Cockpit effects - particle and misc.

[steppenwolf]

Hey guys. In flight sims effects for the cockpit seem to be a little lacking. I think we're all pretty familiar with the ubiquitous bullet hole in the plexi and the red and black out effect, so I wanted to start a thread about other possible effects that could be seen from inside the cockpit. Here are some:

 

Hit flashes and smoke from bullets

Smoke and fire from engine or electrical

An effect to suggest fuel fumes

Involuntray POV movement/'flinching' because of near bullet/cannon hits

 

What are your ideas and thoughts on effects 'for the cockpit'?

[Voidhunger]

Hit flashes and smoke from bullets

Smoke and fire from engine or electrical

 

+1

 

I like the engine fire in Clod

 

and hit flashes would be nice

Edited August 9, 2013 by Voidhunger

[crossfade]

A body

[steppenwolf]

Ice or condensation on windscreen

[JG4_Sputnik]

Small dirt and dust particles on the window (also after a long flight). The windows always looked too clean for my taste.

[OBT-Psycho]

dust flying around while pushing some negative G's would be awesome. also I would like some interaction with the oxygen mask. Seeing your pilot about to faint while on high altitude just because you forgot to put on the mask could be cool.

 

but definitely, dust!

[smink1701]

Blood splatter on glass

Smoke filling cockpit

[Ribbs]

I would love to see an effect like this... even though this wasnt part of that game.. it was done by BarFly in an editing program.

 

Fast forward to the 2:55 mark.

 

 

Hopefully im not violating any rules with the video.... its just the best example I could find.

[vyyye]

dust flying around while pushing some negative G's would be awesome. also I would like some interaction with the oxygen mask. Seeing your pilot about to faint while on high altitude just because you forgot to put on the mask could be cool.

Pretty sure they wrote in one of the dev diaries that one thing the game won't have is the pilot fainting because you "forgot to push a button". Ie it will be automated.

[steppenwolf]

352ndRibbs, those effects are nice...so is the shaky POV  How'd you add that video to the post?

[Ribbs]

i just copied and pasted the URL into the message.

[DD_Arthur]

Smoke effects inside the cockpit or an electrical fire would be an interesting edition in the future.  

[Finkeren]

If you take a look at the in-cockpit videos posted so far, you'll see the sun reflecting in small scratches in the glass shifting with the angle. It's pretty well done. Hoarfrost would be great as well, but I think that should be it for the canopy. The glass looks 'too clean' in other sims because it is supposed to be clean. Fighter canopies were rutinely cleaned by the ground crew as one of the last things before take off. You wouldn't wan't to fail to spot an enemy because you couldn't spot him between the specks and smudges on your wind screen. 

 

Besides that, I would sort of like to see some cockpit damage, but - and here's the catch - I want it to be rare! Cockpit damage should only happen as a result of small caliber guns actually hitting the cockpit itself, and it should almost always involve some degree of injury to the pilot. In other sims, where cockpit damage is present, it happens much too often and is often quite severe without any injury to the pilot (I can't imagine how they think you're gonna be able to shoot away 3 gauges on the dashboard without a single bullet hitting the pilot sitting right in front of it) I know it's a chore to make nice effects that are hardly ever gonna be used, but if that's a problem, then I'd rather have no cockpit damage at all.

 

What I would like to see happen regularly is instruments and gauges seize functioning as a result of damage. A bullet through the wing could have a chance to sever the connection to the pitot tube and suddenly the air speed indicator stops functioning, no need to crack the glass. 

 

Another feature, which can often be seen in WW2 sims, but which is always poorly done, is oil leaks resulting in oil spatter on the wind screen. First of all: This should only happen on aircraft, where it could happen, such as the Bf 109 where the oil tank is right behind the spinner. Second: The oil should look realistic - I don't know if you know this,  but motor oil is not actually black. It should be a thin film of brownish-yellow smudge that distorts colours and causes slight refractions. 

 

Smoke in the cockpit would be a nice feature, but again it should be fairly rare. Under normal circumstances fumes from the engine wouldn't be able to leak into the cockpit, and there would certainly be no airflow going through the engine directly into the cockpit.

 

All things considered, cockpit effects are nice, but they are too often overdone or over-used, and in that case I'd rather not have them at all. As long as we have historically correct cockpits with moving instruments and gauges, self shadowing, functioning mirrors and a reasonable poly count, I'll be more than satisfied.

[leitmotiv]

i would like to see gun jamming if you go over G forces they cant be fired from

[Finkeren]

i would like to see gun jamming if you go over G forces they cant be fired from

Yes please!

 

As annoying as they are gonna be, I definately hope we will see misfires and gun jams. What's more, I would like the rate of jams to be dependent on gun type and the conditions under which they're fired.

[Finkeren]

An effect to suggest fuel fumes

 

I suppose you mean exhaust fumes, which are visible in the air at high power outputs and when the engine is being run too rich.

 

These fumes are already represented with a nice effect in RoF, so I expect it to be even better in BoS.

 

BTW: One of the effects I love in RoF is the puf of smoke released at varying intervals from planes with slight engine damage. It's very subtle but can be spotted, if you know what to look for. The one particle effect I'd like them to change from RoF is the fuel leak. Granted I've never seen a real fuel leak on a plane, and if it looks that way, it should ofc be kept, but the leaks in RoF just look fake to me, this very opaque thin white stream, that make the aircraft it trails from extremely easy to spot against the ground.