TIE Fighter visibility and head tracking

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TIE Fighter visibility and head tracking

Darkblue
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Post by Darkblue » Tue Nov 16, 2021 9:38 am

Hello

I was doing a skirmmish with a TIE Fighter, and I realized that, although the cockpit has improved A LOT and now it is really nice, something was missing. I felt that I should see the front part of the wings, specially when using head tracking and leaning forward somewhat. So I did some quick check:

TF_Visibility_TOP.jpg
TF_Visibility_SIDE.jpg

I got an existing blueprint (it seems roughly ok) and I have drawn the visibility cones over it. The red lines are the wings (I took its size from the side view at right), the yellow cone shows the FOV in case the head of the pilot is centered in the cockpit, in that case we see that the pilot should not see the wings, but if he leans a bit forward he should see the front part of them (see blue lines and shaded zone at right).

AFAIK no part of the wings is modelled in the current cockpit opt. I think it would be better (more "real") to be able to see part of the wings when moving the head around. TIE Interceptor is ok. But when dogfighting, the head is moving quite a lot to follow targets and checking around, even leaning forward. If using TrackIR or VR, seeing the tip of the wings in a TIE fighter would add a lot and I don't think it would limit effectively the visibility of the craft (personqlly I prefer to play a bit closer to the front window than from the default pilot position).

I think it would be interesting to add it.

PS Lengths in drawing are not real, only to be considered as relative.
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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:43 pm

This would be for @DTM to comment on.
There's a fine line though from reality and fun gaming. We tended to keep things similar to how they were originally and going back to the older TIE Fighter game too.
If everything was totally be real then it may not be as fun to be play
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Darkblue
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Post by Darkblue » Tue Nov 16, 2021 2:47 pm

Yep, that's good approach I share too. I just saw that it could be nicer and at the same time, imo, without changing or difficulting gaming. Of course at the end it is personal. As you say, its a balance, and after all Star Wars is fantasy, maybe not very real, but very fun :).

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Tue Nov 16, 2021 4:07 pm

I can see this making sense for VR players, it would add to the immersion while not really making the game harder. (Since having VR and being able to look around so freely already makes it a bit easier) But yeah, this is up to DTM.
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