / objects. Such as unmesh 04 or whatever number they have. You will want to either combine them to an object if it is visually needed or just flat out delete them. To delete them. Click on the eye at very top labeled world. This will unselect everything. Yes the plane will disappear in most of the window views. That’s temporary. Now go down the list and select the objects you want to delete. I would suggest if there is more than one, just delete one at a time to make sure you don’t need them. When your done go back into the hierarchy view and select the worldview. Close out that window and then select edit / from the menu / then select all / then select file and save body.ac. 18 Ok a couple of more steps for cleaning up. Click on edit / select all. Then click on objects in the top menu and select optimize vertices. On this model even after I have spent a couple of hours cleaning up and getting rid of extras there were still 594 unconnected vertices. Now while all is selected go to objects in the top menu again and select optimize surfaces. I still had 22 surfaces removed due to bad polygon, which means their shape was distorted or had only a single vertex that I missed and did not delete somewhere. Also that includes surfaces that were extras all by themselves not attached to anything. When optimizing vertexes I always make sure that the Coordinate points are unselected in the Hierarchy view otherwise they might get deleted and you will have to reset them all over again. This is why I try to do all of this work before setting in the Coordinate points and the control surface XYZ objects. 19 Now select all and save. This is about one third of the process hang in there it will get easier. 20 Inserting XYZ Objects, and Coordinate Points, Adjusting and Setting Flight and Smoke Parameters XYZ Objects are invisible objects that are linked to the control surfaces. They are a communication connection between your controller and the image of your control surface on your simulator model. They have a center axis that creates a pivot point such as along a hinge. They have a rate of travel in both directions based on your easy settings of how much throw you give your model. Some important points on inserting these Object is to make sure they are 90 degrees from the hinge point and that the XY line runs along the hinge. Now for coordinate points, these are objects that surround the model and place it accordingly in the 3 dimensional space of the flight simulator. Also if you hit another object in the landscape / flight area it will react, such as landing soft for touch down landing or hitting to hard and crashing or if a wing tip hits the ground before the gear touches it could result in a crash. You can create your own XYZ and Coordinate objects. We will walk through how to create Coordinate points first. With the model file opened Choose the 3D view window, bottom left, then select Objects in the tool bar then select line/draw a line. With the model turned to a side view, left click just under the Front Left Wheel. Then right click without moving the mouse. Now you have a vertex/dot object in a green box. Name the object in the object name box, bottom left, then click on nothing in the window view. Now that object is complete. The proper name must be correct or the sim will not recognize it. Here are the proper names for these Coordinate objects. COORD_FLWHEEL COORD_FRWHEEL COORD_TWHEEL COORD_NOSETIP COORD_LWINGTIP COORD_RWINGTIP COORD_TAILEND COORD_TAILTOP For a nose gear plane simply place the COORD_TWHEEL under the nose gear. Then name the nose gear Ruder2.tailgear Now for in the future you can click on all of these objects and save them to file in the object library. With vertices selected hold your shift key, then click and collect all eight points. Then select file and then object library. Click on store, then store selected. Use a name such as COORD POINTS. Then click store. Now next time all you have to do is retrieve them from the object library and move them around close to each object they relate to. 21 Creating and positioning Coordinate Points You can create your own XYZ Objects but for now we are going to borrow a set to put into the model. I have cheated one step further and saved an entire setup of COORD Points and XYZ Objects in the object library. There is also a template copy of an XYZObject in the data folder in ClearView you can use this also but you will need to name each object as needed. You will need to store a copy of it in your object library. I keep one stored and name it XYZObject. 22 To do this you must first pick a model to copy them from almost any model will do, however the later versions the object are grouped together into one object rather than the different parts that make them up IE= the XYPlane, XZPlane, YZPlane, Ocoord, Xcoord, Zcoord, Ycoord, then the group that they are in. Once you found your model you are going to copy them from. Select objects then hold your shift key and click on each XYZObject. Prop.XYZObject Propdisk.XYZObject LAeleron.XYZObject RAeleron.XYZObject Elevator.XYZObject Ruder.XYZObject Ruder2.XYZObject If you have a biplane or other variation of plane with other ailerons and or V tail configuration there are other names as well. Prop1.XYZObjecy and or Prop2.XYZObject for multi prop planes LAeleron1.XYZObject RAeleron1.XYZObject And LAeleron2.XYZObject RAeleron2.XYZObject For tri wing planes For V tails you use Elevon names. Lelevon.XYZObject Relevon.XYZObject Now start grabbing each object and placing them into position. The Prop and PropDisk Objects need to be centered onto the Prop and the disk. This is why earlier, as I stated earlier it would be easier if those two were already on that gray centerline however if you have a multi prop plane this is not possible. But it is important that the center of the Prop and PropDisk are aligned to one another. And that the Prop.XYZObject be aligned on the center of those two parts. If not your Prop and or your PropDisk will spin funny. 