Blackhawk project

Hi folks.

I'm in the process of improving the Blackhawk model currently used.

Part of the changes I'm making, is to make the crew compartment (i.e. the bit shown when the side doors slide open), more detailed. I'm going to add some floor/ceiling textures, and seat racks.

One of the ideas I had was to have rows of infantry sat in the seats. But this would only really apply for troop insertion missions.

I'm not much of a developer, so need some devs advise on this.

How difficult would it be to have a different model used for troop insertion missions that has the rows of infantry, and then when they're off loaded at the mission waypoint, the troops empty out.

For other missions using the Blackhawk, but not troop insertion, a different model would be used where the crew compartment would not have infantry.

Maybe the troops could be modelled as a "weapon". Then the insertion missions would have troops as the loadout, and "fire the weapon" when at the insertion point.

I'd thought about that as well, but what would happen if the player set that weapon to None? Or I suppose changing it would have to be disabled for troop insertion missions.

Do you think doing it the way you suggest would be easier than having 2 different models?

Actually, thinking about it your way could be more straightforward.

For example, my train of thought;
1.

2 model types: UH60 with Troops (UH60T), UH60 without Troops (UH60WT)

The campaign would generate both of these as part of the game, so the ones with troops would be sitting around waiting for troop insertion missions to come up.

Is there a way to make the campaign generate a UH60T at the same time it generates a troop insertion mission? Would this cause problems with other helo's that can perform troop insertion.

2.

1 model type, troops as payload

Only 1 UH60 model type used in the game. When a UH60 gets assigned to a troop insertion, the troops are added as a payload. There must be some flag already set against the helo doing the troop insertion, as it lands and unloads troops at the mission waypoint. So this option seems more straightforward.

If the player removes the troops he won't be able to complete the mission. I guess they'll learn not to do that for insertion missions

Since each mission type already has different weapon loadouts, it shouldn't be that hard to just change the loadout for insertion missions to be one where troops are loaded. Much easier than adding another helicopter model, and not least, switch the model once the troops have been offloaded!

As a bonus, weapon loadouts can have weight, so that the helicopter could be heavier with the troops on board.


If you really want to open up some possibilities for the future, maybe you could have some more loadout options too. Like a medic and parajumper for S&R missions, and possibly patients too, added after they have been rescued.

Yeah, I had thought that option could end up being a bit clumsy.



Didn't think of that, and I didn't know that the dynamics were affected in that way.



Could all be options. The Medevac UH60 has quite a different crew compartment though, with 'shelves' for lying stretchers on.

I had also thought about making a model with rapid ropes fitted, so a troop insertion would be that the UH60 hovers, and the infantry repel down the ropes. Probably too difficult to actually add that in though.

Thinking about it a bit more, I think I'll go with the payload option. I could also add door gunners as part of the load out, as the Pavehawk model has mini guns mounted at the sliding windows just behind the cockpit doors.

Certainly options to consider.

On the off chance, do you know what the model in the game is for infantry figures - or is it obviously named in the objects folder (not actually looked for it)?

Not every weapon in the payload may be switched to NONE in payload screen or selected in the cockpit. Those three bunches of code are independent.
There is no problem in automatic setting one of the "pylons" to have "troops" loaded on the mission start and to be non-accessible both in payload screen and cockpit.

Scenes have "marine" in their names.

How about a modernized common cockpit for the Kiowa, B? lackhawk, Chinook, and other utility helos Is that possible at some point?

A cockpit implementation for any gunship can be copied to another one.

A modern cockpit for the Blackhawk is on my list once I've done with the model.

Does anyone have some good images of the UH60 (any flavour) that I could use for texturing the exterior?

I've trawled the internet, and have a collection of images already, but they're a bit hit and miss as far as consistncy of quality go.

Just though some people might know some sites I've not checked already.

Please check your PM.

Here is a good place

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.se...68dc33fa5f56800

Nice cockpit photo

Are you planning to release a version without missiles or rockets and only with the door gunners?

@Mojojojo - thanks for the link. I think I've searched on there already

@Soczkien - Thanks, but I'm going to model the UH-60M which has a glass cockpit like this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbane/2644574569/in/photostream/

@Stratos - At the moment, I'm adding more detail to the troop cabin, like seats and some more textures. I plan to try and code it so that troops can be loaded as a weapon for use in troop insertion missions, which might include door gunners. By making the model in the game like the UH-60M, it means that it can engage using Hellfires as it has FLIR. I plan to model a new 3D cockpit once the exterior model is done. But don't expect it anytime soon.

Hope you will include a non-hellfire version in the future, will make the chopper more agile and be more fun for insertion missions...

We can use models from other games.. example blackhawk cockpit that i have. 2500 polygons


OH58 cockpit 1700 polys, but after optimize can be about ~1400 , 1100 points

AH64a

CHINOOK 1480 polys

Another one good hi res pictures http://www.af.mil/photos/mediagallery.asp?galleryID=41

Some nice images there, but the USAF use the HH60 Pavehawk for Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR), and it's quite a bit different from the UH60M

How's this project coming along?

Slowly.

I've done the seats for the inerior, but I'm researching which route to go with the model. MH-60K or MH-60M. Only those models have FLIR capability. The stock UH-60M doesn't have FLIR, although it seems that many Black Hawks can have various upgrades, so not sure whether to just go with a UH-60M with FLIR capability, or do the special ops model.

The M is quite a new model, and it's hard to find good details about it. But the K is a bit older.

List of things to change;

Add external detail: Pitot tubes, increase engine intakes (noticed that they're too small on the model), add IR warning sensors, angle the tail rotor (it should be tilted 20deg but isn't for some reason), re-texutre the model, remove the 'disco light' (depending on which model), add antennas, add radar dome (depending on which model), add FLIR pod (depending on which model), detail the engine exhausts (probably just textures), add 'sliding' windows for gunner seats

Add internal detail: cockpit textures (depends on which model - either 'glass cockpit', or 'old' dials), cockpit details (flight stick/collective stick), cabin textures, might add some crew/infantry models to the cabin

I might try and do some renders in a week or two to show how things are going. I think texturing is going to be the bit I struggle with most.

I thought I'd just revive this old thread to post some of the work I'm doing on this.

Finished modelling the MFD frame. Just need to add them in to the cockpit frame.



More soon...

Wanna try to make real rotor blades instead blurry-triangle-shape? I found it much better, but just today start testing it.

Yeah could be good. But wanna start a new thread about it instead of hijacking my one

Could you PM me what you did to change the rotors? I was going to change the rotors of the Blackhawk to be the newer wide chord blades.

Finished detailing the MFD (until I find a reason to change it).



Now to start putting them in the cockpit.

Basic cockpit outline done. Just need to work on texturing, lighting, and adding the rest of the dials (and please ignore the random Apache MFDs.)

Hi folks. I'm looking for some help.

I've scoured the internet for images to use for the blackhawk cockpit, and I have a huge library of images for reference. However, none of them are high enough resolution to use for textures. So I'm going to work on creating the textures from the images I have.

But could I ask, on the chance that you are attending an airshow, if there's a Blackhawk there (any type) and you can access the cockpit, could you take lots of photos in as high resolution as you can?

