Pondering a thought out loud; Personal Pilot and/or Passengers

[OleBoy]

Something I've always wanted to see in pilots and passengers of aircraft, all aircraft! are just, well, random movements in general. Movements that don't appear to be a timed, repetitious nature. Something like this adapted in FSX (or any simulator) would add so much more realism.

I know what I'm thinking, would be a huge accomplishment. Not to mention, a huge amount of work to make it happen. But couldn't the figures be an added model that could be keyed to all aircraft in the sim? So maybe we virtual pilots had the ability to use (a visual me) the same pilot for any aircraft we choose to fly?

To add, if this was something that was ever done, a paintkit would be of great benefit to more personalize us and our passengers.

If my idea goes anywhere, I'd appreciate a free model of it! :icon_lol:

[delta_lima]

Something I've always wanted to see in pilots and passengers of aircraft, all aircraft! are just, well, random movements in general. Movements that don't appear to be a timed, repetitious nature. Something like this adapted in FSX (or any simulator) would add so much more realism.

I know what I'm thinking, would be a huge accomplishment. Not to mention, a huge amount of work to make it happen. But couldn't the figures be an added model that could be keyed to all aircraft in the sim? So maybe we virtual pilots had the ability to use (a visual me) the same pilot for any aircraft we choose to fly?

To add, if this was something that was ever done, a paintkit would be of great benefit to more personalize us and our passengers.

If my idea goes anywhere, I'd appreciate a free model of it! :icon_lol:

On your first point, some aircraft have this - pilot will move his head in a "random" manner (likely cycled over time). I've never placed great stock in this, so I'm struggling to recall which it is. If memory serves, the Realair Spitfire does this. I'm sure there are others.

On your second point, I don't see that possible unless MS had made it a part of the architecture, and/or SDK. It would have to be a component separate from each model, that would go into each model. Which obviously means stock and addons would have to be modelled "pilotless" - to accomodate the user's universal "body". Furthermore, the function would be limited to GA, airliners, and light/sport aircraft, where pilots aren't wearing masks. On military models, it would be a moot point.

In the current software architecture of FSX, I think the best you could hope for is for addon devs to make it easy (using some kind of scan/resize utility) to take a headon face shot you provide in jpg/bmp to be converted into the right texture size for the mapped face texture. Again, something that a only a particular aircraft segment would even utilise this theoretically.

I commented on this way back in the FS9 forums years ago, when some Mustang repaints were being done in Tuskeegee Airmen paints - wondering if there mightn't be some black simmers who might have enjoyed the repaints more if the pilot faces had been textured accordingly. No one ever commented, so I inferred that it's not a big deal. For my part, I couldn't care less if the pilot on a particular addon was modded as white, black, asian, or whatever combination thereof.

To the extent that self-expression comes into my FS world, I put the attention on how I

1) communicate effectively to fellow simmers, and
2) can develop flying skills, knowledge, and understanding

My identity is not tied up in coloured pixels. Just MHO.

dl

[OleBoy]

Thanks for the response, DL. I honestly don't care what the pilot actually looks like. As far as, I am a male, so that's about as far as I go for any real preference. In all actuality I don't even care if I have a visible pilot. I was just thinking that something like I mention might be a possibility. But then again, I guess it would have to be coded into the simulator in general so it would work the way I'm thinking.

You have to admit (I guess you did already, some what), it would be an intriguing feature to have. Maybe someone is working on the idea for MS Flight. Who knows. If so, what an added experience to have.

I hope more members here respond. I'd like to hear more thoughts on the subject.

[mfitch]

This sounds vaguely like what was in works for MS Train Simulator before it was canned. I have a couple Orbx airports with People Flow. It is nifty to see action the first few times. However, the lack of change (repeated routes currently) eventually causes me to lose interest. Putting action inside the plane would be at least as interesting.

As to interchangeable pilots or other characters, I could see having fun with this briefly then not caring, because I rarely see them. The curious example would be Heidi from A2A's cub. My wife sometimes asks me with a grin why I fly with another woman. My real wish with this is to move Heidi to the back seat where she would sit in reality when two are in a cub.