Building Custom Sim Controls!

piratechance · Post by **piratechance** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:59 pm

I need a new project!
So I was playing and I thought - Why should boring regular flight sims have all the fun? I want to build an instrument panel and custom controls for this awesome space sim.

Now, I don't know yet if the instrument panel is feasible, (I don't know if game data can be pulled that way) but I've done some research and it appears that I can handle the input using Microsoft's Direct input interface ... I could ramble about this for a while...

Think of reaching up and flipping a toggle to activate the tractor beam, heck, having enough physical controls that you don't need a keyboard!

I know I could just go buy an saitek x52, but I need a project I'll learn something from

Now, this is a space ship, not a WWII bomber, so it needs different controls, for instance I found some 8'' touch sensitive strips that would make a cool throttle, touch your finger along its length to set the speed or slide a finger up and down it.

So I want to ask everybody, what are some ideas for controls?
They need to be usable, and I'll let you know if they are feasible from a construction standpoint.

Also I'd like to discuss the usability of them, would the touch strips be too clumsy?

Thanks,
Chance

Sulla · Post by **Sulla** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:19 pm

I'm not sure about the finger-thrust thing, aside from the pornorific aspect. I like the instant control of speed a throttle gives me. As for setting a switch for tractor beams and such, I see very little difference between flipping a switch and hitting a button on a keyboard. I suppose I don't imagine the Evocron universe to be i-pod compatible, as it were.

What I would think useful in the sort of setup you're talking about is display screens. The standard cockpit displays are too small for my liking (maybe I'm getting old, but I have to lean up to the screen to read - Hey Vice! Any chance to provide an option for this?) and I'd like to be able to seen the nav map by looking left or right instead of filling my forward screen.

I guess I don't see how any change in input would make sense, but if you build displays up, that would be awesome.

Post by **Vice** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:13 pm

What I would think useful in the sort of setup you're talking about is display screens. The standard cockpit displays are too small for my liking (maybe I'm getting old, but I have to lean up to the screen to read - Hey Vice! Any chance to provide an option for this?)

You can adjust the placement of those displays (including distance) by using the mod options detailed in the customizing kit. Look for the gauges.txt file option, the last 5 values give you control over distance. It may take some trial and error to get the size/distance you prefer and you may want to turn off the 3D cockpit to better accommodate the custom locations for better legibility.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:16 pm

Originally posted by Vice

...you may want to turn off the 3D cockpit to better accommodate the custom locations for better legibility.

Unfortunatley, that's one of the problems ... not a big one, though. We (well, me, anyway) really like our cockpits. Isn't there a way to move player's POV forward ... scootching him closer to the front of a cockpit? Like, maybe, changing a specific line in one of the .cfg, .sw or data files? (Just a guess ... the only 3D model I've made was for Orbiter. In that one, I could define POV ... but changing it after creating the file would've been a near impossiblity.)

Post by **Vice** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:41 pm

With custom cockpits, yes, up to certain clipping limits. With the default cockpit, it's about as close to the camera as you can get before excessive clipping starts to occur (meaning parts of the cockpit would cut away out of view). If you're working with a custom cockpit, you can increase the scale, then reposition the displays as needed, to accommodate larger designs. The default cockpit is largely built in code and uses a pretty static set of design parameters. However, I did try to export the design to an object file earlier this year and was able to at least get it into MQO format. So if there's an ambitious modeller familiar with Metaseq who'd like to try building a custom cockpit from the frame, I can e-mail it to them. It's only the mesh, so it would need texturing and some corrections for a few invalid structures that appeared in the export.

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:57 am

Originally posted by Vice

With the default cockpit, it's about as close to the camera as you can get before excessive clipping starts to occur (meaning parts of the cockpit would cut away out of view).

Okay, Vice. Thanks, that explains it ... I've seen clipping in a lot of 3D games. Sometimes it's hard to ignore.

Edit: Is this a fairly good example of clipping? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUwLCqoKIa8

[Edited on 9-15-2009 by Marvin]