Technique for simulating a collimated HUD: can it be made public?

[dswo]

This question comes out of the Razbam A-7 thread. See http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=41219&p=470934&viewfull=1#post470934 for a description of the situation, followed by comments and suggestions.

To my knowledge, there are at least six products now with collimated HUDs or gunsights. Is the technique for this licensed from someone? If it is, there's nothing more to say. But if it's not, is there someone who would be willing to describe the basic elements? Obviously, this would help Razbam with their next product, but it might help freeware modelers too.

In case anyone's wondering, I'm not a developer or a modeler of anything. I'm not connected with Razbam either, except in the ordinary way of liking their A-7.

[Bjoern]

Well Lotus' landing light technique got public due to Bill Leaming's involvement in a "How the heck were they done?" thread over at FFDS. As everyone who does at least a bit of FSX aircraft/scenery modeling knows, Bill L is one of the, if not *the* saviour for devs stuck in the "This doesn't work!!!!!" corner.
So due the presence of N4gix in aforementioned thread Jon Blum of VRS, at that time one of two devs actively using and incorporating the landing light splash technique, posted a how-to in that thread as kind of a "thank you" for Bill's ever so helpful tips and solutions. And just like that the FS world got access to a great feature.

Long story short, if you want to know how a certain cool feature got into FSX, talk about it and wait for Mr Leaming to join the discussion. Chances are that the developer will chime in with a "how to". :icon_lol:



(I'm not a 100% serious, but this is what half a beer, a cold, medicine and tiredness does to ones brain. :d)



(At the moment, Empeck's Orlik and my Do328 are the only active freeware projects using Lotus'/VRS' landing light system, by the way. So yes, the "how to" helped freeware.

And, as usual when mentioning the lights, a big thank you to Jon Blum and Mike for their willingness to share the technique...and to Bill L. of course without whom I would have spent even more time trail-and-erroring my way towards moving light splashes!)

[Chuck_Jodry-VJPL]

The collimated HUD and Gun sight has been shared by me with Ron through Colin as i recall , i also sent the 3Ds files to Mathias and a few others , it’s not a trade secret or anything , i have put it in a few aircraft as well , even went so far as to have the horizon indicator actually follow the horizon , so far most folks don’t seem to care if it is collimated.
I have any number of thank you’s in the read me files but i admit that i don’t publish stuff as often anymore , too busy , and to some extent it’s because the methods become proprietary with the many companies i have worked with and have shared files with . <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

[krazycolin]

As an example, the FSD/Milviz YF-23 has a collimated HUD. No one cared. Even though it is very pretty it certainly didn't help sales. Such a purty plane too... :(

[skyblazer3]

Collimated HUDs definitely matter to me. They make landing almost idiot-proof -- which is important when I'm flying. Seriously though, it is a great feature and if developers can include it, then I hope they would.

Chris

[djscoo]

I don't get the whole collimated HUD thing. I grasp the concept in an actual aircraft, but I don't understand how the effect would transfer to a flat computer monitor where the entire field of view is in focus.

[PRB]

I don't get the whole collimated HUD thing. I grasp the concept in an actual aircraft, but I don't understand how the effect would transfer to a flat computer monitor where the entire field of view is in focus.

There are two big advantages to this "focused to infinity" business. One is, as you suggested, that it's focused to infinity, and you don't have to keep bringing your focus into and out of the cockpit every few seconds. That's big, because changing your focus from the cockpit to the outside does take some amount of time. This advantage is obviously not "simulated" in FS, since everything is on one flat plane.

But, the other thing focused to infinity gets you is no parallax error. If you're using a flight path marker (velocity vector) to help you land, which is one of the things they're used for IRL, it stays put, focused on the outside world, regardless of how you move your head (eye-point, if using Track IR). If you're not using Track IR, a "collimated" HUD may be of little use, since the eye-point will not change much, if at all. It really gets useful when using something like Track IR. If the Flight Path Marker is "telling" you where you're going, moving your head from side to side, and it stays in the same place. Magic! And very cool, too.

[orionll]

Here are three posts from Virtuali at FSDreamTeam that I recall:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=155.msg887#msg887
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=3093.msg26150#msg26150
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=381.msg26332#msg26332

[skyblazer3]

Paul's answer is dead on.

With a collimated HUD you can put your flight path marker onto a spot on the ground, and you will fly right into that spot. It is wonderful for landings when you combine it with an AOA gauge -- a grease job on the numbers every time.

Without the collimated HUD, the flight path marker becomes only a fancy vertical velocity indicator. This is what you get on the HUD from the default F-18.

If you want to see the difference, go fly some touch and gos in the default F-18, then try some in either the IRIS F-14, the Aerosoft or IRIS F-16, or Dino's F-35 -- the collimated HUD will speak for itself.

Are there any free-ware aircraft with collimated huds?

Chris

[Stickshaker]

Colin, you say a collimated HUD didn’t help YF-23 sales. Well, I will definitely not buy any plane with a HUD that is not collimated. That is the curse of progress I suppose; the better planes become the more features are needed not to make people buy the plane, but to avoid them not buying it. Who would presently buy a plane with no VC or without differential brakes? A collimated HUD is not a feature you use only in specific situations, as is the case with, for example, droppable bombs. A HUD is there all the time when you fly. I never use things like advanced radar modes when I fly, but flying an YF-23 without collimated HUD would just kill immersion.

[krazycolin]

Everyone has different things that are important to them. Some like HUD's, some like droppable stuff, others still like full on immersion for systems a la accusim. Everyone is different.

All I am saying is that the YF-23 had the collimation and other things and that didn't help sales at all.

[Chuck_Jodry-VJPL]

A quirky feature i threw in that plane for fun was the ejection seat , it works... and once you pulled the levers in series the sound of being blown out of the cockpit plays, the pilot and seat are ejected and your eye point is automatically shifted outside to watch the plane spiral into the ground out of commission.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The play is the thing , the YF23 is a really sharp airplane and was chosen first among Colin’s Roster because i liked it, that was reason enough to do the project , it turned out to be really popular on the torrent sites with one alone counting 17000 downloads !

As regards sharing the file Hud file , i will see what can be done to add the components to a library.

[krazycolin]

GAH!!!!!

[sparouty]

As regards sharing the file Hud file , i will see what can be done to add the components to a library.

Hi!
Thanks a lot for taking into consideration our modeling "concern"!
I really appreciate!
:ernae:
Regards,
Sylvain

[blazefox2]

The play is the thing , the YF23 is a really sharp airplane and was chosen first among Colin’s Roster because i liked it, that was reason enough to do the project , it turned out to be really popular on the torrent sites with one alone counting 17000 downloads !

holy friggen cow!!! 17000 x $26.95 = $458,150!!!

almost half a million dollars that could've gone to the production of more planes!!!

[krazycolin]

you laugh but it's no laughing matter. It's literally KILLING the biz. It costs a huge amount of money and when people just use the torrents cause its cheaper, faster, easier and free....

[Stickshaker]

As regards sharing the file Hud file , i will see what can be done to add the components to a library.


A fine gesture, Chuck! Thanks!

[n4gix]

holy friggen cow!!! 17000 x $26.95 = $458,150!!!

almost half a million dollars that could've gone to the production of more planes!!!

Consider that the vast majority of those folks wouldn't have paid for it anyway, but...

...many of those same individuals willingly pay some small monthly fee to a website for the privilege of downloading cracked commercial products!

That's what's really the most galling to me, the "freeloaders" aren't the problem, it's the b*tards who crack things to begin with, and the ones who run the websites and/or servers who profit from their modest "monthly fees."