Aircraft holographic HUD: potential solution

[b00ce 160]

While flying around in an A-10, I had a brilliant epiphany. Instead of making the HUD display close to the player, where it gets inaccurate when doing maneuvers, turning your head, etc., make the HUD bigger and further away, outside the cockpit a ways, and slightly larger to account for the change. This will emulate the effect that real holographic HUDs give and mitigate, or even solve that annoying bug where the HUD is terribly inaccurate. Just like in real life it's not going to be spot on, but it's going to be better than it is now.

For those who aren't familiar with how LODS work, you wouldn't see this from outside the aircraft, and it wouldn't have any issues with collisions because only the pilot will be able to see it. If you run into something nose first you may have an issue with seeing it, but it's going to be the least of your worries if your airplane is nose to nose with a structure. ;)

(I don't know if it's going to behave like the "pilot" LOD for a human or not, if it does then there won't be an issue and you'll see it no matter what.)

I know these can be turned off (EX when the engine is off), so for helicopters with HUDs that can be moved out of the way, such as a UH-1Y or any Mi-17 or Mi-8 with rockets, the HUD way out yonder can be switched off while the HUD moves, so the player doesn't see a floating cross in space.

Is this even possible? I know the HUDs are scripted, but they seem to be placed on a plane in 3D space, so it would stand to reason that wouldn't matter if it's 10 inches or 10 feet from your face. Forgive me for my ignorance. :o

I wish my dropship was in game and ready for flying to test this hypothesis and get back to you guys with some concrete feedback on the viability of the idea, but sadly it isn't anywhere close. :(

Hopefully someone can take this idea and run with it, I'd love to see this implemented.

[[frl]myke 15]

Although i like the idea very much, i think the game engine will not allow this or at least not the way you might think of.

I know i'm horrible at drawings but take a look at this:

The upper drawing representing a rough scheme how HUD's work in reality (yeah, beat me for inaccuracy). The Virtual Display position is where the HUD appears to be from the pilots POV. So in the MLOD, the HUD definition points have to be positioned there aswell.

Now take a look at the lower drawing. This is what happens when the pilots head is moving (g-force simulations, introduced with patcg 1.54 i guess). The Display seems to appear partially outside of the modelled HUD display.

And another problem that arises (and very few know of): Draw elements gets obstucted by model structures while text will shine through. It doesn't matter if the model structure is supposed to be transparent like glass. So a HUD behind a modelled HUD display wont work as you could only see text and numbers but no drawed lines (crosshair as example).

It would be cool if BIS could implement some sort offset factor so the HUD memory points could remain in front of any structures but when it comes to HUD movement due to pilot head moving, the offset factor describes how much behind the real position the HUD image is supposed to be.

[b00ce 160]

I understand the basic principle of how the HUDs work in real life, hence the suggestion. :p

Myke;1782494']

Now take a look at the lower drawing. This is what happens when the pilots head is moving (g-force simulations' date=' introduced with patcg 1.54 i guess). The Display seems to appear partially outside of the modelled HUD display.[/quote']

In my time flying since the addition of the G-force movment and looking around in the cockpit, I have never moved far enough (Or at least thought I didn't think I did) to see around the glass, let alone the actual support for it. ;)

(And frankly, if I did I'd be more thankful for being able to be somewhat on target than notice the fact that I could see HUD a cm past the glass)

And another problem that arises (and very few know of): Draw elements gets obstucted by model structures while text will shine through. It doesn't matter if the model structure is supposed to be transparent like glass. So a HUD behind a modelled HUD display wont work as you could only see text and numbers but no drawed lines (crosshair as example).

What I was saying is move that text forward and the glass that the HUD is normally on is empty. And that effect of appearing on top of anything is going to help us overcome the cockpit glass mucking up our works. Unless you mean that the HUD will shine through solid elements, which could be problematic. However, for the exterior supports (IE A-10) this could be a blessing in disguise because those COULD "move" far enough to obscure the HUD if enough Gees were pulled. And I think the HUD support itself should be safe because it's close enough to the screen. Again, I could be completely off base in my thought process. (I'm not down deep enough in the rabbit hole that is ArmA modding yet to know the intricate details... :rolleyes: )

Perhaps you could run a quick proof of concept with an F-16 and see how that goes. :D

[[frl]myke 15]

In fact i had the issue once where the upper part of the HUD draw (config) was behind the HUD glass (model) and the lower part was in front of, pilots POV as reference. While all text (compass heading numbers, altitude numbers and some others) were drawn perfectly, anything else (compass scale, altitude scale, speed scale) just dissapeared where the HUD crossed the glass. So below that line everything was fine and above only text/numbers were visible.

So as i understand your suggestion, you would like to set the HUD memory points (which define where it is drawn) completely behind the modelled HUD glass. This would make all drawings invisible.

So as said, a workaround would be that the drawing itself still happens in front of the HUD glass but the movement of the HUD elements gets some sort of Offset which defines where the angle for the movement calculations should be. This would result in the behaviour as you described it and would be pretty easy to implement, i guess.

[b00ce 160]

Couldn't we just... you know... get rid of the glass? :cheesy:

[[frl]myke 15]

Couldn't we just... you know... get rid of the glass? :cheesy:

Hmmm..possibly yes. Although i have to admit that a missing glass (believe me, you will note it that it's missing) would bother me more than the actual inaccuracy. But this is my very own opinion. However, depending on the plane and the planned HUD position, you might even end up outside of the cabine glass and just removing this would IMHO drastically reduce immersion.

Don't get me wrong, i'm with you on this, only pointing to problems that the game engine might have with it. The HUD implementation is..uhm, let's say pretty simple.

[b00ce 160]

So would the player's head move more as a result of this? or is it just excessive gees because the plane is super maneuverable? And in the F-16 that you picked up, the glass is near invisible, I can barely tell it's there in places, so I don't think it'll make a difference.