Sectorgame

I thought I'd ask it here.....


Does anyone know if theres support for extra asteroid groups in Fred or FS2? If not, I'll put it as a suggestion in the SCP forum, since I think that'd be kind of handy

I don't think so.

I remember Kazan working on a superlarge asteroid when the SCP was first released (not sure if it was a new group or a tbl controlled setting,etc), but that broke collision detection.

Extra asteroid groups? You mean more than one field?

That would be pretty useful..

Flipside wrote:Does anyone know if theres support for extra asteroid groups in Fred or FS2? If not, I'll put it as a suggestion in the SCP forum, since I think that'd be kind of handy

Nope. There's a comment in the code somewhere that says that multiple asteroid fields were planned, but at some point in the development of FS1 the coders decided to restrict it to one.

We might be able to add more asteroid fields, but keep in mind the request list is about 1000 lines long now and we still only have about five active coders.

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?

Uhm, Grim, the only proposals I've heard have been a few minor ones from Saga and they've been based out of the HUD, not an additional model.

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.

some threads;
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/ ... ht=cockpit
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/ ... ht=cockpit
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/ ... ht=cockpit

Hey, Grim why you take idea right from my head. My bro asked last night if they were gonna do that, kinda of funny.

well, actually, it looks surprisingly good when the interface isnt on teh cockpit (take freelancer for example, and D3).

is there a way to force the player-veiw camera into that 'modelled cockpit'? that would be good, and wouldnt need source changes...

oh well, im prolly famous for stpuid ideas

Actually, I thought they were going to simply use a static image, but a model would look better, yes.

hmm.... either way... its good...

BTW, i refer you all to 'freelancer' to look at what their cockpits look like. well, not the cockpits, but the way theyre laid out. they ahve the cockpit, and all the interface stuff is just overlayed. done right, it looks really cool.

Uhm, Grim, our cockpits are the same way if you look at them closely enough. You can still 'see' through a lot of the cockpit elements if the color is right...

Grimloq wrote:well, actually, it looks surprisingly good when the interface isnt on teh cockpit (take freelancer for example, and D3).

is there a way to force the player-veiw camera into that 'modelled cockpit'? that would be good, and wouldnt need source changes...

oh well, im prolly famous for stpuid ideas

Modify the chase camera position IIRC.

never liked the idea myself