During the development of the cockpit we noticed that the right side consoles in both front and rear pits were sparse. Presumably, the D model apache cockpit was designed this way because it's inconvenient to fly using your right-hand and manage controls on the right side at the same time.

To fill this space and provide accessibility to options I proposed the idea of in-cockpit game-play panels.

These panels would be integrated in the cockpit model and would be accessible by both the pilot and CP/G. They would allow you to toggle graphics options, enable realism features and set sound levels without having to leave the cockpit or having to go through a menu system. The switches would control settings that players most frequently modify during flights.

At the time we were unsure how the hardcore crowd would react to the addition of panels that don't really belong there. Since then, we've found that it's quite simple to dynamically hide portions of the cockpit so the user would have the option to see or not see these panels.

However, before we invest the time to integrate these controls into the sim, we are quite interested to know what the community thinks. Is it a good idea? What kind of options do you regularly access in-game? Can you see short-comings in our concept that we are blind to? Are you getting upset right now?

This is the accurately modeled right-side console.



This is the right-side console plus game-play panels.



Cheers

Hi,

Personally, I don't see any problem including them in the cockpit. Especially when you've gone to the effort to make them fit in to the overall scheme as you have.

Yeah! go for it.....

cheers,

Andy

Well from "day 1" that I simply love this project and all the ideas that you have for it.

But in the particular case of this option, I think I'll "vote" against or for a "NO", and the reasons are:
1- Like you said those buttons aren't realistic and I simply love realistically detailed cockpits.
2- But for me the main reason is that such buttons don't seem at least IMO, very intuitive when a player wants to change any or some gameplay option. For example if I want to change the graphics detail I must first look at the apropriate panel then look closelly and search for that button, while thru a typical options pop-up menu changing such options will IMO be much more faster and intuitive.
3- IMO the best way to change gameplay options is still thru a semi-transparent pop-up menu which allows you not only to change gameplay options but at the same time it allows the player flying controls over the helicopter.

But these are of course, my "2 cents"...

Personally I'm not too into the idea; for pretty much the reasons ricnunes outlined - and I also agree with him on his sentiments in his first sentence!

Personally I think it's a great idea, especially if you can adjust things like "detail level" or "view distance" on the fly! i'm sure graphic mode/screen res would still be in a regular menu but for stuff that may be conducive to tweeking and other simple stuff like volume levels & gamma I'm all for it!

Sounds like a hot-button topic really

I'm just thinking back to when Flex said some things were "gravy". Do you guys feel you have time to add both types of setting options ?

I love the idea of choice in all things and the panels really do blend in nicely I suspect no hard-core person is going to leave them on for a second though

Anyway, for me the question has to be one of time. It's a fantastic idea and really has potential, but you guys should do it purely on your own time issues I think

(I think they're great - if I didn't point that out yet)

Ha! Well done. Very creative. I'd give my left nut for the Rearm and Refuel buttons, maybe more for the Repair button.

If this panel would be toggleable - maybe a keyboard shortcut to show it on/off - I'd love it! It would be nice to be able to change graphics options on-the-fly.

So far the idea appears to have had a mix of positive and negative feedback. I'd like to offer a few more of the advantages.

The game-play panels combined with the cockpit would become a single interface for interacting with the apache and the gameworld. Rather than digging through menus to find the option you want to change, or trying to remember the keyboard command, you could simply look down and flick a switch without ever leaving the pit environment. This 'always-in-game' concept is a theme we are putting at the center of the stage; Your mission briefings, planning, arming and mulitplayer setup will all occur in 3D. We want to avoid menus as much as possible, especially menus that require flipping in and out of the 3d world.

Another factor at play ... The SIM panel contains options on the left for auto-CP/G, and automatic engine start. Without the game-play panels, these kinds of options would have to be keyboard commands as unsurprisingly the apache pit doesn't have a single click engine start button or a button to make the CP/G work over-time.

