My Projects (EricJ)

[+Brain32 265]

Is that with skylights and stuff? You really shouldn't be taking renders to check your textures. Do it in-engine or bump the ambient lighting up to 1.0.

 

No lights in the scene, all default just increased the resolution and pressed render...

 

Anyway, what's really apparent in your render if you compare to his cockpit or photos of real cockpits is that you have much less contrast in yours. The dark greys are too light and the light grey panels are too dark, so it all kind of looks washed out. Increase the overall contrast of the cockpit instead and it will have more depth ingame.

 

I don't really follow this contrast thing, if I apply auto contrast corrections in PS on the textures they look like s**t lol

To choose colours I basically picked the colour from TW's F-15 pit textures...

Do you basically mean lighting up lighter texture parts and darken the darker ones or what?

 

And yeah, you really should use photo texture overlays instead of relying on just brushwork. Even the TW cockpits have subtle photo overlays that add variety to otherwise flat surfaces. The absolutely worst thing you can do is just have a flat color on a surface. Seriously.

 

It's not just plain color, I have a texture overlayed over the basic colour that is basically a basic hard plastic/metal surface texture with scratches and stuff...

[+Julhelm 266]

No lights in the scene, all default just increased the resolution and pressed render...

Ok, but that means you probably still have default lighting on. Try opening up the environment menu with "8" and set ambient to full white. Then you can view your textures unlit in the viewport, which is much much better than using the renderer. My textures literally improved tenfold once I stopped using the renderer for previewing. You can also use dx shaders in the viewport to preview spec and bump as they will look ingame. But to work diffuse textures the method I described is foolproof.

 

I don't really follow this contrast thing, if I apply auto contrast corrections in PS on the textures they look like s**t lol

To choose colours I basically picked the colour from TW's F-15 pit textures...

Do you basically mean lighting up lighter texture parts and darken the darker ones or what?

Yeah, make the dark grey parts like MFD boxes darker and make the light grey panels lighter. If you keep things in layers it should be a 5 second job. Ironically, most of the TW pits look better too once you do this :)

 

I don't think I've ever used autocontrast in PS. I either use brightness/contrast in legacy mode, levels or curves.

 

It's not just plain color, I have a texture overlayed over the basic colour that is basically a basic hard plastic/metal surface texture with scratches and stuff...

Yeah I see something but it looks like it is kinda blurry. It doesn't hurt to run the sharpen filter a few times. Also you can get some interesting effects by using the blending modes "darken", "darker color" or "lighten". Ingame you'll want to have sharp, crisp textures and there's really no need to go above 1024 res for this. I actually have another custom PS action I use to give textures that extra crispiness. Most of the time people are probably going to be looking from the default F1 view anyway so optimize your stuff for that :)

[+Brain32 265]

Yup I have a ton of layered templates so I'll try that contrast thingy.

Also no texture goes over 1024 and those are only two or three that cover a lot of the model others are 512 and 256, I have a lot of them however...over 30..

I basically split the texturing on cockpit parts like:

MFD's and fuel/engine panel

ICP and HUD

analog Gauges

side panels

quarter panels

low panels

caution panels

etc...

[+Julhelm 266]

Over 30? Damn. I have to say, one huge problem I tend to run into when working with lots of different textures on the same model is keeping levels the same. So I tend to bunch stuff together on 1024 atlases if I can. How many of those 30 are different kinds of dials and digits tho? Glass cockpits, lol...

 

Also remember, when I say contrast I'm talking about the overall look of the complete model. It's not uncommon to have textures that look good in Photoshop but where the final model is less than the sum of its parts, know what I'm sayin'?

 

I'll save out some of my custom actions and post them here in a bit, btw.

[+Julhelm 266]

Also, don't know if you've noticed, but in the real cockpit, the MFD's and spin/jettison panels protrude out quite a bit further than you've modelled them. This too could be a reason why it kind of lacks the depth it should have? If you bake AO the shading won't be correct in that case. I've made the same mistake before. It's easy if you look at pilot POV photos too much :)

 

Check how Aeyes placed them, and the pics I'm attaching below:

 

[+Brain32 265]

Hmm I don't really see them protruding on any of theese pictures or a ton of others I have, + I have a sketchup model from some cockpit builders(simpit) and they are level with the MFD's as are mine...

Infact in game you do get the impression they are protruding out but they really don't...

