[aldo_14]

Venom suggested this on the Banshee (damn nice ship BTW) thread, so I thought I ought to throw it up to everyone who could offer a suggestion.   Anyway, the idea is to have a visible pilots head on the ship, without going overboard on the polys.

Not sure about how to do the transparent 'window', but I would suggest making the head as a simple ubeject, defined as a turret with a (i.e) 120 degree FOV and a weapon with 0 range, and no glow.

That way, the the head could look like it was turning to track enemy fighters.

Likewise, you could use a 2 part system, with the 'neck' object rotating left/right and the 'head' up/down.  You'd have to set to FOVs to make the movement realistic, and also set a 'bomber' tag to allow the 'turret'

Also, you'd need to add SEXPs to disable, disarm etc the ship if the 'pilot' object got destroyed.

Still, it could work  


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[Joey_21]

How about just make the 'pilot' indestructable?

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[Styxx]

If you ignore Voodoo 2/3 (and a few other old 3D cards) users you can do that without using too many polys - by applying a texture with transparency to the cockpit cover. Then you wouldn't have to model all the frame of the cockpit and add faces with the invisible texture on the glasses.

And the canopy could be destructable, so when it is destroyed the pilot dies and the ship is disabled. But I don't know if it's worth the extra polycount...

(BTW, it would be cool if someone did that to all the existing ships... maybe add some tiny bodies to the debris of capships too...   )

[This message has been edited by Styxx (edited 07-04-2001).]

[Sandwich]

 

Originally posted by Styxx:
And the canopy could be destructable, so when it is destroyed the pilot dies and the ship is disabled. But I don't know if it's worth the extra polycount...

(BTW, it would be cool if someone did that to all the existing ships... maybe add some tiny bodies to the debris of capships too...     )

[This message has been edited by Styxx (edited 07-04-2001).]

Great thinking! These things are the whole purpose of the forum.

But!   Consider how likely it is that the cockpit would be destroyed before the fighter is. The only way I've ever destroyed a subsystem on a fighter is by using the Akheton or Stiletto, in which case it doesn't matter if the pilot is alive or dead.

So yes, it's an awesome idea (especally the part about the head being a turret so it moves), but IMHO it will not affect gameplay a single bit - aside from the player getting blasted as he concentrates on the cool looking pilots (Shivan headz??   ) and not on his flying...


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[This message has been edited by sandwich (edited 07-04-2001).]

[Joey_21]

 

Originally posted by Styxx:
If you ignore Voodoo 2/3 (and a few other old 3D cards) users

I'm one of those.  

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[Setekh]

...Wow. Fantastic idea. As for someone to do all the models... heh, I dunno. You guys all know that IW2 has the cockpit and pilot on the model? Pretty cool.  

 

As for you, Joey - umm...

 

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by Joey_21:
I'm one of those.  

I have a Voodoo 4 - green doesn't show as transparent with that either.

However, I think it would be pretty cool to take down a fighter / bomber by taking out the pilot with a well-placed shot.

I remeber having MechWarrior 2 yonks ago - that was neat when you took down an enemy with a missile through the cockpit.

[Snipes]

Where can I get the demo for IW2?