I NEED YOUR HELP! - Project Wonderbolt: The First MLP-Themed Virtual Airshow Team

[HawkbitAlpha 46]

(NOTE: I had no clue what board would best suit this thread, so I decided to toss it in here. Hopefully, it fits.)

 

With how out-of-left-field that title may sound to most of you reading, I feel like I should re-introduce myself to the forums before proceeding any further. So, with that:

Hello! I'm HawkbitAlpha (also known as Wedge, or, uh, His Wedgeness, or, uh, Wedger, or El Wedgerino if you're not into the whole brevity thing), and I'm a latecomer to the brony fandom, as somebody who only started watching MLP back in late summer 2020. More than that, my most established footprint on the internet is as a long-time member of the YSFlight Simulator community, where I lead a combat group and take part in events throughout the year, more recently hosting them myself as well. In particular, I've been a part of the small, but dedicated YSFlight Headquarters aerobatics community for over a year now, and continue to push the envelope on putting together more and more exciting performances for our various virtual airshows.

Since our community has shrunk so much over the last decade, we no longer have enough players to support a wide variety of live display teams. Now, normally, that would be where this story ends... but, you see, YSFlight is a funny animal for a flight simulator. Its graphics are massively outdated, and physics are very much YMMV - after all, it's programmed by just one guy who started it in 1999 while procrastinating on his honors thesis - but it's more robust in other ways. One thing it allows you to do is spawn a bunch of planes in one session, then use a replay feature to fly every single one of them individually, which you can then save to a file. Those files, in which you can continually go back and re-fly specific parts as much as you want, can be (with some limitations) loaded into and played back in real time on the servers that we use to host YSFHQ airshows. Old legends like Coop (Blue Angels), Kujo (Thunderbirds), and Airbourne (both) used this method down to a science, and I want to take my first swing at it now.

Now, why am I dumping all of this on you to start off this thread? Well, it's all context to get the ball rolling. That being said... well, what's the plan?

The plan is to use this time-tested replay method to re-interpret the Wonderbolts as a true Blue Angels-like, plane-based virtual airshow team in YSFlight Simulator.

 

 

Barring any other serious contenders for the spot, if Project Wonderbolt succeeds, it will be my headlining act entry for this summer's YSFlight Royal International Air Tattoo (YSRIAT 2022), a YSFHQ airshow which I now annually organize and co-host with Alpha Star. The final result will be posted to one master video on Youtube as a Premiere on the day of that event. Does that sound like an exciting prospect to everypony here? Because it sure does to me!

Now, normally, this would be where I stop writing the thread and immediately get to work on planning absolutely everything alone, but the truth is that, for once, I probably can't pull this off all by myself. There's a series of hurdles that have to be hopped for the planning, staging, execution, and presentation of this killer performance can really be done. Those hurdles involve the need for outside input, so to get the ball rolling on Project Wonderbolt, I turn the first major question of planning over to everypony reading:
 

What should the Wonderbolts' plane look like?
 

I have my own idea to fall back on for this question, but frankly, I have better faith in those of you who really hail from the fandom than in myself to give a great answer to this question. Just remember that, as the Wonderbolts are themselves based on the real-world Blue Angels, whatever designs you mares and stallions have in mind should be in that vein. Also keeping to that tradition, the YSFlight Wonderbolts will be using the same base jet, the F-18C Hornet, the real jet used by the Blue Angels from 1986 to 2020 (and, if you want to try and answer by making a drawing, here's a diagram of it). The best design will be chosen and, with the help of veteran YS modder/repaint artist Tigershark, be made as a fully functional 3D model in-game!

Any feedback is appreciated! Project Wonderbolt is very much uncharted territory for me both as a brony and a YSFlight pilot, but with 12 years of acquired in-game experience and a sufficient amount of dedication, I want to give both communities something they'll never forget. If it gets enough traction, I'll continue to update this thread with further questions for all of you regarding the stages of planning (up next is picking out maneuvers - yay!). Until then, let's run 'em up, everypony!

Edited March 20, 2022 by HawkbitAlpha

[Emerald Claus 24,868]

@HawkbitAlpha

I have NEVER drawn an airplane before in my life, so please excuse my awful drawing.

I like your choice of plane, but I just added some small designs to my crappy half-finished drawing and I hope they help.

I labeled the colors as well.

 

[HawkbitAlpha 46]

On 2022-02-01 at 1:00 AM, Emerald Heart said:

@HawkbitAlpha

I have NEVER drawn an airplane before in my life, so please excuse my awful drawing.

I like your choice of plane, but I just added some small designs to my crappy half-finished drawing and I hope they help.

I labeled the colors as well.

So, I'm quite bad at both drawing (digital and on paper) and 3D modeling, but I tried my best to translate this to Blender to see what it'd look like. And you know what? I think it could be a good scheme with more development!

[removed]

 

I'll go back in Blender later and try making a rough paint of my own Wonderbolt jet concept, one that'll be made using an existing Blue Angels model. The final model will be up to Tigershark, but for now, let's experiment!

Edited July 5, 2022 by HawkbitAlpha

[Emerald Claus 24,868]

@HawkbitAlpha

I was trying to base it on the Wonderbolts Attire.

[HawkbitAlpha 46]

1 hour ago, Emerald Heart said:

I was trying to base it on the Wonderbolts Attire.

And I was trying to do an exact replication of the model. Seems like you have better powers of visual interpretation than me LOL

Though, here's more. I only got the wing designs done in this picture before I ended up having to get off the comp for the night, but my idea is to take the Blue Angels' yellow stripe on top, and inlay it with the lightning bolt outline shape of the Wonderbolts' uniform's underbelly (this bit of fanart shows what I'm talking about). The tips of the wings, elevators, and tails will have the same pattern to replicate the hooves' markings. After that, include some text and a couple of custom decals, one of the decals being the logo posted in the OP. Hopefully, I can get a better visual representation of this concept on here soon!

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by HawkbitAlpha

[HawkbitAlpha 46]

Six months, two YS airshows, and a full rebranding of my organization (VCAP Aerobatics) later, I'm back, and glad to announce that work has resumed on this project! After kicking a few ideas back and forth, Tigershark and I finally settled this week on a design to bring to the game. Here's how it looks so far:

(Colors aren't final. TS is waiting to apply the correct colors until the end, once he's finished the mesh cutting.)

I'm also happy to announce that it's now official: the Wonderbolts will be heading to YS Aerobatic Expo, my annual collaboration with Alpha Star, as the headlining act. This is gonna be a very busy event for both of us in terms of flying, so in the name of giving myself some more practice time, the replay work for the Wonderbolts is getting underway pretty soon. In short: LET'S RUN 'EM UP!

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by HawkbitAlpha

[HawkbitAlpha 46]

Folks... the cavalry has arrived. With Tigershark now having delivered the models, I present to all of you: THE WONDERBOLTS AEROBATIC TEAM!

(A true showcase will likely be coming within the next few weeks. Until then, work on the flying is about to ramp up hard!)

[HawkbitAlpha 46]

ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO!

A few different factors led to us at VCAP postponing the Aerobatic Expo event itself by two weeks, but after all this time, and months of suspense for this very thread, the debut is finally upon us next weekend. This project has cost me quite a few nights worth of sleep and more to put together, as has the rest of the event, but I'm very excited to finally put the finishing touches on everything, and launch the Wonderbolts into virtual skies for the first time!