Cockpit Modding Question

[Mecingo]

How do I mod a cockpit, not the hud, but cockpit. I want to repaint it a dark shade of blue or copper, How do I do this?

[Maarschalk]

I think by modding the cockpit files. But do not forget to turn on Cockpit mode in the game....:P

[Mecingo]

I think by modding the cockpit files. But do not forget to turn on Cockpit mode in the game....:P

Could not find them

[Marvin]

Did you peruse the latest Customizing Kit?

[Mecingo]

Did you peruse the latest Customizing Kit?

Is it the one available on the EM website?

[Maarschalk]

Here is the info from the Customizing kit and the files are and need to be in the HUD folder not all filles in the customizing kit are up to date though so I'm not sure if it will work the way described in here, best one to ask is Vice by a U2U:

The custom cockpit option has two available modes. The first renders the cockpit object with multiple structures and only needs one layer of texture data per structure. The second renders the cockpit object with a shader effect and requires 3 layers of texture data for the primary structure. The shader method can generally look much better visually, but is more complex to set up. If you have disabled shader effects in the Options menu, then the game will default to the first custom cockpit mode. For the first option, these three object files are needed:

ccpit.x = cockpit structure mesh (include textures in the same folder)
ccpitlights.x = cockpit emmissive layer (for static cockpit lights and illumination)
ccpitreflect.x = legacy reflection layer mesh (provides a reflection definition layer)

Each object will be loaded and rendered in the scene using one layer of texture data. 'ccpit.x' is the primary structure, 'ccpitlights.x' is needed for any static lights you want to have in the cockpit, 'ccpitreflect.x' is used to define area of light reflection within the cockpit (where light reflection is either reduced or prevented, so use an inverse texture for this layer where lighter sections allow more light to pass through and darker sections allow less light to pass through). If your layers have surfaces that overlap at the same angle, position, and scale, then you may encounter flickering when the various layers are rendered in the game. To compensate for this effect, you may want to render the reflect layer slightly inside of the primary layer and the light layer slightly inside of both.

For the shader option, you can use the same filenames above, but the reflect layer is not needed for light definition since the shader will apply a normal map for proper light reflection/reaction. So you can use the reflect layer as a way to add further details to the cockpit that do not use the shader (such as additional static cockpit displays, seat details, buttons, etc), or if you don't want to use that structure option, just include a blank triangle for that layer that isn't visible from the player's perspective. The light layer is still used for any static lights you want to include in the cockpit. Once you've designed the structures, you will need to include a 'ccpitshader.txt' file in the same \\hud folder that specifies the textures you want to use for a base map, normal map, and specular map. Here is the required layout for this file:

ccpitshader.txt = first value specifies the base map (exact filename, place file in \\hud folder)
second value specifies the normal map (exact filename, place file in \\hud folder)
third value specifies the specular map (exact filename, place file in \\hud folder)

[Edited on 8-8-2011 by Maarschalk]

[Accountant]

I do not know of any files in the EM customizing kit for changing the cockpit textures. However, there were such files for EL. If you want to try and see if the old files still work, try creating test textures with the following names:
ccpit2.jpg
ccpit2b.jpg
ccpit2shader.jpg
ccpit2bshader.jpg
ccpit4.jpg
ccpit4shader.jpg
ccpit5.jpg
ccpit5shader.jpg

No guarantee that they will work, but it is worth giving it a shot.

-Accountant

[Mecingo]

Thank you all, still sounds a little complicated but I'll figure it out.

[warsign]

Hi Mecingo,

I suggest you download existing mods for the cockpit. For Renegades,Legends and Mercenary, logic is almost the same and I think you can learn everything about them...