XB-70 Valkyrie work in progress

Yeah, how’s it going Airmax!?

Hi, I was out of home for the last week, so a little pause on the developement, but tomorrow I’ll be back at work! I am creating the _LM maps for the instruments backlighting.
Unfortunately no pictures exist (AFAIK) of the panels in dark conditions, so I don’t know exactly how the gauges were backlighted, or flooded and of what colour. So I’ll try to do something that makes the gauges readable and somehow “good to see” even if probably not 100% true to original. I am also studying how the _LM textures are controlled by the potentiometers value, according to sdk indications and examples.

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Hi Smitty! WOW those were really exceptional transports!!! Normally I am annoyed when I find a road closed for an exceptional transport, and I have to change my route or wait, but in this case… boys I would have walked along the road in the fields for some miles just to admire those planes. The sequence about the XB-70 is just mind blowing. Unbelievable!

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I’ve been a bad boy,… i’ve sent in a request for information regarding the backlighting to the Dayton museum, as they might be in contact wtih either mechanics, engineers or even pilot’s who were closely related to the aircraft. Maybe they can help, maybe theyll disregard it. Dunno, but it’d be a shame if i didn’t try.

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Planes of that era were usually lit by red pin lights near the gauge dial. Phantom, Tweet, B-52 are three planes that come to mind. There were also Radium gauges, but the Valkyrie is too new.

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Interior and exterior lighting under developement. Probably a more reddish color will be the final choice.



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Looks fantastic!
In fact I think the model will look better than the real thing!

+1 for the reddish hues in night lighting I think military planes of that era would use a reddish light for the cockpit to keep the crew’s night vision.

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Looks great.
And red cockpit lighting is probably more accurate
This is the cockpit of a kc-135 for reference

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As you probably have noticed, I put an MFD screen over the fuel tanks screen, of course it’s not true to original but it’s pretty useful. I will leave some textures that could be replaced with “historical” instruments just changing some rows in panel.cfg, or better, create different panel.cfg for genuine cold war cockpit and fictional “new life XB-70” representing a possible revamping of the plane for further high speed tests!

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That’s a great idea! I don’t know if you can have different panel.cfg and manually change them depending on personal preference. A true to original and a more current or practical o e would be very nice!

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This is the new gauges backlight, comments are welcome!


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Maybe it’s a bit too uniform in appearance? I of course have no idea how easy or difficult it is to make them have some differentiation, so take this feedback with my ignorance on full display!

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Extremely better, I like how it has a look similar to Concorde and I think that makes a lot of sense.
Can’t wait to test this…

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I agree with luis. Concorde is a nice reference to compare against and I feel it there.
One thing that is more personal than real, as I fly in VR, is there a way that seats could be gray or so? Red makes me thing I am in a Ferrari and as in VR seats are visible they stand out to much.
Of course this is only a personal preference, for the rest looks spectacular!

The real seats are on this curtain-orange tone so I think that is the realistic color. But if they are very annoying in VR maybe something can be done, I’m not a VR user and I prefer to have the plane as close as the real thing as possible but also the plane needs to be nice for all of us not only me.

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The orange thingy seems much nicer. What I was meaning is if it could be changed as per user, like a livery or something like this. Never meant to change it for all.

This is only a minor thing, obviously not a priority right now, let see first it flying in VR :wink:

I think a livery can be created with a different interior color. I see some planes that do that they can change the exterior livery and the cockpit and cabin colors too. So I guess the way to do this is to create a livery with the colors that suit VR best.

I would have guessed the orange color was to make the seats easier to find in case of ejection but the plane uses ejection pods…

Thanx. I lost interest in the project as soon as I saw that screen, glad to hear a simple cfg change makes it go asway

in my visit to Dayton back in 1996 i filled out a suggestion card about taking some panels off aircraft to see the structure. thinking now the tittle was how can we improve your visit? and i start with a tool box and an aircraft ladder. at that time i wasnt on the internet (yes there was a time!) so put my friends mailing address on the card. they actually got a reply pointing out the do have open days for aircraft. i know that these are history exhibits and the general public cant be trusted but i do wish more aircraft museums have more of there aircraft exposed. here in the uk at duxford in the American hanger there were no barriers and the F 111 bomb bay doors are open. you can get on your knees and crawl in to look at the inside. just let your friends know before you do it so they dont think you have been snatched. i felt shame

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They still do - but I have yet to see this one offered up (and for good reason) simply because of the logistics of getting up and down to see in and out.

I loved how it was back in the 90s when you got a lot closer, but understand why they have the ropes (thankfully got rid of the bars for the most part!) to keep people back.

Last time I was there they had the Mig 29, C119 and one other I am forgetting opened up to see in - and with the 119 you could walk in and chat with crew who were on the satellite recovery mission

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