[Quanto]

At this point in time, our cockpits are not very impressive. Those who've seen the No Quarter video, understand what I am talking about.
They are low-res, and quite frankly, look like they came straight from an old Sega Game.



Fear not however, we are working on concepts for a new cockpit design. And I would like to start an open discussion about it.
First off here is the basic preliminary model as produced by Thaeris a few months back.
And some of the associated sketches.
First off, the Model. As it stands now.


This is the concept sketch for that cockpit as presented by Thaeris, around the same time...


Associated Pilot Designs (Uniform, helmet, such and such. As sketched by me.)


And then our inspiration, from the Anime "Gall Force". Which is actually related to Stellar Assault in that the man who did the Mechanical Designs for Gall Force in 1986-1989, also did the Mechanical Designs for Stellar Assault on 32x in 1994. So these are all very relevant.



These are some of Thaeris' more recent sketches regarding our cockpit design.

Feather 2 Internal

Large Hexpad

My personal endgoal, is to have a cockpit, that firstly, looks good and is functional, and secondly, does not obstruct the vision of the player while flying from the internal view.
And Yes, I am asking for an open discussion and suggestions from people outside of the dev team. As well as the Dev team.

[Thaeris]

I suppose I ought to drop in here, and foremostly excuse myself for some of the informal chicken-scratch concept work displayed so far.

...That said, let's discuss the Feather 1 cockpit. The 3D models Quanto shows below demonstrate the current form of the Feather 1 cockpit as well as the demo panel of the Feather 1 cockpit. There's a notable problem with the demo model as you can see, and I'll explain what that is. If you see the sketch it derives from, there are four softkey buttons along the upper portions of the left and right main MFD panel. When I made the model, there was an excess of space up there, so I changed the design to include five buttons. As I wasn't being hasty in terms of selecting which sceme I liked best, both button configurations remained until the panel had its viewing heirarchy thrown to the floor when I sent Quanto the model in .obj format. This is what the panel should look like:



...And of course, that's all just a part of the overall Fe-1 cockpit. Here's the unfinished formal production artwork, which I ought to finalize sometime:



Here's another drawing from way back when which, should you care to decipher it, demonstrates more of the Feather 1's displays and controls (not to mention the HUD):



I'll wrap up here breifly, just finishing off on a few last few details about the instrumentation - I'll post more data pertaining to other things later. One of the recurring instruments in all Terran small-craft is a back up set of instruments, and you can see this below the main panel in all of the Feather 1 cockpit displays as well as in the rough diagram of the Feather 2 forward cockpit. This nifty little device has a set of three coincentric navigational spheres (similar to an artificial horizon in an aeroplane, but cooler) which act as nav-aids in space as well as the atmosphere (I'll refer to these as "nav gyros" in the future). About this set of instruments is also a set of "ring tape" instruments which can relate accelerations, velocity, etc - again in both space and an atmosphere. Additional clocks and timers are also available. The device itself has a computerized projector screen covering the back-up instruments which displays assorted bits of navigational information to the pilot.

In short, although the panel might be quite simple, no space is wasted and the layout is intended to be highly efficient. And it should be. This is the future, after all.

[General Battuta]

That middle sketch is actually pretty cool. I think you let the other ones get a bit too busy, but hey, it's just concept work.

[Quanto]

I too would like to see more from the middle sketch
maybe a different angle showing the seat life support systems?

[z64555]

Looks great so far, guys. 

I do have two questions though:

How are the energy levels going to be displayed?

On the Hexpad sketch, exactly what are the notes saying? (I can't really read/understand whats all going on there.)

[Quanto]

Energy levels are a different discussion entirely, and actually there is a thread about that right now, re: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=72368.0

And Thaeris could answer more questions about that Hexpad than I could.

[Thaeris]

The "hexpad" in that drawing was merely the result of me showing Quanto another standard instrument type for SAFSO... Somehow, it ended up here.

The particular example is a large version of the control, where the one in question would be part of the "ERS," or "Electrical Regulation System." The panel is set up to go through various modes, as you might tell - the hexpad, regardless of its function, is essentially a set of interactive, variable-mode buttons, and the buttons themselves are acting as a display screen for the operator. In the ERS, the hexpad acts a a circuit-breaker panel as well as a power regulation interface. As for the abbreviations and acronyms, those are rampant in any aircraft or military vehicle. If you don't have any background as to what they mean, you might be out of luck... For example,

NORM: Normal.
STD: Standard.
SYS: System.

And et certera. On the bright side, you won't need to use a hexpad, but now you understand what it can do. Hexpads are most common as system contol devices (such as the electrical system) as well as controls for the weapons system.

[z64555]

ah, ok, cool. I've never seen the inside of a modern fighter jet, though...

[General Battuta]

There are a ton of buttons which are used to keep the pilot busy while he flies into the ground.

[Quanto]

There are a ton of buttons which are used to keep the pilot busy while he flies into the ground.

I lol'd heartily.

[General Battuta]

That was my favorite part of Falcon 4.0. also it totally happened in iraq

[Quanto]

Alright, I just finished a new mockup for our HUD.
Opinions please!

[General Battuta]

Busy and obstructive, at least at this resolution (granted I have not played at 1024x768 in forever, but still, I think it could be made cleaner.) Clear out the center, move the shield strength somewhere people can look while staying focused, and try to lose the noise elements - for example those cutouts at the base of the throttle and weapon energy bars.

[Quanto]

Aww, but it adds personality...

[AndrewofDoom]

Aww, but it adds personality...

Indeed it does. I have to go with Quanto here.

[General Battuta]

Cut the three noise cutouts around the weapon and throttle bars and move them flush with the lower edge of the spaces they're in? How's that?

[Quanto]

It's doable. Noted.

[Thaeris]

Personally, I like the new HUD. Is it a little busy? Maybe. The only way to test the effectiveness really is to get it in-game and go from there. From the get-go, I'd try and thin out some of the lines so as to reduce the volume of the display, but I very much like the concept.

Now, if we can get that dynamic HUD tape to work (as seen in the SS version; you could also use the "docking hud" in the 32X as an example), we'll be golden.

 

[z64555]

Hey, I like it, could play around a bit with alpha values/making items thinner the closer they are to the center of the screen (excluding the xhairs (?))

Have you looked at logarithmic scale bars? 

[Quanto]

You will have to explain these "logarithmic scale" bars.