[RELEASED] DC Designs F-4 Phantom II Discussion

No need to apologise. :slightly_smiling_face: It is an easy fix if not!

There wont be any suggested liveries. There are too many requests/suggestions on a daily basis and only limited time and size to each aircraft package

What is ‘fin flash?’

The artwork on the tail, or so I assume at least.

ID stripe marks on the tail. On the 74 Sqn that DuckDuckDuck mentioned it’s these red and blue stripes
image
And what the real life ones looked like
image

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A lot of air forces use a fin flash to identify the nation that the aircraft belongs. In the case of the Royal Air Force of which the 74 Squadron aircraft is depicted in the first screenshot on the Just Flight website, the fin flash is the light blue and very very light red parallel stripes on the tail. However in the screenshots they are not the right size nor are they at the correct angle. I understand it’s a very small point but I do think it stands out.

I understand. Nothing wrong with pointing things like that out.

sometimes, graphic artists leave flaws in their work so that they can tell if it has been copied or distributed without their permission. Some of these “errors” may well be on purpose or at the request of the developer

I note that this model is void of the main gear wheel well blisters on top of the wings as all phantoms had. That and the polygonal canopy frame are keeping me away from this one. I understand that the target market is not super realism, but why bother really? How hard is it to make it at least look correct? With all these half baked (IMO) aircraft cluttering the market, good ones will more than likely not be forthcoming from other developers, which is a shame.

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Don´t worry another Phantom F-4E that is really targeting 101% hyperrealism is currently in development by HeatBlur who made the superb F-14.
In this version you don´t need to worry about blisters and whatnot :wink: but only if your notebook has enough pages to write all the details you learn from the YouTube tutorial videos.

Here a 3D scan of the cockpits:

And the RIO backseat:

Heatblurs F14 for MSFS is currently unreleased and its also in partnership with IFE so their track record in THIS sim is totally unproven. At least with DC products there is plenty of reference material and a superb track record to reference for those that like to do their research.

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Something about the mention of wing blisters made me think, so I went for a good look around to make sure I had not missed something obvious. On no images can I see any blisters atop the wings, although perhaps they’re too subtle to see easily.

Why bother really? How hard is it to make it at least look correct?

The reason for not worrying about minute details is because once a developer starts listening to such things, it never ends. Ever. No matter how detailed a model becomes, somebody, somewhere will always say: “Why didn’t you do such-and-such? How hard is it to do that? Don’t you take pride in your work?” etc etc. Add the detail, and then it’s: “Well, you’ve done that, but you didn’t do x-y-z.” Then the “lazy developer” stuff starts somewhere after that.

The aircraft I build are hugely popular for a reason - they’re built for the commercial, largest market, those who don’t worry about the width of an antenna or a barely visible if-at-all blister on a wing. I build for the 99%, not the 1%, and frankly, it’s worked so astoundingly well that I’d be an idiot to change a thing.

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they aren’t blisters - but the wing root area was slightly ‘thickened’ or reinforced to make up for the lost structural integrity to the wings created by making large landing gear wells in them - a common practice for combat aircraft dating back to WWII with the advent of wing mounted retractable LG
Also - WRT to the various shapes of the different marks of the F4 Phantom line of aircraft.
This is the appearance I think that has people voicing concerns

but if you look a bit further into the type’s related marks you see a difference

As DC states he builds for the Majority not the minority. If someone doesn’t like the product they are absolutely under no obligation or legal requirements to purchase or even glance in its general direction.
His products his choice on how they are released

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There are a tremendous number of differences between Phantom variants due to its long service life, not just externally but internally also, so many that no sensibly priced package could ever cover them all. That’s the tricky bit for me as a developer - how to deliver something that gives the target customer as many Phantoms as possible, while retaining as much accuracy as I can, within a sensible price bracket.

The F4J, F4E and FGR2 I felt could be represented well within one package as the obvious differences were easy to model ( nose shapes, exhausts, tail fin differences etc ) while the less obvious differences would go unnoticed by all but Phantom Phanatics and perhaps those who worked upon or flew them.

It’s always a compromise. Most folks know that’s what I try to do with each of my multi-variant packs. I leave the super-accurate versions to other developers, like Sim Works Studios, who are working on their F4B for MSFS. Everybody eventually gets what they want that way - it’s why there are no B,C or D variants in my pack, I didn’t want to get in SWS’s way for their product.

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It happens in the scale model world too mate. You can spend hundreds of hours on a model and then the 'Rivet Counters" step in.

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It’s Phabulous Phantom Phriday time!

Courtesy Dean on FB:

PHRIDAY NEWS UPDATE ( ALL IMAGES ARE WIP )

Hi folks!

I’m back from my holiday and, after a week of sunshine and rest, I now have a head cold. Fairly typical!

A lot of news for you all this week though, so there’s plenty to catch up on. Firstly, the Phantoms are now all but complete and I’m working on the LOD models and other final tasks required before they can be compiled for launch, as well as any final coding and polishing of the aircraft. Mostly though we’re just waiting for the custom sound packs which Sim Acoustics have promised to have done for us by the end of the month if not sooner. Just Flight will almost certainly lead with sales, as the Marketplace isn’t much quicker now than it was before, as far as I can tell.

The LOD models have been the subject of a few interesting experiments, which have resulted in aircraft that no longer “vanish” too early when culled by the sim itself. Although this is not a new technique, it’s the first time I’ve put it into the actual aircraft ( normally it only featured in my AI packs ). Now, you can see an aircraft at a much greater distance, the model being an extremely low-poly LOD version that is just a dark grey colour but still recognisable as a Phantom. The purpose behind this was to enhance the experience of “radar intercepts” – now, you can remove those ugly name tags in MSFS and intercept other players purely using the Phantom’s multi-mode radar, before acquiring them visually ready for the final intercept and / or dogfight.

The primary driver behind this work is the DC Designs Fighter Weapons School, to allow for accurate Beyond Visual Range intercepts, but it’s still great for general use and will be rolled out on all of our fighter jets over the summer. I was able to eyeball an F-15E at around 6 nautical miles when testing this ( it’s a BIG jet ) as its lights were visible in the sim. At 4 nautical miles, I could identify it visually as an Eagle if it rolled belly-up to me to show it’s wing shape ( on a 4K monitor ). Virtual Reality revealed similar visual ranges and makes flying much more realistic when the sky isn’t full of floating name tags.

…

That’s about it for this week. Happy Friday! :blush:


“Smokey J-79 engines on the F4-J Phantom. The amount of smoke varies with throttle setting.”

“F4J Phantom in flight testing, here at 64,000ft after a zoom climb for performance testing.”

“The Phantom’s radar is now multi-mode, with adjustable reticule settings, ranges and search function. Here the radar is actually presenting a short-range A/G mode, with ground tracks as solid dots, and a single aircraft as a hollow dot with direction line. The aircraft is visible through the wind shield, just above the gun-sight glass.”

“F4-J cockpit from the exterior view using the SDK to show the pilot and RIO offices.”

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the majority? the 99%? you mean GTA players? c’mon, you guys are releasing something about $35-40. there is no “low quality, large market”, there is only “low price, large market”. you guys release expensive but low quality products and never listen to your customers, this is for “largest market”? this is “commercial”?

No body forces you to buy it if you dont like it.

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When is the marketplace release date for Xbox?