* Dan Lyke -- Saturday 29 October 2005 03:17:
> I've been looking at the math to model downwash, and I think there may
> be some relatively easy kludges to slap into place to both handle
> ground effect,

Yes, it shouldn have become a lot easier, as we can now do very fast
ground intersection tests. Just make the groundcache big enough that
it contains the rotor disk shape. 



> Is there a real helicopter pilot on the list who'd be interested in
> taking my changes and saying "yes, this is realistic" or "not on
> anything I've ever flown"?

I have mail addresses in the archive from real helicopter pilots,
even from a Bo105 pilot. Maybe one of them is still valid. And there
are other people here who know helicopter pilots.



> On another front: I spent a little time today with the Bell/Textron
> drawings and Blender,

The Bo105 was also my first (bigger) model. (I had just done a radio
tower and a hanger before that.) I can probably give you one or the
other tip. Have even written a FlightGear plugin for Blender to help
with animation and such. (http://members.aon.at/mfranz/flightgear/)



> I've never done modeling before, and I may be being too conservative
> on polygons.

The Bo105 is a (comparatively) low-poly model (despite the Minigun
barrels :-). But not all models have to be low-poly. Graphics cards
become faster and faster, and as long as there are low-poly aircraft
available for low-budget cards, there's nothing wrong with detailed
models. Au contraire.



> And I was so happy to get a basic fuselage together that I was getting
> really optimistic, now I'm down to the nitty gritty of two-sided
> doors.

As Josh said, make at least a flipped copy for the inside. 



> And aaargh I wish Blender would just let me say "match the 
> normal for the vertex on this object to the one for the vertex on that
> one"...

Just write a Blender plugin.  :-)


 
> You do texture by poly color, and so far I'm just doing a white
> fuselage. Should I bother to put UV coordinates on things, or is
> trying to texture these aircraft just too heavyweight for now?

The only reason why the Bo105 is still barely textured (only strobes/
beacons, rotor discs, emblem/insignia) is quite simple: as long as the
fuselage wasn't finished, texturing wasn't recommendabel. And then:
Blender had quite weak tools for UV mapping back when I had the
fuselage ready. I wrote the "material" animation instead, so I could
at least change colors. (c/C keys in the Bo105.) Texturing is still
on the TODO list, of course.



> Can I just make the doors double-sided for now, or should I model both
> an interior and exteror?

They certainly don't need depth for now. A flipped copy will do.



> Is it reasonable to end up with two blades by just willy nilly
> deleting from your blade model, or is there a hidden gotcha intere?

Other than that they are Bo105 blades? No.  :-) 


 
> Aaaand, talk to me about shadows...

We had no 'real' (= volumetric) shadows when I did them. So there are
two shadow planes. Nowadays you don't have to care for shadows at all.
Just let the animation disable shadows for objects that shouldn't cast
shadows (rotor disc, light halos, glass).

m. 

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