The Finnish Air Force Museum's Bf 109 Simulator Upgrading Project

[LLv44_Kanttori]

I work as an assistant and expert in the construction of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G simulator (i.e. cockpit) of the Finnish Air Force Museum. I promised to find out how we can make the IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles game series run in this wonderful cockpit of the Bf 109 and the simulator built around it. 

 

At first I need to know where can I download the (unGTP-IL) Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2/G-6 cockpit textures? I've gone through all the planes.gtp and skins.gtp packages and folders and I found the cockpit textures only in poor resolution (256p x 256p).  If someone have disassembled them and would just send me copies of the cockpit skins? The first thing I'll try is to remove the cockpit with the transparent textures (there will be some JSGM modding). 

 

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2/G-6 's wonderful cockpit, which also has a working instrument panel on the screen behind the panel. The problem is that thevery old IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 game sim, which is projected onto the visuals with video cannons. It has a game engine that is more than 20 years old, and the accompanying graphics are harsh to the modern eye. So the game is unhelpfully old, albeit legendary.


 

The good side is that the old game engine outputs flight data and engine data with the DeviceLink user interface, which I myself used already in 2014 with the same UDPSpeed instrument panel that is in use at the museum. Is there a similar program for the current Great Battles game that gives you the aircraft's instrument panel? 
 

Together with museum director Kai Mecklin and conservator Harri Huopainen, the plans are to acquire Varjo's MR (Mixed Reality) glasses,.  With them they already have the IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles game series. If the museum's budget allows next spring they are going to buy a new powerful computer and a GTX 3000 series graphigs card with the Varjo MR glasses.

 

In Mixed Reality, only the player's own body and the wonderful replica cockpit of the museum will be visible from the real physical world. All other view is from the game's virtual world and airspace. Same as in this video but IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles world.All ideas and help with this project are welcome, thanks! 

https://youtu.be/wlB51dSkq
 

Edited August 24, 2022 by LLv44_Kanttori

[Drano]

Nicely done sir! Good to see you're still around! <S>

 

[LLv34_Temuri]

29 minutes ago, LLv44_Kanttori said:

Is there a similar program for the current Great Battles game that gives you the aircraft's instrument panel? 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

What a wonderful idea!

 

14 hours ago, LLv44_Kanttori said:

At first I need to know where can I download the (unGTP-IL) Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2/G-6 cockpit textures? I've gone through all the planes.gtp and skins.gtp packages and folders and I found the cockpit textures only in poor resolution (256p x 256p).  If someone have disassembled them and would just send me copies of the cockpit skins? The first thing I'll try is to remove the cockpit with the transparent textures (there will be some JSGM modding).

The cockpit textures for the G6 are in Planes5.gtp. Unpack, and you'll find them in graphics\planes\bf109g6\textures\bf109g6_c.dds and graphics\planes\bf109g6\textures\g6_instr_ger.dds. The G2 cockpit textures are in Planes4.gtp, and will be in graphics\planes\bf109g2\textures\bf109g2_c.dds.

 

In both cases, there may be other textures that you might need to change as well, but these textures seem to contain the bulk of the cockpit data.

 

Also, take care you select the textures without an exclamation mark prefixed to the filename (e.g. not !bf109g2_c.dds). Those are the low-resolution versions of the textures.

[LLv44_Kanttori]

19 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

What a wonderful idea!

 

The cockpit textures for the G6 are in Planes5.gtp. Unpack, and you'll find them in graphics\planes\bf109g6\textures\bf109g6_c.dds and graphics\planes\bf109g6\textures\g6_instr_ger.dds. The G2 cockpit textures are in Planes4.gtp, and will be in graphics\planes\bf109g2\textures\bf109g2_c.dds.

 

In both cases, there may be other textures that you might need to change as well, but these textures seem to contain the bulk of the cockpit data.

 

Also, take care you select the textures without an exclamation mark prefixed to the filename (e.g. not !bf109g2_c.dds). Those are the low-resolution versions of the textures.

Thank you sir, I'm going to edit in the weekend at first Bf 109 G-2 textures (skins) transparent. G-2 "Mersu" is very simple and easy fighter to beginners who are visiting in the museum. It's very interesting to see how it works...  

Edited August 26, 2022 by LLv44_Kanttori