Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Recovery of the Eurofighter Project...


As promised here is a status report of the Eurofighter project after the "ransomware" incident that wiped out all of my source files. Basically you can indeed use ModelConverterX by Aron (great tool...THANK YOU ARNO) to open the .mdl files and convert them into .3DS format, and then reimport it into 3DS Max or Gmax (or other applications....3DS is a very popular format). In principle you loose the animations, smoothing, the materials and the XML taggin but preserve the geometry and the texturing coordinates - as side effect, the geometry is not super-clean nor flawless.
Unfortunately, in the case of the Typhoon, a number of minor details were lost in the process - such as the landing gears, some engine details and the pilot helmet.
So... the external model is recoverable...but will require several weeks of work - not good, but could have been much worse.
Unfortunately, most of the Virtual Cockpit is garbage. A lot of the geometry of the switches and levers is lost or corrupt and require more work than I expected.

Here is the status:

LOST:

- 3D source models (both external and VC and custom weapons)
- Source texture sheets and paintkit (layered PSD)
- Part of the XML code
- My standard templates for things such as HMD projection etc.

INTACT:
- External .mdl was almost finished (maybe I can use it as it is...)
- Incomplete virtual cockpit (is missing the ejection seat and some other details)
- Latest avionics code (HUD almost complete)

RECOVERED
 - (Partial) geometry and texture coordinates. Need to redo part of the geometry, animation etc.

 Long story short... I need to evaluate my options carefully. One possibility is to use the external .mdl as is (missing a number of eye-candy features, and the custom weapons) and redo the missing parts of the VC.
More news soon.


9 comments:

D said...

Thank you for the updates! Good luck on the recovery!

Anonymous said...

Wow!!! the updates!

Unknown said...

Very glad that at least a partial recovery has been possible! However, this does highlight the need for periodic and independently-accessible backups, especially considering that hdd failures are not unheard of and such a failure could have had similar consequences.

Unknown said...

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/teslacrypt-shuts-down-and-releases-master-decryption-key/ ???

Carss said...

Hi Dino, I have one suggestion. Since you have made the F-35, can you also work to integrate it into Falcon BMS 4.33? Since DCS is far too advanced and classified. Falcon BMS is much more open and easier, plus you can incorporate the real weapons of the F-35 like the AIM-9X and AIM-120D, plus you have all three variants of the F-35.

Just asking if it's ok.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on being included on the PC Pilot Issue 104 CD for the T-45! Great job and a great plane to fly!

Anonymous said...

Hello Dino, keep on going with the Typhoon project, your work is very appreciated. A good TP'd EF is missing in the simworld. Thanks for your great work.

roccio said...

Hello Dino, have you looked at at

https://www.nomoreransom.org/index.html

Maybe it can help you!

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