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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Who wants a pilot / copilot in the VC ?

Pilot / Copilot in VC

  • Yes

    Votes: 54 45.4%

  • No

    Votes: 65 54.6%
  • Total voters
    119
  • Poll closed .
roger-wilco-66

roger-wilco-66

Administrator
Staff member
I wonder how fellow flight simmers feel about that.
Sometimes I think that these cockpits, expecially in twin seat environments, look too empty. I even wouldn't mind to see legs, body and arms of "my" virtual pilot in the VC, maybe removable via a mapped key. In a twin cockpit with a copilot, it could also be used for basic crew interaction like in the A2A B-17.
I'm aware that a well modeled co-pilot and/or pilot would probably cause a forbidding frame rate hit that a developer would avoid, but nevertheless it would be interesting how the community feels about it.

Cheers,
Mark
 
yes, but only if they look good and it needent cause a forbidding frame rate hit if done properly and your not useing the cheap "high detail 5740982749687209457 million polys model!" when 65,000 would have done fine :monkies: :engel016:
 
Aerosoft's Aerolite Ul, Ant's Moth and Drifter and Restauravia's Nord and Fouga show up good animations. I also prefer to see more than a blank cockpit.

Mike
 
I guess I will go against the prevailing trend and say I am a loner so no. Though I like to see occupants when viewed from o/s, but inside no not really. Although The Avro Anson by Dave Garwood (I think) was OK as was the old DH Dragon Rapide ( I hope I got the author right ). Now the more I think on it, as long as it is well done its OK otherwise no, ....... unless .... oh now I'm totally confused.. lol
:icon_lol:
 
I guess I will go against the prevailing trend and say I am a loner so no. Though I like to see occupants when viewed from o/s, but inside no not really.
Click to expand...

Fully agree. For me seeing virtual humans in the vc breaks the spell and spoils the immersion of interacting with the machinery. It's a bit self centered. I like to see at least silouette humans from the outside view but too often detailed human faces look very cartoonish next to comparatively amazing rendering of exterior and interior objects and scenery in FS.
 
With the SkyUnlimited AT-6 and Harvard I modeled both the pilot and the guy in the back seat in both exterior and interior views in both FS9 and FSX versions. Included was a system of visibility buttons that would allow the user to turn figures on or off as they desired. I even included blinking eyes. There was no noticeable frame rate hit when the figures were on. The response from our customers was a big yawn.

I noticed that when the user point of view was surrounded by arms and legs, especially in the back seat position, a lot of the instruments and switches in the lower part of the cockpit got covered up.

The hardest part from a modeler's point of view was getting the right arm of the pilot to move in sync with the joystick, something that I notice a lot of developers just leave out all together.
 
I voted no. Not sure why I don't like co-pilots in the VC. I think it's because I like to look at the VC and the co-pilot gets in the way :)
 
I like the passengers in Ant's Technam Sierra and the A2A Cub (the silent Heidi, though). It's good fun flying the Cub with a passenger in the front seat and a very restricted view of the instruments.

Pilot body parts I can do without.
 
An occupant of the seat you are not sitting in, would be nice. To have the seat you are occupying full of arms and legs, gets annoying when trying to find buttons and switches on the panel. As a real pilot you would just move your protruding parts out of the way to see something. The AI blob just sits there being annoying, always seeming to be in the way of something you want to see.

Outside view should always have at least a pilot. It is disconcerting to see a plane flying without anyone in the cockpit :O

Dave
 
I like when there's an option. Iris, for example, lets you select the visibility of the co-pilot or passengers based on the weight in the loadout. If you want some company, put some in. If you want some solitude, take them out. Options are always nicer and hit a wider audience.
 
While halfway convincing co-pilots would surely be possible in VC model, they're basically just another 329839843 hours that have to be invested into a model.

So that's a clear "no".
 
Planes that have copilots should have them virtually as well. Bill Lyons had great animated copilots and passengers, even a dog that covered his eyes when things went wrong. These add much to the realism of the plane.
 
I still have nightmares of those ghoulish mummy-like co-pilots of certain FS9 planes (can't recall which).

At best, in the case of a tandem-cockpit set up where the student's head can be seen (as in Ant's Tiger Moth), I'm ok with that. Until the sim gets to the point where the organic rendering can be as good as the mechanical, then no. An otherwise perfect pit will be impoverished, rather than improved, by the presence of a pilot/passenger that is not as realistically rendered as the cockpit they're sitting in.

For the pilot, I loathe seeing "own" arms, hands and legs. Completely takes away from the immersion.

dl
 
I would like copilots and pilot body as well, but only if there's an option to temporarly remove any obstacle preventing the access to buttons/gauges.
In the freeware Mystere, you can click on the left arm so that the pilot removes his hand from the throttle, to give full access to the various fuel+light switches if I remember correctly. This is cool.
 
virtual crewmembers

Yes I wish We had them, as long as they are modeled well, and if they can move even better. Nothing worse in My opinion than a multicrewed aircraft with empty seats, especially now with the beautifuly rendered aircraft/cockpits we have. I'd be more than willing to pay the extra cost this would no doubt entail.
 
I would like them, but in the same graphic quality as the pilot. However based on my current experience I don't think it is possible to a co-pilot/passenger in this quality without an huge impact on frame rates.

Huub
 
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