I know it's a bit of a long shot, but I think it would be good to get good photos to use for texturing to make the cockpit look as realistic as possible.

Preferably I'd need '3 view' images of certain items, like the buttons/knobs/switches, collective and cyclic, the throttle assembly, and straight on images of the dashboard, with close ups of the dials and screens, and the inside of the doors.

Like I said, I know it's a long shot, but if you don't ask, you don't get

Central instrument cluster done...

Keep it up, I am really looking forward to this, great work so far.

Thanks. I'm just putting out some requests for high resolution images for texturing. I'm working on the upper control quadrant at the moment.

Still can not wait for a joint multi flights apache and blackhawk if you need any help with editing cockpit textures just pm me, im good in photoshop.

Thanks. I might do that. I'm trying it myself for now as I want to get better at it. But if it gets beyond my skills, then I might ask for your help.

A few updates.

Fixed the MFD textures and added some detail to the pedals.



Started work on the engine controls. Which I've just realised are the wrong way round. DOH!




The view out the back. Eventually hope to have the gunner seat (and crew member), and animated windows if possible.

Fixed the engine controls (it was bugging me). Done for tonight.

Awesome! What sensors will be included? Any decisions yet?

It'll just be FLIR and EO systems. The only info I've found on real world M models that have the ability to fire weapons is from the UAE that have ordered 'Battlehawk' upgrades for some of their UH-60M's. It adds a BrightStar II FLIR pod to the nose, and the ability to fire laser guided weapons.

There's some info and images here;

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/UAE-Ordering-Weaponized-UH-60M-Battlehawk-Helicopters-05078/


There won't be a radar. The M model doesn't have a radar as far as I know. Some earlier M models had a terrain radar on the nose, and the special ops versions have it for flying in low light.

I'm going to work on getting the switches and controls done as far as possible. Then I'll take a decision on the other details from there.

Fast progress!You're working professionally on lightwave, or just a hobby?

Just a hobby. I used to do CGI when I was a lot younger, but have just recently picked it up again. I also did Design Engineering at University, so 3D and CAD are familiar to me. Although the surface properties and textures are something I need to learn. So things might slow down when I start to do that.

I'd prefer to use Blender as I'm wanting to learn that software. But I have to use an old version of Lightwave for EECH.

I should also point out that the shell of the cockpit was taken from a mod for another game. I didn't create it from scratch, but modified it to clean up the geometry and reduce the polys.

this looks awesome! if there was one cockpit i always wished for it was this. i really hope you are able and willing to finish it....and i thank you for the effort!

Well I'm definitely willing. As for able, well we'll see. I'll need to get help with the coding when making it a flyable cockpit. But hopefully Firebird will still be around to help when the time comes.

Why do you think that Firebird left the eech? From my observation he always disappears after the new year for a long time, but later return.

I don't think he left, I just know that real life can take priority. Which is why I started this project 3 years ago, and I'm only now picking it up again.

I'm looking for some help with texturing. I've created a high resolution texture for the upper control panel. I've got it from a vector image, so I can scale it to any size and export it.

When I view it in windows, I can zoom in and it's not pixelated. But when I add it to the surface in Lightwave, it's quite low resolution. I'm not sure how to fix it.

Here's the image;



And here's how it looks in the model;



It's quite a big image, around 6MB. Is there a texture limit for Lightwave? I'm probably going to split it into smaller, but high resolution images to use.


And it's not yet finished, just in case you start picking on it

I'm just doing the base layer for layout just now.

Lightwave rescales the textures it displays in the modeller. That doesn't have any effect on the resolution it will have in EECH, the resolution of the texture file decides how it will look in EECH.

If you want to change the resolution Lightwave scales the textures to you can change it from the Display Options (press D) -> GL tab -> Texture resolution. But this option doesn't have any effect on how it will look in EECH.

(edit: oops there are 5 pages... didn't notice. If this was answered then, ignore. I only saw the first page so far.)


I don't know what the code looks like or what the capabilities are. I don't know if any of this is possible. I'm just going off of the little bit I'm 'hearing' So I'll offer a suggestion in Psuedo-Code:


- Set Troops as a weapon on the list
- Hide Troops-weapon from weapon cycling (the user can cycle through weapons as normal bypassing the Troops-weapon)
- During insertion where you need to remove the image of troops in the bay:
---Capture current cycled weapon
---Disallow User weapon cycling for the time being
---through code, select Troops-weapon
---fire Troops-weapon
---Reload current weapon to 'captured current weapon' from 4 steps up
---Re-enable User weapon cycling


I'm sorry, I'm not into coding this or tearing it apart but maybe you could utilize some of the psuedo code ideas where ever it may be feasible. I have no idea what the code looks like or what the capabilities are.

I hope it was helpful.

Ah, ok. Thanks for that. I'd exported it so many times at different resolutions. I'll see how it looks in the game.

To be honest, I'd forgot about all the ideas I had initially on the first pages!

Once I get the cockpit and updated model done, then we can start looking at what can be done with having tropps as a payload for insertion missions.

Hi. I'm needing some audio help. When I open the pcm files in Audacity, and play them back, they play really fast and not how they sound in the game. Can someone tell me how to play them back as they sound in game? I'm a bit of a novice with the audio stuff.

I'm just looking at a few of the sounds that I'm going to replace.

Depends how you are opening the file!
To open the PCM in Audacity, you need to do 'import raw', and tell it the details (unsigned 8-bit pcm, no endianness, mono, 22050Hz) because there's no way for it to know. I think the 22050 bit is what you're after but getting the other details wrong can be worse on the hearing.

Edit: or if you click on the down-arrow by the filename at the left-hand end you get a menu where you can change the rate and sample format.

Yep, he is right. Most probably its the 22050 Hz which you forgot to set.
As far as I remember, the sound engine is capable of playing WAVs now, right?
If I can find some time during the weekend, I will try to convert all sounds to WAV to make it easier to work with them.

The easiest way to batch-convert PCM to WAV is to just add a WAV header on to each file - a short program and a 'for' loop can do this!

So it remains raw, without a header? That is not much of an improvement.

Arneh - do you know what surface attributes are supported in the game? I'd created a stainless steel for some of the switches. But it is just flat in the game. I know the comment field can hold some attributes, but I don't what works.

Seems that supported in some form are:
color
reflectivity
specularity
luminosity
transparency
translucency
smooth
texture

messyhead, if you use shaders or vertex map - game doesn't support it.

Well I was using a metal that was in the presets, and one of the plastics. I'll check if the presets use a different shader.

I'm not sure if this surface is supported or not. Here's the surface properties. It doesn't use any shaders. Do I need to add detail to the comment field?



Here's how it looks in LW



But in the game, it's just flat




I noticed in the Hind, that the switches are textured. Was this to get round this problem?

I've tried removing the texture from the diffuse and bump, but it makes no difference.

You need to texturing everything if you want to have vertex normals and light shading effects. I think lwo2eeo just ignored surfaces without textures and don't create normals for it, that's why light don't affect it. Just experience, maybe I'm wrong. Diffuse ignored too by the way.

