F/A-18C HUD

[Harley]

Hello, DCS enthusiasts. I've been searching high and low for days to find someone making a working HUD for the hornet. Wow, am I shocked. I've been to TekCreations, and several other sites that make quite an extensive list of panels, parts, and what have you. There is a HornetSimShop on Etsy that offers the frame with panes of "glass" that one could use as a placeholder, but nothing that really works, you know?

I'm trying to make my list of parts to prepare for building a hornet pit, and everyone seems to be missing this unit! DCS has a "hud only" view for it that we need to edit the LUA file to remove the baked in MFDs for, but is it a complexity issue? It's a fairly valuable component if someone were to create it. Lots of people are working around that now. Even with winwings small LCD panels for their front panel may do the job, but I think there's more to it than that.

It doesn't need to be a $2k project, just the frame, glass, and a display mirrored and reflected. Am I missing something? Do we have a solution and my intense scouring missed it? If not, someone with a 3d printer and some free time may find themselves a niche market for us.

[AndyJWest]

You may have missed the prime characteristic of a HUD - it's 'focussed at infinity' aspect. Which needs fancy optics to achieve, and won't work satisfactorily if emulated with just a reflection of an ordinary display on a glass panel.

[Harley]

Ok, even though that's likely true and all, would that be such a poor substitute for otherwise nothing at all? Brightness will be an issue, because it will be a reflection of something meant to be viewed directly, but even one of those small portable projectors that are really hot sellers right now may provide a viable solution to an otherwise dead-end.

Just for the sake of argument, I watched this video on my phone and reflected it against a window.

It's not a deal breaker for me. I think I'm going to have to try some things myself and report back.

 

[Dos]

This has been sort brought up, check it out.

[Harley]

2 hours ago, Dos said:

This has been sort brought up, check it out.

Well I am sure glad I asked about this! That, sir, is indeed way more of a direct answer than I expected. Wow! I even like the look of it. I mean, it's not terrible, right? Most of their craftsmanship with the box that the projection unit sits in will be hidden, and go unappreciated. Sad, but we'll know what's in there.

Best answer.

[Harley]

Ok. For arguments sake, what of a separate projector that simply beams the hud info onto a separate screen? If you're sitting in a sim cockpit, the 6 DOF feature is irrelevant. One problem I see is if you have the frame for the collimator and a projection of the hud being shone onto a screen using a separate projection, it will likely break the immersion effect that we're trying for, if the data is still visible out-of-frame, but even that may be an acceptable work-around. The fact that integrity check is so strict is only one problem. I know the A-10 has posed some challenges in its unique coding for HUD info, but the F-18 seems to have a more generic approach to this, and surely folks have found ways to make it work. Am I not reading the correct info? Has this been covered already? How to get the HUD ONLY view that sim pit builders truly need? I'll have scrrens for everything else. Is there a "canopy only" view available? I keep looking, but no results. I surely can't be the first person trying this without an expensive aftermarket HUD unit manufactured for military grade simulators. I was already brushed off by email from one popular sim pit builder and their more lucrative business contracts. Does someone that may read this have history with the forums in this area? I've found very little.