H.M.S Ark Royal **************** VERSION 1.2 -------------- Date: November 15, 1999 Created by Neil Park (RAF_Nello) ------------------------------------- This Aircraft Carrier was designed for use with Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator ****ONLY*****. The AutoInstall program will automatically install the Scenery and texture files for you. If you have the RAF 662 Base scenery then the files will be placed there. If not the files will be added to the CFS\Scenery\All\Scenery folder and the CFS\Scenery\All\Texture folder. For other CFS Scenery and Addons visit the RAF 662 web site: http://www.dyno-tech.com/bravo/index.shtml NEW IN THIS VERSION ******************* This version adds some night lighting to the Ark Royal for Night Operations in CFS. I have not been able to add as many night lights as I would have liked as CFS does not recognise the Day,Dusk,Dawn,Night variables that Flight Simulator has. This would mean that all lights would still be seen during the day as the BGL file cannot get the information required to detirmine if it is day or night. I have also textured the mast so that the mast will be faintly visible at night as BMP files are slightly visible at night in Combat Flight Simulator. METHOD OF CREATION ******************* The Ark Royal was produced using FSASM only and the new CFS BGL instructions were used to handle bitmaps instead of R8 files. I could find no plans on the Ark Royal and took most of my measurements from a 1:720 scale model. The detail of the bridge structure (Island) is based on many photo's but may not be entirely accurate. The aim of this project was to produce something that could be used for Carrier Landings in CFS and that fitted the time period. To all those people who do not find this a good representation of the Ark Royal I apologise but this was a very tough project without plans and I did the best I could do with the information I had. SCENERY COMPLEXITY ****************************** The Ark Royal was placed in a location that provideds very high frame rates as I thought that the shear size of this object would have an impact on the frame rate. This does not seem to be the case on my system (PII 450 , 128 mb RAM and Viper 500 Video Card). However I have programmed the Ark Royal NOT to appear on a Complexity setting of VERYSPARSE. If you don't see it then You probably have your complexity set to VerySparse. On the Sparse setting the deck and Hull will appear but not the Bridge (Island) Structure. Sparse can be used as indicated in the next section below. SOME PROBLEMS AND WORKAROUNDS ****************************** The deck of the Ark Royal is what is known as an elevated surface allowing Aircraft to land above ground or sea level. In CFS, you cannot land on water or even belly land (Ditch) in water without exploding. To my amazement this also occurred on the deck of the Ark Royal when it was over water. To correct this problem I covered a small Island off the east coast of Guernsey with Water Texture and placed the Ark Royal in the middle of the Island. This worked but it also meant that Aircraft could happily land in the water surrounding the Ark Royal and I could not accept this situation. To correct this, I made the area I had covered with water texture crash enabled if the Aircraft came into contact with it. This means that you lose a small Island off Guernsey in having the Ark Royal installed. An elevated surface can only be rectangular. The Ark Royal narrows at both ends so you will find that you can actually move out over "THIN AIR" at each end. This is a limitation of Flight Simulator and CFS. Don't try to go too far though. In multiplayer mode where multiple Aircraft are landing on the deck it is a good idea to move to the side of the Carrier the bridge is on (to protect yourslf). Unfortunately this blocks your view of the Landing of other Pilots (Great Fun and laughs). To make it possible for you to see the landings and get more parking space you can set your scenery complexity level to sparse. The bridge (including the crash zone within the bridge) will dissapear enabling you to park in that area and have a clear view of the other aircraft landing. SPOT VIEW PROBLEMS ****************** The crash detection I have used for the Ark Royal is the same as one would find in Flight Simulator. This means that only one point of the Aircraft (Cockpit) will cause a crash when passing into a crash detection area. Unfortunately in CFS, the crash detection position follows the spot view position and you can find sometimes that if you go into spot view that you explode suddenly. Make sure you are away from the bridge structure if you go into spot view. INCOMPLETE DETAIL ***************** Many will notice that the Cranes, Guns and Lifeboats are missing from this version of the Ark Royal and my only excuse is that I just do not have the time to continue developing this project any further. FINDING THE ARK ROYAL ********************* As stated above the Ark Royal is located east of Guernsey Island at the following co-ordinates: 49d28'42.8157"N, 02d26'59.8303"W I have included an Airport Facilities Directory listing for the Ark Royal so that you can select the Ark Royal from the Airfield listing in CFS. NOTE: IN FREEFLIGHT MODE, CFS IGNORES THE SET ALTITUDE IN THE FACILITIES FILE AND ALWAYS PLACES THE AIRCRAFT ON THE WATER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ARK ROYAL. iF YOU DO NOT HIT THE "Y" (SLEW MODE) KEY QUICKLY YOU WILL EXPLODE. PRESS "Q" TO GO UP AND WHEN ABOVE THE DECK PRESS "A" TO DESCEND BACK DOWN ONTO THE DECK TOP. TO CORRECT THIS YOU CAN SELECT THE ARK ROYAL FROM THE AIRFIELD LISTING THEN CLICK ON EXACT LOCATION AND ENTER 64 FT. THIS WILL CAUSE YOU TO START ON THE DECK OF THE ARK ROYAL IN MULTIPLAYER MODE YOU WILL OF START ABOVE THE ARK ROYAL. LANDING ON THE ARK ROYAL ************************ First rule: BE PATIENT !!!!!!! It is not easy to do and even expert pilots will have trouble. The easiest way to land is to obtain an Aircraft that uses an FS98 .AIR file that has a "HOOK" (Severe spoiler) included in it. NOTE: CFS .Air files do not support this hook feature. Personally, I and most of the RAF 662 squadron land stock CFS Aircraft on the Ark Royal using the following procedures: 1 - Use a low fuel setting 2 - Start with the Spitfire Mk1 and work you way up. 3 - Use full flap 4 - PUT THE PARKING BRAKE ON BEFORE YOU LAND !!!!! To do this press the "Control" Key and the "." period key. 5 - Come in at a normal angle, too high and you will bounce, too low and youre dead unless you do a POPUP at the last minute. 