It's supported in that the surface is used in EECH, but a many of the attributes you use are ignored.
Texture is only used for Color, so your diffuse and bump maps are ignored.



Well, it they would need a light source to have reflection. I don't think most cockpits in EECH use any directed light, just diffuse light. For the Hind I did add the sun as a light source (you can see when manouvering that the light changes in the cockpit. It doesn't do that in the other cockpits).



But, yes, that's the main way of having it look good.



It makes no difference because those are ignored in any case




I think lighting works for untextured surfaces too.

Just tried it again, you right.

I might add some lights and see what difference it makes. I've yet to work on the textures, so I'll just texture the switches if I can't get the lighting to look good.

I've replaced the ka50 cockpit just now, but I'll have a look at the hind scene to see how the lighting is.

Upper console done (apart from some texturing and refinement). I'm off to read some UV Mapping tutorials

I thought it will be just a simple cockpit model ,but you're doing the whole cockpit great job.

Thanks. Although I might have to scale back some things. The poly count is already over 22K! But the framerate in game never drops below 30 on my old desktop PC. So it might be ok. I know I can get away with reducing polys on some of the smaller details that aren't seen.

Just a simple test-run the same map 2-3 different cockpits and compare fps.Arneh will be better knew whether much or little
ka 50 have 5000 kiowa 11000

Last updates for tonight.

Started to texture the upper panel controls.



I think the chrome might be a bit too shiny

Great work, keep it up!

Hind cockpit is about 10k polygons total with all sub objects, Apache about 5k.

I think I've gone for a higher level of detail. When I compare the flip switches in the Hind to the ones I've done, my ones have much more polys. I can cut this down quite a bit and still keep the 'roundness' of the switch. I did this last night on just one set of switches and got rid of around 1000 polys.

I just started off by making the objects without really thinking too much about how many polys there would be. I'm going to spend some time reducing the poly count as it is before I continue with more detailing. As I said above, it's not causing an impact on the framerate (yet), but by the time I'm finished, the poly count could be ridiculously high.

Wait till I try the UH-60 out on my laptop...


Looks good! Try to cut down as much as you can though.

Looks great!

messyhead how you do this chrome on switches?
1 What is the effect?(specularity?)
2 you use light source?
3 if yes- in lwo or scene?

If I have 20 same switches in cockpit,I want to select one,and cause them to be marked all,not individually  how to do it?
Please help anyone.

I used a chrome metal texture that I just found using Google. I haven't set the specularity or anything as I don't think it's supported, and I haven't added any further light sources.

Next time I'm working on the cockpit, I'll upload the image I used.

I don't know if there's a way to select all of the same objects by selecting one. I think you'll have to select them all individually. But for something like that, I copy similar objects to a new layer so I can easily edit them all again if needed. You just need to collapse the layers before converting it to an EEO. So I usually save a layered version and a non layered version.

On a separate note, I was looking for the reason I had so many polygons. Stupidly the flip switch I modelled had nearly 1000 polygons. So when I multiplied that by 15 for all the switches, it was nearly 15000 polygons!! Anyway, fixed that now and the entire cockpit is arounsd 6K polygons, so much better. Lesson learned.

Thank you Dont need that texture, because dont know how properly add new texture to cockpit.
I asked, because a similar(?) effect is specularity

but too much work to improve each switch separately.

Good to know that specularity works. I couldn't see it making much difference in my scene, but I might add it back on again. I had initially used one of the preset surfaces for chrome, but it was flat in the game as you saw in my previous screenshots. Did you have to add a light to make it work?

If you edit the surface that is for the switches, then it should affect all switches. You only need to select them individually if you want to assign a new surface. Actually, if you select polygon selection mode (CTRL H I think), then press w to open the statistics window, then down the bottom of that window you can select a surface and then select all polygons assigned to that surface.

Also, what version of Lightwave are you using? I ask as the bottom bar looks different to the one I'm using. I thought you had to use LW9 to be compatible.

Awesome advice,what I meant, thank you I made a few test versions with specularity , I'll be testing later in the game if it works.Dont need any lights I think.Its LW11 demo cant save , Normally I use the old version.

As arneh said specularity works . Without any problem, dont need lighting .

When you've got an image mapped to the surface, the specularity doesn't have as much of an effect.

This is the image I used;



I think I'm going to darken this image slightly, as it looks too bright in the game.

I've also tried this one, but it needs a bit more complex UV map to get the radial effect.

I took these screenshots from ZERO DARK THIRTY.

Do you have them in a higher resolution? It's hard to make anything out as they're dark. Also, not sure how reliable they are as it's from a Hollywood film and based on a fictional helicopter.

Actually, now that I've seen those on my laptop, I was using my phone before, they;re nothing like a Blackhawk cockpit. The center console is too narrow, and the throttle levers are wrong, and the layout of the MFDs is wrong. So it's probably just a mock up for the film.

Or an UH-1Y (or was that Z?)...

It was the cockpit of the "Stealth" Blackhawks they used to attack OBL's compound.

I can take screenshots of the Blackhawks' cockpit from 'Blackhawk Down' if you like but those are older models Blackhawk.

It's not a Blackhawk though. It's a Hollywood mockup of a cockpit that is supposed to be a stealth Blackhawk. But it's nothing like a Blackhawk cockpit. At best, it's a UH-1Y.





It's ok. I've got tons of photos of the cockpit. What I'm missing really is detail on the switches and panel on the center console. I can work out most of it from the images I have. But it would be great if someone who had access to a UH-60M could send me details. but that's just dreaming. Thanks for the offer though.

Imo always you can "download" from net this cockpit for help
http://www.pcaviator.com/store/product.php?productid=18545

So Hollywood lied to us again?!?

The top image is of a Seahawk. I'm not sure what variant the bottom image is of, but it's not a UH-60m.

Sorry if I sound like I'm just dismissing your help - I'm not. It's just that I've looked at 100's of images of the Blackhawk cockpit, and I know variants. There's not a huge amount of detail on the UH-60M which is the one I'm modelling. I know the centre console has Rockwell Collins flight control computers which are the MFDs. Most of the other switches are common. I've got a couple of shots of the UH-60M centre console from different angles. So I should be able to work it out. I've also got a high resolution schematic of the UH-60A/E/L centre console. So I'll be able to use that for a basis. That's how I did the upper console. It came from the UH-60A/E/L operators manual.

All those buttons and switches and levers.

You got to wonder if some of them ever ever get used.

I don't know about the ones below the MFDs on the center console, but I DO know those MFDs are mostly used for ordering lunch.
You just enter "Pizza" where it says "Machine Gun".

Nice UH60M video

http://youtu.be/NDtMDeulnnU

Helps me see the scale of the cockpit.

I've not posted any updates for a while, so just so you know I'm still working on it, I thought I'd give an update.

I've decided on a change of direction with the cockpit. I'd been in touch with Firebird and we're working to get the cockpit working in the game in the proper way i.e. not hacking it to replace another cockpit. While discussing things, Firebird had mentioned about animating needles etc. But the model I was making (UH-60M) doesn't have any cockpit dials. It would all be MFDs. This would be ok, but I quite like the traditional instruments. Also, as I'd mentioned before, I was making a 'theoretical' model, in that there's isn't a UH-60M capable of firing Hellfires or that is fitted with FLIR. There's a Battlehawk kit for the M model, but the only country to have placed a small order is the UAE.