 

As for other stuff I pretty much understand most of the stuff you are talking about and I do agree, it's just that I'm aiming for the overall TW style here so the pit would look as close to the "it came with the game" impression as possible.

 

When I compare my pit with the stock F-15A pit I really have an impression I nailed that TW atmosphere pretty damn close and if I apply all that stuff I'm afraid I'm going to loose that as that was something I aimed at from the beginning

[+Julhelm 266]

I'm just going by what I see on that screenshot Eric posted on page 63. Maybe it looks OK in max and photoshop but it looks overall too uniformly mid/dark grey in ingame screenshots and not dark grey/light grey like the real cockpit.

 

And if you sketchup model shows them as on the same plane, look again at the photos I just attached. You can clearly see the bottom instruments are at least 2 inches deeper compared to the front of the MFD.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Julhelm

[+Brain32 265]

Ahhh, misunderstanding, I understand you mean relation between the MFD and spin/jett panels, not all that together in total relation.

Anyway bottom instruments are a bit more than an inch deeper than MFD...

[balasch0 0]

Hornet porn :D

[kthgl 0]

Great!Good job! I'm really looking forward to this! When will it be released?

[+EricJ 3,943]

Unfortunately there isn't an ETA, basically when it gets done...

[+EricJ 3,943]

Got a little bored and creative, F-14D VF-102 50th Anniversary What If WIP

[+EricJ 3,943]

Here's a pit update (E/F):

[+Brain32 265]

Aaaaaaaaand another one from todays testing, found it nice to take a shot as it showed different MFD pages than on Eric's shot so it seemed like a nice follow on :)

 

[+russouk2004 6,951]

coolio gents...niiiiiiice

[+EricJ 3,943]

In all honesty Brain32 I was going to show that but wasn't sure...

 

Buuut

 

The left MFD is also the SMS (Store Management System) page, and if you hit the Bomb ripple interval "[" button to select between the two.

Edited June 24, 2012 by EricJ

[+Julhelm 266]

The reversed highlight on the left throttle handle looks really weird. And maybe you could make the MFD pages more uniform in sharpness? The HSI is sharp and crisp but the UFC and SMS are blurry. Oh, and don't forget teh bolts on the consoles :P

 

Oh btw Brain, I have a font for the instrument panel which is much closer to the real one than Arial or whatever we usually use.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Julhelm

[arthur666 65]

Looking soooo good, EricJ. Can't wait to dwnld it.

[+EricJ 3,943]

Note that the aviocnics symbology is coming straight from the NATOPS so there shouldn't be a need for an additional avionics update, but we're not perfect either

[Caesar 305]

That is a sexy pit. Keep up the good work, gents!

[+Brain32 265]

The reversed highlight on the left throttle handle looks really weird.

Yup, good thing you noticed, I totally forgot about that...

 

And maybe you could make the MFD pages more uniform in sharpness? The HSI is sharp and crisp but the UFC and SMS are blurry.

I think that's a screenshot issue(they are all textured with same resolution textures), they are actually very crisp to the point I get a bit weird effect in game, don't know the correct English word for it but it's like they are shimmering a bit, you know as if small waves travel across the strait lines...

 

Oh, and don't forget teh bolts on the consoles :P

This one I messed up, mapping the sidepanels the part that would have bolts is so small I don't know if they will fit, but I have that in mind...

Oh btw Brain, I have a font for the instrument panel which is much closer to the real one than Arial or whatever we usually use.

That's great BUT, the link gives me 404 :(

[+Julhelm 266]

I think that's a screenshot issue(they are all textured with same resolution textures), they are actually very crisp to the point I get a bit weird effect in game, don't know the correct English word for it but it's like they are shimmering a bit, you know as if small waves travel across the strait lines...

No if you look at SMS texture the "plane" is blurry while the text is sharper. Since it's essentially vector art drawn on a CRT you'd expect everything to be the same sharpness.

 

 

This one I messed up, mapping the sidepanels the part that would have bolts is so small I don't know if they will fit, but I have that in mind...

Model the bolts then. It'll make it look better. Also I did some texture tweaks on the A pit you sent me that I'll post later.

 

That's great BUT, the link gives me 404 :(

Try http://www.ducker.se/files/MS33558FONT.ZIP

[+EricJ 3,943]

And while Brain32 is chugging on the cockpit, adapted the "Miss Molly" texture work from the F-14:

[+EricJ 3,943]

And a little tweaking...

[+EricJ 3,943]

Latest work, I think I'm done...