Type 23 Duke Class Frigate
Earl Watkins
Orange, CA
July 6, 2007
ewatkins999@att.net
DEDICATION
This is dedicated to all those who served in the Royal Navy, past and present. And especially to all the brave seamen who down through history fought so valiantly to preserve their great nation. And to Chief Petty Officer (SCC) M. Reid RNR for the inspiration to create this project.
DESIGN NOTES
During my career in the U.S. Navy, I served aboard 6 different ships. After 27 years of service, I retired and began a new life in the civilian community. So many years have passed now. But something that has never left me are the memories of those days aboard "my ships". The reproduction of this ship model is an attempt to provide a means for other's to experience something magical about seafaring. Although much time and effort went into the construction of this model, it is far from perfect. I appologize for any imperfections that may be evident. Future revisions are planned. The model was constructed with FSDS2. I am open to any advice and or suggestions for improving this model. Because this project is a labor of love, I want to make it as close to reality as time and resources will allow. The ship was designed for use in FS2004. It has not been tested with prior versions. Eventually, I hope to upgrade the model for use in FSX. If you encounter a problem with this model, I will try and help. My email address is: ewatkins999@att.net
INSTALLATION
IMPORTANT: Always make back up copies of important files and folders before makeing changes to your original set up.
This package contains 3 variations or ships representative of the United Kingdom Royal Navy's Type 23 Duke Class Frigate. The ships are HMS Iron Duke F234, HMS Monmouth F235, and HMS Montrose F236. Each ship can be user selected in the Aircrafts menu in FS2004, aka FS9.
Unlike previous versions of Flight Simulator, it is not necessary nor is it advisable to place the aircraft textures in FS9's texture folder. Remember to just leave them where they are, and copy the whole "Type 23 Duke Class Frigate" folder to the aircraft folder in FS9.
Ok, here we go:
1. Unzip the downloaded file type2301.zip to a temporary folder.
2. In the temp folder you will find 3 folders:
Type 23 Duke Class Frigate
EFFECTS
GAUGES
3. Copy the folder "Type 23 Duke Class Frigate" with all of it's contents (just as it is) to your Aircraft folder. Example: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Aircraft\. Your location may be different.
4. Go back to the temporary folder, copy the contents of the EFFECTS folder to your FS9 Effects folder, over writing files when asked. IMPORTANT: Make a back up of your Effects folder first.
5. Go back to the temp folder, copy the contents of the GAUGES folder to your FS9 Gauges folder, over writing files when asked. IMPORTANT: Make a back up of your Gauges folder first.
7. That's it. Start up FS9, select "Skip's Drydock" from the dropdown aircraft menu, and then select the variation of the Type 23 Frigate you want. Happy steaming.
NOTE: For those who don't know, just selecting this ship as your aircraft in the menu, and firing up Flight Simulator for the first time, may result in the ship sitting at the end of a runway at some airport. An easy way to fix this is to first select a sea plane of your choice, take off and land on the ocean somewhere. Or move it with the map function. Once the plane is on the ocean, select this ship from the aircraft menu. When the ship appears, save your flight. From then on you can always select that flight, and you're in business.
Also, because this is a very detailed model some tweaking of your Display Settings may be necessary. Here are a couple of recommendations:
1. Set Global aircraft quality to "High"
2. Set Virtual cockpit gauge quality to "High"
3. Set Hardware Mip mapping quality to "5" or greater.
OPERATION OF MODEL
Both the 2D cockpit view and the 3D (virtual) cockpit view are from bridge.
The working model has several animated features:
1. Smoke and wake effects.
2. Rotating air and surface search radars (in spot plane view).
3. National Ensign, and the RN Sea Cadet Corps Ensign flying from the mast.
4. A special flag relating to each particular ship flying from the mizzen mast. In the case of HMS Iron Duke, this flag is a Regimental flag of the Duke of Wellington. HMS Monmouth has a black flag because the Duke of Monmouth was referred to as the "Black Duke". HMS Montrose has the flag of Scotland.
5. Lights (including masthead range, stern and port and stbd running lights)
L - turn on/off all lights
Shift L - turn on/off panel lights
6. Horn (sounds in cockpit view only) - press G
7. Bell (sounds in cockpit view only) - press zz
8. Use joystick to turn the ship, throttle to move forward.
9. Engine Order Telegraph "EOT" handles move with trottle.
10. The helm rotates left and right with joy stick movement.
CHANGES AND UPDATES:
V.1.0
1. None, as this is the initial release.
CREDITS
In order to create these working models, I had to borrow the work of several other designers. Let me know if I have not given you credit, or if you want me to delete any portion of this zip file.
The gauge files are modifications of other gauge files, including the speedometer created by Lynn and Bill Lyons and various Microsoft gauges. ShipSmoke.xml was designed by Rob Barendregt.
The sound files are modifications of other sound files, including various Microsoft sounds.
The effects files are modifications of other effects files, including the effects files created by Holger Sandmann. The bow and drain effects files were generously supplied by Hama.
The model, panel, and sound files are all based upon Phil Crowther's excellent Fletcher Class ship. My thanks to Phil without who's help and adivce I could not have begun this project.
The UK Ministry of Defense for releasing, under the "Freedom of Information Act" appropriate documentation relating to navigation lighting.
My personal heart felt thanks to all those who provided the numerous photos, ships plans, technical information, and sound advice, without who's support this great ship model would not have been possible. Too many to name, but thank you!
A special thanks to Chief Petty Officer (SCC) M. Reid RNR for his inspiration to creat this model. And for his technical advice during construction. Thanks Matt.
COPYRIGHT AND DISTRIBUTION
The following are copyright 2007 (c) Earl Watkins:
Type 23 Duke Class Frigate.mdl
Although I am distributing the mdl files without restriction, all of the other files were at least partly created by other authors and retain their restrictions against distributions for commercial purposes. For this reason, you should not use this package to create a commercial product.
ShipSmoke.xml is copyright 9 August 2004, Rob Barendregt. Although it is freeware, it may not be renamed, copied, modified, or bundled in an other archive without his prior consent.
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queens Printer for Scotland: Extracts of text from the Type 23 Duke Class Frigate description.
