[EL SE] Cockpit Redesigns (WORK IN PROGRESS!)

[MarcusInVR]

I have begun to design new cockpits - civilian and military. I have noticed the hulls all look different, but the cockpits in-game don't match that. My first step is to design new cockpits for the two separate types, then create fitting new hulls for the ships. It's quite some fun to do and teaches you things about Blender.

At this time I am far from finished, but I have started with the Civilian Cockpit design today. It is missing the chair, but you can see the whole thing beginning to emerge.

Those are primarily designed with VR in mind. Since I can enter Blender in VR as well, I can get a feeling of how it will look in-game.

I will update this post when noteworthy progress has been made.

Below you can find screenshots of my progress today.

[TraderDan]

Looks Awesome! So glad to see more people getting into EL modding scene, there is such a wealth of tools and customization options Vice put into the game that I have not seen anywhere else.

[Marvin]

Cool. Is that cockpit going to correspond to any specific civvy ship? For the most part, the main difference between civvy ships is the shape of the canopy (some have a "sunroof" and some don't).

[MarcusInVR]

So I have been told by the canopy's manufacturer that the chair itself and most of the chair's systems have been installed. Control throttle and ship maneuver hand-device (joystick) to be installed soon.

Height, width and depth taken from my actual gamer chair in order to have it appear in correct size in-game. Design however is not my actual chair. I just "made it up" as I went along.

[Marvin]

Looks comfortable.

[MarcusInVR]

Some more progress...

I am getting somewhere now. Except for the HOTAS controls, everything is textured and starts to take shape in Cockpit Viewer. The floor is not entirely done, the door in the back is missing some details. But generally, I am starting to get satisfied with the result.

Once this works properly, the military version is to follow - should be done fairly quickly then.

[Vice]

Nice work!

[Marvin]

Yeah. Makes my old Blender stuff look kindergarten.

[TraderDan]

Awesome!

[MarcusInVR]

@Vice -

I got it almost finished and polished, except for one thing. It seems that the prime displays (radar dish, system and target info screens) are not customizable. If this is the case then I cannot use these models... I was wanting to "implement" these into the screens I made in the model.

I tried using simple cube meshes for the displays, but in the cockpit viewer the main displays stay where they are... so I actually don't know if it makes a difference.

Best

[Vice]

Those displays can be modified for placement, rotation, and scaling, plus additionally in the case of the radar, further levels of size adjustment. The alpha-numerical readouts/layouts are fixed however due to various internal functions and dependencies. So it will depend on what it is you want to do with them as to whether or not they may fit some kind of custom position or design. What is it you are trying to do exactly?

For reference, many of the individual custom parameters for the cockpit displays are available in the 'gauges.txt' file options outlined here: https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlega ... me.htm#304

The default display 'frames' can be omitted to use a custom structure or removed via the 'ccpitdisplays.x/obj' options listed here: https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlega ... me.htm#302

[MarcusInVR]

I am trying to insert the gauges into the model, but the Cockpit Viewer is not showing me Y and Z rotations, only X is working. That is problematic for me right now and a little bit frustrating.

Positioning (X, Y, Z) is working. Scaling is working too.

To be safe, I created a gauges.txt with default values as outlined, then started to play with all kinds of rotation values. Nothing shows in Cockpit Viewer. I also do not want to reload the game every time I make a change.

[Vice]

Looks like there were some parameters that both needed to be updated due to recent changes in game updates as well as added. Try this updated version of the viewing program which should now be fully aligned with the game:

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegac ... Viewer.zip

[MarcusInVR]

Nope. Still does not work in that version. Which is the same I already had (see version number in screenshot above)

[Vice]

Well, that is strange then. I ran tests both in code and with a 'gauges.txt' file applied and could apply rotations. Perhaps your web browser cached the download and you still had the old version? I didn't flip the version number before and just made the quick changes. But I have changed the version number this time (2.0118) at the same link to verify the latest version is being run.

Edit: Actually, I think I may know what it was. If you only extracted the binary from the root folder without installing the other files in the '\media' folder, then the needed code would not have applied. Be sure to also install the files in the root '\media' folder, in particular the 'bytecode.byc' file, into the '\media' folder you are using with the viewer. That will apply the needed changes.

[MarcusInVR]

OK so... I downloaded the linked version, fresh "install" of the tool and re-imported my obj models.

Line 6 - Center Display Y rotation - WORKS
Line 58 - Center Display X rotation - NOT WORKING
Line 59 - Center Display Z rotation - NOT WORKING

It does not matter which values I put in... either from 0.0 to 1.0 or 0.0 to 359.9. The display is not playing ball.

Well it was a fun experiment.

[Vice]

Both are working well for me. If you post your gauges.txt file in a code block, that may help provide a clue as to what may be happening. Also, what is the timestamp on the bytecode.byc file in the \media folder and does the menu now show version 2.0118?

[TraderDan]

This kinda reminds me of my lingering issue placing turrets on my .obj reliant model resulting in different locations than in-game, vice tried it on his system and he said it had no issues and I believe him of course. So what would be different on my system.... ? Is it possible that there is something that needs to be cleared in some %appdata% or windows registry location that is calling back to some variable from on older version of the model viewer but not the updated game?

[Vice]

The registry isn't used for this utility with such parameters, just importing and application of values. Turret placement could vary if there was some difference in code between a viewing utility and the game (wasn't able to find any at the time). This seems to be a complete lack of application of values to the selected display structure (as though they stay stuck at 0's). So it could be there is an issue with the 'gauges.txt' file being used (for example, insufficient spacing between a value and rem characters).

[TraderDan]

So far I haven't had any issues with gauges.txt in any of my testing - in fact I think you added some more features for z rotation since the last time I used it.

[Vice]

New rotation elements were indeed added not too long ago and have seemed to work well. So if those rotation options don't work properly at some point, there is likely an explanation and it's just a matter of finding out what the cause might be.

[MarcusInVR]

gauges.txt, with content according to the public customization page

Code: Select all

-0.1
0.68
20
-0.25
0.0
0
-0.1
-0.68
20
2.5
2.88
-0.08
0.0
0.0
-1
0.0
0.08
0.0
0.0
-0.12
0.0
-0.07
-0.09
0.0
0.07
-0.09
0.0
1.34
1.25
1.25
1.25
1.25
1.25
1.25
0.011
0
0.0345
-0.01
0
-0.02
-0.015
-0.0075
0
0.005
0.015
-0.0075
-0.05
0
0.1
0
0.1
0
-0.1
0
1.0
0
0
15
15
0
0

bytecode.byc: 2023-09-29, 12:01 (in zip file, according to 7zip File Manager)

Menu shows 2.0108 as version

[Vice]

Ok, that is still an older version for some reason. So we'll just need to figure out how/why the version you are launching is still an older build. Here is an alternate download link with a new URL to avoid any potential caching that may be occuring:

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegac ... er-alt.zip

[MarcusInVR]

Alright. Works now. Thanks.

[MarcusInVR]

Getting there