So, I've decided to change to model the MH-60K cockpit. There are a number of reasons for this. As shown in the screenshot below, this cockpit has MFDs and a central control level for the FLIR so either pilot can use it. It also has a central cluster of 'traditional' instruments.



This model is capable of designating targets using the FLIR and Laser targeting. It is also a model that is closer to the era that EECH was set in, and was in service albeit with Special Forces. I had considered modelling this cockpit in the past, but chose not to as I didn't have good images of the cockpit - which I do now. And also as this model is fitted with a terrain radar, which wasn't available in EECH. But I recently read back over Arneh's Apache Avionics thread, and he had added ground radar for the Apache. So it should be possible (hopefully) to use that radar mode in the MH-60K.

So anyway, that's what I've been working. Here's a small update on how it's looking.




But I need some help. In the image shown above, there's some instruments I'm not sure about. Can anyone help identify them? It's the one below the ADI and the instrument to the right of it, below the altimeter. I can identify the others. Is the one below the ADI a vertical speed indicator, as I can't see it anywhere else? The only other ones I had seen were bigger as shown in the UH-60A image below.



It's also used in the CH-47E;




Also, if anyone has anymore detailed images, please let me know.

Probably Dave (AD) has a full documentation CH-47 instruments, may be able to help, if no one here will help.


http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3396845/11

The one below the altimeter is the vertical speed indicator (it even says "Vertical Speed" on the gauge :-) )
The one to the left of it is the Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI). The Mi-24 and Mi-28 already have such a gauge (in russian format) if you want to copy the code for how it works (although they're a bit simplified compared to the real gauge). For some more information about how it functions see e.g.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_situation_indicator

It was actually the ones in this image I need to identify. I had posted the UH-60A image to show how the vertical speed indicators that I've seen before look.

Just to give an update on this project. I've not gone away, I've just not had much time lately to work on this. I've been updating a couple of websites for a charity that I'm involved with, and until those are done, I don't have much free time to work on this.

I'm itching to get back into it though. My progress was also halted as Firebird seems to have gone away again. He was helping to get the MFDs working, so I might need to work that out on my own. But I need to get the model finished first of all.

Anticipating this cockpit a lot here. Hate the one we're stuck with and really want to fly insertions with the blackhawk.

I can't promise much but I can _probably_ assist with hooking up MFDs if it code-related.

Time to revive this project I think...

On what stage you are? Have you started put cockpit scene together?
Another question. Did you change (or do you planning to change) external model? I made some changes that will be necessary in future (suspension animation, different rotor blades objects hierarchy, collision points etc.), so if you can't wait several weeks until I release it I can share.

I had started on the scene with Firebirds help, and I think I had it working in the game. I'll start again on it this week probably and see how far I had got. The cockpit model is still very unfinished.

What external changes were you making? We should probably have the same external model that the cockpit is based on - the MH-60K.

I didn't edit any blackhawk models (just split landing gears and fuselage), so visually nothing changes. But sub object structure is different.

Ok. I might have had some external changes that I had planned, so when I start working on them, I'll get your updated model. But I'll just concentrate on the cockpit model first.

thanx for your work guys
this sim is still awesome, regardless of the age

Hi messyhead, i've started flying the blackhawk, and i've noticed that it's impossible fire the agm114k due to the assence of the laser rangefinder/designator, i think that this and the flir should be welcome on the uh/mh60. I hope that i don't bother you with my continous questions, good luck for the job.

Yeah, the standard Blackhawk that is modelled in the game never had the ability to fire Hellfires. I think the model was changed to have a Flir pod on the nose, but the code was never changed to allow it to target and fire Hellfires. The version I'm working on will have that.

how the progress?

Slowly. I had started it again, but then I've been distracted by some FARP improvements that I'm working on.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3865684/FARP_and_Airbase_improvements#Post3865684

To be honest, without someone to help with the coding, I'm not sure when it will get done. Firebird was helping, but has been offline again for a while, and I don't really understand how to get everything working.

If anyone else knows about the coding needed for the cockpit, that would be helpful.

First of all, I want to say that your Blackhawk project is looking great and I hope that you manage to finish your awesome work.

Regarding the Blackhawk version modeled in EECH, the version seems definitely to be MH-60L Direct Action Penetrator (DAP), which carries a FLIR pod with designator and is fully capable of using Laser Guided Hellfire missiles.

From the outside, it could the L or the K. The K actually had better avionics and instruments over the L, and it's the K that I'm modelling. The K was normally used by 160th SOARs, and is fitted with the refuelling probe. But actually the MH stands for Modified Helicopter, and so anything designated with this could be far from standard, and different from another model. So I've found MH-60Ls, some with external stores, some with none.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been starting work on this again and doing some research. And I've changed my mind again about which cockpit to model. I was all set to do the K model, but I'm now going to do the MH-60L DAP model as Ricunes mentioned.

As if I don't have enough on my plate already. Oh, well. I'm definitely not going to change my mind again (maybe!)

Very good choice

Can't wait to fly the MH-60L DAP in EECH and doing not only "traditional" gunship-type missions but also troop insertion missions.

Me too! That was always the vision I had. Just don't hold your breath ;-)

I'll try and finish it this year lol

Imo it's very simple-doing such a model of the cockpit, which have good pictures .Because from where you take pictures if you do not have?Manually do?   never will look like well.

A lot of the photos are taken from the manufacturer site for the components. I've also got a manual for UH-60A/L which has high resolution vector images that I can scale up and then texture. Part of the reason it's taking so long is that I'm having to search so for good images to use.

Edit: My research has also just uncovered the holy grail for me. A view of the whole cockpit taken from just behind the central console, with all the instruments switched on! Something I have been searching for months to see.

Just a quick update. Inspired by thealx's recent updates, I've done some more work on this. I've got a bit of momentum now, so should hopefully have some screens to show in a few weeks.

Cool! I'm hoping for an insertion mission in the next couple missions of my campaign..

BeachAV8R

Yeah, I don't think it'll be ready for your AAR's. Getting the model finished is one thing, get it coded and working is another. Firebird was helping, but I've not heard from him for a while, so I'll probably need to figure it out myself. The cockpit I'm building will need some new MFDs coded and not just reused.

Little bit of progress update on this. I've been working on the dashboard layout. The main photos for reference are these 2;





Here's how it's looking (untextured and basic for layout);




As you can see, I'm slowly getting there. I hoping to get the dashboard layout done, then work on getting the MFDs working, then on proper texturing.

Cool! Looks nice..!

BeachAV8R

Thanks. It's pretty basic looking at the moment. The difficult part is working out all the sizes of everything.

I found the size of the smaller MFDs and the diameter of the IAS dial, so everything else is just being worked out relative from there using the photos I have (I have a photo of the full cockpit all lit up with the instruments active that I managed to find, but I don't want to post it online as I'm not sure I was meant to have found it).

I'm just tweaking the sizes of everything just now to get the layout and sizes mostly right.

