Falcon 900 for AI

This is a 7-LOD model of the Dassault Falcon 900 to use as an AI aircraft in Flight Simulator 9.

It comes with a few generic liveries and even fewer real-world ones.

A basic paint kit is available for repainters.

Some flight plans are included. These use accurate registrations (at the time they were made, June 2013) and in most cases accurate bases (or close to their real-world bases if I guessed wrong). Falcons have been changing hands a lot this year, so there are some outdated ones already (e.g. HB-JET, sold in the last few weeks to the USA).

LOD figures can be seen in ACM (if you use it). Top LOD is 5264 polys for the "winglet & antenna" version down to 5052 polys for the non-antenna/non-winglet version. The bottom LOD in all cases is 12 polys - it is just a very distorted cube that approximates the shape of a plane and gives a sense of "mass" at large distances (at 1x zoom it'll be a couple of miles away at least).

Your zoom level affects the display of AI planes that have LODs. Virtual cockpit landings are often smoother because VC flying typically means you are at 50%/60% zoom rather than 1x/100% zoom. This makes everything outside a bit smaller and it is screen dimensions of a model that govern its currently-displayed LOD, so making a whole Heathrow full of AI planes a smidgin smaller should improve framerates because many of the LOD-ed aircraft are showing 1 or 2 LODs below what they would show at 1x zoom. This also diminishes the effect of having a detailed top LOD because even fewer models would be displaying their top LOD.

Also note that I use "parts hiding" to remove parts from the model when they are not visible, e.g. all gear and spoiler structure when these are not deployed, all the slats structure and part of the flaps structure are likewise hidden when they are not deployed. A top LOD view of the F900 in the cruise is likely to be at least 1200 polys lighter than the same aircraft on the ground.

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Paint kit - important notes

The Falcon 900 is using "alpha hiding" to govern what aerials it has mounted on its tail engine (#2) nacelle. These aerials seem to have 4 broad types, a short spade-like antenna, a tall spade-like antenna, a "lump" antenna and a hook antenna (with a variation where the hook has a small associated antenna just behind it).

To create or hide these aerials, on the paint kit you will see areas that are pure green. If you use DXTBMP to create your alpha channels these areas are significant - this p/k was designed to work best with DXTBMP when you are converting textures to use in the sim.

DXTBMP allows repainters to create alpha channels based on one of two colours (green or black). I chose green since it stands out on the texture sheet. When converting a texture to (for example) DXT3 for use in the sim, DXTBMP's "Alpha" menu offers the option to "Create Alpha Channel (Green)". Clicking this option creates black areas on the alpha channel that will make whatever that part of the texture gets applied to, transparent. If a tail aerial has a black alpha channel applied to it, it disappears. Making these green patches simplifies the process of hiding the aerials. They are arranged in a matrix with little pictures next to the rows showing what kind of aerial it is, and at the top of each column a label to say what position it is in. The F900 has three aerial mounting positions on the #2 intake, forward, middle and aft. If your repaint is for a F900 that has only a hook aerial in the middle position, you paint the green patch in the matrix that corresponds to hook aerial AND middle position to whatever colour it is on the plane. Later, when you create your alpha channel from the green parts of your texture, that aerial is no longer green and doesn't get hidden when you create the alpha channel. This means that the simple act of painting an aerial away from green is enough to make it appear. It's as simple as I can make it. I've also done the same thing with the AVS camera on the nose, this can be left green to be hidden, or the green area can be removed on the appropriate paintkit layer to reveal the camera underneath. When DXTBMP creates its alpha the camera can now literally be painted in without the need for a separate aircraft model.

So, to recap - painting in the tail aerials is simple, change the green for the correct aerial in the correct position and it appears correctly provided you remember to create the alpha channel within DXTBMP. If you forget this step in DXTBMP you at least get a good warning when you see groups of three bright green aerials merged along the top nacelle! Remember, this is also how the nose camera can be displayed or hidden.

This change has also been retrofitted to the Falcon 2000 to remove the need for a separate model with the nose camera. More notes in the Falcon 2000/2000S upload.

Also, the paintkit is strongly based on that of the Falcon 2000. This created a dilemma about fitting the new aircraft into the old p/k and means that I have mapped the vertical stabiliser in two sections. This isn't great, but I honestly thought it'd save me time (it didn't) and get the F900 out in late spring/early summer. The top two feet of the tailfin are therefore painted on a separate section adjacent to the main tail on the p/k. Most Falcons have a continuous colour up in this area and shouldn't be a problem to paint, but those with a design that sweeps right up the tail will need some care taken when painting the upper tail. I did at least ensure that the "break " occurs where the flat antenna each side of the fin protrudes, so it might make checking simpler. It's not ideal, but it is what it is.

That's it. I hope you enjoy seeing the Falcon 900 in your setup.

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The aircraft can be installed into your setup simply by copying the aircraft's folders (e.g."RFAI Falcon 900WA") into your aircraft folder in flightsim. Once there, you need to set up the flight plans (copying into scenery/world/scenery) to get them flying. The sources for the flightplans are also included in this upload.

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Upbeat
~~~~~~

While making these Falcons I have enjoyed listening to music by Hector Zazou (who sadly died a few years back), an Algerian-French composer who merged electronics with world musics to create quite a distinctive blend of sounds that I like very much. The world was rather brighter when there was always the prospect of a new release from HZ, and I miss his presence. I can remember hearing "Yakut Song" from "Chansons der mers froides" (Songs from the Cold Seas) for the first time and thinking "huh? WTF?" and then realising that I could see the leaden ocean's freezing spray in the sounds. Standout albums in my opinion are Strong Currents, L'Absence, Corps electriques and Sahara Blue, but they all contain greatness and he covered a lot of styles. Genius.

For an overview of Dassault, there is a pleasant little film on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU_DGKNBdIY

Richard Faith
Bath 2013

Downbeat
~~~~~~~~

I also dedicate this file to a friend who died just over 10 years ago, on 2nd May 2003. I'd just started writing Immoral Consensus when I learned about the death of a dear acquaintance, James Miller, who was shot dead while filming a documentary in Rafah, Palestine. I'd been hoping to release these files prior to that anniversary but this didn't materialise. I just wanted to say that I have valued his sense of commitment when my own has weakened over the years, and when such a good man is murdered while trying to portray the realities of both sides of a conflict, it spotlights precisely the injustices his work was dedicated to exposing. He may be at rest, but his work is still agitating for our attention and we would be wise to see the injustices he was highlighting when injustice finally came to meet him in the no-man's land that should be someone's home.

Rest well, James. You mattered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Miller_(filmmaker)