Having the graphical commands accessible within the 3D world makes tuning graphical detail settings all the more intuitive. Rather than entering a menu, clicking an option, exiting the menu and waiting for the sim to load back into 3D there's instant feedback to selections. You can actually watch the horizon roll out further as you turn the dial, see the frame rates smooth out as you turn down the detail settings. Also, options like HDR, Bloom, SSAO, FSAA, which for most people are just acronyms, become tangible when their effects are visible in real-time.

Executioner mentioned gravy ... Because the back-end coding to handle a clickable pit is already in-place, these panels would actually be quicker to integrate than a traditional menu system. However, it's likely we'll invest the time into a traditional options menu, it's just not practical for average users to be tied so strongly to the clickable pit concept.

In regards to hiding/showing these panels, there are many combinations of ideas we could use. Keyboard is one option, another is clicking on a secret button or simply clicking the side-console to hide/show the panels. It would be very simple for us to implement a 1,2,3,4 click system, whereby default the panel is hiden. On click 1 it would show the sound panel, another click and it would show the graphics panel, click 3 it would show the sim panel and on click 4 it would hide the panel again. This way we could extend the size of the panels and include more options.

Thanks for all the comments, please keep them coming.

Cheers

If the option does not come at the expense of more core sim features which you and your crew are well aware of, sure. Very nice innovative feature that preserves immersion far more than "escape" or another key that I don't recall in real life world!

The toggle or option to not display would seem to mollify those who prefer not to see the additional controls there.

Several MSFS add-on plane cockpits have hidden or unobtrusive clickspots to toggle additional clickspots or icons, sub-panels or aircraft systems. IMO, somethig similar would be a sensible approach to this.

I'd go with a pop-up.

I personally hate the idea of having in game options in the cockpit. Kills a bit of the immersion in my mind.

I understand that this is not supposed to be a study sim, but that just pushes it to be a bit too arcadey IMHO.

I'll be buying no matter what though.

Same here...

The inclusion of these panels will have no effect on the level of simulation. The scalability/difficulty options such as NOE Mode, simple HUD, auto engine start, CP/G assistance etc will be included regardless of whether they are selected in the pit or in a menu.

Cheers

Could you provide us with a link to an example? I'm curious to see how they have handled the concept.

Cheers

I have to say I have mixed feelings on this matter.

On one hand it would be handy (no pun intended), yes. But I'd like to see the ability to turn the panel on or off (for "realism" sake).

On the other hand I don't know if the time you spend developing it wouldn't be of more worth on some other area (like the practice/target range -- although it probably takes way longer to do the range than to do the new panel I guess).

Also, out of curiosity as a programmer, does the engine allow you to do such changes "on-the-fly"? I mean can you change the view distance without reloading the sim?

Thanks for all the hard work, guys.

As some suggested I would rather like to have a pop-up window than the panel mimic the buttons and knobs of the real machine. It's not "immersion recommended" to have a great virtual cockpit and then having this knobs and switches saying "Realism - Low;Med;High". That would definitely kill all the immersion as soon as one would turn the eyes to that panel and instead of reading "Master Arm";"COMMS";"APU" would read "DETAIL".

The idea is original, it could also be handy like Spac3Rat said but it will ruin the immersion. Sure we can live with it but for me every time I would put my eyes on that panel I would say: WTH! :P

So I vote for the pop-up or if implemented having a way to remove it from the cockpit as said above for the sake of immersion and realism.

Regards and keep up the good work.

AD basically you toggle the menus with a click somewhere in an area of the cockpit. Like for example the metal part where the isn't any instrument or button and this calls the menus, here are two examples from the PMDG;





See in the first image the menu in the upper edge of the image the other menus are self explanatory.

Best regards.

Ahh great, thanks. That second picture is a good illustration of the what we're going for. A panel that pops-up in empty space. The empty space in our pit is down the right side of the cockpit.

Cheers