Hi Messyhead, i have some photos of uh60M's cockpit, i hope they can help you:

Thanks Skip, but they're not from the right model. I think I've also seen these ones before.

MH60 DAP is the model are you looking for?

MH-60L as used by Special Ops.

http://www.arcair.com/awa01/301-400/awa338-MH-60L/00.shtm

The cockpit photos from my previous post is the one I'm using. Although this doesn't have ESSS wings attached, they can be fitted, and it has FLIR capability.

Ok understood, here are some MH60L's pics:

Thanks again, but still not quite the right model. The one I'm doing has 2 smaller MFDs next to the larger main one.

They can be used for the flight instruments.

It's quite difficult to find exact model details, as there is often quite a lot of variation depending on it's use, and the SpecOps seem to usually have non-standard equipment compared to other models of the same type.

Also, I have literally 100s of photos of pretty much every type that I've accumulated over the years when researching. So the chances are that I've already seen the ones you have, if you're searching online.

If you know another source not online, that I might not have accessed, then that would be great. I had contacted a few ex-pilots as well to see if they had anything I could use, but I either didn't get a reply, or they didn't have anything.

Ideally, I'd like to get a seat in one with my Digital SLR and get some high res photos for myself, but I've never seen any in the UK that you can get access to.

I appreciate the effort though, it's always good to know someone else is interested.


What I do need help with is the lower-centre console. I've got a PDF of the manual, which has some vector images of the centre console from a couple of versions. So I can use that for layout, but identifying all the switches and instruments is tough. I also don't know about a few of the cockpit instruments.

In the following image, below the RPM and TRQ gauge, there is a small screen that I don't what it is for or what it's called. Also, to the left of the radar screen, there is a small dial, that I think is a clock, but I'm not sure. If anyone could help with them, that would be great.

I had a bit of Eureka moment last night on this project.

I've spent countless number of hours researching online to find information about the instruments used in the cockpit, and photos or diagrams of them. But there were a few that eluded me. So last night it was past 1am, and was just about to call it a night, but out of curiosity, I opened a PDF training manual for the CH-47D Chinook, and every instrument that I had problems finding was in that manual! It seems there's a lot shared between the CH-47D and the MH-60L.

So I now have more pieces of the jigsaw filled in, I just have sleep to catch up on!

Does this mean that we will have the Blackhawk cockpit sooner than later?

LoL, only joking but I'm really eager and can't wait to fly the UH-60 in EECH with your great cockpit

Well it will now be a day sooner than it was yesterday

I'm just trying to work on it whenever I have some free time. Progress might slow over the summer, as free time gets less. I'm just working on the instrument layout for the dashboard just now. Once that's done, depending on how things are with thealx or Firebird being available for help, I'll either start on coding the instruments and MFDs, or working on the centre console layout.

Thanks for the info messyhead

Just a small update on progress. Added some more instruments to get the layout right. The ALE47 (Countermeasures) and Radar are just photos for now, but I added the Pilot, Co-Pilot, and Central Display Units (PDU, CPDU, CDU) which show the engine, rotor rpm, and torque readouts, and added the chronometers.

A couple of screengrabs from LW.

Wow..nice looking!

I'm not sure how many people are bothered by these small updates, but I'll keep them coming anyway.

Modelled the Radar display. I just need to texture it over this week. The reason for detailing this, is that I hope to have the dials working, at least to switch it on and off, if nothing else.

Please, keep it up!
I really love to see work in progress shots, gives me more understanding how much work goes in.

Really great progress and looking forward to jump into this pit, will be a blast. (I just cannot really fly helos without proper cockpit, I am all for immersion, but luckily, we already have a lot to fly!)

Looking forward to the end result!

Progress reports are always welcome, so please do keep em' coming.

Done texturing the radar display. What next...

Some more small updates. Added the CIS/HSI/VHI mode select buttons, and the Stabiliser gauge and plate.

Hi Messyhead, what's the situation with your blackhawk update? I really miss your screens.

Hi. Not done much since the last update. I had started texturing the small MFDs, but I'm not great at graphics so it's taking a while. I prefer to create the textures from scratch rather than reuse ones, or use photos, but I'm having to work out how to get the textures looking good.

I've also just been away on holiday, so I'll hopefully pick it up again this week. If the texturing is taking too long, then I'll just move on to creating more of the dashboard items. The next items on the list are the countermeasure and hud controls.

Nice news Messyhead, welcome back and good luck! Just another question, the ah64d's textures that i've done are so ugly? none tells nothing about them. Best wishes for your job.

I've not had a look at them to be honest. I've actually not played EECH for quite a while as I've been working on this project.

The instruments are looking nice.

So I was hoping to post a positive update on this, as I have been working on texturing over the past few weeks.

But it took a bit of a blow last night, in that my laptop has died

I'm hoping to try and get it working tonight, but no guarantee as it seems terminal at the moment. The only option would be for me to try and recover the contents of the hard drive and use my wife's laptop from now on.

I was trying to get a lot done as my 2nd baby is due in a couple of weeks, so when that happens I think progress will slow completely.

Congratulations messyhead, best wishes for your daddy.

sad to hear that. I mean, about your laptop, I hope hard drive content wasn't damaged. congratulations on your future arrival! definitely, now you will have to do a lot of more important things rather than helicopters)

Thanks. I've ordered an external HDD case, so I should be able to try and recover the drives.

As for the baby, this is no.2 so I should be practised enough! (famous last words)

Woohoo! Laptop fixed. Somehow the MBR had got locked or something, anyway, it's working now.

I've been trying to keep progress moving on this. It turns out night feeds is some nice quiet time to get stuff done

I've textured the small MFDs and detailed and textured the flight instruments. I'll probably need to go back over the MFD textures as they're not very good.

I'm ok at the flight instrument textures (I think), but the MFDs need some creativity in photoshop to add shadows and details, and I'm not much good at that.

One thing that you might try is baking some ambient occlusion onto the textures, doing that can really help make things look nice without requiring you to manually paint all the shading on the textures.

indeed, bake shading will be much easier than making it manually. only thing is - it will be wise to make it after modeling is completely finished, otherwise new elements added later will be without shadow effects. also bumpmapping can be applied but it will be static and looks not really good in the game.

I take it bake shading only shows up in the renders and in game? It doesn't seem to change anything in the perspective view in modeller.

it's technically makes new textures, maybe you just hadn't applied them to the model.

I must be thinking of something different then. I was looking at this...

nope, it's no that. this is more useful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT4zOk1TcYo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyOVJGIPl4U

actually I did it before with Cinema 4D (because I made camo skins there so it was easier to not switch from one software to another), but LW has same functionality.

Ah, thanks for those. I'll have a watch of them and experiment to see how it looks.

I know very little about texturing, only basic UV mapping.

I'm usually don't use texture for baking - so as result I get something like this :

only after I'm mixing it with the texture manually, but I think it depends on your needs - it's ok to render right on the main texture

Thanks for the info. It looks quite time consuming to get it right. I knew I would have to revisit the textures as I'm just doing basic ones for now.

But it has given me a direction. I'm just going to finish the model, then work on textures. I've been trying to do both just, but it's just wasting time.

