Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Aces High Bug Reports => Topic started by: oboe on August 30, 2017, 02:42:21 PM
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Krusty started a thread about P-38 nacelle mirrors, and since I have a WIP P-38J skin I thought I'd check out the functioning of the cowl-mounted mirrors on the inner side of the P-38s nacelles. So I modified the spec and environment map to simulate polished chrome and this is what I found:
Basically it works, and it looks pretty cool. Panning around the outside of the aircraft, you can see reflections of either the runway surface or the horizon & sky, depending on your angle to the mirror. Especially cool when you look at the inner cowl that is in shadow, because the mirror stays well lit.
However, when you are inside the cockpit and look down at one of the mirrors, what you see reflected in the mirror is the same view you would have of the opposite nacelle from your head position. E.g., if I'm in cockpit and look forward-left-down to view the mirror, what I see in the mirror is the view I would have of the opposite nacelle (just as if I had instead looked forward-right-down). I can see in the left hand mirror the right hand canopy frame and the indicator lights and control knob just forward of the control yoke found on the left inside of the cockpit.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work to view whether the nose gear is extended, which I understand was the function of those mirrors in real life. I don't know why it doesn't work the way the mirrors work in RL?
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Is do to how the mirroring works for environment maps.
The cube/environment map 6 textures mapped to the inside of a cube.
These textures are populated on the fly by drawing with what you see from your view point. When drawing a surface like your mirror the angle of reflection is taken from your eye, then project back to the correct surface on the inside of the cube map. For almost all things this works as a close approximation and it's main purpose is to give the effect of shininess. To draw a correct mirror like the gauge glass is done, a surface must be drawn from the location of the mirror. And then that surface is project to the mirror.
HiTech
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Thanks, Hitech.
Will the new P-38 model implement the correct mirror functioning as you describe? Is that something built into the 3D model? Its a just a small detail, but might be the kind of thing that blows a game reviewer's mind - that much of a commitment to accuracy in the model...
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No, it would require 2 more world renders.
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Understood. We can make them look pretty realistic and cool with the tools we have.
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With reflections on the nacelle reflects deep inside the cockpit which is way wrong.
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With reflections on the nacelle reflects deep inside the cockpit which is way wrong.
Wrong yes, fixable, not worth the cost.
HiTech
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Wrong yes, fixable, not worth the cost.
HiTech
I understand.
Can you turn the reflections off on the plane skin and leave the reflections inside the cockpit especially on the glass surfaces?
I really enjoy the cockpit gauge glass reflections.
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Gauge reflections are not environment mapping but done as a mirror plane.
HiTech
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See rule #4
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Gauge reflections are not environment mapping but done as a mirror plane.
HiTech
Can the "mirrors" not be made to be the same as the gauges??? (insert huge amount of ignorance to programming process/procedure here).
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Can the "mirrors" not be made to be the same as the gauges??? (insert huge amount of ignorance to programming process/procedure here).
Yes but very expensive frame rate wise.
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Yes but very expensive frame rate wise.
A Juice isn't worth the squeeze, type of situation eh? Seems legit. :salute