Grimloq wrote:which reminds me (sorry!)
in the SCP, is there any plans to make 'cockpits' for ships? like, there would be a flag for any ship that would be something like 'ckpt-myrmcp.pof' (after the dash is the filename, to be searched for in the /models dir) or something, where it would load up a cockpit ingame and just move it along with the camera., so it would essentially be a cockpit. sure would add a sence of realism... im no coder, but i would think all that yould have to do (besides, of cource, make the cockpits) was tell the thing to get the model and put it right in front of the camera. collision detction might be a problem though
any plans on something like that?
Proposals, yes. But not really much work; it's a case that the coders won't do it without a model and the modellers won't do it without code.
There were 2 ideas; one was a 2d cockpit as you see in older games, the other was a 3d one... IIRC the former was preferred as most people reckoned it would look best (not me, though) in terms of detail. The main issue was, I believe, to do with exactly how you would place the existing hud displays 'on top of' the cockpit appropriately. This would be a particular issue with regards to a true 3d cockpit, i believe; most people would expect the huds to be mapped onto the actual 3d object.
Unfortunately, you can't simply shove in a 3d model 'in front' of the player; one issue off the top of my head would be how to handle fogging in nebulas. If I understand correctly, any cockpit - 2d or 3d - would probably need to be specially placed in its own level of the z-buffer to ensure correct occlusion of objects; which could in itself raise the issue of how to handle any lighting effects.
One thing is that with models that have a modelled cockpit, you can manipulate the exterior view so it takes place 'from the pilots eye', i.e. pseudo-in-cockpit.
I'll try and dig up some links.
