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Author Topic: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit  (Read 9687 times)

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carsmaster

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2020, 12:25:11 AM »

Thank.
Long live the legendary IL-2 !
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Treetop64

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2020, 12:54:24 PM »

Don’t even need pictures to know I’ll be downloading this later! Thanks WxTech!

Very much this.

Appreciate that there are some mod makers out there whose material is of such consistently outstanding quality that it doesn't even need a peruse before downloading.

Thank you, WxTech!


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garua

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2020, 01:24:00 PM »

First of all, thank you for the awesome mod. I especially enjoy the armoured glass texture (too bad it is not used for later IL-2 models).

Now the shameless beggar being chooser part: I think it would be great if you can combine your mod with the IL-2/IL-10 cockpit opening mod

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,42615.0.html

We mud-movers desperately need visibility.
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2020, 04:57:16 PM »

A good part of the reason for taking on the early Il-2 was that some time ago I had made up a whole new gun sight. If not for that I likely would not have carried things farther. Given my effort on the sight, it only seemed fitting to bring other bits up to a better standard as regards the canopy framing and glass. I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to those parts one spends a lot of time looking at and through. :)

Incorporating the opening canopy function would require a certain amount of work because of the 3-D changes I made to the whole thing (stationary and moveable portions). With the P-40 projects nearer to the front burner, that would have to wait. I don't know if I'd ever get around to it if other more pressing issues commanded my attention (like the Hurricane and Hellcat, to name two.)

Now, for those having head tracking gear, the significant expansion of the range of virtual head movement I introduced goes a *long* way to overcoming visibility issues. I note that the opening canopy mod does not have an additional PoV, like many other planes with opening canopies have, where one could set a 'head-out-the-window' position. And so the difference in the view of the outside world would not be so very different, in the main, from my current implementation.

If one lacks head tracking kit, then certainly an opening canopy is more beneficial. I can't extol sufficiently the benefits of head tracking; lacking it, I might never fly combat sims again. It's gotten that important.
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garua

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #16 on: April 30, 2020, 12:31:39 AM »

Don‘t bother wasting your time on the 3D parts. It is our human nature to lose every trace of motivation once the project is done. I am not a modder but I understand all too well the chore of having to come back to something you thought was finished. I just happen to notice that the later IL-2s do not use any of the new 3D, only the changed in PoV which conflicts with the open canopy mod. That would be great if the conflict could be solved so I can open the canopy in the later IL-2s or IL-10. But if it is too complicated, then beggar can’t be chooser and I will surely  choose your mod over open canopy mod.

About your future work once the P-40 is done: can I humbly suggest that the Ju-87 pit is in desperate need of love?
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #17 on: April 30, 2020, 01:17:10 AM »

If it's only that the PoV conflicts with the opening canopy, you need only change one or two values in the PoV as they are set in Body.msh [HookLoc] section, following the order set in the preceding [Hooks] section.

The two PoVs are CAMERA and CAMERAAIM. The first is for the more general pilot position. The second is the sight view, which is invoked with (normally) SHF-F1.

The numbers of interest are the last three. For this plane, increasing in value moves the PoV to the Left, Up and Forward, respectively. The units are meters.

And so if you wanted to move the POV forward, say, 15cm (6"), you would add 0.15 to the last number.

In my cockpit mods, I always keep the original lines of data, 'commenting them out' with preceding  "//" characters, and copying the whole line so that my altered values never make it impossible to go back to the original.

And yes, the Ju-87 cockpit is a real horror. If I was a more dedicated 'mud mover' I'd have definitely already tackled it. But I'm more a fighter jock by temperament. And so my triage strategy tends to favour the 'glamor' arm. ;) If only I could clone myself a few times over...
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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. - Hyman Rickover (but probably predating his use.)

garua

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #18 on: April 30, 2020, 07:28:46 AM »

Thanks for the help! I think I could manage the rest with my awesome(ly limited) modding skill.

BTW, I am a biologist so in case you need to clone yourself, give me a call. We need your wonderful works and we need them fast  :D
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garua

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #19 on: May 01, 2020, 06:53:45 AM »

Just a small question: which file/ line is responsible for the extended 6DoF range?

Many thanks in advance  :)
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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #20 on: May 01, 2020, 12:48:17 PM »

The 6dof business is established in the cockpit class, which code is Java. If you want to go back to the stock range of head movement, either delete all the class files or rename them by placing a minus symbol "-" in front of each name.  There are 4 such files per cockpit here (and typically for other planes.) In this case, the two cockpits are for the early model and for all the later models as a group.

For modded files, appending a leading minus sign makes the game ignore them, using instead either the stock equivalent or another modded version if present elsewhere in your installation. The class files are those having names comprised of a seemingly random sequence of many numbers and letters. The only change I made was to the 6dof range, and so their deletion/deactivation will result in only this one difference.
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garua

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #21 on: May 01, 2020, 01:22:48 PM »

Too bad, Java is way beyond my modding skill  ::(

I was asking because I managed to combine your mod with the open canopy mod. Simply by deleting all files in the 3DO/cockpit/IL-2-1940Early of the open canopy mod, then activate it before your mod. I was expecting that at least I could open the canopy in the late IL-2 versions and IL-10. But surprise surprise, I could open the canopy in the early IL-2s as well. Your mod seems to apply well and though I still have to test it more, there seems to be no obvious bug.

The only downside is that now the 6DoF is as restricted as before.



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WxTech

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #22 on: May 01, 2020, 07:10:13 PM »

Ah yes, I'd forgot that for the Il-2 the canopy was already handily separated from the fuselage. For so many stock planes made before the opening canopy thing got well established, the canopy very often was modeled as a fixed part of the rest of the body. To apply an opening version required to 'cut it out', and add some polygons around some edges.

But here that was not required. Hence your being able to so easily do this 'merge' of mods.

Indeed, it turns out that the open canopy mod meshes are not required. Simply use that mod's classfiles. As you note, that loses the expanded 6dof capability. But have no fear. I just added the 6dof stuff to the open canopy cockpit classes for both il-2 cockpit versions. I'll accordingly release an updated version of my mod shortly...

This open canopy business does reveal some polygons around the framing edge that are ugly, asking to be fixed. That'll have to wait--if it ever gets dealt with.

I also added to the Body.mesh an additional view hook related to the change seat position. I've set it so that your virtual pilot is leaning left, but of course you can easily change this. This (as well as the expanded 6dof) resulted in the old reticle mask permitting the reticle to be seen when the PoV was far left or right. I extended the mask to address this.
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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. - Hyman Rickover (but probably predating his use.)

WxTech

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Re: WxTech's enhancement of Greif11's Il-2-1940Early cockpit
« Reply #23 on: May 01, 2020, 11:25:53 PM »

I've updated the archive to include new bits (you'll need the Il-2/Il-10 opening canopy mod):

- Cockpit classfiles (and *only* these classfiles) for all Il-2s, incorporating my expanded 6DoF limits.
- Expanded reticle mask to keep the reticle from being seen when the PoV is far to the sides.
- Added a new view hook, activated with the Change Seat Position key binding. I've put it to the left side; you can easily change this.

Same d/l link in the top post, with a preamble including a link to the opening canopy mod.
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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. - Hyman Rickover (but probably predating his use.)
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