I did write a simple tutorial to get started with 3D-editing in EECH, have you had a look at it?

The page on 3D models and 3D scenes should also provide some useful information.

Modelling a cockpit isn't so different from modelling other 3D objects It's a little extra work to get all the instruments working, but apart from that it's mostly just regular 3D modelling. I can help you get the instruments working when you get to that stage, but first you could just begin by making the static part of the cockpit.

And you can of course send me PMs or e-mails if you need help before you get to the instruments too.

I just posted a video of the new Mi-24 start-up procedure in this thread. It also shows some of the new cockpit.

Is it possible to use Blender3D to generate the models and export to .LWO files? What about the scenes (LWS)?

Thanks

Maybe. I did try it at first without too much success, but both the converter and I guess blender was less mature then. So it may be more successful now. Guess you will have to try to find out.

The video showed some of the things I've worked on lately, but it doesn't show as much detail, so to back it up here's some screenshots. Oh, and if these shots are a little more yellow than normal, then it's the setting sun's fault, not mine!

The pilot finally has a place to sit And also added that yellow-striped handle above the door. I believe it jettisons the door in emergencies. Apparently someone has already used it in my cockpit :p


The lower part of the cockpit is where I've worked the most:


The weapons panel(lower right in picture) is new and so is the auto pilot panel (lower left). The gear & hydraulics panel above it has been improved, as has many of the instruments on the main panel. And I've added some pedals:


And a collective (the silver ones are the manual throttle overrides, also new):


Most gauges on the main panel are in 3D and working now:


The gear and hydraulics panel. Most of the cockpit is with russian labels, but the warning lights are in english, since they're quite useless if you don't understand what they say But if someone wants to translate them to russian go ahead.


Auto-pilot below. The real Hind doesn't actually have a real auto-pilot like in EECH, it just has some simple systems to keep the helicopter more stable. But I'll keep the EECH auto-pilot also in the Mi-24 for now.


The APU panel was improved and made to work for the new start-up procedures:

INGENIOUS!!!!!!!! OMG, i have to find a solution for my GFX card not working with EECH!!!

@ arneh: Which GFX card do you use? My GeForce GTX 260 does not work properly, an my old Radeon HD 4850 neither.

I used to use a 7950, but that failed me. So I asked what people's experience is with various cards, and it seems at least for nvidia that only the 7000 and 8000 series are safe, newer ones are hit and miss. So I got a used 7900 as a replacement.

Un-be-lie-va-ble Arneh. Superb.
About the GFX card issue ... I still kept my 6800GT because EECH1 runs great on it.
EECH2 runs great too, but oh so slow.
Now I guess I can still and safely get an AGP 7950GT.
Thx Arneh.

Christ, I thought they were actual photos of an actual cockpit!!!

I've been watching this develop for a while, but due to bizzare troubles with SimHQ user accounts I couldn't post.

Just wanted to say you are doing a killer job Arneh.. and if the Hind pit is anything like the Apache pit, I can't wait. Between the code tweaks and pits, You've near singlehandedly elevated this sim to greatest helo sim ever.

Keep it up!

very cool crocodile rock arneh

Hello all,

I can't believe the quality of the work and effort contributed by the talented people who obviously have a passion for eech! It's been 7 years since I flew (for those that may remember VAHS 227th http://www.geocities.com/vahs_227th/ lol surprised the site is still up) and a review of eech2 had me re-install my copy of eech and grab all the mods available.

This new cockpit blows me away! I was wondering though, some of the gauges are just texture. Will you be converting them all to functioning 3d gauges? If not... is it possible to release the texture files for editing? Please don't take this the wrong way, but a few of the gauges appear blurred.

Now, I don't know if this is due to the texture being stretched over the 3d model or it being up-sampled to fit a particular screen resolution.. if neither of these is the case and it simply is down to time and other things taking precedence, I'm sure some with the necessary image manipulation skills wouldn't mind 'tracing' these gauges so that they appear higher res in the game.

Though it could be me just being finicky!

Please take this as positive criticism, it is in no way meant to decry arneh's obvious talent and expertise.



Stoley.

Are you talking about the new Mi-24 cockpit or the Apache cockpit?
I'm still working on the Mi-24 gauges. Don't have any plans to do anything more with the Apache instruments for now. If it's the Apache your talking about, then which gauges do you mean?




The textures are just regular BMP-files in the graphics\textures\cockpit directory. So go ahead and improve them
And no offense at all if it's the Apache cockpit you're talking about. The textures were just ment to be temporary, and someone more talented with textures could make new ones. But that never happened, so the temporary textures remain...

If it's the Mi-24 cockpit you're talking about then I'm deeply offended :p Or more that you should reserve critism a bit longer, I'm still not done with it. And this time I am doing the textures myself since the "temporary" textures for the Apache didn't work out too well.

Small update, but a little milestone. All instruments on the main panel are now working, and all that are modelled in EECH and will be working on the gear panel and weapons panel are now working. More details to add, so those panels are not completely finished.

All instruments, switches and lights which will be modelled in this screenshot are now working:


And here is a close up of the weapons panel. The only panel to be in english, since it can be hard to understand otherwise.


I also tried to upload an explaination of the gauges on the wiki, but I wasn't allowed to upload images

Left and Right switch for rockets? Will we be allowed to fire one side only?

No, that switch is not implemented in EECH.

So we'll assume it's stuck at both Can you model some chewing gum on it?

Better get the whip out ARNEH, it looks like 2009 is going to be the year of the KA50

I'm working on it as much as I can. But I can't do anything about the DCS release date. It ships when it ships, and I release when I'm finished.

Explanation of gauges up on the wiki. Most of the instruments are quite easy to figure out yourself, but there are some unusual ones, so best to give a quick glance to the documentation so you know how they work:
http://www.eechcentral.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mi-24_cockpit