(EL) Accountant Cockpit Modification

[Accountant]

Here is the EL version of the cockpit I made for ER. The cockpit is exactly the same as the version in ER.

EDIT: V1.1 the most current release.
Link
Link

Here is the description of the cockpit from the ER thread:

I'd love to hear feedback and suggestions for changes/improvements. What do you guys want to see added, changed, and removed?

Also, don't expect incredible texturing from me. I'm just an amatuer (and not very good at that). All of the textures except the leather textures were created by me from scratch, so that gives you an idea of my abilities.

One feature I've included is the ability to create your own registration number. Airplanes have a little placard in the cockpit with the tail number printed on it. I wanted to do the same thing with my cockpit. The placard in my modification is located above the left display. If you want to create your own tail number you just need to edit reg.jpg.

Finally, included in the download is a Metaseq file of my cockpit for those who are building their own cockpits and want a reference.

Here are screenshots of 3 different views from the cockpit.




-Accountant

[Edited on 12-17-2009 by Accountant]

[Maarschalk]

Looks Great, I'm not sure I like the visibility of the mounting screws of the HUDs though, makes it looks old fashion for the year 2400!;)

[Accountant]

Hey, old-fashioned/retro isn't bad...unless it's bellbottoms or something

I suppose the screws could seem old-fashioned, but without them I thought the panel looked a bit naked.

I really wish I knew how to texture better than I do, that way I could add textural detail that didn't comprise mainly of screws in the panel.

-Accountant

[Ali Fish]

very nice cockpit indeed. im liking the clean cut approach. the textures work very well with the retro feel <thumbs up>

mind if i play with its textures ?

[Edited on 5-4-2009 by Ali Fish]

[Accountant]

You can do whatever you want with the cockpit to suit your tastes. If you decide to release it, let me know; I would love to see the changes (don't even need to credit me, though it would be nice. I'm more concerned about people adding their own personalizations to this great game).

Hopefully all of the faces are mapped properly so that the textures are applied correctly. If you find any areas of the model where the textures do not apply like they should, let me know so I can fix it (for example, I have had a couple of areas where the faces were mapped backwards, so if I drew a line through the texture it would be all cut up on the model)

-Accountant

[Karin]

Awesome, another EL cockpit! I'll try this out tonight. I love the look of it - very clean - and I very much agree with the cupholder comments in the original thread!

[Palerider]

Hi guys,
how I can install that awsome stuff?

[Accountant]

@Karin

Feel free to comment on what you like and don't like. I'm always open to suggestions for improvement, even if I do not get to them right away because of my schedule (for instance, adding a NAV/COM panel as suggested by Eclipse is still on my to-do list).

I also hope you like the cupholder. Probably my favorite part of the cockpit

@Palerider,

To install this or any other cockpit mod, copy the "Hud" folder in the ZIP file to the root directory of Evochron Legends. This should be the directory you installed Evochron Legends to.

-Accountant

[Ali Fish]

is it possible for you to create shader files for all the textures u have made???.. at times the pit is displaying brilliant white over the displays etc.. i presume due to the lack of control of the shader through the controlling textures.

[Accountant]

Shader files?

How do I go about creating shader files? I'm only familiar with basic 3D modelling and texturing. Things like shaders are beyond my knowledge. I am willing to learn, though, so any help along this route would be appreciated.

-Accountant

[Ali Fish]

ive no idea how to explain this in relation to your skills and software used. can anyone else help here. this cockpit is nice, and also its nice for anyone who wants to learn modding EL due to non repeated textures and lack of tiled textures.

u have shaders applied accountant- thats the light source giving the specular effect, the light moving...... its set without the use of textures. i.e its set in its most basic form. applying this effect through your software to use a texture as its base of power is what to do.

u have mapped textures to the model. u need to mimic this for the specular or shader. an example of this on our vanilla cockpits can be seen in the modkit files. specifically in the hud folder there are textures, cockpit textures, and theres also a cockpitshading file that similar in design to the diffuse;s used. its these files that control how much light is cast onto the model in game.

