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FSX Suspension animation
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Also, if you have properly animated your high and low points, and its still rigid looking in FS, then try experimenting with your landing gear contact points. There are three that deal with your suspension and deal with max compression, compression ratio, etc.
This is the hardest thing for me to tune on mine and can really be hectic to get 'just right'. Milton and Bill Leaming are masters at this and can answer any questions on it better . There are forumulas to calculate it.
One thing you can do is use suspension settings (contact points) from similar aircraft inwhich you like the way it operates and is of a similar size. (Cant use a 747 setting for a plane the size of a small Cessna). After you get a copied in setting, you can then change it around and tune it till it works right.
I have used the 'formula' method, but for me, they do not always work the way I want.. Dont know why.. arrgh.
Hope that helps.
Just keep plugging away at it. Remember that you can also make minute changes to your animations easily enough to help it to work right in FS. Sometimes you have to play with both animation and contact points to get the best effect of a realistic compression reaction...
Bill
This is the hardest thing for me to tune on mine and can really be hectic to get 'just right'. Milton and Bill Leaming are masters at this and can answer any questions on it better . There are forumulas to calculate it.
One thing you can do is use suspension settings (contact points) from similar aircraft inwhich you like the way it operates and is of a similar size. (Cant use a 747 setting for a plane the size of a small Cessna). After you get a copied in setting, you can then change it around and tune it till it works right.
I have used the 'formula' method, but for me, they do not always work the way I want.. Dont know why.. arrgh.
Hope that helps.
Just keep plugging away at it. Remember that you can also make minute changes to your animations easily enough to help it to work right in FS. Sometimes you have to play with both animation and contact points to get the best effect of a realistic compression reaction...
Bill
Thank you very much for your help, I have always been using C_gear l_gear ect form 0-100 for gear animation, I thaught there must have been a seperate tag that I missed for suspension 
Thanks for the help with setting up the contact points too, I always have trouble getting that right!
Thanks for the help with setting up the contact points too, I always have trouble getting that right!
n4gix
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Thank you very much for your help, I have always been using C_gear l_gear ect form 0-100 for gear animation, I thaught there must have been a seperate tag that I missed for suspension
Thanks for the help with setting up the contact points too, I always have trouble getting that right!
0-100 is reserved for gear animation, even if unused (fixed gear).
100-200 is reserved for gear compression, even if unused (stiff gear).
Thanks, that has helped point me in the right direction but I still have a few questions.
1. Do i group the landing gear with the wheels?
2. And if not how do i get them to rotate from the pivot point of the landing gear?
3.If wheel is not grouped to the landing gear should i give the wheel a 360 degree animation as to simulate forward movement while on the ground and what about reverse?http://picasaweb.google.com/sfh294/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPVufLA-cfv-QE#5540590014922905954
1. Do i group the landing gear with the wheels?
2. And if not how do i get them to rotate from the pivot point of the landing gear?
3.If wheel is not grouped to the landing gear should i give the wheel a 360 degree animation as to simulate forward movement while on the ground and what about reverse?http://picasaweb.google.com/sfh294/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPVufLA-cfv-QE#5540590014922905954
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I know this is an old thread (before anyone mentions it) but I was dropping by looking for hints on gear compression (already did it on the Commander 114 but now I'm trying it on the Falcon 2000 series and it isn't behaving). I can answer the final three unanswered questions based on my own experience, if it is any use somewhere down the line.
I just make AI, so the animations I do are simple ones.
1/ I don't group the landing gear, the oleo is what I give the tag x_gear (where x is c, r or l depending on the gear leg) and I create it as a cylinder (3 or 4 sides at most since the a/c is an AI one) that I draw downwards, that way the pivot is already at the right part of the leg, the top part. I then *link* the gear components to the x_gear oleo (wheels, axle mechanism, compression struts and any other gubbins that rotates with the leg (eg a landing gear light too).
2/ That way, they rotate with the gear leg. Naming the tyres correctly means they move with the gear leg in the x_gear animation and also rotate by themselves on the ground - the c_tire etc labels - through their own pivot points. The x_gear names and the x_tire names enable their particular animations when they are needed, and could probably do them simultaneously! The sim recognises the name and does the necessary work.
3/ The tyres are *linked* to the gear assembly as already mentioned, to move/swing with it as it retracts, but if you use a correct component name you get the rotation when the vehicle/aircraft is rolling on the ground (and for a few moments after take-off). This is c_tire, l_tire_r_tire or one with a number suffix for gear with multiple tyres (eg c_tire and c_tire_01 for a 2-wheel axle). If the tyre rotates the wrong way, you have the rotation axis backwards, and you just need to change the component's pivot point (select object, click hierarchy tab, choose "affect pivot only", use the rotate tool to grab the vertical axis of the pivot and rotate it exactly 180 degrees (unless you like wobbly wheels). After that the wheels roll correctly.
