Hello friends! I hope you've all been well.

As I mentioned in the Hopeless Shard post, there was alot I wanted to do with the cockpit that I just couldn't because of hardware limitations, and I want to go more in depth here for anyone curious. This was supposed to be my 'Magnum Opus' after all.

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Firstly, we'll start with the screens in the cockpit themselves.

In detail, the screens were labels that were static by design, but with lore implications in mind, this originally was based on the COFFIN system featured in Ace Combat
Specifically, the system was called the 'Cerebro-Plexial Connection For Flight Interface System' and the idea with it was pilots would lie down in the seat, strapped in, and theyre helmets would be carefully placed on theyre head, and copper diodes inserted into the brain so the aircraft could Interface with them, and the pilots could control the plane with their mind, moving alerons, elevons, rudders, bomb bays and even landing gear would feel like tensing muscles...

The side monitors were primarily displays for crew outside of the aircraft doing pre/post flight analysis. On the far right, is the 'Real-Time Synapse Visualization', this would measure brain activity in the pilot connected to it, so crew can see how the pilots are thinking in the cockpit at that instance in time.

This is the Original version, created in Ibis Paint, all of these were made in the same app. For the sake of creative liberties, please ask me if you want to use these before you download them.

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In the center was the main MFD this was for both pilots and crew, and basically serves the same purpose as the MFD in the F-35C would. With some interesting mentions. From left to right, the first set of screens would feature an AT/FLIR and other Exterior focused systems the top would have a lock and master warn icon, on the bottom would be a G-Force visualization and Engine/battery/APU control.

The 2nd screen has crucial info (think like the 'six pack' seen on more analog aircraft), showing Engine RPM, Throttle, Fuel, Landing Gear Indicators, Flaps, APU power output(static) and Backup Generator Status. At the top would be a Lock Indicator.

The 3rd screen acts as a diagnostic panel and Armament indicator, note the outline is more akin to a B-1B lancer as opposed to is final appearance, this is because the images were made prior to the drastic changes in design. At the top were stating indicators, indicating the volume of a Nitrous tank, and a Morphine tank. The No2 is used at the beginning of the flight as the plane rolls up to the Runway, to relax the pilots and get them to fall asleep so their minds can fully integrate with the CBP-COFFIN system, and the Morpheine would help to relax and keep pilots numb so they can operate the aircraft without any distractions. At the bottom displayed Armament, this would've been static, but ideally, it would count down as weapons were being used.

On the fourth and final screen would be a radar in the main panel, as well as another lock and master warn icon, and also a Master Arm icon. At the bottom would be a radiation monitor, visualizing ambient radiation in the cockpit, caused by the radar. Next to it likely would've been another G-Force indicator.

Note how all of these are outlined with orange. Multiple studies prove that orange light, soothes and helps people fall asleep sooner than blue light, which has the noticeably opposite effect. How neat!

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The last one is prolly my fav, even if its only static, and serves no function other than to look cool.

On the exterior of the screen is a blinking light, this light would inform the crew and pilots that the generator was on, and data was being received. The data in question is a vital sign monitor, like an EKG, however it also has a nervous system monitor on the far left. This monitors core nervous system signals, as well as indicates what substances have been pumped into the body as well as the Condition and Damage to the nervous system. Notice the adrenaline (ADR) stat present here as opposed to the center screen, as well as a 'latency' stat above the whole panel.

The center monitors the heart and also features a system menu seen on most EKG's.

The far right panel on thw monitor is info ripped straight from an image of an EKG screen I borrowed from the internet, so I can't really say much, idk what that stuff means lol.

More info on the seating arrangement

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The odd design of the seats is primarily based on COFFIN Cockpits seen on aircraft like the X-49 and R-103 from Ace Combat 3, with a design that requires the pilot to lay back in the seat. The primary focus on these seats is comfort, so pads on the leg of the seats have been added for pilots to rest their legs on. In real life, these pads would also have straps to tighten the leg down onto.

Notice how there are no arm pads, in hindsight, I could've added some to increase the overall comfort of the design, I just didnt consider it at the time.

Now for the big topic...

The canopy

Oh the canopy...
There is so much I wanted to do with it that I just couldn't, because I dont know anything about animating labels. ;(
What i wouldn't gove for someone to do this for me lol.

What I wanted to do was have an animated canopy that "turned off" with deactivating activation group 8, which truns off all systems and opens the canopy, remnants of that still remain, as the screens have labels that fade to black and go transparent when AG8 is off/on respectively.

Like I mentioned on the post, the exact effect I really wanted for it is on a craft made by ASBE

I love how it flashes the CMY (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) color palette before going transparent, and the stuff that clears out as I imagine the resolution on the screen finishes calibrating, it just looks so cool...

Unless something like that is possible or easy in Simple Planes 2, I... do if I can remake it when the came finally comes out, IF it comes out on mobile when 2027 rolls around.

Other Miscellaneous Stuff

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I had the idea circulating in my head after I had finished the cockpit that it should have an analog six-pack on the stem below the central MFD, so the Captain should still be able to know where the plane is going during an electrical failure, as well as a canopy Jettison, cause in the case of electrical failure, the screens in the canopy will die. The backup generator is only to stabilize the tanks necessary for keeping the pilots asleep, and in the event of an electrical emergency, the system will use the adrenaline store to wake up the pilots so they can see where their going.

I was originally going to put the Armaments seen on the center MFD in the bomb bays, but I wanted to keep the part count as low as I could, and multi-part weapons wouldn't help that.

When I actually put the railgun on the plane, I didnt like how it looked at all, the angular shape didnt fit the style I wanted to achieve. But I decided I wanted to move on from the project before I could change the design.

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If you made it to the end, I just wanna say thank you, Im happy you stopped by for a little short read, and I hope you enjoy the Hopeless Shard project should you be able to fly it!

Regards,