catching up

[rattler]

I may have missed this in the threads.

 

in FC2 can we make a custom cockpit or is it like what we had to do with FC1.1 re-texture. In otherwords can we move the gauge positions or is it still hard coded? thanks for any info.:)

[OldCrow]

You can make custom 3d cockpits ;)

 

But mfd's and hud are yet not possible. Either tools or some really clever dude could fix that

[rattler]

You can make custom 3d cockpits ;)

 

But mfd's and hud are yet not possible. Either tools or some really clever dude could fix that

 

Man. we've been trying since Fc1.1(lol). Hope some new dude figures this out. Then again ED might not be happy and we don't want that. Their our only hope for decent combat sims. I think we are between the Rock and a Hard Place.LOL:thumbup:

[Alfa]

I may have missed this in the threads.

 

in FC2 can we make a custom cockpit or is it like what we had to do with FC1.1 re-texture. In otherwords can we move the gauge positions or is it still hard coded? thanks for any info.:)

 

Position of gauges is not hardcoded - gauges are animated just like objects of the external model. Like oldcrow said, you can make a custom cockpit and then place gauges, animated handles, warning lights etc whereever you like in it.

[Renato71]

Position of gauges is not hardcoded - gauges are animated just like objects of the external model. Like oldcrow said, you can make a custom cockpit and then place gauges, animated handles, warning lights etc whereever you like in it.

 

And how you do that?

[jalebru]

Open up any of the cockpits in the Lockon Model viewer, and play arround with the arguments to figure out what is what, then model/animate as you would like for any other lockon model.

 

Just sadly we don't know what material/material name to assign for hud/mfd/rwr glass surfaces yet...

[rattler]

Well now, I am slightly confused. So, lets see if I can make since of what you have all said. Now, first I guess we are talking about FC2. Right. Now in Fc1.1 we could not move the gauges and needles so we were stuck with their positions in the cockpit. Now with Fc2 , what I think you are saying is we can move these gauges and needles but the glass material that you would also like to move out of the way, we have not found a way to do this yet. Am I on the right track or am I sidetracked(LOL).:doh:

 

Just re read oldcrow's post. Ok, the actual MFD's IE.radar and tws as well as info and any mod attempt to the HUD is not figured out yet. Now am I on the right track.

Edited May 12, 2010 by rattler

[Alfa]

And how you do that?

 

What jalebru said :)

[Alfa]

Open up any of the cockpits in the Lockon Model viewer, and play arround with the arguments to figure out what is what, then model/animate as you would like for any other lockon model.

 

Just sadly we don't know what material/material name to assign for hud/mfd/rwr glass surfaces yet...

 

Well there are some material options in the "lomutils" that I think are meant for this purpose, but I haven't experimented with them yet so I cannot say how to use them.

[Renato71]

What jalebru said :)

 

Piece of a pie :)

[Alfa]

Well now, I am slightly confused. So, lets see if I can make since of what you have all said. Now, first I guess we are talking about FC2. Right. Now in Fc1.1 we could not move the gauges and needles so we were stuck with their positions in the cockpit. Now with Fc2 , what I think you are saying is we can move these gauges and needles but the glass material that you would also like to move out of the way, we have not found a way to do this yet. Am I on the right track or am I sidetracked(LOL).:doh:

 

You are sidetracked :D .

 

If you build a custom 3D cockpit environment, you can place your animated objects whereever you want in it - this goes for both FC1 and FC2.

 

Just re read oldcrow's post. Ok, the actual MFD's IE.radar and tws as well as info and any mod attempt to the HUD is not figured out yet. Now am I on the right track.

 

Yes, but just to be clear we are talking about what is required to get HDD and HUD data to show in a custom-built pit and, in that connection, how to move the location of it - modding the actual data(functionality) is of course an entirely different matter :) .

[rattler]

Alpha:

 

Thanks for hanging in there with a brain dead member. Still brain dead(lol). Lets take Fc1 as I am still(unfortunately) using FC1. Now lets take say the F-15 pit. I want to make it appear as a digital not analog cockpit. The problem I assumed we had was that we could make all the textures we liked but the needles would always appear where the original needles were. So we could have a nice looking MFD (digital look) but the needles would alway be where the original was and we could not move them. Same for the radar,Tws and hud information, we could not remove them or move them. What the F-15 looked like on the left and right MFD's would alway show through the new textures as did the gauge needles. Am I right or all these years I was able to do more things than I thought possible. Now for FC2 which I have not gotten into yet, could you just briefly tell me what is possible now. Brain dead comes with age(LOL).:doh:

[Alfa]

Oh you are not brain dead rattler - don't worry :D

 

Now lets take say the F-15 pit. I want to make it appear as a digital not analog cockpit. The problem I assumed we had was that we could make all the textures we liked but the needles would always appear where the original needles were. So we could have a nice looking MFD (digital look) but the needles would alway be where the original was and we could not move them. Same for the radar,Tws and hud information, we could not remove them or move them. What the F-15 looked like on the left and right MFD's would alway show through the new textures as did the gauge needles. Am I right or all these years I was able to do more things than I thought possible.

