Another application of MajorTom's icTurret Cockpit

Originally posted by Second Chance


The interesting idea this brings up is: I'll bet that with the custom cockpits in use, you can no longer F1 switch to the non-cockpit view. Because it's no longer the game code that's adding and removing the cockpit model. So, just like the new cockpits showing up outside the ship on external views, the new custom cockpits will be seen with either F1 internal view. But who cares?! We've got cool custom cockpits!

You're right that the camera moves and not any part of the ship. (I thought you had known this all along) My reference to cockpit "sway" was always more a parochial description of the visual effect and not technique itself. Your assumption is also correct that you still see the custom cockpit if you press F1 once. (If you press F1 twice you will get the standard chase view from the players perspective without the cockpit)
At the time I wasn't really surprised that we had cockpit sway with the "turret" cockpits, I was just hyping the concept.

The cockpit sway is actually the neck_stiffness of the internal camera, in combination with the other values as shown below

[icInternalCamera]
neck_stiffness = 2
acceleration_stiffness = 1
acceleration_scale = 0.01
yaw_ratio = 0.25
pitch_ratio = 0.4
roll_ratio = 0.25

There are actually 5 views from the internal perspective

// Internal camera = CAM_Internal (this is the one with the cockpit)

// Internal camera without cockpit = CAM_InternalNoCockpit
// Internal no HUD = CAM_InternalNoHUD
// Chase camera = CAM_Chase
// Chase camera with headup = CAM_Arcade

As we've observed, the CAM_Internal blanks out any visual representation of "parts" or subsims of the ship except the cockpit (which is normally not a subsim in the first place).
Apparently the CAM_InternalNoCockpit is a separate camera that blanks out the cockpit too.
You can however see another ship docked to your player ship through the CAM_Internal or CAM_InternalNoCockpit! (with or without the cockpit)
A "turret" cockpit can be seen through the internal camera because class icTurret is derived from icShip (whereas the turret-cockpit is, practically speaking, docked to the players ship). Thats why you still see the custom cockpit when you switch to the CAM_InternalNoCockpit camera by pressing F1.
The CAM_InternalNoHUD camera, is also hardcoded with the neck_stiffness at an infinate level. Thats why you have no "sway" in that view. In our case, with the turret-cockpit thats an additional flaw. But, as you said:
"But who cares?! We've got cool custom cockpits!"

The CAM_Chase is yet another camera that is located in a different position (presumably somewhere in front of or below the cockpit). When you switch to it by pressing F1 a second time the camera view is no longer obstructed by the icTurret object (cockpit) docked to the crew null. The CAM_Chase camera does btw. have "sway" and uses the same values as the CAM_internal.

I wish we could think of a way to reduce the sway via the cockpit model or any other ship specific parameters.

I meant, It would be cool if we could create a icTurret that would move by itself proportional to the cockpit sway, in the opposite direction, and thus counteract the sway effect. Sorry if that was confusing, I was too lazy to explain myself properly, but as noted above I thought everyone had already understood the principles.

Sorry, I never released a dev version of the mod with the custom cockpits. That’s because we don't have any cockpits except the Starfury version. It is currently in two different colored versions on the Tie Fighter and the Tie Bomber. The other cockpit subsims are now mounted in the ship's ini file too, but they are all visually the same as the original.
Once we have some more cockpit models, I'll release a new dev version and everyone will be able to try it out and test things.


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