MI-8 Mod

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Flyout feature mod which adds new ways to interact with existing parts, adds more customisability

Current Version: 2.0.4

Prerequisites

Flyout Melonloader Setup Guide

!! You must have Melonloader in order to run this mod !!

How does it work?

The mod uses the in-game name system on the top right of the editor when you have a part selected

The system uses ‘Keywords’ to identify specific actions & names, upon launching the aircraft (or clicking comma, particularly in the editor) the mod will perform all of the actions.

The specific part you are naming is the part that the actions will happen to, but for keywords like attach children of that part may also be affected

What do you want to do?

Hide & Attach

Hide keyword

The :Hide: keyword is utilised to hide certain details of parts, incase a user prefers to fully swap how a functional part looks.

This is the main benefit of Mi8 mod, as Flyout does not have in-built functionality to hide every single part yet.

Hiding:
:Hide: When applied onto anything, if the mod supports it, its visual parts will be automatically hidden.

Advanced
:Hide:GFace: In this example, its using a keyword as it cannot identify what specific thing you want to use it for, in this case, hiding the background/face of a gauge.

Attach keyword

Attach keyword is used to attach parts onto elements previously not attachable in the past, all you need is one of the keywords below.

Attaching:
:Attach:Rotor: When applied on a helicopter rotor, any parts that are placed on the rotor will attach to the blades.

Advanced Attaching / Combo:
:Hide:Attach:Rotor: In this example, it will also hide the visual parts of the rotor and attach the pieces placed on the rotor to it.

Keyword / Functionality Table

Compatible/Keyword Required

Incompatible

Automatic (Only Action needed)

Keyword	Explanation	Attach	Hide
Engine-Related
Rotor	Hides or attaches to a helicopter rotor
Prop	Hides or attaches an aircraft propeller
Hub	Hides a propeller hub
Turbine	Hides a jet turbine (also used for pseudo Yak-38 nozzles)
Ramjet	Hides a ramjet
Nozzle	Hides 2D/3D/Regular Nozzle. Also attaches to 2D/3D Nozzle
Weaponry
Missile	Hides AGM & IR missile parts. However if doing a custom missile with the LAMP mod this is not needed!
Gun	Hide / Attach to the gun. Can be used to replace gun models or rotate custom nozzles with the gatling
Cockpit/Instruments
Cockpit	Hides Jimmy
Controls	Hides Jimmy’s controls
GFace	Hides the background of the gauge, including numbering & plate
GNeedle	Hides the needle of a gauge. Can also attach child objects to it
Uncategorised / General
Joints	Hides Joints
BasicWheel	Attaches to a rotating part of a regular wheel (no suspension) and/or hides
Rim	For the above, hides just the rim, for attaching to wheel at same time use Hide:Attach:Rim:BasicWheel:
Backside Backface	Removes the black part of fuselage, good for first-person drone cockpits
Technical Technical keywords incase there is a part that doesn't have a keyword above yet.
TECHNICAL gfx	Hides all MeshRenderer under gfx Can be used for: Turbochargers, Basic Wheels
TECHNICAL _gfx	Hides all MeshRenderer under _gfx Can be used for: Piston Engines,
TECHNICAL Regardless	Hunts and removes every MeshRenderer under a part. Used to hide HUD walls & glass Can be used for: HUD

Raycast Landing Gear Experimental

For these keywords to function CustomRCLG keyword MUST be included on the landing gear, otherwise none of these keywords will initialise

Hide keywords are placed alongside the CustomRCLG on the landing gear while Att must be placed on the part that is attached to CustomRCLG

Keyword	Explanation	Attach	Hidden
AttHinge	Attaches this object to the hinge so that it rotates with the landing gear
AttHub	Attaches this object to the wheel hub so that it yaws and moves with suspension
AttWheel	Attaches this object to the wheel so it spins with the wheel
AttPiston	Its like attaching to the hub, but it doesn’t rotate, allowing for fake pistons
HideLinkage	Hides Linkage
HideWheel	Hides Wheel
HideShaft	Hides Shaft

SoundSwap

What does it do? How does it work?

The purpose of SoundSwap is to allow users to customise how their individual Flyout aircraft sound. Allowing for more accurate engine/gun sounds and audio from speakers.

Example

F404 & F110-129 sound swap pack courtesy of Stix, download available on Flyout Dev discord

Embed unavailable, thanks discord.

How to use

In my example I will be showing me swapping a speaker’s sound with a song (Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon)

A. Place part on the part that they want to swap the sound of, I recommend cube or sphere but other options are fine

B. Name that child part ‘SoundSwap’ and then give it an identifier, in my example I am going to use ‘SoundSwapFrankSinatra’ Image on the right shows how it should look

Identifiers are not case sensitive

C. Add Sound_Source folder to the craft’s folder

D. Add another folder, this will be named after the identifier that I am using (FrankSinatra) so that the system can detect it

E. Refer to table below, depending on what your part is you may have many sounds you can change, to follow with indexing all sound files will be named a number and have to be a .WAV format (Not just any, currently specifically one exported with Audacity for whatever reason)

Another note is you can swap some sounds if you want, you don’t have to change everything

Part	Swappable Sounds
Piston Engine	0: Idle 1: Low 2: Mid
Turbine Engine	0: ABRear 1: DistantAB 2: DistantRear 3: MediumRear 4: IdleRear 5: IdleFront 6: IdleFront (1) 7: IdleFront (2) 8: DistantFront 9: Intake 10: Buzz 11: CompressorStall
Speaker	0: Sound
Propeller	0: Propeller Sound
Rotor	0: Rotor Low 1: Rotor High
Tail Rotor	0: Tail Rotor
Gun	0: Gun Main 1: Gun Bullets 2: Gun Motor 3: Gun End

Speaker only takes one sound, so I will name mine 0 and put it in the folder

In-game it will be automatically applied, if you want to change a sound mid-flight just click Comma or restart flight

PBR

This feature of Mi8 allows for modded parts to take advantage of PBR materials, an example of this would be InvalidCrow's AIM-120 that features normals among other details. This can be used for keeping good performance while maximising visuals, and doing things previously not possible in Flyout.

