[Nemesis6]

A lot of people are into immersion, and cockpits further that very much at least for me. The cockpits that are available are hackjobs at present, so I'm wondering if you guys here at the upgrade project have ever considered putting more effort into upgrading cockpit models? I saw a thread where hud indicators were showed to finally work within the cockpit; radar, target indicator and so on, so I figured I'd ask you guys' take on this.

[Black Wolf]

Not being part of the FSU project, I can only give my opinion, but I'd remind you that a lot of people aren't all that into immersion, and that making custom cockpits for every single fighter would probably double the development time for new ships. Not exactly something I think many would consider the best use of skilled modder's time.

[mjn.mixael]

What BW said is a partial answer for FSU.

The one thing to know about FSU is that we don't mandate that artists work on any particular project. In fact, historically, the FSU team has been more like gatekeepers rather than content creators. Joe Schmoe community member has typically been the main content creator. This has changed somewhat more recently, but the contribution model is still the same.

FSU and non FSU artists alike work on whatever project they find interesting. All finish assets go through the same scrutinizing before being put into the main MediaVPs.. even models done by FSU artists. (But since we act as gatekeepers, we've just gotten very good at making sure our assets will be viable replacements from the get-go.)

What this means for this thread is that your question is somewhat misdirected. It's not up to FSU artists to upgrade everything about FS2, it's just up to us to organize and make it reliable. If you want cockpits for ships in FS2, you should ask the community as a whole (this includes FSU artists) to make cockpits, or make them yourself. Find someone who is interested in such a project to make it happen. This might be someone in FSU, it might not.

FSU isn't opposed to cockpit models, but to my knowledge, none of the current FSU artists are interested in spending time on such an effort.

[Oddgrim]

Cockpits are a iffy prospect at best, little to gain for a lot more work (speaking off personal testing  and is partial the reason why the htl-Amun took so long.). As of now for example if you are going to use the experimental shadows plugin for FSO and the ship cockpit, you probably will not see anything or very litte, depending on angle to nearest light source and how enclosed the ship cockpit is. I theorised at the time in my mind if there was some way of lighting the area up the benefit would be fair to say insubstantial.

[General Battuta]

I am all for a community project to build cockpits for those who are into them, but I have to get behind the consensus in this thread so far - they do not belong in the MVPs, even as an optional package.

[MatthTheGeek]

tl:dr : it's not up to FSU. Artists can do it if they wish, or they can not. As usual, all the work that ends up in the MVPs is strictly voluntary.

Or doesn't end up in the MVPs, although I doubt that's the heart of the problem here, the question seems more about creating the assets in the first place for people who enjoy cockpits, than their hypothetical integration in the MVPs.

I theorised at the time in my mind if there was some way of lighting the area up the benefit would be fair to say insubstantial.

Faint baked glowmap on the whole inside of the cockpit seems the simplest and best-looking solution. Not necessarily the least time-consuming mind you. (As a side note, if someone was gonna suggest it, my personal experience with glowpoint lighting as a light source source strikes me as inappropriate in this case, both performance-wise and (mostly) visually.)

[Woolie Wool]

Cockpits are a iffy prospect at best, little to gain for a lot more work (speaking off personal testing  and is partial the reason why the htl-Amun took so long.). As of now for example if you are going to use the experimental shadows plugin for FSO and the ship cockpit, you probably will not see anything or very litte, depending on angle to nearest light source and how enclosed the ship cockpit is. I theorised at the time in my mind if there was some way of lighting the area up the benefit would be fair to say insubstantial.

A good in-game cockpit is a separate model rendered around the eyepoint so shadows are not an issue. The show ship flag is the wrong way to do it.

[JCDNWarrior]

I certainly want to support any artists and modellers from trying to make highly detailed and functional cockpits, metaldestroyer77's videos, Oculus Rift and Space Citizen are reasons why I'd really like to see more and more development there. Nonetheless as said by others in the thread it's going to have to be a very optional and independent addition so that those that don't want to use cockpits don't have to have them fully rendered on a ship.

The Cockpits: One Stop Shopping thread seems to be moving in that direction at any rate, so that's encouraging to see.

[Dragon]

I'd gladly use a custom external cockpit pack for FSO. Lack of cockpits was a major flaw of FS2 for me, pretty much all other space sims had some form of cockpit view (well, except WC4, but that didn't stick). I believe that such a pack would go a long way towards immersion in FS, especially now that we have RTT and nothing stops us from putting everything (except maybe the reticle, unless HUD is also modeled) on the actual displays.

[fightermedic]

how about this? only one cockpit for all ships so far, but could be a start i'd say

[Dragon]

Directives could go above the radar, I think, and you could probably fit wingmen monitor on the far left panel and time on the far right one. It's a good start, sure.

[fightermedic]

all the empty spaces on the panels are filled with displays that are simply not visible at this point, like the enemy's shields on the left empty panel

[Reprobator]

Hey that's great!
Where can we download this more advenced version of the cockcpit hud?

[fightermedic]

give me a few more days, it will be included in my remake of the lightning marshal campaigns that are about to be released any day now
i will also release a idependent mod that includes the new cockpits then

[Reprobator]

In this case, i'll give you your few more days !
^^

[MetalDestroyer]

Cockpits are a iffy prospect at best, little to gain for a lot more work (speaking off personal testing  and is partial the reason why the htl-Amun took so long.). As of now for example if you are going to use the experimental shadows plugin for FSO and the ship cockpit, you probably will not see anything or very litte, depending on angle to nearest light source and how enclosed the ship cockpit is. I theorised at the time in my mind if there was some way of lighting the area up the benefit would be fair to say insubstantial.

A good in-game cockpit is a separate model rendered around the eyepoint so shadows are not an issue. The show ship flag is the wrong way to do it.

Not totally agree. Sure with separate model we can have much more poly, much more details etc... but you lose your ship awareness. I mean, when you open fire, you won't see your laser coming out from your ship cannon.  Your laser will be desynchronize with the main ship models. I don't know how to explain that, but I wish you could picture it.

If you look to Steve-O fighters, despite the low texture resolution and the low poly, the integrated cockpit with the show ship flag give some pretty good result.
Here a video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp12YViGsV4&feature=player_detailpage&list=UUBYPfRlHRh38bHVykagnqrw#t=164s

 

[fightermedic]

the guns are a non issue, they would look almost exactly the same if a seperate cockpit would be used. what makes this video so great is track IR, you wouldn't notice any difference beyond some very very minor ones, if this was a cockpit model and not show ship

the only thing you need is a really well made and !ship specific! cockpit model
would you be to use one of those, you would also see for example the ships wings, becaue they would be part of the cockpit model if they can be seen from the cockpit of that ship and the cockpit is well made

[fightermedic]

have been playing around a bit more:

[Venicius]

Those look really good!

[Al-Rik]

Those look really good!

I agree. What .exe did you use, the one from Diaspora ? And have you increased the resolution of the cockpit texture ?
IMHO it looks much better than before.

While adjusting the HUD to the generic cockpit I have runned in some problems with FS-Port (because of the changed HUD Gauges and the different names of FS1 Ships), so two version of the mod are needed, one version for FS2 and an other for the FS-Port.