Cockpit progression...

Work on the frame, overhead parts. Still fixing up the in-game Longbow.

I'm also taking the opportunity to externalise parts of the player hook system to the model package.

**update** worked great. Plus I was able to move code out of the main game code and into the model, easier to update, less to go wrong. In theory.

The quadrophonic 8-Track system for thumping beats in the air? Or part of the pilots head tracking system?

My email inbox has been bombarded with YouTube channel subscription alerts from the last 24 hours.


Today I learned that I can't write English while holding conversations about chicken soup and no, David Cameron did not direct Avatar ;)


Mild case of food poisoning. Shouldn't have eaten that (mi)steak Bake from Greggs. Or the chicken soup maybe.

Source fixed, new Longbow in place

Almost done, the new cog has messed up the crew positioning which I will correct tomorrow. But she's working in the game engine, complete with functioning LUA loadout as pictured here.

Once all the other niggles of the (excuse the pun) Apache conversion are complete I'll fix up the controller mapping as promised earlier.

Sorry for the delay.

Ground object check list revised

Just looking over the to-do list for the map.  

• Power lines
• Telephone lines
• Afghan compound walls*
• Afghan compound buildings*
• Crop fields
• Concrete blocks
• Concrete bridge
• Mosque
• Flags and poles
• Water Tower
• Spiral Wire Fence
• Road block pole with "stop" sign
• Satellite Dish array
• Dome Tents
• Wooden barracks

*The compounds can be done as complete meshes.

Apache pilot height restrictions

This is one of those nearly amusing anecdotes. Last Friday I was able to break the code and have spent all weekend patching it together. Gone were the hopes of having the HOTAS controller in place, the new Apache flight test video. Nothing worked.

Today I fix the various little problems, launch the game, approach the helicopter and realise something was terribly wrong. I was about 12 inches tall and the Apache's port wheel towered above me. No amount of jumping would let me reach the cockpit area to mount the aircraft.

*sigh*

I think the default eye position for the character controller has been changed. Either that or the art team from Star Trek Online have been messing with our assets.

Flex thinks Dave should get some sleep, his output is making me look bad.

*edit* The pilot has been restored to normal stature.

Longbow cockpit progress.

We've been having to make do with overlays, pop-ups and a very basic cockpit for some time. Now a lot of the external work on the girl is done. Progress on the much needed cockpit has started.

Making these things click-able is a bit fiddly, but not as hard as sourcing good quality photos and reference pictures of parts you wouldn't normally photograph, such as the area above your head or struts at the side.

This is an early render of the pilot crew station.

A reference picture...

Visibility has been an issue with Apache games in the past, low resolutions meant squeezing everything to fit into a landscape format. Head tracking devices such as TrackIR help a lot and are fully supported in Combat Helo. Even so, 50% of your view is obstructed by the cockpit. And there is a 'frag' shield between compartments to stop instructors from belting co-pilots over the head.

Leadwerks Engine presentation video GDC 2010

I just saw this GDC presentation movie using the Leadwerks engine and simply blown away by how much you can leverage out of good palette choice, textures and object variety. And it has cows. Kudos to Michael Betke for this.

Pods and AGMs in-editor screen-shot

The export went smoothly, the clear dome on the laser Hellfire seekers were fine, although I ditched the normal map. And removed shadows from the Hydra rockets, not that you can tell.

Added a LUA script to fix AGM racks to each wing pylon. The racks have a script to load AGM114s by default. Net result all Apaches are weighted down with this stupidly heavy load. I'll fix up the editor interface to allow for custom loadouts. Then they can be pulled into the map with pre-config loads ready for user customisation.

The animation for the FFAR worked fine. 10 frames.

Will script the pod loading later as this should be done in zones. Had to hard-code some model offsets to get them to fit but they are not likely to change, it's easy to edit the script anyhow.

We might need to wipe those bugs off the nose.

Canopy material needs some adjustment.