You missed my question.

As far as I know unless you use 1.6 you are limited to three texture/ transparency sets. So if you use the TEX/TRA file for your prop you can't use it for anything else. Since the 'normal" use of the TEX/TRA file is for the main body of the plane, including cockpit glass you will have a conflict between the prop 3dz and the model 3dz.

Unless you are using the Y/YTR since you said you used the same prop model for the inside and outside prop. Normally the Y/YTR is used for the inside prop but that's not a hard and fast rule so that could work.

It you did that you could point all the props in a 30 plane set to the same texture set like I did in the original SPAW. The problem with that is players will quickly run into the blocky props when they drop a different plane in the mix. That is what happened to Mr.Jelly when he tried adding SPAW to his 1.4 package which had a rudimentary ability to switch planes. I had to go back and and re-point all the props to individual plane slots.

FWIW, 1.6 added new texture/transparency sets, MEX/MRA, PEX/PRA and SEX/SRA which made life a whole lot easier.

Also, In my experience R/S issues aren't of any importance in cockpits. I've been building and altering cockpit elements for some time now and I've never run across so much as a single blinking element, including the movable switches, blinking lights and movable dive brakes I've added.

Just my 2 cents.

Ofcourse you can't use the TEX for that, it's for the plane body. You use one of the other 2, which one depends on what you need for other transparencies. I couldn't find any reason to have more then what's already there but you're the plane designer, not me. I just experiment to see what's possible. Glass cockpit panels were not normally added since they obscure the view somewhat. After Col. Gibbon attacked one of my cockpits by asking where's the glass?, I found that his didn't have glass either, but given some room in the texture they can be added, 16 pixels or perhaps a few more is all you need, tranparent polygons will look smooth in such low resolution and do the job, but you can't paint details on it ofcourse and with mapping you have to stay clear of drawing information. EAWPRO doesn't need a TRA for glass since it uses a special type of polygon which is always 1/2 transparent. None tranparent parts use an extra polygon on top. It's not perfect but also works fine. A conversion of the pits I've made is well feasable within v1.60 but as I said I always use everyting so it will require some extra work.

I haven;t made my switches movable except in some tests and experimented with back lighting too. They're 3D in my cockpits, in that they stick out from the panels. Moving them can only happen through the action codes which are currently present. Engine and landing gear and the few I've added. Blinking with all allowed colors is possible as well as animations, both on the ground as on planes.

Extra TRA links can be made to work in EAWPRO but have only been done sofar for tiles and effects. When implemented the filenames must change to get them in, as was done with the tiles. I have given them low priority since I'm happy with the old planes available and I doubt I will build more then just a testcase if i did implement it. Editing the various tables is a bit of a pain in assembly but loosing the filename structure will cause more problems then it will solve. I do not wish to engage in converting good working models, I have no time for that. All planes can be converted without too much effort, I've already shown that they work, much to the frustration of Iron Mike I believe, The Launchpad will not be using them though.

As for cockpit R/S, it depends on how detailed you make them. For instance, copying 2 chairs from another 3d model and pasting them in is pretty problematic, especially when door handles and trimwheels are included. When you then add two 3D steering columns with 2D steer it starts to become pretty tough, add to that the engine controls and switches it becomes a pain and another 3D instrument panel behind the pilots and the result is a headache. I've build my first ones without the calculator but with the knowledge I had about the BSP tree, now I no longer have to and with free nodes and polygons they tend to become ever more complex. Without a proper R/S polygons will simply not display. It's true though that you can fiddle around with things a lot easier as long as you won't use head movement, because a camera position change needs to have a correct R/S to work, just like any other object in EAW.

VonBeerhofen

To clarify.

The TEX file doesn't have to be used for the plane's body as long as there aren't any areas that need to be transparent.

If you delete the cockpit elements and make a separate cockpit 3dz you could assign THAT to the TEX file.

In fact, there's enough room on a texture file that you could set up a bunch of different cockpit glass sections as well as sections for the prop blades and end up with a universal TEX/TRA file. Then just assign a different name to the plane's body textures.

BTW, there are a couple of cockpits floating around with glass. One of them even has some frost in the corners which is a nice touch.

FWIW, there is an unused action code that Ralf added a while back that throws oil on the windscreen when the plane's engine gets damaged. Problem is, all the cockpits would have to have glass added to make it work and there's just not enough manpower left to do the job.

Yes it is possible to swap any texture pointer to any texture in the game and take transparency into account. I've had the same idea about the oil but it's not in yet. In your case I might simply use a solid poly but it would make the rest of the fight near impossible, in my case I'd use my glass element. You could program the action codes to be used for any 3DZ, if that isn't already done, then you could use another texture with transparency from any 3DZ and try to make it appear where you want. For a glass window you can use any of the cockpit 3DZ's, that position is not squeemish and can be placed outside or inside the entire model. Which model you use depends on the one with the most free texture space and the ease with which you can place the poly onto another 3DZ. Being just a free floating poly it usually will not cause much problems with the 2D camera view. Create a windscreen wiper code and make it disappear again, lol. It can also be added to the P***VIEW.CPT if it's understood how to code the action, simmilar to the bullet hole sprites. I haven't looke into it but I assume it must be possible to place both in the same way you place the instrument indicators. You just need to assign a code to it so it behaves like an instrument and can be placed the same way. After all, the attitude indicator is also a sprite animation. As an animation in there it could even be made to drip.
Plenty of ideas but making it happen may not be as easy as I describe. It does look like a promising possibillity though, not being part of the instrument dials it won't need to use extra texture on the plane, a rain animation could be simulated too but within the cocpit only, just a few ideas. It would also give more meaning to the use of C.J.'s editor. Bloodspatter, rain, oil, sparks, bulletholes, with a bit of phantasy you could go a long way. I almost forgot, all these things must take the slotspecific colors into account for 8 bit textures, I can't say what .BMP files would do in your version.

VonBeerhofen