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"No longer serving the 5%"
The AI Aardvark Philosophy
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Our guiding principle here was that the key to an enjoyable AI traffic
experience is that it was all about frame rates. What was the point of
having real world flight schedules, lots of AFCAD gates and hundreds of
additional AI aircraft if the result was crippling frame rates? I T .W A S A L L A B O U T F R A M E R A T E S ! |
December 12, 2018 Something old, something new... |
This model started out life back in October as a weekend challenge to build a CL-215 for use as a static scenery object. That went well, but it looked a little too good. Wonder how hard it would be to make it fly?
We'd never even heard of the Super 27 until about a month ago. Imagine you replaced the 2 fuselage mounted engines on a 727 with the engines and nacelles from a MD-80. That's basically what the Super 27 is. Hey, finally a 727 with thrust reversers you can see in action.
If you like long engine cans and 'slightly' lower noise levels, this is the one for you! |
December 12, 2017 Dreamlifter! |
This release includes repaints for all 4 currently existing Dreamlifters. They're all basically the same, except for some different nose windows, at least one different registration font and the amount of dirt on the swinging tail. We are not releasing a paintkit for this one. The stunts required to fit the fuselage expansion onto the original texture led us to do some things that would not be considered "best practices" in texturing a model. The bulged fuselage is half the size on the texture as the rest of the fuselage which would make doing any repaint that spanned across the original fuselage and the new parts a nightmare to line up. This release is an FS9 model, an FSX version should be along shortly, just as soon as we can find the FSX install discs. P3D? We have no idea what you're talking about. Seriously, what is that, a 3-D game about urination? |
February 7, 2012
AIA releases some FSX stuff... |
Anyway, there are some FSX versions of a lot of our models that have been uploaded to the usual places. Yes,
we know there are a lot of engine variations missing and we plan on getting
to that, but because of real life, it will be a few months before that
happens. (Assuming even more real life doesn't get in the way) We did lose them. Honest! For Real! What we did find was a gmax file for a 1 LOD model of the 747-400GE, but it was not the final gmax file that the FS9 747's were compiled from. Using
that file we rebuilt the LOD's, (only not so many LOD's as before) and
then we had a 747-400GE. For the 747-300 we had to build a new wing, since
the wings of the -300 and -400 are not the same. Plus some PW engines
for it. That gave us the wings and engines we needed to make a 747-200,
but we needed to make a new nose section since the -200 doesn't have the
extended upper deck. So, enjoy the FSX models! |
December 24, 2009
Santa brought a bag full of winglets... |
It's the old 767-300 model we released in 2003. Heck, it's not even that, it's actually from a fossilized gmax file that we exhumed and used to make the UT2 767's. This dusty gmax file was not even the one that the original released models were compiled from, it's older than that. It had all the animations, but only 6 LODs, compared to the 10 LODs the released model had. But, since our extensive fps testing has led us to start using a lot less LODs, we didn't have a problem with that. So, what did we do to this relic from FS2002, besides slapping some winglets on it? We changed the shape of the nose, cockpit windows, and APU section. We rebuilt the engines and pylons, added thrust reverser parts and compressing landing gear, and cleaned up that eyesore leading edge wing root. What we did not touch were the wings and flaps or the fuselage blister (we're not masochists). Even though the engines were rebuilt, they were intentionally made to match the shape of the original engines for purposes of paintkit compatibility. Speaking of engines, we only made GE and PW engines because thus far, there are no RR engined 763's with winglets, and we had some important World of Warcraft quests to work on. This
will illustrate what we changed: In addition, a new paintkit was created from almost scratch. We say "almost" because we did recycle some pieces from other paintkits, just because we're so lazy. The wheels and engine fans are all modified textures from the DC-8. If you're a fan blade counter, this model may very well send you into therapy. We've painted all the current users of the 763 winglet, but more keep showing up every couple of months, so eventually, we'll get around to uploading the paintkit for it. Note: You can probably use this new paintkit on the old 767-300 model as well, but we never actually checked that out. (reason? We're lazy, of course...) Using the new paintkit on the old models will not magically endow them with operating thrust reversers though. One last thing, in addition to the usual FS9 model, we've also made a real FSX version of this model as well. So, if you're using FSX, you might want to use the FSX model, because the FSX model is waaaay more fps friendly than the same FS9 model used in FSX. Course, FSX models have some issues, the engine fans don't work, the wheels lock up on landing, and don't even get us started on what happens after dark. These are all "features" of the default FSX models as well though. So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all the usual gang of idiots here at aia. |
May 27, 2009
Newsflash for freeware alarmists |
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May 26, 2009
Aardvark Sells Out!!! Death of Freeware is Near! |
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April 1, 2009
Aardvark announces massive layoffs... |
Aardvark's dedicated employees took a further hit when it was discovered that the AIA CEO/COO/CFO had perpetrated an elaborate scam on the dedicated aardvark workforce by convincing them to do an incredible amount of work for a seemingly vaporware project. As the project neared completion, the AIA CEO/COO/CFO simply kept all the money for himself and was last seen heading for South America in a 'borrowed" Fokker 70 jet. To add insult to injury, he even emptied the drink machines as he left the AIA hangar. The single remaining AIA employee, a janitor who sweeps out the mostly empty hangar once a week has announced that he will be appearing before the US Congress next week to request $1.5 billion in bailout money. Most of this money would go towards paying off debts incurred from a failed scheme to market 747's parked out in the desert as deluxe vacation timeshare accomodations. The rest will be used for the acquisition of a new gold-plated G5 to replace the stolen F70. |
August 16, 2008
Fokker 100/70 released... |
