i looked on mantis and found the issue i had been having with render to texture has been resolved, i can now resume work on the cockpit script. to that end i decided to re-rig my test models for dae export. seems for some reason they were rigged for the old max exporter which explains why i had trouble exporting them. at some point i indend to merge the content into nukemod, hopefully in a less than intrusive way so that it can run with or without the script. hopefully i can start exploiting new features that i havent been allowed to touch because of a whole slew of compatibility issues (last build the script worked well on was 3.6.12, so there are buttloads of issues reguardless).
2 models have recieved the max+collada treatment thus far, in addition to the htl seker which is actually a fairly recent production. so 3 down, about 17 more to go. throw on remaining htl jobs, loding of everything (im just going to cheat and have max do it for me) and its more work than i can possibly ever finish. i at least want to get the pirate fleet fully functional and working at least that makes a good stand alone pack cause the ships follow the same design paradigm.
things i want to do is improve my adv sensor code. make laser designator a little more intelegent, like not requiring a manual switch to turn it on, il just have it on automatically when a laser guided weapon is both selected and has ammo. same goes with multitargeting weapons. i also want to seporate it from the radar system, as of now a certain radar must be used for multitargeting to work, and i kinda want the radars targeting agnostic. they will of course display the special blip overlays that indicate a multitargeted object. this should eliminate unnecessary kb commands. command reduction is a huge goal actually. like setting your main view to a turret or a missile should give you control of that object automatically. setting it to a cockpit monitor should just show you what the object is doing and not give any interaction at all. i want to make the script let the ship be taken over by ai while you play with those features, so that if ai si active you can aim turrets and fly guided drones (remote or laser) would like to see a mission in the back seat where flying is not your job.
also want to add support for alternat input solutions, right now hackish 6-axis hotas mode various mouse modes are doable with the script. i want to do some hybrid ship-turret-view control meathods as well. like freespacelancer mouse mode (control ship+turret), airquake mode (control view, turret and ship try to lign up with it), possibly joystick implementations of these as well. i also want to enhace freelook features for the masses without special hardware, keylook and mouselook are somewhat possible now, though the implementation could use some work. problem is the modes are not mutually compatable, there is only one mouse and if you dont have a joystick, it would be bad to use it for freelook, keylook works but takes up a lot of keyboard real estate, which freespace has pretty much eaten up by itself. toggles are about the only thing i can do in those cases. using 6 axis mode kinda steals the mouse axes thoug (you need to configure your 5th and 6th hotas to have a fake mouse), so it will be a tossup between lateral and vertical thruster control, and freelook control, again a toggle key will fill this role. definitely am looking forward to the pure sdl input code in the pipeline. hopefully this will open up more axes so i can use them isntead of the mouse.
other things, like the guage system, will allow fake tables to let you place scripted gauges (of which i havent done many) at various places in the texture and those areas would coincide with areas uv mapped in the cockpit model. more render to texture features like mirrors. also somewhat intrested in stereo mode as well, where cameras alternatively render from left/right eye positions. perhaps come up with a post shader to multiply alternative frames by red and blue and tweak the brightness for anaglyph, for me i just intend to use my old shutter glasses and a 120hz capable crt i keep in the closet. want to create an in game options menu, again theres code in the pipe for that, but i will use nukui as an interim solution.
some new rtt features, mirrors will soon be possible. they will behave like mirrors, if you move your head, you can kind of see more of whats behind you. some more optimizations, not rendering textures if you are not looking at them, this will come in handy for another feature in my pipe (bridge simulation!). get close enough to a panel and you can interact with it doom 3 style. if this panel is weapon systems, you can aim turrets, if its helm you can steer. not sure what im going to do for character animation though. my 2d floorplan engine should mesh into the game just fine. you can define polygons, connect them, different polies can have different heights it will act kinda like doom sectors. you will have an fps on a ship that is flying in a space sim. how badass is that?
**** how long was this post. tldr, a bunch of stuff i want to do and will complete about 2% of it by 2020.