6 - TRY TO HAVE THE AIRCRAFT JUST ABOVE STALL AS YOU CROSS THE EDGE OF THE DECK AND PULL HARD BACK ON THE STICK AS YOU CUT THE POWER TO ZERO. 7- IMPORTANT: Trim the Aircraft. At such low speeds you will find that you may have the stick full back and the aircraft is still descending but has not stalled. Press the end key repeatedly to introduce back stick trim so that you can hold your attitude with the stick still centralised. This will give you authority over the controls when you need to flare. 8 - Some CFS Aircraft are VERY hard to land on the deck if not impossible. One trick to help you slow down is to kick in full rudder as you get closer to the end. This will increase the braking effect. I have to do this most times in a P51D with full Fuel. 9 - In freeflight mode you can set a wind strength that will greatly help you land. As the wind only comes from the north in CFS you will have no crosswind as the Ark Royal faces true North. 10- REMEMBER COME IN SLOW AND ALWAY TRY TO LAND ON ALL 3 WHEELS AS THIS WILL INCREASE THE BRAKING EFFECT. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As for Multiplayer mode..... have a lot of fun as I and other RAF 662 members have had. ALWAYS LAND AT THE SOUTHERN END OF THE CARRIER FLYING NORTH. DECK LIGHTS ************ Although Aircraft operating at the time of the real Ark Royal would have a Member of the crew using "paddles" to wave the Aircraft in for landing I was not about to attempt something like this. :) Instead I placed 2 lights at the rear of the deck. These 2 lights when green indicate that your are within 6 metres of the centreline. A red light on one side means you are too far over to THAT side so you should turn away from the side the red light is on. The Ark Royal now has center line night lighting and a beacon on top of the mast. ADF/NDB Location for the Ark Royal *********************************** The RAF 662 CFSG has provided to the CFS community an ADF/NDB navigation package that allows users to locate Airfields within CFS where NDB transmitters have been installed. The Ark Royal has been given an NDB frequency of 777 kHz but these files are not contained in this package. Please visit the RAF 662 web site (Downlods section) to obtain this utility. The URL is: http://www.dyno-tech.com/bravo/index.shtml (While you are there check out the bombers, I think they look FANTASTIC) FREEWARE ********* This program is FREEWARE ONLY it : * MAY NOT BE sold. * MAY NOT BE uploaded to, nor archived in, BBSs which charge file download fees. * MAY NOT BE uploaded to, nor archived in, BBSs which are partly or wholly beneficially owned or operated by a commercial enterprise which is engaged in the sale of computer hardware or software. * MAY NOT BE redistributed with computer hardware or software for which money is charged. * MAY NOT BE redistributed by a commercial publisher in any form or under any pretext. This prohibition includes but is not limited to floppy disks and CDROMs distributed with magazines or books. * MAY NOT BE redistributed on floppy disk, CDROM, nor in any other printed or electronic storage form for which money is charged, nor as part of a package for which money is charged. This prohibition includes but is not limited to any form of redistribution for which any type of materials or handling fees are charged. * MAY NOT BE disassembled, decompiled, decomposed, nor reverse engineered. Subject to the exclusions listed above, this file may be uploaded to BBSs and otherwise redistributed on a FREE-WARE basis provided that the original Installation file and its contents are not modified in any way. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS to the redistribution terms stated above. Copyright © NelloSoft Pty. Ltd. 1999 All rights reserved. CREDITS ******** Adam Szofran for FSASM. John Blackie for teaching me low level FSASM code. RAF_Dynotech for supporting me on this project. RAF_Prune (Roger Lowery) for the Skidmark texture. RAF_Falvo,RAF_Rush,RAF_Yank and RAF_Eber for helping me test this even when it was just a plank above the ground. SW_Mojo for testing the AutoInstall routine (and nearly giving me Heart failure. LOL). ALL RAF 662 members for the fun we have had on the Ark royal BEFORE it was finished which inspired me to continue due to your very positive feedback and enthusiasm. Salute (S!) All. To all the people that have thanked me for the first release of the Ark Royal and are now using it on the Zone and providing me with great feedback. Of course this Carrier model is dedicated to all those brave souls who lost their lives or were injured when the Ark Royal was sunk by a Uboat. I also dedicate it to the Microsoft Art Work team that produced what I think is FANTASTIC terrain scenery in the CFS world. I know other NEW simulators may now have better scenery but the detail of CFS and the excellant Frame Rates you can achieve with this scenery is just superb. I hope you all enjoy this Aircraft Carrier especially landing on it. EMAIL NOTE *********** I have been absolutely inundated with email on the Ark Royal. I am sorry to all those people that have emailed me asking me how to create something like this. The answer I give is not what most people want to hear... Its hard work and takes years of experiance with a BGL compiler language. The Ark Royal was created manually in Windows Notepad and a lot of A4 paper and pens. A visual design program WAS NOT USED. All work was done manually. Unfortunately many want to go out and create something like this and expect that there is an easy,quick method. There may well be but I am yet to find it. I am always happy to help anyone with FSASM code but people must understand that complex objects require a very good understanding of the language used and therefore a lot of time and dedication must be put into it before very complex objects can be successfully created. It has taken me 3 years before I tackled the Ark Royal and I very nearly gave up on 3 occasions. I am happy to receive email regarding the Ark Royal but please don't ask me how I created it. LOL Neil Park E-mail: nello1@bigpond.com.au