Differing Points of View

[Ivan]

Hello All.

I have been building 3D Models for Combat Flight Simulator for many years.
Only recently however have I been adding fairly simple Virtual Cockpit Pieces to hide bleeds and show the interior of the Canopy Frame.

In adding the Interior Canopy Frame, I came across an interesting situation:
I started by taking the exterior Canopy Frame and just flipping the orientation of the Polygons within SCASM so that they face inward rather than outward.
After a few tries, from a technical standpoint, I had a solution.
The problem was that in appearance, nothing quite looked right.
All the Canopy Frame bars seemed MUCH TOO WIDE; They were blocking too much of the view from inside the Cockpit.
The width of the Canopy pieces had not changed. I could verify that by comparing with the exterior model and yet they looked way too wide.

My solution was to take the vertical pieces and narrow them down by around 50% which corrected the appearance in both the A6M Type Zero and the P-40s.

This begs the question as to WHY this change is necessary.

Another interesting phenomenon in real life is that typically visibility from the Cockpit is said to be improved when the rear fuselage of a fighter is cut down and a Bubble Canopy is fitted.....
Even though a sheet of armour plate is often added behind the pilot.

In playing with the P-38 Lightning model and in comparison with the P-47D, and P-51D, one can see that this armour plate is fairly substantial and at least in our flight simulator models, blocks about as much rearward visibility as a high fuselage deck would.
So.... Again, WHY is there a perceived difference in the real aircraft?

???????

My belief is that it is because our virtual pilots are one eyed and real pilots typically have two eyes.
With two eyes, the slightly "Differing Points of View" mean that if the obstruction is narrow enough, what obstructs one eye may still allow vision from the other and the pilot's brain does not perceive it as an obstruction.

I believe that with armour plate versus a fuselage deck, the difference in perception is because unlike our virtual pilots, a human pilot can shift his / her head to look around a sheet of armour but shifting the head would not help much with a rear fuselage that extends quite a ways back.

Your Thoughts?

Next Question:
What is the best way to handle this in Combat Flight Simulator?

- Ivan.

[Allen]

When it comes to the 47d and 51d the pilot can lean over to get a better view than we get in the game.

[Ivan]

Hi Allen,

That was the point I was trying to make.
Since we know that was the reality and this factor may make a tactical difference, how do we reflect this in the game?

- Ivan.

[Allen]

Dose CFS1 support Fixed Windows? I don't think it dose saddly.

[Ivan]

I think you are referring to the extra windows that are brought up with the bracket keys.
Yes, those give you another window, but the problem is that the armour plate still blocks the view and probably more so than a rear fuselage deck.
The biggest issue from the standpoint of viewing angles is that the armour plate is closer and therefore obstructs more angle in each direction.

With the P-38 almost everything needs to be re-drawn for the Interior View anyway, so I may just put in a smaller piece of Cockpit Armour or none at all.
I am still working out ideas on what would be optimal.

This opens a moderate sized can of worms as to what is correct and what is not, but as designers, we do this all the time anyway.

- Ivan.

[UncleTgt]

Hi Ivan,

THe fixed windows in CFS2 can be offset from the default point of view (x,y,z) & viewing angle. So you can create a fixed view that mimicks looking back over your shoulder. I think this is what Allen was referring to. You could create back - left & back - right views, & each would look to the rear from either side of the armour panel.

The downside is it's still a fixed view, no panning around whilst you're in the fixed view window.

[Ivan]

Thanks for the explanation, UncleTgt,

I can't say that I have ever tried that before even in CFS2 or CFS3.
I would miss the panning function though.

- Ivan.

[Ivan]

Although this is not a V-Cockpit screenshot, the canopy frame in the background image was generated from a V-Cockpit screenshot and illustrates what I believe was a 50% narrowing of pieces to look right.

- Ivan.

[Allen]

UncleTgt is right in what I was taking about. I almost 100% sure that fixed windows where added in FS2000.

[Ivan]

Hello Allen, UncleTgt,

In any case, the fixed windows don't really address the problem which I see as a tactical limitation.
The cut down rear fuselage and bubble canopies were added to allow better visibility and the aircraft designers were willing to pay for the added airframe drag to have a better rearward view.

At best, the fixed window would only be simulating a rear view mirror which was often installed in razorback style aircraft.
So.... What is the best and least painful way to allow for a better rearward view?

The principle here is to reflect the tactical advantage where there should be one and not create the advantage where there should not be one.

- Ivan.

[papingo]

I feel that using >>abort coz I can't see my typing dark grey ondark greeny gray >>papingo

[papingo]

In order to always see your opponent
consider a small padlock view in bottom
left hand corner
It is set up thus....
initial conditions....1) quick combat/one opponent/
neutral situation/your plane Ivans A2M6 reisen
now pay attention ---with fuel reduced to 45 percent
(zeros had a large range thus carried a very large
amount of fuel! )
now padlock setup...
on start of combat when opponent is first seen PRESS
PAUSE
then press bracket key right of 'P' a
smaller window is made in top right corner of screen
now shrink it to maybe 5x5 cms. square.
Next drag it to bottom left corner
Now press plus key(small window should zoom)
Now press padlock key
now move cursor onto main (hud )screen and click
thus giving focus
so now you can see you opponent most of the time
and which way he is manouvering in the little box
well it is better than just following the green target
pointing cone!
when you shoot him down you will have to click on
padlock view box and see next target!

any reasonable question answered

>>papingo