Cockpit Livery Discussion

[ac5]

6 hours ago, Ala13_ManOWar said:

Then again, sorry I have to correct you on this. You mean quite autistically literal but you've already attributed intentions and feelings, like arrogance, you didn't know  .

O.K. You ask for it… Let me give you the final blow. Have a look at the enclosed images.

A pristine, clean corsair livery, fresh from the factory. This livery has been provided NOT by me,

but from Magnitude 3 themselves, very well known for their accuracy. This completely contradicts

your fantastical assertions in your post from last Monday….

BTW, did you see the comments from other members? Just stop it…

Finally, I have succeeded in implementing my retouched, fresh from the factory, clean cockpit in DCS…….

[ac5]

5 hours ago, Wrench said:

I haven't yet, no. Like I said sometimes its weird, I'll post when I figure it out.

 AC5, thats some nice work. Did you have any issues with the color on your dash? Mine is turning purple in the model viewer for some reason, maybe some post processing?

 

As for the debate on whether it makes sense, I did ask a former vSquadron mate who is also a Navy veteran pilot, and he said that while navy cockpits will show some general wear, it's more like a well cared-for used car than a museum relic. He said the navy does in fact take great pride in maintaining their aircraft as I suspected, and they do in fact touch up the paint in the cockpits as required.

Now, he served long after WWII, but the principle remains. The navy does not allow their aircraft to deteriorate to the point they become illegible, and they do not allow unpainted/damaged surfaces to be exposed to salty air aboard ship. 

 

Remember also that the F4U's aboard ship pretty much only served the last year or so of the war. Corsairs didn't spend 4 years in continuous service aboard ship, and if they had, they'd have undergone regular maintenance specifically aimed to avoid the aircraft looking like this.

Add to that the fact that carriers were especially well equipped to handle maintenance, and that carriers served in limited-duration cruises, they had the time, materials, expertise, manpower, and will to do the maintenance.

 

All of that being said, its largely a non-issue since none of the planes we're flying actually exist, its all pretend and I could paint it in leopard print if I wanted to.

Let's focus on the task at hand for those interested. Anyone who isn't interested in a kess-worn cockpit is welcome to use any of the liveries already provided, and peruse many other forum sections to their heart's content.

Hi Wrench and to whom it may concern,

I have managed to make it work my retouched cockpit in DCS!

The problem was that it loads NOT ONLY textures from:

D:\Games\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F4U-1D\Liveries\Cockpit_F4U-1D\Default

But oddly enough, also some textures from:

D:\Games\DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\F4U1D\Shapes\Textures\Cockpit_F4U-1D.zip

Moreover, the cockpit name in the. Lua file can be anything, (e.g. “AC”) but NOT the folder in which it resides, said folder HAS to be named “Default”… Go figure…  

Anyhow, here a first draft, there is still quite some work to do, but it is taking shape….

[Ala13_ManOWar]

16 hours ago, ac5 said:

O.K. You ask for it… Let me give you the final blow. Have a look at the enclosed images.

A pristine, clean corsair livery, fresh from the factory. This livery has been provided NOT by me,

but from Magnitude 3 themselves, very well known for their accuracy. This completely contradicts

your fantastical assertions in your post from last Monday….

 

 I didn't ask for anything. And my "fantastical assertions", as you saw yourself… , are just based on actual period pictures. Let me show you one more, a Navy training film, pretty low quality and still you can see scratches all over the control panel, around instruments, chipped levers, and all , 

 

 

 

[Wrench]

@ac5 wow you work fast!

Did you do the labels too?

That usually takes me several weeks (working on it in my spare time)

Ps

You should be able to install to the saved games directory, and just call the folder "default", thats what I did with the tomcat.

[ac5]

4 hours ago, Ala13_ManOWar said:

 

 I didn't ask for anything. And my "fantastical assertions", as you saw yourself… , are just based on actual period pictures. Let me show you one more, a Navy training film, pretty low quality and still you can see scratches all over the control panel, around instruments, chipped levers, and all , 

 

 

 

 

Yeah right.. Let alone the fact that that video is completely unsharp, where do they (or you)

provide the information that this corsair in the film is one straight from the factory

the day after it was made? You don’t let it go, do you?

With your nonsensical and baseless arguments, you are not only defying common sense,

but calling into question the expertise and judgment of Magnitude 3 and ED, as clearly demonstrated in this thread.

It was a very respectable decision from Magnitude 3 to implement a battle worn cockpit.

This does not mean that the cockpit was not pristine, rust-free and clean the very day it left the factory…..

Also, it was a very respectable decision from ED to implement a battle worn / aged AND a factory-new cockpit in the A-10,

as it was the decision from other developers to offer ONLY a factory-new cockpit.....  

 

 

Edited June 26 by ac5

[ac5]

2 hours ago, Wrench said:

@ac5 wow you work fast!

Did you do the labels too?

That usually takes me several weeks (working on it in my spare time)

Ps

You should be able to install to the saved games directory, and just call the folder "default", thats what I did with the tomcat.

Yes, right, that would have the advantage that I would not have to overwrite the

Default cockpit each time a DCS update comes.

Though I tried that, but the “Default” Cockpit does not appear in DCS OR in the model viewer..

What am I doing wrong? (See screenshot).

And yes, I have plenty of time, as a retired advertising photographer….