As already mentioned, simply by using the x_tire (where x is again c/l/r depending on the gear assembly) nomenclature you'll get rotating wheels, you don't need to animate that for yourself.
After all that, you also link the c_gear to a stationary component in the aircraft (a flat plane will do) called c_wheelwell, the r_gear to r_wheelwell and the l_gear to, you guessed it, l_wheelwell. What the wheelwell name does is make the gear disappear entirely (stops it being rendered) when it is fully retracted. For AI and for UI aircraft this removes a lot of polygons from the rendering of the aircraft and makes it a smidgin more efficient on frames.
I've been modelling just for 2 months, so there may be other expert advice, but what I've described works for me.
So, I may not have answered your question, sfh294, but the next "me" that comes along might benefit from this, FWIW!
I just make AI, so the animations I do are simple ones.
1/ I don't group the landing gear, the oleo is what I give the tag x_gear (where x is c, r or l depending on the gear leg) and I create it as a cylinder (3 or 4 sides at most since the a/c is an AI one) that I draw downwards, that way the pivot is already at the right part of the leg, the top part. I then *link* the gear components to the x_gear oleo (wheels, axle mechanism, compression struts and any other gubbins that rotates with the leg (eg a landing gear light too).
2/ That way, they rotate with the gear leg. Naming the tyres correctly means they move with the gear leg in the x_gear animation and also rotate by themselves on the ground - the c_tire etc labels - through their own pivot points. The x_gear names and the x_tire names enable their particular animations when they are needed, and could probably do them simultaneously! The sim recognises the name and does the necessary work.
3/ The tyres are *linked* to the gear assembly as already mentioned, to move/swing with it as it retracts, but if you use a correct component name you get the rotation when the vehicle/aircraft is rolling on the ground (and for a few moments after take-off). This is c_tire, l_tire_r_tire or one with a number suffix for gear with multiple tyres (eg c_tire and c_tire_01 for a 2-wheel axle). If the tyre rotates the wrong way, you have the rotation axis backwards, and you just need to change the component's pivot point (select object, click hierarchy tab, choose "affect pivot only", use the rotate tool to grab the vertical axis of the pivot and rotate it exactly 180 degrees (unless you like wobbly wheels). After that the wheels roll correctly.
As already mentioned, simply by using the x_tire (where x is again c/l/r depending on the gear assembly) nomenclature you'll get rotating wheels, you don't need to animate that for yourself.
After all that, you also link the c_gear to a stationary component in the aircraft (a flat plane will do) called c_wheelwell, the r_gear to r_wheelwell and the l_gear to, you guessed it, l_wheelwell. What the wheelwell name does is make the gear disappear entirely (stops it being rendered) when it is fully retracted. For AI and for UI aircraft this removes a lot of polygons from the rendering of the aircraft and makes it a smidgin more efficient on frames.
I've been modelling just for 2 months, so there may be other expert advice, but what I've described works for me.
So, I may not have answered your question, sfh294, but the next "me" that comes along might benefit from this, FWIW!
Last edited:
hairyspin
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Uh-oh. This is an FSX question. Wheels must be animated for FSX, perhaps you're thinking of FS9?
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Oops, that's right! I'd scrolled down looking for answers and lost the context of the question. Maybe the mods could get rid of the other post, since I was answering for FS9.
So, for FSX you need a 360-degree kf animation to get the gear rolling? Does that also happen for prop spins etc (thinking here of the prop_still that is used in FS9 for the final spin-down just before the prop stops). That seems pretty retrograde, but perhaps it confers other advantages, I would guess.
I've read a lot about the hassles of poerting FS9 aircraft, and I would imagine this is a big part of it, along with transparency stuff.
So, for FSX you need a 360-degree kf animation to get the gear rolling? Does that also happen for prop spins etc (thinking here of the prop_still that is used in FS9 for the final spin-down just before the prop stops). That seems pretty retrograde, but perhaps it confers other advantages, I would guess.
I've read a lot about the hassles of poerting FS9 aircraft, and I would imagine this is a big part of it, along with transparency stuff.
hairyspin
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Every animation in FSX must be animated in gmax/Max/FSDS first, there are no 'stock' animations. Animations are XML-driven, so if there is no 'stock' XML in FSX to do this you have to write your own XML routines.
The upside to this is you can animate almost anything.