Fixed realisitc looking cockpit is good but ideally for a flight sim to help create realism and more feel. Is to have a Virtual Cockpit that allows full panning around with something like Track IR especially with the new 6 DOF. I'd sacrafice realistic cockpits for generic ones that have this in a combat sim as it really adds to the effect,feel of flying.
Unfortunetly these come at a price as far as computer power to run but with later graphcis cards can run VC's like this with high detail quite easily. In FS9 if I'm flying VFR I do it all out of the VC as it's more realistic bouncing around while looking for landmarks to navigate with rather then the fixed view. Unfortunetly if your going to relly on CPU power to do this it probably isn't ever going to happen.
FS9 with Active Camera has a neat head latency effect for VC's which adds alot to the feeling of being in the cockpit rather then sitting in front of a computer screen. In addition to all this, Active Camera uses something called "Head Latency". This means that your virtual head won't always look at a fixed point, even when the mouse is at rest. Instead, as in real life, it will lag behind the movement of the plane in turns. It also shows in ground and air turbulence, and in the pre-stall buffet, as it gives the appearance of the cockpit shaking around you.
This and Track IR to pan around with imho is the best at the moment as far as cockpits espcially for a sim where your trying to tack the bad guys. Unfortunetly with the price of Track IR and the PC to run it puts it in the higher end of the scale for now.
...-Gixer