its these effects that create make believe objects look more 3d in nature. a simple flat plane can be transformed into a semi 3d object. its all illusion of course..

on the specular texture the black part generally means hardly any light will be cast by the ingame renderer to the model... where the shading texture is white means light will appear on the model dynamicaly brighter. make sense

in respect to your cockpit. it will appear with a bright sheen over all the model at times .... the in game renderer does not find shading textures so its applying max lighting everywhere which results in a pur white cockpit at times.

this is my cockpit i did, its texture updates only to the existing model. see the differences with speculars i speak of etc????
http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4372



[Edited on 6-4-2009 by Ali Fish]

[Accountant]

Ok, I think I understand what you are talking about. Vice, can these shaders be applied in Metaseq under the mapping part of the program?

I'll take a look at it when I find time later today and see if I can find a way to apply shaders (also called specular maps?)

-Accountant

[Ali Fish]

yeah , shader is a loose term really thats generally applied to special effects other than basic texture although that could be a shader itself.... other shaders could be, displacement maps, bump/normal maps ,cubemaps, transparency masks. in some software these can be mixed together to form even more elaborate shaders.

[Edited on 6-4-2009 by Ali Fish]

[Vice]

Ok, I think I understand what you are talking about. Vice, can these shaders be applied in Metaseq under the mapping part of the program?

You'll just need to apply different textures for each layer. For the reflection layer, a grayscale texture is needed to tell the game where to define the shiny areas on the cockpit. For the illumination layer, a texture with just the lights in the cockpit is needed. You can texture the other cockpit layers in Metaseq or you can just change the filename(s) in the X files themselves and edit the textures in an image editor as needed.

[Accountant]

Ohhhh, I think I see. So the textures I apply to the CCPITreflect and CCPITlights models are what determines the lights and reflections, not the actual models themselves.

I will experiment with shaders this weekend. We have a 4-day weekend because of Easter, so I will have some extra time to spend on this.

-Accountant

[Accountant]

Ok, release 1.1 is here!

I added shaders and lights to the model, so hopefully there is no more glossy whiteness showing over the textures when in direct light.

Link

The shader and light textures use the same configuration as the normal textures, so if you want to create custom shaders or lights, just copy the normal texture, rename it to the appropriate file name, and texture it as needed.

-Accountant

[Edited on 4-11-2009 by Accountant]

[Ali Fish]

excellent sir !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Vice]

Yes, very nice!

[Zenith]

Fantastic work! Definitely a suitable panel for a military craft; clean, functional and minimalistic. You sir, have both my download, and my thanks.

[Accountant]

Thanks Zenith, I am glad to hear you like the cockpit!

Thanks also to everyone else for their support and feedback!

-Accountant

[DennyMala]

Outstanding work! Very nice.

[haloterm]

is it possible to use this in EM, too? Or what would be needed to make this work?


Edit: Okay, I've done it myself -- simply copied and partly replaced the HUD graphics with your EM update of your observation mod and now everything looks good.

Only thing is rather strong flickering when using F10 for mouse look (also in your observation cockpit). I think I didn't have the problem back in EL. Not critical, though.

[Edited on 26-2-11 by haloterm]

[Accountant]

My guess is the flickering is caused by using the old shader method. The old method uses two models. One model is the actual cockpit and the other model is a slightly smaller version with textures that tell the game how the lighting works. To remove the flickering I will either have to adjust the specular model (not preferred, but easy) or convert the models to the EM shader method (preferred, but more difficult)

I do hope to eventually convert the Observation cockpit. While I am at it I can see about converting this one, too. I cannot promise a time frame when the conversions will be completed, though. I seem to have over-extended myself time-wise with real-life obligations. Did the same thing in college, too. I never learn...

-Accountant

[Galaxian]

Having recently adopted the Observation Cockpit myself, I must pay compliments for the outstanding work. Really nice!

I'm getting the flickering panels as well.

However, as I am sorely lacking any sort of skills related to cockpit development, I've convinced myself that it's simply an indicator of the holographic nature of the cockpit interacting with the cockpit's radiation shielding....