As far as I know, Occam's Razer's still wrapping up the mesh. On the programming side, Joel hasn't had time to play BeamNG lately, let alone program for it. I don't really have an ETA
it had been almost a MONTH since the last post. how long does the wrap take or something? b y the sounds of its been almost 3 months its taken?
Occam's Razer is in college and has a part-time job, Joel's also in college and is swamped with projects. I myself am on my senior year of high school and have college applications to worry about, and have found other hobbies. Add to that the fact that none of us have wanted to work on this thing anymore for the past few months and you get one very delayed project. Jbeam-wise, there's no main landing gear, no flaps, the tail section's not attached and neither are the floats. Programming-wise, we haven't updated the engine code in over a year or converted it to the "new" aircraft controls (new being in quotation marks because it was new when we first discussed updating it), it doesn't float and the gauges can't do anything. Mesh-wise, I had a really shitty approach when first making it and yes, we're still cleaning up those mistakes, and there's still materials to sort out. Everytime I fixed something in the mesh, that meant the jbeam had to change as well, so it's sort of a terrible cycle that's left everyone tired. Just the main landing gear alone has been remade well over 5 times, and Joel hasn't had time to update it since the third mesh "fix". There are also no textures because there are no UV maps. Feature-wise, bombing hasn't been implemented and while I planned on taking a look at programming some turrets ever since I saw the D-Series Technical, I never got around to it, due to being tired and unmotivated most of the time. TL;DR: The project was started in a shitty way, most of the jbeam had to be redone over and over and so did the programming, due to game updates and me going back to fix the mesh, the main programmers have no time to work on this and none of us even want to. The only reason the project hasn't completely stagnated is that we want to at least have something to show for the over 2 years this thing's been in development, and most importantly, because we want to move onto other projects. If anyone wants to help out with doing... well, any of the things mentioned above, we'll gladly have you on board. But otherwise, this is probably gonna take a very long time, so don't hold your breath.
Just chill out. If there was something going on, he would post about it. Clearly, there isn't any progress, so stop asking and being a nuisance.
Not good, it's practically the same as it was last time I posted an update. The only thing I did do afterwards was actually make the mesh for the windows and remodel the yoke, because it looked pretty bad. I'm pretty sure I did that in March? Maybe April, this year's been gong by way faster than I'd like to admit, without much getting done. Occam's Razer did send me a version with the exterior UV mapped, and I had gotten started on basic painting, but never went past that, as I saw no point in doing so unless I knew for sure it would ever actually be finished. The Mariner's main problem, other than the rather hasty approach at the beginning, is time and motivation. And by time I mean both our free time and the timing issues we've had with it. I started this project when I had just barely started high school, with a middle school level knowledge of physics and no programming knowledge. If I hadn't gotten any help at all, it's hard to see the project having even reached a point where it even floated. A lot of its jbeam hasn't really changed since, and the programming's never been updated. The Mariner is, in every way possible, outdated. When I started work on it, it was going to be the largest aircraft in the game, the first one to float, and (by February of 2016) the first one with reverse thrust. And for a bit it was. It could float, it did fly and it did reverse. But the jbeam was very old and didn't match the mesh, and other than the floats, wings, stabilizers and propellers it had no collision triangles. I'm pretty sure it still doesn't. Right now there's sort of two versions of the plane: The functional one: This version has remained mostly unchanged since the early days, most of the jbeam dating back to 2015. This version stopped being worked on when I decided to adjust the jbeam to more closely match the mesh. The nose gear doesn't retract at all anymore (I'm not sure why, it used to), and the main landing gear, while functional, in no way matches the mesh. The flaps also function, but don't match the mesh or behave like the aircraft's real ones would. The plane is able to get off the ground, but it looks ridiculous in flight, as the game's lift and drag parameters were heavily modified a few updates back (at least as I understand it, I could be entirely wrong), meaning the plane generates ridiculous amounts of lift and is able to maintain flight while going as slow as 30 mph. It cannot break apart and can barely collide, since the only coltris are in the wings, tail and propellers, and it lacks breakgroups. It has separate throttle controls for each engine, but these only work with keyboard bindings. There is no actual "throttle" control, as this plane precedes custom inputs, mostly working with lua and thrusters. There is no sound and a lot of the mesh refuses to show up, or deforms in weird ways when the control inputs are moved. It also lacks textures and coding for the gauges, and the landing lights were never installed. No light effects were ever added. This version does float (though it sits a bit too low in the water, since we were partway though setting the aircraft to its real life weight), but cannot take off as the propellers explode upon contact with the water The "updated" one: Missing everything aft of the wings, as well as the propellers and wingfloats. Needless to say, it's not airworthy. The bomb bay doors do open, but there is no bombing equipment. The wing is able to split down the middle, for realism's sake (while on the real plane the entire outer wing is one solid piece, it is rather huge and would very easily break or bend in a crash). This version also lacks flaps, textures, sound, coding for the gauges, landing lights and light effects. On timing & motivation: As I've said before, timing and motivations are some of the biggest issues regarding the Mariner. Whether it be game updates the break our code, or just us not being free at the same time to work on this. The Mariner would've been revolutionary... in 2015. It's no longer the largest aircraft, it's no longer the first one to float. It's not even the first flying boat anymore, nor the first amphibian patrol bomber. It also lacks any sort of defensive armament, leaving it as little more than target practice for combat-capable aircraft. There's not really a need for it, and the reception (or lack thereof) to previous projects Joel and I have collaborated on doesn't leave us too excited to work on it. Will this ever be finished? Unless someone steps up wanting to finish this... no, it probably won't. The mod is old and missing quite a few parts, and behaves nothing like the real thing. The mesh is the most complete thing about it, and even then it's still missing the windshield wipers, and the vertical stabilizer and bow windows could use an update.The flight engineer's panel also lacks any detail whatsoever. As far as I know there is no normal mapping, and only the exterior is actually UV'd. Never figured out how materials work in BeamNG. If someone does want to get this thing working, please contact me. I can provide the original 1948 flight manual, a number of factory blueprints, and of course the 3d model itself. I can also explain a lot about how the plane's systems work, and how we planned on implementing features (that we never had the time to add). I'm sorry. For everything -Matt