A bit more of the instruments done. The Countermeasure and HUD (ANVIS) controls now in place. Untextured, but I'll get to that once the model is done.



The dashboard is looking more complete. Only a few knobs and switches to add.

WoW great!

I never tire myself of saying that I just can't wait to be able to play with the Blackhawk in EECH using your cockpit!

Someone should force you to work all day and night around, 24/7 in order to complete that cockpit ASAP - LoL, just joking


Keep up the great work and thanks for your hard work!

Hook me up to the Matrix and I'll have it done in no time!

I appreciate the encouragement though. I've been working on it for so long, I sometimes wonder if anyone is bothered about it, or just see it as a never ending project.

Where's the plug, where's the plug??




You're welcome. The encouragement is more than deserved!

The PC military helicopter sim "universe" is by itself (and unfortunately) very limited and I get the feeling that 95% or even more of this already limited universe is taken by "pure" gunship helicopters only such as the Apache, Mi-28, KA-50/52, etc... (at least within the player's perspective or flyable helicopters) which is a shame since military transport/assault helicopters can be just as fun (and at the same time different) experience compared to a "pure" gunship helicopter. That's why I recently purchased DCS:UH-1H Huey and I must say that it rocks!
And that's also why I enjoy projects such as the Mi-24 cockpit and of course your Blackhawk cockpit project. While most missions when flying either the Mi-24 of UH-60 in EECH are and will still be gunship-type in nature you can still from time to time insert troops to occupy enemy bases which is IMO a step into the "right direction". And of course having proper cockpits for either the Mi-24 and/or UH-60 makes this experience way more realistic and fun at the same time.

Hi guys! Been away for a long period as my dayly routine now leaves little time for flight simulators.. And I am overwhelmed!! Over 10 years have passed and you guys just never give up improving EECH.

Lovely work you got there for the Blackhawk, messyhead! keep up!


OFF TOPIC: BTW, have you thought about a petition for the Enemy Engaged 2 source code?!

Hi folks. I've been completely AFK for a month or so with family stuff going on. So I've not done anything on this unfortunately. Thanks for the encouragement though.

As for EE2, I think it's a lost cause. I was emailing strategy first every few weeks for a while, but didn't get a response. I mailed a letter to them as well, and to the developer, but got nothing back.

Hello. So as per my previous post, I've still not been able to do much else on this.

I've got a lot going on at home just now, and to be honest, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to work with this. It's been a project that has been ongoing for quite some time, but mainly due to me not having much free time (I can't remember the last time I just played EECH!)

So it's with sadness that I need to do this, but I think it would be best overall for EECH.

I'm going to have to give up progress on this project in the hope that someone else could pick it up and complete it. I'm happy to send all of the files I have, including reference material, textures, models etc, to anyone that would be willing to take this on.

I would say that the model of the cockpit is probably about 60% done. Most of the dashboard is complete, and just needs properly textured. The upper console needs some texturing and some additional knobs and switches added, and the lower centre console needs done. I had also planned to model the cockpit doors, and details other parts of the cockpit.

The major part left to be done would be making the scenes and getting the coding done to get it all working in the game.

I'd really like to see the Blackhawk flyable in the game, as it's one of my favourite military helicopters. It would also open up the possibility of being able to fly your own insertion missions properly.

If you read back through this thread, you'll see all of the ideas that were discussed.

So if anyone would like to pick this up, let me know and I'll arrange to get the files to you.

Hi. So as per my previous post, I won't have the time to finish this. Personal reasons have taken over unfortunately.

So I have uploaded the folder of files that I was working on here;

(link removed)


They are all the individual cockpit instruments I was making, and there is also a layered cockpit model being used as a place holder for the instruments until the scene was ready.

There is also a folder of all the reference material I had found, which includes various flight manuals, instrument manuals etc.

There are also folders of textures.

For the instrument textures, I was opening the PDFs with the instrument detail in Adobe Acrobat, then saving the individual line drawing in Illustrator and using them as an outline. That way I was hoping to make realistic high res textures.


I had also bought some sounds to replace the ones in the game. There is an idle APU sound, prop startup, and prop idle that I think are better than the ones in game at the moment. They are also recorded from an actual UH60 so are authentic.

(link removed)


I hope that someone could pick this up and finish it. I feel quite bad that I couldn't complete it, after spending so much time on it.

Whoever picks this up, I will be available to help with questions on the type of UH60 I was making. There is one image of the cockpit that I found, and probably one of the few online as it's a special forces helo, and it's included in the files.


EDIT: I've added another folder of reference images, some model parts, and there's also a full pre-flight checklist including engine startup (could be useful for clickable cockpits)

(link removed)


There's also this external model that I found. It's too high poly for the game, but a lot of polys could be merged to reduce the number. I had done this with another external model and got the poly count down from around 60k, to about 10k. I can't find that model now though. I'm pretty sure this is the right external model to go with the cockpit I was making. One of the main parts I was at least going to use was the rotorhead, as it's quite a nice model. The ones in the game are just plain cylinders.

(link removed)

Hi folks (those of you still interested at least). I think I'm going to pick this up again. I've actually never stopped thinking about this project, and how it was left unfinished. Looking back through the posts I had made, I can't believe how much I actually did.

And with the changes 1.16 has introduced, I think I really need to get this done.

So watch this space, and I'll try to keep you updated on further progress.

I had to resintal windows and lightwave, but started working on this again. Looking at the dashboard I had been working on, the model was pretty much complete. I took Sockzien's 1.15 AH-60 model, and added my instruments to it. This will save me from having to detail the cockpit and texture it. Although that cockpit model needs some tidying up.

A quick screen grab from lightwave, although it's untextured.



And for reference, this is the cockpit image I'm mainly working from. I think this is one of the few images of the actual MH-60L cockpit that I've found.

All I can say is thanks for working on this one!

IMO, EECH badly needs a flyable UH-60 with a proper cockpit. Specially now that the infantry part was somehow revamped with v1.16 and of course I believe we need a "proper" (again with this I mean with this is "flyable with a proper cockpit") counterpart for the Mi-24 (the "red side" assault helicopter) in EECH.

Thanks. I'm going to work hard on getting the model finished, then I can start working on getting it working in the game.

I can't say THANKS! enough. Seriously, to all you guys that made this Sim what it is today. I always tried to like it but never could...Until recently, and it just keeps getting better thanks to the awesome people that practically donate their time to make it better. I can barely squeeze a few hours weekends to fly it, but you give your time for us to enjoy it.

Keep up the great work. All of you!

Loaded in the textures, the ones that are there so far anyway...

Little bit of an update on progress. I've not long got my new laptop set up again, and I had a website to work on as well as fixing the EECH Central wiki to distract me.

HUD/ANVIS control panel textured.








This was the best reference image I had to work on.




The only panel left to texture completely is the ALE-47 control panel, shown just above this one. This is used to control the flare and chaff dispensers. That's my next task. Then I'll tackle the large MFDs.

Getting there with the ALE-47 Control Panel

Texturing done, just need to fix some conversion issues.

Hi messyhead, what about your blackhawk?

