Author Topic: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping  (Read 84315 times)

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Offline redsniper

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Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
Its instrument panel is also low enough that if it were universally used on all Terran strike craft, that canopy shape and piece count would have no effect whatsoever.
But again, without actually seeing anything besides the canopy, there's no way for us to know if that's the case or not.

I'm saying the view from inside will be different for different fighters, and that that can't be represented with just one model. Now if we're just talking about the instrument panel, then yeah I think it makes sense for it to be the same or similar across different ships, given that pilots seem to be able to fly different ship classes with ease, and the Apollo is as good a base as any since it's the only fighter interior we see.
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Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
If the cockpit tubs are about the same, then there shouldn't be much of a problem.  The window frames may vary, but that's much easier to fix.  If your doing the actual modelling then just have each type of window frame you need.  Just mix and match as needed.
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Offline Cobra

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Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
So I don't know if I'm being stupid or not, but when I slap the .vp in there I just get the usual show ship with bad eyepoints. Am I missing something or, as stated before, am I stupid?
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Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
I wouldn't care that they don't match the ships, neither does the Generic CP...
You know this how? There's no ship prior to MediaVP upgrades that showed the inside of a cockpit except Lt. Ash's Apollo in the FreeSpace 1 opening cinematic. Lack of instrument panel textures aside, the model itself is basically a carbon-copy of that cockpit. There's no other shown cockpit interiors for anyone to say whether they match or not.

Yes, I don't know what the tubs look like, I was merely assuming that these pits and exterior hull bits made for specific Blue-Planet ships would not match a FS2 era fighter.  I was just wondering if these were separate models like the Generic CP and could be swapped into its place in the retail campaigns.

 

Offline redsniper

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Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
The BP cockpits are just modeled into the ship models and that VP just turns on "show ship." You probably don't get the same model and texture quality (or built in hud gauges) as you would from a dedicated cockpit model like the GenericCP, but you do get a unique cockpit for every ship and you can look out and see the wings and stuff, which is what I prefer at least.
"Think about nice things not unhappy things.
The future makes happy, if you make it yourself.
No war; think about happy things."   -WouterSmitssm

Hard Light Productions:
"...this conversation is pointlessly confrontational."

 

Offline Hicks

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Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
What would I need to do to use the most recently posted version of these cockpits with the Blue Planet Complete version that installed with the Freespace Open Installer? I tried moving them into the file directory, renaming them to match the naming conventions but I had no luck.

Thank you in advance.

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
I have never seen any cockpit work with Blue Planet. I myself have decided to play without any cockpit MOD as it just seems to look better when dog fighting with TrackIR. Your moving your head around and the cockpit view doesn't as  it is not 3D. Just not the same immersion effect. Just my preference these days.

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
I tried adding the "show ship" in the flags section of the bp-shp.tbm file, but it did not work :(
Did the flag name change or do I have to take extra steps?

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
You can take a look at the models and tables in the OP, it's slightly more complex than that (fixed eyepoints that are where the model pilot has his eyes, invisible cockpit glass etc).

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
Hey, thanks for the reply! I looked at the tables and the only thing I noticed is that the "show ship" flag was added.

Regarding the eyepoints, I don't know where such info is stored... the only thing that comes close to my knowledge is the Cockpit Offset line in the ships.tbl: https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Ships.tbl#.2BCockpit_Offset:
However, this line isn't in the mod file, so that can't be it.

I have no clue about how to make cockpits invisible... but I was able to open a random model with ModelView32
« Last Edit: September 09, 2019, 02:30:08 pm by Durandal7 »

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
Forget about modelview, PCS2 handles that better. Eyepoints are stored in the POF files.

I can't check the files myself right now so all I can do is telling what I remember from looking at them once. :nervous:

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
Thank you so much! :) I was able to edit the view point and also discovered an interesting fact: the model is not visible unless I press the Free Look View key... This plus how to make the canopy transparent are the 2 main issues that I don't know how to fix yet.

EDIT: hold on, "show ship" is broken in FSO 3.8.0-3, but works perfectly in FSO 19.0.0-RC1. However, the recommended FSO build is giving me weird FPS :(
« Last Edit: September 10, 2019, 06:38:37 am by Durandal7 »

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
(Mind telling what you mean by weird FPS?) Easiest way to get around this would be to test different builts. If some outdated built is recommended you can probably ignore it, anyway.

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
The FPS problem went away after I applied the -no_vsync flag. And speaking of flags:
-nospec (disable specular): improves the canopy so much that I don't even find necessary to make it transparent anymore!
-noglow (disable glow maps): this will switch the MFDs off

Here is a test I made earlier, but it's already obsolete since I changed the viewpoint to get that yellow blinking MFD out of the field of view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFriwWTZte0 (sorry for the lights... or the lack thereof, I was super excited to have cockpits back and got carried away making the background dark as I like it)

It is going good, I'll update tomorrow with more info ;) (the dynamic primary linking showcased at the end of the video will be a separate mod)
« Last Edit: September 10, 2019, 02:49:02 pm by Durandal7 »

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
Thats a pretty good learning curve! :nod:
However, I have to disagree with the use of flags for cockpit editing. -nospec will not only make your cockpit transparent, but take shine maps from every ship in the mission.

-noglow will do that for every glowmap on capital ships or other fighter.
For both there are better options but I can't test it right now.

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
It was more like "deactivated every graphic setting both with FSO falgs and in-game to free as many resources as possible, then spent one entire day wondering why afterburners and missiles had no trails playing to my heart's content since I got cockpits back", but thank you! :lol:

I uploaded the mod as it currently is on my computer: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m5Suy08DshjnxuURlQCfemanxXOOi80b
Excuse the loose files, I have yet to research how to create a .vp file (and what the community guidelines are for publishing mods that depends on other mods and such).

Unfortunately I don't know what these other options are, but if they involve making the radar icons easily visible even if the MFD glows are on, I'm all ears! :)
« Last Edit: September 11, 2019, 09:17:22 am by Durandal7 »

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
VP editors can be found here: https://www.freespacemods.net/#cat_51

However that shouldn't be necessary if you just want to show your files, which are easier to investigate if you don't VP them. Regarding releases, I don't know how Knossos handles that (which is most common for "proper" releases).

The easiest way to solve overlapping HUD/cockpit model parts would be to edit the glow map of the cockpit.

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
Edit how? Like, make them "black"? You see, some of them are overlapping as you said, others are "behind" the radar and make it unreadable.

And thanks for showing me that site! I was relying on The FreeSpace Oracle which doesn't have pcs2 and vpmage: http://www.fs2downloads.com/tools.html

 
Re: Cockpits : One Stop Shopping
I can't check it out as I'm a couple thousand km from a FS install right now. Only alternative would be to edit the radar via HUD gauge table.