Thanks, @mikoyanster. I was wondering, were you going to re-submit your level flight entry? If you just add a crosshair and reduce the control sensitivity, it would do very well.
@Ephwurd First, you need to install ReShade -- it just needs to be extracted to the folder containing SimplePlanes.exe, which on my PC is G:\games\Steam\SteamApps\common\SimplePlanes\. In there you'll find a folder called reshade-shaders\Shaders. Extract the SledDriverShaderPack.fx file there, then launch the game, and in the config dialog that comes up, click "Reload." That should load all the shaders in the .fx file, which you can enable one by one. The one you see in my screenshots and gifs is OrangeBlueSaturated.
@KSPFSXandSP Yeah, but at that speed it might have to be. Adding a meatbag and associated systems would probably make it too big/heavy/expensive. Anyway, at that speed you'd only be flying in a straight line. For "fun" flying you probably need something like an agile, Mach ~2 fighter.
@Nqrz Well, unless you're a programmer (and a good one) it'll be hard to explain. Meanwhile, you can try my parts kits here and here. My builds, including this one, are composed of subassemblies like these.
@MaximusTheMinimus Ha, I wish I'd been an SR-71 pilot... but the only flying I've done is as an airline passenger. I chose the name because the SR-71 is my favourite aircraft by far.
@FGW2014 Understanding is only a couple of Google searches away :) OBS Studio is a screen recording program, which gives you a video that you can upload to Youtube etc. as is. VirtualDub is a video editing program that lets you trim, crop, and resize the video, and so on, and export it as a GIF. That's all.
@PhantomBladeCorp Minor point, it's not the aircraft that are script-generated, just the primitive shapes (tapered sections, cylindrical sections, etc.). The aircraft themselves are designed by me and put together by hand. If I could write a script to come up with the entire aircraft designs that I make, I'd be a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize in AI.
But either way, it's a bit like asking someone who's automated the assembly line in a car factory to build a car entirely with his hands, including carving each part from blocks of metal by hand. It doesn't make sense (to me).
To put it another way, it takes more skill to write the scripts to generate these shapes, than to put an entire aircraft together by hand single piece by single piece -- which is more a matter of painstaking but mindless effort. I respect effort, but I respect creativity and skill more.
@PhantomBladeCorp Well, I know you love replicas and also build great replicas and I respect that, but they just don't interest me. Different folks, etc.
@PlaneBuild0512 That is pretty weird. Never happened to me though, but then I'm on a PC, so that might be a factor. I'd recommend saving a new version regularly when you're working on a build. I regularly go through five or six versions before getting to the finished build.
@Davisplanez It doesn't say anywhere that you have to fly at full throttle :) Throttle down to around 50%, select high agility mode, trim up so you're flying level, line up, then fire away.
@RMark1 Hmm, wonder what's going on there. Other people have also complained that they can't see my builds in their Jetstream (paging Dr @AndrewGarrison). Thanks though, glad you like it.
@Irobert55 It doesn't have to be a real seaplane - just a simple plane-like shape with floats would be fine. Anyway it's not important what you have in the image, it just needs to be eye-catching. A sea background with the words "EXPERIMENTAL SEAPLANE CHALLENGE" would be fine.
As for the description, how about: You have to build an airplane that normally wouldn't be able to land on water because of its structure (for instance, it has fins or engines protruding underneath), but it has retractable floats that give it water-landing capability.
I'm signing off now, so won't be replying until tomorrow. Good luck!
@Irobert55 Yes, it's pretty hard to get a challenge post noticed. Another thing you could have done, though, is make the thumbnail more interesting. The scroll is a nice idea, but in the thumbnail it's hard to tell that it's a scroll. In your place I'd have used a designer background with water, and an interesting-looking seaplane or something similar, related to the theme of the challenge. The image needs to be eye-catching and memorable.
I'd also change the language of the description - at the moment it's probably a little hard to understand for most English speakers :)
@PlaneBuild0512 Thanks. So you're saying that you left your airplane almost finished in the designer, and when you came back, a lot of the parts were missing? Maybe someone messed around with your device. Have you tried undo-ing?
@FGW2014 I think I've seen it done before, using an "infinite" rotator coupled with a custom propeller. I haven't done any work with propellers, though, so I'm not really the man to ask.
@Stingray I've never played EVE Online, I just used it as a reference for graphics quality. Elite: Dangerous is another good example, I believe (haven't played that, either). Screenshots: Elite Dangerous and EVE Online.
@mikoyanster Are you planning to re-submit this with the two fixes I mentioned below? This would be a good contender, and would probably get second place easily, but at the moment it doesn't meet the requirements.
@Reaper9 Sure thing, it's a nice build.
@SoulDestroyer9 Here you go. Let me know when you've downloaded it so I can delete it (I don't want unlisted posts cluttering up my posts pages).
Thanks, @mikoyanster. I was wondering, were you going to re-submit your level flight entry? If you just add a crosshair and reduce the control sensitivity, it would do very well.
@Ephwurd First, you need to install ReShade -- it just needs to be extracted to the folder containing SimplePlanes.exe, which on my PC is G:\games\Steam\SteamApps\common\SimplePlanes\. In there you'll find a folder called reshade-shaders\Shaders. Extract the SledDriverShaderPack.fx file there, then launch the game, and in the config dialog that comes up, click "Reload." That should load all the shaders in the .fx file, which you can enable one by one. The one you see in my screenshots and gifs is OrangeBlueSaturated.
+1@Ephwurd Yeah, the convoy's too small to be much fun. There's a link to my shaders in my profile.
@Ephwurd Yeah... I wish there was more to do in the sandbox, though. Seven targets just aren't enough.
