My Projects (EricJ)

[+EricJ]

And I think a "final" look

[+EricJ]

Managed to find an unbusy 3D modeler and starting on the Super Hornet cockpit. Note that this is of course early WIP

[+EricJ]

more progress

[+EricJ]

"Final" version. Unfortunately the modeler couldn't finish it so here it as is. I may ask rusty_hawk unless a cockpit guru wants to take a stab at it. I have the original max file so it doesn't take so long, if interested PM me

[+EricJ]

Might as well post something... Been working with Brain32 on a Super Hornet cockpit and this is the latest that I posted on my Facebook. The SMS (Stores Management System) Page is more accurate since it's designed for the Super Hornet rather than using the old MF cockpit. Most of the pit is done but right now the loggerhead is that since it doesn't have an actual RWR (though the old one is shown here) we're at odds as far as where to place it, but back on topic, here's the SMS panel and the corresponding load:

Edited May 7, 2012 by EricJ

[+JAT81500]

That's really awesome, congrats !!!

[+EricJ]

Thank Brain32 for everything... But yeah very nice...

[+Coupi]

Hello,

 

Very accurate cockpit for your beautiful Super Hornet!!!

 

Best regards,

 

Coupi.

[+EricJ]

Well right now it's still WIP...

[+ST0RM]

So does the SMS page stay updated realtime? So when you cook off an AIM-9, it disappears from the screen? Bombs, guns, etc?

 

Awesome new look!

[+Brain32]

Yup but some work on it is done almost daily. It would be faster but after all the Hornet pits I'm a bit worn out but still, reasonably quick pace of development will be held

[+EricJ]

Plus you can "add" other weapons to the SMS page, such as my version of a GBU-35, since it's a JDAM I just find the entry in the appropriate file and add it, so it'll show up:

[+WhiteBoySamurai]

The stores management screen is awesome! I fly your Super Hornet all the time, so I'm really looking forward to getting into that new pit.

[+EricJ]

Believe me I'm happy as well... Once it's finished I'll more than likely upload it as a separate download (cockpit upgrade, etc.), so it'll be about two weeks

[+CrazyhorseB34]

RWR screen should scroll up on the UFCD and the RWR on lower right should be plated over.

[+Brain32]

RWR screen should scroll up on the UFCD and the RWR on lower right should be plated over.

 

Early SuperBugs had a backup RWR(basically in the same place old RWR on legacy Bugs is) the real SH pilot on VRS was actually surprised learning that newer blocks don't have them. Thus I will make an early AND late version...

 

UFCD can not display such data, it's primarily an input device, the RWR info is shown on L or R DDI but NATOPS manual says MPCD can display everything except A/G camera so that's where it will be...

[+EricJ]

Some nifty stuff on the cockpit (kinda just found it out), throttle idle and at full burner. Brain32 did some cool stuff (in my mind anyway) with the EFD (Engine Fuel Display)

[+Brain32]

Scaling animation, bothered me for two days until I figured it out, now every single item on the EFD panel is up to NATOPS

I think I will have to write a small manual for it, the cockpit.ini has over 400 entries...

[+EricJ]

Might be a good idea

[+Julhelm]

I wouldn't rush the pit if I were you. It looks good but obviously a lot of polish remains. TBH you should do hipolys for the buttons and MFD frames and they'll look much better. Or you could bevel those edges but meh, polycount. Better bake normalmaps for that tbh. Don't be afraid to put in some wear, either. IMHO people obsess way too much about placing correct labels according to NATOPS and stuff like that rather than just trying to make things look real.

 

You should try and match Aeyes's F-18 pit for FF5, which looks really good:

 

http://www.cockpits.net/website/PRODGAL_F18CWIDE.html

 

HAWX2 and AC6 has some nicely textured pits you can look at, too.

[+Brain32]

I have more wear on legacy Hornets, SuperHornets are pretty new and besides that I'm not very good at that stuff.

 

As for the FF5, it does look nice, but 3d vc I don't see looking better than mine, 2d pit yes but since it's made by combining RL photos, that's hard to match, all the textures in my pit were done completely from scratch.

 

As for the rushing I only plan to do some technical details, like you said NATOPS labels :D and it will be ready for a release as far as I'm concerned.

If the thing that would hold me from doing more polish on it would be laziness instead of lack of knowledge then I would just wait a bit longer and finish it, since I''ll have to learn more about that stuff and gain some expirience in this I see no reason to hold it down for what might end up being years, I can always update and re-build stuff as I find time and learn things better.

 

Cockpits are 48-49000 polys for Legacy Hornets(A, earlyC/D and late C/D) and around 52000 polys for the SuperHornet and I still think this is quite a lot because for example sidepanels have virtually no use in SF2 yet they take up a lot of polys when you add all the switches and knobs as much as I tried to keep them as low poly as possible for them to still look reasonably good they just add-up.

 

Other thing is that weapons SMS page of this complexity takes up nearly 2000polys because of all the simple meshes you have to add to simulate it as TK is not MFD friendly...

[+Julhelm]

You should bake stuff like the knobs to keep down the polycount. There is really no point in having a single knob have 24 sides. How much time do people spend zoomed in max in the cockpit anyway? I only spent like 30000 on the Convair 201 cockpit and that is roughly equivalent to an F-18 pit. The F-22 pit was only like 12000 or something.

 

And I do think Aeyes's pit looks better than yours, especially in this shot below. Yours is really dark and kinda flat looking while his has a lot more contrast and depth. Basically he has a lot of lit surfaces while you only have some ambient occlusion on yours. So if you give the textures a workover, add some lighting, highlight edges and that it will look really good. Don't be fooled thinking that polygon resolution is everything. I can point you to several sim pits that are ridiculously highpoly yet look like crap simply because no attention was spent on the textures.

 

A good texture can make a low-poly model look really good, but high-poly model can never make poor texture look good.

[+Brain32]

And I do think Aeyes's pit looks better than yours, especially in this shot below. Yours is really dark and kinda flat looking while his has a lot more contrast and depth. Basically he has a lot of lit surfaces while you only have some ambient occlusion on yours. So if you give the textures a workover, add some lighting, highlight edges and that it will look really good.

 

I don't really see it, other than that I went for the TW look and feel, he slapped RL photo-textures on it...

 

Here's the shot of my C Early pit from a render in max:

 

[+ST0RM]

As a user, I can say that for freeware, I'm happy with the results so far. Far better than the stock anything from TW.

 

As for Aeyes, his stuff is all payware so more attention should be given to polishing everything since money is in the loop. Kind of an unfair comparison.

 

Nice work Brain.

 

-Jeff

[+Julhelm]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

If you want it, I can share one of my custom photoshop actions I use to derive specular maps from the diffuse. If you increase the contrast like I said and then add spec maps on top of that it'll look really good ingame.