posted 08-12- 02:40 PM               

server traffic is high so hold your wads. Sorry for the seemingly bad mood, but cant get anybody to help me with the freaking cockpit. So until somebody helps me with the cockpit, this is it. Sorry, but thats the way the ball bounces.

posted 08-12- 03:36 PM               

What's the problem with the cockpit, you can use the german instruments, might be you even could copy some parts from the Bf109's ?

I know its not soo easy doing it all alone, but hey, did you really think you could make it in 1 week ?

Take a rest, and go on working

posted 08-12- 04:05 PM               

I love this plane and feel I owe you a favour anyhow

Mail me...

posted 08-12- 07:05 PM               

You are where I was about a year ago with my F-14 and it's cockpit. I did a panel for it (just the main panel, no instruments) and it "seemed" like such a pain in the butt job I gave up.

WELL! I'm hear to tell you that with my Kestrel "Harrier-ish" project I decided the cockpit wasn't going to win, I was. I told myself I must do the cockpit or else, at all costs mostly so I know how one is put together and maybe I could then burst the false "it's so hard to do!" feeling I've had forever.

So away I went, opening as many planes in OPS as I could, carefully scrutinizing every last detail and dial. Then ideas started coming to me like crazy. And guess what? When you really get down to it it's very easy! You know why? Because you just start with basically a bathtub shape. (Look at any other plane and it has a tub where the pilot sits). If you need to do your own unique one you can always export either as an OBJ file or LOD (either for Max or AC3D, whatever you are using) and then open it up in your 3D prog along with your Bf110. Next, move the canopy top out of the way, make a hole in your fuselage (I think your's is already in there), and fit this tub in your plane.

If you are saying "but I already have cockpit walls!" I say do this anyways. This way your outer skin paint won't bleed into the cockpit. And it's just easier to work with a smaller type tub. So now fit this tub to your plane so you don't see ANY gaps where the tub/fuse meet. Then, using any pic that shows it well enough, copy the main panel, secondary panels, and the flak shield (that hood thing that sits over the main panel and extends out to the glass).

Doing panels is EASY! Since todays 3D progs allow you to use a pic as a background you can setup a panel background, trace over it, save your file. Then using 8 sided circles, make ONE and then copy the rest from that first one and size and place all the dials. Keep in mind these circles aren't gonna be in the cockpit, they are just for placement purposes. What I did was make the Kestrel's main panel gray and the guages black (just polygon color, no mapping yet). Get all the dials where they should be according to your guide pics you have. If you want, you can take a screenshot of this and it'll act as a temporary background map for testing. I took a pic of mine, and then deleted all the circles I made. I then mapped that pic of the circles and panel to the main panel, exported it, imported into the SM file in OPS and tried it in the game. This got me VERY excited that it looked good and spurred me on to do more.

Next, use all the resources you have, meaning the instrument dial TIFs for Germany that came with the game (or you can search the net for different and possibly better ones). Once you have them all, create a square that the dial will be on (this REALLY cuts down on high poly counts, doing away with all those circles. Squares only have 2 faces each (two triangles) but MAKE SURE all your cockpit work faces IN the cockpit, and not out (single sided polys).

Map one of the squares with one of the instruments, get the pic scaled perfectly until you are happy with it (this is mostly for never been used dials in SDOE, meaning new textures). Now export it out and bring it into OPS, under the same instrument name that is probably already there from the model you are starting with. I can help you with setting texture ID's in a bit if you need that info. OR, just open up ANOTHER instance of OPS and open a German airplane. Find the instrument you want and cut and paste it onto your panel! Yes, it's that easy, PLUS you get the working DOF's as well!
In OPS if you hit K this will place you squarely lined up behind your plane. Then using the magnifying glass (to zoom) zoom in on your panel and have it fill the screen. When this far zoomed in you can move the dials around and place them exactly where you need to (or damn close anyways). But in a nutshell that's it.

So you see, it's not all that hard. It takes time yes, but the results are VERY satisfying. Cockpit glass is a whole other story that I won't go into right now.

Hope this helps you though.

posted 08-12- 07:17 PM               

HarrerPanel1.jpg

posted 08-12- 07:47 PM               

Er, US only

posted 08-12- 08:39 PM               

Elric