Glad you like it, @KSPFSXandSP
@KSPFSXandSP Yeah, but at that speed it might have to be. Adding a meatbag and associated systems would probably make it too big/heavy/expensive. Anyway, at that speed you'd only be flying in a straight line. For "fun" flying you probably need something like an agile, Mach ~2 fighter.
@Nqrz Go for it.
@Nqrz Well, unless you're a programmer (and a good one) it'll be hard to explain. Meanwhile, you can try my parts kits here and here. My builds, including this one, are composed of subassemblies like these.
@MaximusTheMinimus Ha, I wish I'd been an SR-71 pilot... but the only flying I've done is as an airline passenger. I chose the name because the SR-71 is my favourite aircraft by far.
+1@EternalDarkness But of course...
Glad you think so, @JettStorm. Try it out, if only to see how level it flies.
@RandomDude How about this thing?
@FGW2014 Understanding is only a couple of Google searches away :) OBS Studio is a screen recording program, which gives you a video that you can upload to Youtube etc. as is. VirtualDub is a video editing program that lets you trim, crop, and resize the video, and so on, and export it as a GIF. That's all.
@PhantomBladeCorp Minor point, it's not the aircraft that are script-generated, just the primitive shapes (tapered sections, cylindrical sections, etc.). The aircraft themselves are designed by me and put together by hand. If I could write a script to come up with the entire aircraft designs that I make, I'd be a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize in AI.
But either way, it's a bit like asking someone who's automated the assembly line in a car factory to build a car entirely with his hands, including carving each part from blocks of metal by hand. It doesn't make sense (to me).
To put it another way, it takes more skill to write the scripts to generate these shapes, than to put an entire aircraft together by hand single piece by single piece -- which is more a matter of painstaking but mindless effort. I respect effort, but I respect creativity and skill more.
@PhantomBladeCorp Well, I know you love replicas and also build great replicas and I respect that, but they just don't interest me. Different folks, etc.
Thanks, @CreativeDean
@MisterMitchell Thanks! You can always depend on SD Industries products to be very capable :)
@VOVAK Sure, but I'd need a good reason to do that. Large builds have a lot of advantages.
@PlaneBuild0512 That is pretty weird. Never happened to me though, but then I'm on a PC, so that might be a factor. I'd recommend saving a new version regularly when you're working on a build. I regularly go through five or six versions before getting to the finished build.
@MisterMitchell Yeah, this build was just crying out for some color :)
@FGW2014 I record it using OBS Studio, then edit and convert it to a GIF using VirtualDub.
@Davisplanez It doesn't say anywhere that you have to fly at full throttle :) Throttle down to around 50%, select high agility mode, trim up so you're flying level, line up, then fire away.
Thanks, @ACMECo1940
@sxy Nope, far from my first. Black and gold has been a recurring theme in my builds.
@RMark1 Hmm, wonder what's going on there. Other people have also complained that they can't see my builds in their Jetstream (paging Dr @AndrewGarrison). Thanks though, glad you like it.
@Irobert55 It doesn't have to be a real seaplane - just a simple plane-like shape with floats would be fine. Anyway it's not important what you have in the image, it just needs to be eye-catching. A sea background with the words "EXPERIMENTAL SEAPLANE CHALLENGE" would be fine.
As for the description, how about: You have to build an airplane that normally wouldn't be able to land on water because of its structure (for instance, it has fins or engines protruding underneath), but it has retractable floats that give it water-landing capability.
I'm signing off now, so won't be replying until tomorrow. Good luck!
@Irobert55 Yes, it's pretty hard to get a challenge post noticed. Another thing you could have done, though, is make the thumbnail more interesting. The scroll is a nice idea, but in the thumbnail it's hard to tell that it's a scroll. In your place I'd have used a designer background with water, and an interesting-looking seaplane or something similar, related to the theme of the challenge. The image needs to be eye-catching and memorable.
I'd also change the language of the description - at the moment it's probably a little hard to understand for most English speakers :)
@Irobert55 It's a good idea.
@Irobert55 If I understand correctly, you want airplanes that normally cannot land on water, but with extendable floats to let them do so?
@chancey21 Variety is the spice of life, or so they say.
@PlaneBuild0512 Thanks. So you're saying that you left your airplane almost finished in the designer, and when you came back, a lot of the parts were missing? Maybe someone messed around with your device. Have you tried undo-ing?
+1@MisterMitchell Nope, I didn't know who he is until just now when I looked him up...
Thanks, @phanps. So many bullets, so few targets...
Thanks, @Jetpackturtle @Davisplanez
@FGW2014 I think I've seen it done before, using an "infinite" rotator coupled with a custom propeller. I haven't done any work with propellers, though, so I'm not really the man to ask.
@MisterMitchell No thanks required... the upvote is the thanks, for uploading something good.
+1@Aarons123 This one is among my favourites too.
@Aarons123 You mean the more realistic ones?
Hi, @Aarons123, thanks for the upvote, even if it was from a mobile.
@BaconRoll High explosions-per-second ratio gets them every time :)
@MisterMitchell No problem, buddy
@Stingray Thanks. Yeah, I did a few kamikaze runs myself when trying to record that video.
@CreativeDean Here you go.
@CreativeDean Er, no. I'm still within the two-day time window, right?
@FGW2014 Sure thing, this is a nice little flying saucer. The cockpit is very original, too.
@Stingray I've never played EVE Online, I just used it as a reference for graphics quality. Elite: Dangerous is another good example, I believe (haven't played that, either). Screenshots: Elite Dangerous and EVE Online.
@mikoyanster Are you planning to re-submit this with the two fixes I mentioned below? This would be a good contender, and would probably get second place easily, but at the moment it doesn't meet the requirements.
@MisterMitchell "SledDriver" will do nicely, thanks.