How HDRP handles materials:

Most users of programs such as Blender will be familiar with 'Base Colour', 'Metallic', 'Roughness', 'Normal' among other texture maps. However the way that Flyout handles these, with the Unity HDRP graphics, is through 'Base Colour', 'MaskMap', 'Normal' maps

This means that the creation of PBR for Parts is alot more involved, requiring some extra steps to convert metallic and roughness to a maskMap, however you can skip this if you just want Normals

How do I do MaskMap:

Do you use Substance Painter?

Congrats, this is a non-issue for you, just select 'Unity HD Render Pipeline (Metallic Standard) from the Output Templates'

If you do not, then there is two methods!

1. If you have unity installed, setup a HDRP scene and use this handy tool https://github.com/saltario/mask_maker
This tool greatly simplifies everything, but requries Unity to be launched consistently.

2. Manual composition, using a program like GIMP, mask maps consist of the follow Metallic (Red), Ambient Occlusion (Green), Detail Mask (Blue), Roughness Map (Alpha), so include the specific map in their respective channel, its fine to omit ones here if you want anything specific.

Further reading on Unity Documentation

I did all this / I just want to get my PBR imported in-game

Place a folder named after your specific material in your aircraft's parts, fill it with your Base.png, MaskMap.png, Normal.png, these naming conventions MUST be respected.

⚠️ A normal map, even if pretty much just a blank normal, should be included.

In your modelling program of choice, rename the PBR'd mesh to :PC:YourFolderName: the mod will convert the first material to what is in the folder.

⚠️ In future versions of Mi8, it is intended for :PC: to just assign PBR based on Folder Names, documentation will be updated when it is included, this technique would still be supported as legacy.

I want alpha / opacity

Instead of utilising :PC: you may take advantage of :PCA: (Alpha), good for cut outs like trees, or :PCO: (Opacity), good for details that just need to be see-through.

Custom Jimmy Inverse Kinematic Positioning

Inverse Kinematics is a system used to dynamically animate things based on positions/rotations, Flyout uses this system for Jimmy and with 1.1.6 a new feature allows for forcing the position of this IK elsewhere.

Usage
Name a part with any of these, and that relevant IK will copy its position & rotation, fine tune with Comma in editor (attach no longer works in editor so don’t worry about losing progress)

Keyword	Affected
IK:leftHand & IK:rightHand	Jimmy’s hands
IK:leftFoot & IK:rightFoot	Jimmy’s legs
IK:headControl	Jimmy’s head (often unreliable)

Overheat & Magazines

Custom magazines with basically no caliber / count limitation

Adjusting maximum gun overheat

Overheat:Max:

Swap max out to change the overheat limit, I recommend a high value like 50000000, but nothing too high as it can cause issues

Example: Overheat:50000000: which should make any gun last a long time

Adding magazine to any part

Mag:Caliber:Count:

Swap caliber out for gun's caliber, and count for how much ammo you want

Example: Mag:30:15000: which makes 15000 rounds of 30mm

Lightswap

Steal the material of a light strip and apply it on another material

Applying lightswap to any part

Name a light strip 'Lightswap' and place any object on it, the first material will have the light's material assigned to it and function just like it.

Other

:SetVolume:[number]:

Sets the buoyancy of a part in, useful with invisible spheres for making seaplanes viable.

Example: :SetVolume:5:

:Vapourless:

Disables vapour on wing parts, if used strategically this can be used for custom vapour patterns by disabling it on certain wing pieces.

:Liftless:

Disables lift on wing parts, this will also disable Vapour because it relies on lift, useful for custom suspension.

World Object Extensions

This section covers the user-end of the WOE mod, including carrier proceedures, ground & air to air refueling

Do note, all of these require WOE-Compatible world objects, such as the carriers available on my thread.

Aircraft Carrier Operations

Aircraft carrier CATOBAR operations are possible through the WOE module installed by default on Mi8.

Catapult

[Power]PlayerLaunchBar

On a part, often advised near or on the frontal landing gear, apply the above keyword, with [Power] replaced with a number, I recommend trying 50 as a starting point. i.e: 50PlayerLaunchBar

Usage

1. The first step requires yourself to align yourself to the front of a catapult

2. Once you do this, you must press shift (Your WOE mod modifier bind) and slash (/) (Your launch/dettach bind), this will stop your plane in its tracks

3. Accelerate, do pre-flight surface checks and when you are ready press the combination once again, your aircraft will be shot away by the catapult.

Carrier Hook

PlayerArrestorHook

Place this keyword on a part which will be attached to the hook, as this will snare the wire on the carrier, to prevent destruction on collision, uncollidable helps.

Usage

Without getting into any details about how you actually would be landing on a carrier, once this part's center passes through a wire, and the speed of the craft is sufficent, it should attach onto the part and slow your aircraft down.

Finally, to dettach you can utilise shift (Your WOE mod modifier bind) and slash (/) (Your launch/dettach bind)

Rebinding Keys

As part of the 1.1.0 update, users now can head to UserData/Mi8Mod.cfg and edit the binds, if you want a list of Keyboard/ definitions

https://discussions.unity.com/t/list-of-all-inputcontrolpath/909946/10

autoTrigger happens on flight launch when your plane loads in, once triggered it is like pressing comma.