As I looked in the code, I thought about if its possible to extract the instrument definition of the cockpits to an external file like e.g. the eech.ini is.

I mean generating some different needles in size (small, medium, large) and some bargraphs and define their color, steps, angel of degree, coordinates and maybe even the size itself if possible in an external file or in the eech.ini. for every helicopter. Maybe its also possible to make some simple glowing indication lamps which can be definded via coordinate. Same principle could be used for MFD's. Something similar the MSFS had or still has (have not made any panels for the newer FS versions since years now)

This way it could be easier to make a cockpit and adjust the instruments. At the moment as far as I understood this has to be changed in the code itself (aphavoc\source\gunships\cockpits\) and has to be compiled every time to check where those indicators are placed. Maybe I'm thinking nonsense here and there exists a simpler way to adjust those coordinates

If such an ini-file would exist it would be much easier to make a new cockpit. O.k. no 3D gauges, only plain texture and indication needles or bars like in the Havoc, but I think its not so bad at all (and frame rate friendly). The alternative to make good looking 3D instruments for HQ cockpits still remains, by just deactivating the appropriate ini.

P.S:

I did not mean complete instruments, this was already discussed before. I mainly think of extracting those definitions to an external file for making it easier to adjust this code. The gauge (background texture only) and the needle still remain simple graphics nothing more.

There was some talk a while ago of making the cockpit components more modular, as there's a lot of duplicated code throughout all of the cockpits. So these could be kept in some common classes in the code, and reused in a better way. That would require quite a bit of a rewrite of the cockpits to get working.

The way you're suggesting is kind of the old way that cockpits were drawn, for example the old havoc cockpit. It used Direct Draw to basically draw lines between a set of coordinates, and then animate that line. I'm not sure that would be much of an improvement, as the 3D cockpits and gauges are actually easier to do. I think they also look more realistic than a drawn textured gauge.

In the lightwave scene, each object is given a label. Then that label is used in the code to move the object. This works for needles and other gauges.

For the MFDs, these are still drawn using DD functions, but even those are layered. So the components in an MFD could be separated out and made reusable e.g. the Flight display has different components for the compass heading, the flight ladder, the speed etc. And the MFD is also labelled in the scene in LW and with the texture name, so that the code knows where to draw the MFD.

I suppose that's something that could be on the development road map, to make it easier to add new cockpits. But there's probably other things that need done first that will bring greater improvements. Perhaps some other properties could be made external, for example flight model, or names of objects, or things like that.

Ah o.k. , now I understand how those things are working. Thank's for your explanation.




Yes, that's something I also thought about, but as I'm no coder I had no idea if its possible at all. In the broadest sense something comparable like the directory structure and config files the MSFS has. This would be a dream but I think it would also be a lot of work to do, because EECH originally was never planed with such an expandability in mind.

This could really be a great benefit somewhere in future.