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zlin142 avatar image
zlin142 asked zlin142 commented

Landing gear animation & refueling problem

Hello Devs,

I'm currently working on my first aircraft for fs2020 and I've run into several problems in the last few days and google wasn't my friend, also nor other forums/topics.

- Is there any way to avoid having to refill the fuel tanks every time I push 'Build All' button?

- My landing gear animation doesn't work. In Blender everything looks fine, but in FS2020 the landing gear doesn't move when I want to retract into the fuselage. In the Aircraft Editor I set the right(?) values, but when I try to save&sync it, everything goes back to the previous state (zero gear retract animation time). So the editor doesn't save the values what I want. There's any solution to this?

Many thanks in advance for help me out in this matter! :)

aircraftanimation
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7 Answers

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b4gunner avatar image
b4gunner answered zlin142 commented

Zlin142 for the nose gear, try changing your contact points locations. There is an article about it in the Docs. This partially was a fix for me. I had other issues that involved the gear being hydraulic as opposed to anything else and took a lot more finding what all contributes to the gears, specifically the nose gear with steering. Here are two important links for gear animations:

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/mergedProjects/How_To_Make_An_Aircraft/Contents/Modelling/Airframe/Animations/Animating_Landing_Gear.htm?rhhlterm=nose%20gear&rhsearch=nose%20gear

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/mergedProjects/How_To_Make_An_Aircraft/Contents/Files/Flight_Model/Wheels_And_Contact_Points.htm?rhhlterm=gear%20contact%20points&rhsearch=gear%20contact%20points

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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 ·

Thank you so much! Readjusting nose gear contact point was the solution! ;)

Now I encountered another problem: the nose gear steering doesn't want to do his job. When I start to taxiing, the nose gear also start to turning randomly left and right no matter the direction of the moving of the aircraft.

I first suspected too little weight on nose gear, but after I checked at 'Debug Aircraft Wheel' menu, and I found more than 100kg on it, I consider this is sufficient, so the problem is somewhere else, but where? :(

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oliv72 avatar image
oliv72 answered oliv72 commented

Hello Zlin, no idea about fuel.

We just have to care after each synchro because sometimes some added lines from other aircraft like F18 can disappear. (nothing to do with your problems i think).

About gear animations, you need to check their names in NLA in Blender and check the templates that are used in the correct file(exterior) in Model used to animate external parts of the aircraft.

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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 ·

Many thanks for the reply!

Now I'm using default SDK SImpleAircraft animation names and xml logic:

NLA name is c_gear
xml code is
<Animation name="c_gear" guid="62d57e58-8ed3-4245-bde6-a7e026a4df85" length="200" type="Sim" typeparam2="c_gear" typeparam="AutoPlay" />


<PartInfo>

<Name>c_gear</Name>

<AnimLength>200</AnimLength>

<Animation>

<Parameter>

<Sim>

<Variable>GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0</Variable>

<Units>keyframe</Units>

<Scale>100</Scale>

</Sim>

</Parameter>

</Animation>

</PartInfo>


Gear suspension and steering is not animated yet. I think the bug will be somewhere in the xml code...?

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oliv72 avatar image oliv72 zlin142 ·

If this is from original SimpleAircraft.xml, it should be OK.

Send a screen copy of NLA Action names in Blender if you still have the problem.

I also met a lot problems linked to PARENTING. This can also prevent from loading aircraft.

Now i don t give any parents to main controllers, only sub..controllers.

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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 oliv72 ·

This is the actual animation of nose gear (note: this is the upper side of the structure that doesn't have steering or damping)

gear-animation-nla.jpg


In the picture "orrfuto" means "nosegear" in my language :)

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gear-animation-nla.jpg (243.6 KiB)
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oliv72 avatar image
oliv72 answered sal1800 edited

One little thing: Templates can call other templates and subtemplates, if you specify <Anim name> in the main Template calling all others (also with <Anim name> code), this first Anim name will be the one used.

To be confirmed by pros!

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sal1800 avatar image sal1800 ·

This is correct. Any parameters will be persistent and used by subtemplates except if there is a override parameter in the template. But <ANIM_NAME> is the correct parameter name.

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sal1800 avatar image
sal1800 answered zlin142 commented

Double-check you are using the correct range of keyframes in Blender.

  • frames 0: neutral position
  • frames 1 to 201: landing gear being extended animation, from fully retracted, to fully extended
  • frames 201 - 401: landing gear compressing from neutral to fully compressed


https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/mergedProjects/How_To_Make_An_Aircraft/Contents/Modelling/Airframe/Animations/Animating_Landing_Gear.htm

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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 ·

Thank you so much for the reply and for the link! I haven't seen it yet, but now I'll check it!

My animation seems to match your recommendation, except damping and steering animation that I not make it yet.
But I'll re-animate the whole thing based on your link and recommends, thanks again for the hint!!

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Ariebaba avatar image
Ariebaba answered zlin142 commented

The empty fuel tank is anoying. I found out that if you don’t release the parking brake (also preventing the plane from rolling away after build) and you don’t use aircraft select window, you can rebuild many times without problems.

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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 ·
Yes, I agree.

Another interesting thing: I cannot apply throttle with my joystick, I can raise the engine RPM only with keyboard buttons (F2-F3) ...

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oliv72 avatar image
oliv72 answered oliv72 commented

I also met this problem, maybe check throttle assignments in control options, there are several possible assignments: Engine1,2,3,4.. and a global one...

I don t know which priority is linked to Global engine assignment compared to Engines1,2,3,4 ?

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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 ·
Thanks for the hint! I'll check asap!
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zlin142 avatar image zlin142 ·
Hi oliv!

Sorry for not response earlier, I wrote you at YT!
Tadaaaa, I have neeeeew probleeems! :D

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oliv72 avatar image oliv72 zlin142 ·
Hi Tibor, yes i have read your answer. I m sure there is a solution about the noze gear.

There are no reason that it doesn t work like other rear gears.

Yes, the editor has some little problems when initial values are all set to 0. But your gears must work !

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oliv72 avatar image oliv72 oliv72 ·

When your problem will be solved, i would like someone to explain (me) how the "Steering template" works.

I was using rudder anim to anim nose gear but i m not sure this is the officlal way of moving nose gear.

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oliv72 avatar image
oliv72 answered

I meant Throttle axis compared to Throttle 1/2/3/4 axis.

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