[Shade]

Normal maps will definitely be used to smooth it our further, but the mesh itself will nonetheless be fairly high-poly. This is allowable since, as newman mentioned, there will only ever be one on-screen at any given time, but that one will be seen up close and personal. So we we can afford to lavish polys on a cockpit which might be overdoing it for a fighter of which you might have twenty on-screen at once, and we're doing just that.

[Satellight]

I especially like the explosions on this picture. Very good job. 

[newman]

Thank you very kindly for posting this.  

Though we might be a ways off from producing cockpits for Stellar Assault, our current plan is to make fairly substantial use of normal maps in ours so as to keep the poly count down. Thus, we can have a very high poly model for generating the maps, and a lower poly in-game model which would ideally be indistinguishable from the complex version with the addition of the normal maps. Are you planning on taking such a course of action with your cockpits?

Yep. But there's one thing you should be aware of, and that is that normal maps aren't omnipotent. Especially in something like the cockpit - where a lot of elements either won't be lit directly or they'll be glowmapped  (which will, to some extent, cover up the normals on those sections). I'm planning on modeling high detail on certain parts of the cockpit and baking the normals for it, but it's a good idea to have a fairly detailed mesh on which you'll bake it to in the first place. Like I said, cockpits are a special category - unlike ships where even 10m distance is considered close, you see details starting from 20-30 cm away from you. Guess my point is, yes keep the polycount reasonable but also be aware that cockpits aren't the best place to skimp on polygons too much. There can only ever be one at a time in a mission - if you make it 5,000 tris lighter than it should be it won't look good and you won't have made much of a difference fps wise either.

[Thaeris]

Thank you both, Newman and Shade. I'll be sure to keep an eye on this, as we'll (SAFSO) be working on this at some point ourselves.

 

[torc]

now it's time for a in-game cockpit vid! 

[newman]

Um.. yea. Probably a good idea to texture the thing first

[kedrednael]

Verry nice cockpit, but shouldn't there be room for the pilots legs? and maybe some rudder pedals? I  haven't got any pictures of BSG viper cocpits of course so if it's like in the show it's great.

[kedrednael]

I just saw the 3th diaspora trailer, verry impressive!
It looks great. Will all the flyable ships have dradis in their cockpits?

[torc]

Um.. yea. Probably a good idea to texture the thing first

i'm just tired to see btrl track ir cockpit view and i've never liked the raptors  
(not yours raptor...is amazing!)  

[newman]

I just saw the 3th diaspora trailer, verry impressive!
It looks great. Will all the flyable ships have dradis in their cockpits?

Yep, same as you saw with the raptor - all colonial craft will have a dradis display like that. Glad you liked the trailer.

[karajorma]

i'm just tired to see btrl track ir cockpit view and i've never liked the raptors 
(not yours raptor...is amazing!)  

Ummm. BtRL never released the raptor.

[torc]

no kara, i've never liked the raptor in the series.... i wad kidding 
what about the  mk II cockpit development? and we'll see the blackbird too in the R1?

[newman]

no kara, i've never liked the raptor in the series.... i wad kidding 
what about the  mk II cockpit development? and we'll see the blackbird too in the R1?

Easy there cowboy, whole point of episodic releases is that we don't do everything in the first one There probably won't be a blackbird in R1, that ship has a very limited use. In single player it can only ever be used in a Galactica based campaign, in the missions we saw it fly in the show - there was only one ever built and it was pretty short lived at that, thanks to Lee not watching where he's driving. There will be a Blackbird eventually, but there'd be little point in having it until we're ready with the Galactica campaign.
The mk2 cockpit.. there aren't that many active artists here so there's little chance of both mk2 and mk7 cockpits being done at the same time, you'll have to be a bit more patient for it. We'd like to have it in R1, but there is a chance we might cut it out if it's not ready in time for the release; the mk2 viper isn't used in the R1 single player campaign (it will be available for multi though) so we probably won't be delaying R1 just on account of that cockpit. We're still hoping it'll make it in, though - if not, it'll be introduced in R2.

[StarSlayer]

In single player it can only ever be used in a Galactica based campaign, in the missions we saw it fly in the show - there was only one ever built and it was pretty short lived at that, thanks to Lee not watching where he's driving.

I just realized Léémo's got a track record of breaking things that are given to him.  He managed to get a third of Husker's MK II blown to hell at Ragnar, totaled the Blackbird at the Rez and of course T-boned that Baseship with the Pegasus.  No way he's getting vehicle insurance.

This is why the RTF can't have nice things.

[newman]

Yea seems Lee was in a "who's a bigger screw-up" competition with Starbuck.. and won

[torc]

thanks for the info newman  however your cockpit are awesome! i'll wait the release 

[Dermeister]

I got 1 question about the cockpit render....how do colonials adjust engine settings? i canot for the life of me find the damn throtel... is this somthing you guys fergot? or will ad later or is it in there just we cant see it cause of camera angle?

[newman]

I got 1 question about the cockpit render....how do colonials adjust engine settings? i canot for the life of me find the damn throtel... is this somthing you guys fergot? or will ad later or is it in there just we cant see it cause of camera angle?

At first I thought there wasn't one either, then there were suggestions it was controlled by the pedals.. but it's actually visible in the quicktime vr vid they released of it some time ago. And no, you can't see it because of the angle.

[Dermeister]

I got 1 question about the cockpit render....how do colonials adjust engine settings? i canot for the life of me find the damn throtel... is this somthing you guys fergot? or will ad later or is it in there just we cant see it cause of camera angle?

At first I thought there wasn't one either, then there were suggestions it was controlled by the pedals.. but it's actually visible in the quicktime vr vid they released of it some time ago. And no, you can't see it because of the angle.

Allright that's cool cause pedals would be rudders.. for yaw but then in space u use yaw a lot  so who knows how they'd set this up all i know is in fs2 i setup my yaw on my rudders and u use a hat switch for up down left right and joystick for pitch and roll much like a f16 basically yes I'm a fighter Jockey well in flight Sims lol

[Angelus]

Well, the MkII has thrusterpedals.