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[LuseKofte]

Tyrl has not been active for a long time, but he knows our policy of development and sharing.
I stand as a witness for your request, and take personally responsebillity if any unpleasant should happend , that is ofcourse behind the shoulders of my editorbosses Mikes, Eugene and Mark
But there will not be any, Tyrl is a Nice guy

[WxTech]

Only just now put this one into my 4.09 game (because it was only a month or two ago that I finally upgraded from 4.08 and joined the Rebel ranks--or is that the rank Rebels?   ).

I noticed no visible canopy glass, and sure enough, upon checking the mesh and hier.him I see the glass has been completely overlooked.

Another bit of weirdness. The frame edging (which is where the plexi is held by the frame) has a *really* (!) strong specular component, blazing to fully saturated white. The same for the leather handgrip hanging from the forward canopy. I see no cause for this, as all the .mat files have specularity typically low at 0.1 for the most part. And there is no layer utilizing the super specular feature (e.g., as used for the stock La-7 gun sight.) What I'm seeing suggests a maximum specular value of 1.0. But my sleuthing has uncovered nothing responsible.

[Mick]

... specularity works as long as SpecularPow is above 0, and here, in the Morane cockpit, SpecularPow values are very high, typically 16 ...

[LightParams]
  Ambient 1.0
  Diffuse 1.0
  Specular 0.1
  SpecularPow 16 <=== try 8 or 4
  Shine 0.0

... typical stock SpecularPow values are 4, but with Specular higher values ...

I didn't have that Morane cockpit mod, and here is what I get in my 4.09 game, after installation ... 

I do have glass from outside view ... 





Hope this helps ... 

[WxTech]

Glass is present externally but not internally. There is *nothing* modeled glass wise for the internal canopy. I will fix that.

SpecularPow only controls how 'focused' is the range of angle of reflection. Not the overall, base intensity of the reflection. In other words, it makes the specularity more or less diffuse. A small value makes the specular reflection spot larger and more diffuse, bringing the reflection into view over a larger range of view angle with respect to the surface. A large value renders a more confined spot and hence a more restricted range of angle within which to see the reflection.

If SpecularPow is large and Specular as small, the reflected light is seen over a small angle, but the intensity will be low. At least that's how it's worked for all other cases where I set these things on other objects.

This instance is baffling. Not only is the intensity super strong, it's also seen over a rather surprising range of angle--for the sheer brightness exhibited.

I will lower the POW factor here to see if the excessive intensity can indeed be brought down.

[WxTech]

Another thing. The cowling mesh seen from inside seems to be taken from the Tempest. The shape is too rounded, missing the forward lateral bulging that makes the characteristic rounded triangular cross section. And the mapping of the skin texture is all wrong as a result.

Perhaps I'll correct this, too...

Just now looking over some pics of canopies via a Google search, I see where a number of improvements to the canopy framing can be made. Including:
- The incorporation of front armored glass, it would seem.
- Making the upper canopy taper less aggressively.
- Making the front (armored) windscreen wider.
- Making the horizontal frame bars for the sliding part less wide.
- Sloping the rear sliding canopy frame in the manner of the P-40 (vertical bars slanted, not parallel to the front.)

Indeed, the canopy overal has a strong resemblance to that of the P-40, differing principally in the lack of the intermediate vertical posts.

And might as well make the canopy openable, if doing all this other stuff...

[Mick]

... many THX for your explanations, until now I thought that if SpecularPow was set to 0, then no effect would be applied to Specular ...

Regarding the cockpit, it was probably borrowed from another AC, or is the mix result of different cockpits, as this was common years ago, since making a cockpit from scratch is an average of 6 months work, provided you already have all the necessary docs/pics whatever ...

Please, don't hesitate to post your modifications once you're done with them ... 

[spitfire-MKIX]

IIRC the current MS 406 cockpit is from the Tempest which has been modified and repainted. The canopy is from the MC-202 I think.

[WxTech]

IIRC the current MS 406 cockpit is from the Tempest which has been modified and repainted. The canopy is from the MC-202 I think.

Correct.

Epervier sent me an updated version of this 'pit, which incorporates a number of fixes and differences. Among them is a cleaned up canopy, where invisible elements were removed, and bad joins/gaps aligned. And glass has been added.

From the start I found the whole 'pit seemed to ride too high. I guessed about 20cm, and so in her.him I lowered the Z values by 0.2m for all elements having the parent as _ROOT_. That turns out to be just about bang on, as confirmed by temporarily setting the CAMERAIM hook in Body.msh so as to move the POV 2m to left (putting the viewer outside, with the result that both the external skin and the internal cockpit are superimposed, thus permitting to assess cockpit positioning w.r.t. the external model.)

For the default skins, I altered the transparency layer so as to remove the canopy mid-point vertical, arching bar. This transparency alteration is automatically applied for all other skins one might have.

I grabbed the OPL RX390 gun sight from the IES D-520 cockpit available here at SAS, and ported it into the Morane 'pit, for use when flying for the French. For the time being, I have two versions of hier.him, which I switch between as needed based on whether the sight is French or Finnish. The more elegant solution would involve Country checking in the cockpit class, whereupon the proper, dedicated hier.him would automatically be selected. Or dedicated slots are created.

I want to at least tweak the canopy mesh, so as to narrow the horizontal bars, make the thing taper less aggressively toward the top (make the upper arc wider), and slope the rear part, as seen in the external model. And I will add an armored glass texture at the front windscreen, perhaps with some modeling of the frame to suggest the greater thickness.

At some point I should make available my work, here in this thread probably being most appropriate.

[Fresco23]

Looking forward to that WxTech!