23 Notice that the hinge lines do not match up/ I have exaggerated this view for a moment to show this misalignment on the Y axis. I set the degree of rotation at .1 -or+ for whatever is needed. As perfect as you can get, will result in a better looking control surface when it is in motion. From the top view you can see how the XZPlane is thicker toward the X O COORD line. To fix this you need to rotate a little on the X axis until the XYZObject becomes flat and level with the control surface. 24 This should be checked on all hinge points. Once you have alignment in those two directions then you need to drop the XYZObject down into the control surface at its center. The best way to do this is to look from the inside of the surface. So you will need to zoom in real close and from a side view. There is a fine tune zoom button in the top tool bar for this. 25 Sometimes after making an rotating adjustment in X Y or Z axis you have to click on the object in order to release it. Then your arrow keys will let you move and turn the model around again. Now to do a quick check of your alignment work we need to create a Collision Body file for the model to fly in the Sim. This is the file that takes over the different parts of the model after it crashes and sends the parts scattering. For now we will select all and save the body file, then close it. Next while in the data folder of your model right click on the AC3D body file and copy it. Then on your desktop right click and paste it. Then right click and rename it colbody, then left click on it and drag it into the data folder. Later we will simplify the colbody design to cut down on video ram and make it better for the frame rate. 26 Now close out your models folder and make sure it is in the model folder in ClearView and start your CV Flight Sim and find your model and see how it looks and works so far. With the different param file and the colbody file added you should be able to fly it now and crash it and test the breakparts to see if they all pop off. Note every crash is different so they won’t all pop off every time. And this is what happens from a Knife Edge gone wrong. But this shows that the parts have broken off and scattered. 27 Now lets adjust the Exhaust parameters. Open up your AC3D file again and choose the 3D view window. Turn the model so that it is as flat and level as you can, and concentrate on getting the end of the exhaust at the center of the view. Now hold the mouse right at the end of the exhaust pipe. You will notice at the top just below the toolbar there are coordinates for the position of your mouse for X Y and Z. Note the numbers on X and Y. There is nothing for Z because the exhaust on this model is centered, that would be left or right. Now open up your param file for this model and scroll down to smokeExostPoint and set the parameters accordingly. Then save and close. Next we want to set the trigger point for the smoke. I do this for a few reasons. One, it will cut down on the lag and increase the frame rate while you taxi the model and it is on ground. Second I think it gives the model a more realistic visual feel. Third you can set it to turn off at certain percentage of throttle. This can be useful when coming in to a hover. No smoke then smoke in hover then throttle up and smoke goes off like you switched it on and off. Kind of cheesy but, good fun. Find the Enginesmoke param file in the models folder and open it up. You will see a level for throttle trigger percent. I set that around 40% and leave the throttle stop after percent at 110%. To get that shut off effect after hovering you can set the shut off at 60% then when you hover or do slower aerobatics you will have smoke. As for how much and the size of the smoke, I would suggest leaving those parameters the way they are. Too much smoke and it can start to lag up the system. If you have an ample amount of memory then you can beef up the smoke detail. Those settings are the maxlifetime Startsize Endsize gravityCoef Emittersize. 28 You can also change the smoke color. Those adjustments can be made in the AC3D files and the Gif picture files in the data folder. For now we will leave them be. For parameter settings here is a list of what each parameter is for. Most are self-explaining. This information is provided in your CV flight manual also. Be sure to read through all of the parameters to get a good understanding of what does what. 29 ClearView RC Simulator - Plane Model Parameter Definitions Parameter Default/Example Definition aelChordCoef 10.0 Aileron coefficient that amplifies the ael force. Used together with wingChord coefficient to simulate what proportion the aileron is to the wing chord wise. If chord wise wing to aileron is proportion 3:2, use wingChordCoef = 3n and aelChordCoef=2n where n=1,2,3.... experiment with n aelRate 100.0- used in easy setup to adjust aileron rate aelCoef 0.2 Lift coefficient for the aileron surface aelExpo 0.0 Used in easy setup to adjust aileron expo rate (-1