It's taken a little bit of a back seat recently. Life getting in the way as usual.

I've been meaning to get back on it, so hopefully in the next week or so I'll start on it again.

I just remembered why I took a break. I was trying to convert it to an eeo to get it in the game, and was getting annoying conversion errors with individual polygons. I'll need to work on tracking them down.

Yeah, apart from the cockpit shape and seats as that was 'borrowed' from another model. But everything on the dashboard was made by me.

Looking forward to installing this when it's done. Keep up the great work

I can't remember any specific ones I used. I used to do 3D modelling as a hobby when I was young, starting on an Amiga! I also did Design Engineering at university which involved computer aided design. So that gave me a grounding in how to create the shapes. It's just learning the tool that you need to do, in this case lightwave.

I would say you should focus on using the primitives to create shapes, Spheres, Cubes etc, and learn to use the boolean tools to create cut-outs in shapes. Extrude and lathe are 2 other useful tools to learn, as you can then create a flat polygon using points, and then extrude or rotate it to make a 3D shape.

For example the switches started off as a sphere. I then selected polygons at one end which stretched out the stalk of the switch, then shrank the bottom end of the switch to create a taper. So size, move, stretch are other tools you'll need to know.

Youtube is probably the best place to look.

This playlist looks quite good...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT4uM5OzlKn19WDjj6mGZzg3nJuHRSg8Y


And these videos look quite good as well (I might try these to improve my skills)

https://youtu.be/TTpbLrnSxU8

https://youtu.be/iAPOl3CSxyo

https://youtu.be/F2CBel2trR0



I hope that helps.

Right, I'm trying to get back on this...

Texturing the MFD's. It's this stuff that I find time consuming and a bit annoying, but it needs done.

Finished texturing the MFDs, and I've fixed the errors when converting from an LWO to EEO. So in theory, this could go in the game as a static model. I'm going to try that next, just to see how it renders.

So now the majority of the Dashboard is done. There are a couple of instruments that need textured, and there is a couple missing. But I feel these are minor for now.






My next target is to try and start coding it so that it's a working, flyable cockpit in the game. Initially there'll be things not working or animated. But if I learn how the scene and coding all work, then adding updates should be quicker.

I see a light at end of the tunnel.

Here goes.....

I thought I'd just try getting the model in the game before I went to bed....




I should have just went to bed. Not really sure where to start with working this mess out.

Looking nice so far. Can't wait!

Thanks!

I don't fly the Blackhawk for the reason that the current model in game doesn't have a useable sensor. It will be nice to be able to use the helo as intended.

Looks great messyhead, will be usable also for 1.15.2 ? i'm using this version cause too many issues with 1.16.

I think it will. Although I think some of the texturing was changed for 1.16, so I might need to see if it works better in that version

I managed to get the model converted and working in-game as a static cockpit. I just modified the Blackhawk cockpit that is in v1.15.4.

There's some issues with the texturing though, and I might need some help in getting those working.

For now, I think I'm going to start investigating how to make some of the instruments work.

Just to keep the updates coming...


I've been looking into a couple of things.

1. The code required to get the cockpit working
2. Why the textures are not rendering properly in the game

For 1, I've found how the MFDs are drawn in the game, and it looks like I'll need to do a bit of re-modelling and texturing to get this to work. For the MFDs, they seem to have a uniquely named texture for each MFD.

And for 2, I think the issue is that in Lightwave I used boolean cuts to create some shapes, and it seems that either the converter or the game doesn't like the geometry that is created by that. So for all the weird textured instruments in the screenshot above, I'll need to remodel those. I think to get some progress, I might just make them simple primitive shapes initially, then try and change the look through texturing or other simple geometry changes.

Still need to sort out the broken textures, but I've been digging into the code, and now have the main MFD working. Now that I understand how that works, I should be able to get the 2 smaller ones working as well

That's looking better. Worked out the texturing problem - too many UV maps per object. I also simplified the geometry to get rid of some strange rendering. Excuse the jaggy lines though, it was running in low resolution.

I just need to work over the other parts to fix them.

This is coming along nicely, thanks for all the work!

Now that I know what the issues are, I should be able to progress with it

Dashboard instrument textures finished off. It's looking much better, and it's actually flyable now as it has one working MFD.

p.s. ignore the artificial horizon poking through the central display. I've not edited the scene yet to remove unused items.

Looks awesome messyhead!

I can't wait to play with the Blackhawk with this cockpit. I believe this is the "push" that I need in order to restart playing EECH

Thanks. I'm off work this week, so trying to get all the mfds working. It's tricky though, as I'm the only developer around, so no one to ask questions.

Any developers around? I'm a bit stuck with the code, trying to add an MFD. I think I've done everyone I should, but it's not showing, and crashes when I try to switch mode.

Perseverence has paid off, and I cracked the problem. There is now a working digital flight instrument, which is mainly what the small MFDs will be used for.

The Barometric Altitude and the Airspeed are also working, so there is almost a flyable Blackhawk - from the pilot seat at least. I'll work on adding the lower small MFD this week, and then might release an initial version for testing. I know there is a couple of bugs that I'll try to fix. I might also disable the HUD as the Blackhawk doesn't have one, or a helmet mounted sight system. So to add to the realism, it'll be instruments only.

My plan is also to use the real Apache MFDs in this cockpit, instead of the Comanche ones currently used. The real Apache ones are closer to the ones you'd find in this version of the Blackhawk. I think they also look a lot better. But I think this will be released in different versions, and hopefully I'll incrementally add functionality with each version.

Sounds good messyhead, thanks for your efforts.

Excellent work messyhead

Thanks. Almost got the bottom one working now...

EDIT: Working now...




I'm going to work on getting the radar altitude and VSI instruments working next.

Radar altimeter is working now, up to 500ft. The HUD and flight display already show a radar altimeter scale up to 500ft, so seems like there's already this limit in game. The actual radar altimeter should work up to 1500ft. But it's working anyway, so I can change the limits later.

The altimeter works on a non-linear scale. Up to to 200ft there's a large scale, then between 200ft and 500ft the scale is smaller. After 500ft, the needle moves to a position that would move it behind a masked area, and there would also be an off flag appear. The images below show the needle in those positions.

I also changed the MFD colour to match the background of the flight display, so it blends in better. I'm going to use some of the real Apache MFDs anyway, so these will all change before the final release.

I'm going to work on the VSI next, then release this for testing while I work on some other things.

Just a quick update. I'm still in code merge hell. I've merged my changes from 1.15.4 into 1.16, but it's crashing when I start it. I'm just trying to work out what's wrong, as it's not creating a crash log.

If I can't get it working soon, I think I'll just need to start from scratch in 1.16 and add my cockpit.

Good luck, you'll need it.

Thanks! I think I'm going to just try and create the cockpit code in 1.16. It's proving too difficult to figure out why it's not working at the moment. And if I create it from scratch, then I'll also have a better understanding of the code.

Did you do the Viper cockpit?

No i didn't.

Good news!

Code merge is almost complete, and I've got Sockzien's Blackhawk cockpit working in 1.16.

Now just to get my one working....

Great messyhead. Hold on!