Not a plane that we ever envisioned building, but after being asked last December by someone at World of AI, and with the somewhat vague suggestion that there might be up to $20 (US) in it for us, we just couldn't stop ourselves. So, here come a couple of Fokkers. Want to know why Fokker went bankrupt? Because the F100 has too many bloody variations, different sized passenger doors, different sized baggage doors, and every now and then an extra door behind the wing. Take those 3 variables and then imagine every possible combination. Oh yeah, and 2 different locations for the upper anti-collision beacon. Initially we figured that no one was operating the F100/70 anymore, so repainting would be easy, but we were wrong. Turns out a lot of airlines are still using them. So we've got over 30 repaints and at least half of them we promise won't be KLM Cityhopper variants. Given the recent trend in AI modeling towards higher polycounts and reduced framerates, you've got to be asking yourself what sort of framerate penalty you're going to take if you replace the Fernando Martinez Fokkers with these shiny new ones. Well, we tried our best to make the fps worse than the FM model but we just couldn't manage it without modeling all the seats, meal carts, and coffee pots, so you're just going to have to live with better framerates. How'd we manage that? We did a lot of framerate testing for one thing. And then did everything we could to keep framerate killing things to a minimum, meaning keeping the polycount under control, using as little keyframe animation as possible, keeping reverser parts hidden when not in use (which is 99.9% of the time) and keeping XML to a bare minimum. Our testing showed that all these things take a toll on framerates. Not adding working lavatories helped a lot too. One pleasant spinoff from all this testing is that we're only using 5 LOD models for these Fokkers. We had a 9 LOD model, and for kicks we eliminated every other LOD just to see what would happen. Nothing happened, the framerates stayed the same. Great, huh? So we pushed it and tried a 3 LOD model, but then the framerates took a dive. But 5 LODs made fixing the never ending parade of model bugs a lot simpler. And we like things simple... |
April 1, 2008
Boeing 757-200 converted into DC-8! |
The
Aardvark engineering staff has been wracking their brains for the past
week trying to figure out what to do with the huge number of 757-200's
that are suddenly being unceremoniously dumped back onto the AIA tarmac
at Aardvark World Headquarters Int'l LLC.
And
just as we did last year, we're going to reopen the creaky AIA forums
for posting for a few days. So come on by and complain about how you really
wanted an AirTruk ai model.
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March 23, 2008
Boeing 757-200 winglet released... |
First
off, this is not a new model. This is Craig Crawley's original
757-200 model with winglets slapped on it, plus a few other minor changes.
So, if you're looking for thrust reversers and XML flaps, keep on looking,
you're not going to find them here. And since this is based on a model
from 2003, it has some pretty archaic "features", like only
one wing texture, and the inboard engine nacelle texture is shared by
both engines. And some odd double-sided polygons. It would still be nice to have a new 757 model, so consider this a filler model while we convince the Aardvark Board of Directors to start construction of a brand new 757 model. Coming Soon... With this release, we'd like to introduce a new Independent Contractor Painter to AIA, John Massey. John painted the United Airlines repaint shown above. Welcome to the AIA FunHouse, John!
Didn't
you guys lose the source file for the 757? Well,
yes we did. After
some trial and error, we found a way to get the model out of gmax and
into David R's modeling program, Lightwave. The export out of gmax isn't
perfect though, it has a bad habit of shifting all the vertices around.
This happens to models being exported to FS as well, but the shifts are
so small that you don't notice. However, for this project, that meant
a bit of work when the LW modeled winglets were imported into gmax and
they didn't quite line up with the gmax wing tips. So, a little microsurgery
was performed and the winglets were successfully welded onto the original
wingtips. Ok, enough talk about esoteric modeling techniques, enjoy the 757 winglet model, and have a fun Easter. |
March 22, 2008
Easter Eggs now available |
Collect Them All!
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January 7, 2008
Embraer 190/195 Model "B" (update) |
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Embraer 190/195 model patch/upgrade/bug fix/etc
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December 21, 2007
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... |
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And
Santa's got a bag full of new toys for good little girls and boys. And
for the naughty one's he's got this
lump of coal, in the form of a "How to make a lightmap"
tutorial.
SUPER DUPER! New models for ALL of the AIA 737NG series! Of course, all these goodies don't come free. Expect a slight
FPS loss with these new models. In our test set up, the original 737-900ER
model was getting 24.4 fps, the new one, 23.5 fps.
Everyone here at AI Aardvark (closed ) would like
to wish a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to everyone who's managed
to read all the way down here to the bottom of this post. |
April 1, 2008
Boeing 737-300v2 released... |
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It's
just a jump to the left...
AIA
always resisted adding these polygon heavy monsters to the 737s, but we
finally gave up and added them. We
hope you enjoy this new model, we think it puts the original aia 737-300
to shame. Many thanks to all the beta testers and repainters, who we will
now try to list alphabetically: Any email messages asking about a possible 737-400/500 based on this v2 model will be gleefuly ignored. There's
so much information about the history and features of this model, that
we just don't have room to post it all here. If you want more information,
check out this
new page.
Be sure your tray tables are in their full and upright positions... |
April 1, 2007
Boeing 737-900ER released... |
No,
not an April Fools joke... Really... Trust us...
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April 1, 2006
Boeing 717 finally released... |
After
months of apparent silence from the Aardvark hangar, which led many people
to believe that the aardvarks had given up on model building and were
spending all their time eating pizza, watching tv and improving their
hand-eye coordination with PlayStation, the final model of the MD-80 series
is finally rolled out, the Boeing 717-200. |
April 1, 2006
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As of April 1, 2006, David Rawlins is retiring from AI modeling. From
David R:
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