I took it today for a spin, no problems, but still some retouching to do… stand by….

[Sprool]

Looking really nice - I welcome some clearer labelling in the cockpit, even better if it can be made a bit lighter.

[Tom Kazansky]

8 hours ago, Ala13_ManOWar said:

 

I Like that cockpit. Some scratches and wear but very nice readable white labels. Not too new, and not too old. Still a matter of taste of course.

[Wrench]

@ac5 I'm not sure how to get the cockpit to load from saved games, I'll have to look into it more.
Any chance you're interested in sharing when it's all done?

[ac5]

16 hours ago, Wrench said:

@ac5 I'm not sure how to get the cockpit to load from saved games, I'll have to look into it more.
Any chance you're interested in sharing when it's all done?

Of course, I will be sharing it as I did with the MIG-21 and the F-18 "restored" cockpits. 

If in the meantime you could look  into the matter of how to get the cockpit to load from saved games,

I'd be most grateful.

 

[Wrench]

Looks like it might have to be a mod for now. Hopefully the M3 guys can integrate cockpit liveries later on, I've seen modules done that way before.

[Sprool]

Did you try putting it into saved games/mods/aircraft/f4u-1d/cockpit/textures? the folders will need to be created

 

[ac5]

On 6/29/2025 at 2:32 AM, Sprool said:

Did you try putting it into saved games/mods/aircraft/f4u-1d/cockpit/textures? the folders will need to be created

 

Thanks.. I did, but that does not work either..... 

Hi everyone, 

It took the best part of 3 days… Besides the retouching it has been fairly difficult to find which .DDS file

does what. In fact, as per description.lua some 2K are used from

DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F4U-1D\Liveries\Cockpit_F4U-1D\default in 2K, (false)

Others in 4K are used from:

DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F4U1D\Shapes\Textures\Cockpit_F4U-1D.zip (true)

If you ask me I find this quite complicated, and so the 2K cockpits load huge 4K files present in that .zip 

Don’t see the advantage…. Quite the contrary.  

Anyhow, here it comes… Well, as soon as the files are revised by the moderator in DCS and become active…..

Enjoy!

Clean (ish) / restored Corsair cockpit for the wonderful Magnitude 3 Corsair.

Important! BACKUP your files / foders first in

DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F4U-1D\Liveries\Cockpit_F4U-1D\Default

Then replace

DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F4U-1D\Liveries\Cockpit_F4U-1D\Default

Decompressing this “Default” folder in its place, a cockpit named “AC” will appear inside DCS in Options > Special > F4U-1D.

Unfortunately I could not compress the files to less of the upload limit of 300 Mb, so I had to split in two parts.

Just decompress part 1 and two in one single folder “Default” as described above.

[Mike Busutil]

Nice work AC.

[ac5]

37 minutes ago, Mike Busutil said:

Nice work AC.

Thanks! Not yet active though... Soon I hope.

[DrDetroit]

Damn!! That looks so nice! Great job @ac5!
 

Can’t wait to load that instead of my beat to hell jalopy of a cockpit! The one we have looks like it’s 10 years old, when in fact it’s probably a few months old.

[-Rudel-]

Did you remove the green interior color?

[Sprool]

Outstanding - big thanks for all your work!

 

[Sprool]

Cracking job on these - just installed them, huge improvement - well done!

[ac5]

On 6/30/2025 at 7:12 PM, -Rudel- said:

Did you remove the green interior color?

Yes I did. Painted it gray. 

If somebody wants it back to green it's just a matter to replace this 3 files:

F4U1D_CP_SEAT.dds

F4U1D_CP_PEDALS.dds

F4U1D_CP_FOLDER.dds

From the original default 2K Cockpit folder.

Edited yesterday at 08:04 PM by ac5

[ac5]

Files are live. Please follow the instructions and BACKUP your files / folders first!

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3345518/

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3345519/

And thank you all for your kind words!

If somebody has an idea of how to make it work putting the files in the

C:\DCS\Saved games

instead of 

DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F4U-1D\Liveries\Cockpit_F4U-1D\Default

Let me know. Both 

C:\DCS\saved games/mods/aircraft/f4u-1d/cockpit/textures\Default

and

C:\DCS\saved games\Mods\aircraft\F4U-1D\Liveries\Cockpit_F4U-1D\Default

Do not work.. The cockpit does not appear in the cockpit selection in DCS....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Slippa]

Well it looks good to me. Thanks for making the effort.

I’ll download and try it next time I can get near the PC. It’s hotter than hell here at the minute, no chance of me firing up any electricals to add to the heat. I’ll have a look tomorrow, cheers. 

 

 

[ac5]

Hi everyone,

I have noticed some incongruencies while swithcing on the cockpit lights,

especially noticeable at dawn / dusk / night, so I have corrected them.

BTW, have yo’ll noticed the magnificent cockpit lighting?

Absolutely superb work from Magnitude 3, no doubt in my mind the very best among the WWII birds….

And the sound.. also great.. Time to stop retouching and start flying!

I have also corrected an issue with the scarse visibility of the flaps indicator,

many thanks to olliegb and Slippa3121 for pointing that out in the comments of the user files downloads.

Download not yet active, but .zip with two corrected files attached. Just overwrite the old files.

 

Corrections.zip