 

I am afraid the answer is that all these years(since the release of ED's max plug-ins anyway) you have been able to do more than you thought possible :) .

 

However, it does require that you build your own custom 3D cockpit in order to be able to place/remove gauges, warning lamps etc and that is needless to say a major effort.

 

Moreover, with my own 3d cockpit experiments I have come across some odd issues where different parts of the cockpit aren't rendered correctly in the game(although looking perfect in max) - e.g. a guage placed in front of the cockpit main panel may be rendered as being behind it or not at all, so there is something to suggest that the game is a great deal more "picky" about the way you construct a 3d cockpit environment than e.g. an external aircraft model.

 

Anyway, a gauge is working in the same way as say flaps of an external model - the needle is animated to rotate around a pivot point when a certain argument number is "called". So just like it doesn't matter where exactly the flaps are located on a custom made aircraft model, it doesn't matter where the gauge+needle is placed in the cockpit space. The same is the case with (most)warning lights - these work by swapping(via argument based visibility) a lamp object textured as "unlit" with one textured as "lit".

 

Like jalebru said, you can use the modelviewer utility to figure out which argument number activates which function.

 

The problem is with the display of HUD/HDD data, because this is done in a different way.

[rattler]

Alpha:

 

Thanks. Now it is starting to make since. However making an all digital cockpit is going to be a very big pain and undertaking. No needles just info displays and numbers. I think making the cockpit will probably take longer than doing a 3D model(lol). If you can manage to keep your sanity long enough. I think more ED tools might be a big help but getting them may be near to impossible. Anyway thank you for your patience and it is now making more since.:thumbup:

[OldCrow]

Just want to add somethig in here:

 

Its true that it was possible to add your custom cockpits in FC1. However, as Alfa said, they came with strange bugs. Sometimes you had to scale teh cockpit as big as a football field in order to get it to show at all, and you would still get clipping problems, parts showing over other parts even if they were behind it.

 

Now, with FC2, much of these issues seemes to have been solved. So you can make a cockpit in correct scale, parts wouldnt overlap on weird places (not done much testing on it yet though) etc etc, so it seemes FC2 is more cockpit modable friendly when it comes to custom cockpits.

[rattler]

oldcrow:

 

Something more in FC2 to look forward too. I am waiting to get my hands on the DVD version. Hopefully sometime in July. Till then I just watch the forum and drooool.LOL. Thanks for the info. Hope you add some threads on this subject as you get more into FC2. Cheers.:thumbup:

[Blaze]

Yes, but just to be clear we are talking about what is required to get HDD and HUD data to show in a custom-built pit and, in that connection, how to move the location of it - modding the actual data(functionality) is of course an entirely different matter.

 

The method ED used to add the HUD and MFD's to the default .cmd models we use now in FC2 are totally different than the methods to get them into .lom like they did with Black Shark and A-10 (I know, I've tried using the .cmd method and it doesn't work). The only way to be able to do that is to wait for the cockpit sdk from ED. But a brand new cockpit in FC2 as long as it doesn't require those 2 systems is 100% possible.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Blaze

[rattler]

The method ED used to add the HUD and MFD's to the default .cmd models we use now in FC2 are totally different than the methods to get them into .lom like they did with Black Shark and A-10 (I know, I've tried using the .cmd method and it doesn't work). The only way to be able to do that is to wait for the cockpit sdk from ED. But a brand new cockpit in FC2 as long as it doesn't require those 2 systems is 100% possible.

 

Thanks Blaze appreciate the info. I hope we get to do more with FC2. I was wondering, seeing now that Ed is going to keep Lockon supported for a while yet. cheers. Any more interesting things about the cockpit would be appreciated as time goes by. Waiting not so patiently for July.LOL.

[Alfa]

The method ED used to add the HUD and MFD's to the default .cmd models we use now in FC2 are totally different than the methods to get them into .lom like they did with Black Shark and A-10 (I know, I've tried using the .cmd method and it doesn't work). The only way to be able to do that is to wait for the cockpit sdk from ED.

 

Yes I figured as much and at any rate it can hardly pay to spend too much time experimenting with this when proper tools for the purpose are on their way :) .

 

But a brand new cockpit in FC2 as long as it doesn't require those 2 systems is 100% possible.

 

Yeah and considering the level of work involved for building/texturing a nice 3d cockpit + animating all the other functions, I don't think anyone with such a project needs to be afraid of running out of work anytime soon :) .

[rattler]

Yes I figured as much and at any rate it can hardly pay to spend too much time experimenting with this when proper tools for the purpose are on their way :) .

 

 

 

Yeah and considering the level of work involved for building/texturing a nice 3d cockpit + animating all the other functions, I don't think anyone with such a project needs to be afraid of running out of work anytime soon :) .

 

Very true!!. I will still support Fc1 for a while as there may be some members not switching to FC2. Why I don't know but I would assume there may be some, so for a while, I will try to do a cockpit for the 5th gen. a/c, as they come along, if the mod does not come with one already done.:)

 

I would think there will be some very nice mods for FC2 in the near future. Over and above what is being done now to transfer some of the FC1's over to 2. Tools is what we need and it looks like we may be lucky enough to get some of them.:)