[HAZARDLEADER]

I've been trying to get onto the forums for two weeks now, just to tell you this:

You can get rid of the imho ugly reflections on the cockpit-glass by simply erasing

TerranCockpit1-Shine.dds

and you're done.

I have noticed no missing reflections or missing lighting on the cockpit after I erased the file. To be honest - and really, no disrespect meant - I don't know what the file is doing at all. ^^

The best part is that the glass still looks like glass. It's semi-transparent. But the reflections from light-sources that are behind the player ship are GONE for good.

thx that solved the shine problem for me!!!

[Nuke]

you know you can darken the shine and env channels on the textures? right? you cant just use the same textures on both inside and outside of the glass.

[GODzilla]

I tried to mess with the texture, but it was exactly that..."messing". Because my photoshop skills are so low, you could tunnel through the planet with it. *g*

Can you do it? Then please, go ahead, then upload it for us. Thanks in advance.

[HAZARDLEADER]

you know you can darken the shine and env channels on the textures? right? you cant just use the same textures on both inside and outside of the glass.

No, actually I did not. 

[Nuke]

I tried to mess with the texture, but it was exactly that..."messing". Because my photoshop skills are so low, you could tunnel through the planet with it. *g*

Can you do it? Then please, go ahead, then upload it for us. Thanks in advance.

i try to avoid helping others with their mods. fix one little thing and they want you to do the same to a hundred or so other similar things. besides i have a hard enough time finding distraction free time to work on my many other projects. and frankly im still doing things the old fashoned way myself, all my models i just remove the polies where the glass would go. i really havent been in a graphics mood for years, i blame scripting.

[GODzilla]

Mhm....not really helpful then, to be honest. Could you at least describe what needs to be changed, so others might pick up the torch and do it for us? Thanks in advance.

[mjn.mixael]

Wiki: we have one. Use it.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Texturing#TextureName-shine.xxx

[chief1983]

Nuke, instead of giving a man a fish, you should teach them to fish for themselves

[Nuke]

no! my fish! can not have!

i said exactly what needed to be done. darken the shine and env map on areas in the cockpit model where the glass is. specular color should probably be slightly brighter than the diffuse color (but not that much were talking a couple rgb values) to look right. if you still get glare you probably need to darken the diffuse color and bring the shine and env down with it.

[GODzilla]

Well, I'll have a look at it then, trying to do what you said...

BUT: Gimme a reason. Let me rephrase that...into a question: Do you know if there are any disadvantages when I just erase the whole shine texture? Because visually there does not seem to be a difference. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Nuke]

as i understand it the shine map just causes the areas that are illuminated to use the shine texture over the diffuse texture, and the env map is essentially a mask to display the cubemap over the hull to give an appearance of reflectivity. i usually keep my env maps really dark like under a alpha value of 32 which displayes the cubemap at 1/8th brightness. specular color is harder to get right though.

think of it this way diffuse is what the ship looks like in ambient light, the shinemap is what the ship looks like when facing a light source. since different surfaces point in different directions, what you get is essentially an interpolation between the two maps. its the difference between the two maps based on the angle of the surface relative to the light that makes the effect solid. so if you want less of an effect from specular lighting, you need to keep the shinemaps as dark as you can while still being at least slightly brighter than the diffuse colors.

should point out that im not certain about the maths, but i think its all in the shaders. i know as a general rule of thumb artists suck at reading code, and coders suck at making art. but it really does help to understand the math involved in blending pixels.

[MetalDestroyer]

Here some cockpitview for several mods:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8dx5k0cwsrz29

[Al-Rik]

Here some cockpitview for several mods:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8dx5k0cwsrz29

Thx, I will try them with fs2_open_3_6_14_RC5.exe.

General Question regarding Cockpit Mods ( and other mods ) :

I have played around with the Generic Cockpit from the first posting in this thread after: And This one is for FS2 and beyond. I think this is the best way.

1.) I edited a Cockpits-shp.tbm table so that all Canonical Terran Fighters / Bombers in Freespace 1 and 2 should use it.
2.) I edited the MTV_root-hdg.tbm so that all these fighters should use a HUD Layout that fits into this Generic Cockpit
3.) I noticed that some of the HUD Elements are missing, and used HUD files from the FreeSpace Port to fix it.
4.) I noticed that the 2D Freespace Radar was off center, and that the 3D Orb Radar looks awful with the 2D Icons, so I edited the radar-shp.tbm so that only Capital Ships are shown as Icon.

I tested the whole thing with fs2_open_3_6_14_RC5.exe, MediaVPS 3612 and FS-Port 3.3 (with fsport-mediavps ).

In Game Screenshoot (works great with Target Padlock View):


File Structure:


Nothing of my work was creative, I only was only toying around with things others have created (like the Generic Terran Cockpit or the HUD-Layout Tables). That's the reason I'm still hesitating to upload and share it with others.

The Generic Cockpit.pof is from Dragon and Vasudan Admiral.
The HUD code is from rscaper1070
The HUD.anis are from FS-Port (or even retail FS1)
Maybe others are also involved (Swifty ?).

Im not quite sure how should I handle it, i will asking each of them via personal message for permission, or it is usual in the FS Community to use the work of other persons as long as proper credit is given ?
I would like to give the edited files away so others can use them, but I don't want to steal other peoples work.
I also want to avoid the appearance that I created the Models, Textures, .anis or .tbm, because in fact I only edited the .tbms

[HAZARDLEADER]

Here some cockpitview for several mods:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8dx5k0cwsrz29

Where might i drop the next gen render file, in my media vps or some where else?

[MetalDestroyer]

Here some cockpitview for several mods:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8dx5k0cwsrz29

Where might i drop the next gen render file, in my media vps or some where else?

In whatever mods you want. It could be in media vp, Blue planet, Inferno, Vassago Dirge, Wings of Dawn, etc...

[HAZARDLEADER]

No i meant to get it working, i placed it in the mediavps and it did not work, and yes i can be a dumb ass some times

[MetalDestroyer]

No i meant to get it working, i placed it in the mediavps and it did not work, and yes i can be a dumb ass some times

You need a built that support at least:
- post processing
- shadows
- sunshaft

Enable them within the launcher. And play.

[Al-Rik]

Generic Cockpit Mod for Freespace 2 , needs at least 3.6.14 Release Candidate 5:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lb9bup52q00e2j7

I only edited the Tables, the real work was done by Vasudan Admiral (Generic Cockpit.pof) Dragon (Original Cockpitmod for Blue Planet) and rscaper (Tables for the HUD and this Thread). All Thanks to them 

Edit:
changed link to new version.

[HAZARDLEADER]

No i meant to get it working, i placed it in the mediavps and it did not work, and yes i can be a dumb ass some times

You need a built that support at least:
- post processing
- shadows
- sunshaft

Enable them within the launcher. And play.

**** i have not been able to get rc3-4-5 working yet. New task set!

[LordMelvin]

Your numbering is strange and incomprehensible, but possibly consider going for 3.14.RC6 instead.