driving me out of my mind....



g.

I think it's looking good.

Thanks chshrkt. Unfortunately the original design didn't account for a windscreen frame.

This means that to place the frame where it is now requires me to push the instrument panel 10 inches foward of its current position. That puts the panel out of reach unless you're a Gorilla.

I'm going to decide this week whether or not the sides get re-designed to handle a new cockpit opening length. The new length would go from the current 35"(approx) it is now to roughly 28 inches.

Now the question I have for you guys - would you rather have a huge hole to hop in and out of, or a windscreen frame and a canopy?

g.

Huge hole for me, only because few sims will allow you to run a fully blown pit set up with HUD/gunsight only. I think you can do it Il2 with a gauge program but only in offline mode. In most cases you'll still have to display an image of the cockpit on screen. With the new black shark sim coming out I think (big I think) you can achieve a fully blown pit offline or online but I'm not 100% sure.

EDIT: Speaking of DCS and Black Shark they'll be also making a high fidelity study sim based on the F-15C I believe and that got me thinking of something big and cool you may be working on!

I may have come up with a way to have the huge hole and the windscreen frame. I won't know more until I can spend an evening or two with the modeller to work it out.

I haven't kept up with what those guys have been up to in years outside of keeping up with the LOMAC patches.

Any info on the "study" sim?

g.

Well DCS Black Shark is the first installment of a series of study sims that will wrap up into one giant sim like a LOMAC 2.0 but with advanced modelling, 6DOF pits, clickable controls, you should really read up on the DCS site www.digitalcombatsimulator.com its probably a couple years out still at best as the next modules will be for the A10C and AH64(not sure of the model but it will have back seat multiplayer/coop). I can think of two seater pits becoming a reality outside of commercial sims.

The planned A/C I think include

F-16
A-10
F-15
Mig-29
Mi-24
and more

They're only going with A/C that have been essentially de-classified so they can accurately model systems and weapons. I'm no expert on DCS though and I may have a few things wrong or backwards but there is a ton of info on the above website including current LOMAC/FC topics.

As for the screen maybe make it easily detachable so the end user can decide what works best for them. In any case you do great work and always look forward to seeing your progress. I wish I had the tools, money and know how you have and then some time, although I'm getting started on some projects.

Sounds like an interesting sim... Unfortunately the gaming industry is littered with the corpses of companies with ambitions like that.

I will likely include a number of different options in the plan set so people can build whatever version they like.

Tools? Check!
Know how? Check! (I make it up as I go along - don't tell anyone!)
Money? Pfft. As If. All that vanished into the shop build.

g.

Gene! Looking good so far! Still working on my latest project here.

Hmm, any particular reason you cannot design the windscreen frame to wrap around the instrument panel? I personally do not want a full blown windscreen anyway because my LCD monitor(s) will be sitting on top of the instrument panel. I only really want something to support the front of the canopy, and wrap around the monitor and provide a blackout area.


A shorter opening on top is not that big of a deal for me, but I would like a little drop down door on the side a-la the Spitfire.


Just a little drawing I found on the 'Net a while back.

Gene - I don't see why we can't have our cake and eat it, too. Why not just side hinge it, so it flips up to get in?