Made some progress with this, and managed to get my cockpit model working in 1.16 now. There's a few bugs to iron out, as the dials aren't working, and for some reason the control stick is showing out the front window. But I'll work on them, and hopefully release it for testing next week.

It's a little uncomfortable.But if you move stick behind left or right window, then in the summer will be good cooling of the hand

It's still a little difficult to reach though...

Bump, bump...


Back working on this. I'm going through the model, changing some things that I learned from working on the MI-28 instruments.

Superb! I'm really looking forward to fly it. I admire what you are able to do.

Your cockpit looks so amazing, much better than what I'm able to do.

I'm still fighting with 3D and many things I would like to implement I have no clue of how I should do it and how many hundred years it will take for me to get it working

Welcome back

I don't think he was ever away

We all have a real life, sadly I just noticed it again by myself, and so we have to accomplish some irritating things besides our great determination (or is it called hobby ?)

I also have to thank him for his offered help with my project. If I'm ready with my pit he told that he will do the instruments for it.

Without Messyhead nothing would really go further at the moment.

thealx is still working on things as well, as I see him committing changes to the source code. And Sockzien looks to be working on an update to his trees mod.

Ah o.k. didn't know this.

So it looks really promissing at the moment. I also have to come a bit further with the KA-50, but I have to fight with my laptop too. It crashes so often that I was really close to throw it out of the window. Reinstalled alot but without success.

You told that you also use a laptop. What graphic chip is integrated in it?

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4500 integrated graphics chip. My laptop is an old Dell Studio 1737

Thank's for the info. Mine is a Lenovo SL410 with an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme and 8GB Ram. It was a real powerful system 6 years ago and never made any troubles until now.

Must really be the Intel MHD 4500 or the shared mem it uses. I must save every 2 minutes, because already changing views mostly results in a CTD. This makes working at the models a real pain.

I have this problem with all of my 3D programs I use, so it can't be an error of only one software.

I reinstalled all Visual C runtimes, NET Framework, the graphic driver, programs themselves etc. Also tested my RAM with Mem-Test, but no errors here. Renewed the heatsink compound and cleaned the cooler to exclude heat problems. Nothing changed anything.

Only thing I didn't do until now is to reinstall the whole system from scratch, because this will take more than a week again with all the adjustments and reinstalls I have to do.

The strange thing is, that all other software, even the games this sh... graphic chip is able to run, work without any problems.

Getting back into this, so a small update. I think I've figured out how to get the bars in the display units to work, so doing some work on the Lightwave models for them...

incredible work.I was worried about this project.
when it comes to programming.
but after what you showed in havoc, I know it will be good

Well the idea for getting them working is all theory at the moment. The idea popped into my head when i was staring at the empty wall in work

Got the rotor and engine displays working in game now, but trying to get a video of it is proving difficult to share. Fraps keeps cutting out after 20 seconds. I'm away for the weekend, so I'll look at it next week.

Got round to doing a quick recording of the cockpit. Ignore the flashing textures. I'm not sure what's happening with those, and the textures need refined anyway.

Very slick!

BTW was the issue with "control stick showing out the front window" resolved in 1.16. I've been following all the great EECH developments but didn't see a recent post on that item - unless I missed it. My hands are getting cold flying the Blackhawk in 1.16 but I don't want to revert back to 1.15.

Thanks and keep up the great work and effort.

Mechanic

Yeah, that's been fixed, and I'm working in the 1.16 code now. Not really sure what the issue was, but I've removed the pilots and animations from the cockpit for now. So the stick is static. I'll add at the stick and collective movement back in later. Still undecided about the pilots, unless I can change their animation to actually match up with the cockpit.

Once I've got the displays all working, I'll probably do another release for testing.

Nice work!
For flickering texture check specularity parameter for those button\ screen surface and smoothing turned on.

Specularity is 0, and smoothing is on.

As i said before you have wrong resolution textures,and this cause flashing textures ingame.

Yeah, but there was never a display problem before. I'm now using the build that thealx updated with some of the cockpit improvements and lighting changes, and now get texture problems.

However, I'm not worrying about it for now as the textures all need redone, and sized properly as I'd mentioned before.

Would this level of detail be too much....

well.... dcs black shark hires 4096x4096 all textures has ~200 mb ,you have comparison

Updated the PDU. Engine TRQ now working.

Another update. Co-Pilot display now working, and added some displays to the central display unit.

Progress has been annoyingly slow recently. I'm trying to get the digital readouts working for the engine displays. Managed to get one working, but having trouble getting the texture that should be used to display other values to be recognised. Also, I'd like to change the font to a digital LCD one so it looks a bit more like the real thing, but I'm currently limited by the fonts available.

I might move on to the master caution and status lamps in the meantime, and come back to this another time.

Hmmm change title for: DCS blackhawk sharp like a razor.

Thanks, but there's a way to go yet. The lower and upper centre consoles need quite a bit of work. I'm just trying to get things on the pilots side of the main dashboard working for now.

a lot of your textures and indicators can be used for the first apache cockpit.

Wow Messyhead!

This looks really nice!!! I hope I can work further at the KA-50 soon. Looks like I will have time again for it in January. At the moment things move quickly, so sadly there isn't time for the hobby.

I know the feeling. I'll probably not be doing much on it for the next couple of weeks over Christmas.

Added working lamps to the master warning panel.

Engine lamps come on when engine speed is below 55%, Rotor RPM comes on when it gets below 90%. Master warning and Fire lamps also added, but need to add triggers for them.

You surprice me, Messyhead

Thanks! Now I'm trying to decide what to work on next.

I've been distracted from this project for a while, but still working on a Blackhawk... Sort of

Pictures not available :P

I can see them in the forum post??

Randomly sometimes see,sometimes not appear.
I made only Apache model ~25 years ago

You deleted link for download right? I ask because maybe something block in my browser.how many polygons has your cockpit for this moment? +/-

What link? I don't think I'd put a link to it in this thread. I'm not sure of the poly count at the moment. From memory, I think it was around 8k

I mistaken topics, forget about the link.
I do not know if it's true, but I've noticed that the maximum number of cockpit polygons that accept eech is about ~7,000.
if you have more, fps are falling by more than 5 fps.I did tests on two cockpits.and it was the same.
maybe can you confirm my observations when you will be test your cockpit.I had two cockpits about 8-9 k polys and it really was a powerful drop in fps.after reduction - much better.
unless eech do not like any specific surface I've been doing.just take this attention out of curiosity.

Right, time to get back on this project. I've just had a look at where I left it, and I was working on (struggling with more like) updating the flight display MFD. I can't work out how to get the graphics to draw correctly for the MFD display. It's quite hard for me to understand it all, so I think I'll move on to something else. I really need someone to explain to me in a diagram or something, how the graphics are drawn on the MFD screens. Making what I think is a small simple change, has weird results.

The top and bottom centre consoles have been neglected for a while, so I might start adding some detail and texturing to those.

You have in plans make more realistic stick from blackhawk?

Yeah, I've been looking for a more realistic stick and pedals to use.

You just need to resize the surface in the UV window until the texture looks right. Stretch it and size it in different directions until you get the fit you want.