MSFS20 Pilot figures

[DaveWG]

Hi all,
I notice that all the default aircraft don't have a pilot / copilot figure as part of the model, but that they seem to be a separate simobject attached at runtime, and is changeable in the sim. Does anyone know how these are attached to an aircraft? Is there an attachpoint defined in the model source somewhere? I can't find anything in the sdk docs. There may be a clue in the sample DA62 model, but as that's a Max file and I'm working in Blender, I can't open it.

 

[Vitus]

Add an empty/dummy and call it PILOT_0 for the pilot, PILOT_1 for the Copilot. Check the aircraft.cfg file for the pilot entries:

[PILOT]
pilot="Pilot_Male_Casual"
copilot=""
instructor=""
pilot_default_animation="","","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
pilot_attach_node="PILOT_0"

 

[DaveWG]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

 

[DaveWG]

Worked perfectly, thankyou.

 

[=Hollywood=]

Oh hey this may mean we could eventually have ourselves scanned in 3D and add our avatar to the sim.

 

[Vitus]

Yes. You add your own models for pilots. It's a type of simObject. Although I haven't seen my own pilot pop up in the selection menu yet, not sure how to get that extended.
One issue is that the hand/feet animations are not implemented yet. They're all in a boring idle pose. For my aircraft, the feet of the default pilot are stuck in the firewall..

 

[=Hollywood=]

It’s funny how much of the stuff I put in the DTG FSW game design docs have made their way into MSFS. All the stuff DTG ignored Asobo took on board. They’ve built virtually everything into the sim. It is clueing me in on a few things that happened in the background.

 

[wallydog69]

The pilot shows up in my internal and external model when I try this for some reason. Its a cool feature but I can't seem to get it to work as intended. In internal view I'm sitting inside the pilot figure. Any help is greatly appreciated. Also has anyone been able to add in their own pilot figure modeled?

 

[DaveWG]

Don't include the dummy in the internal model.

 

[wallydog69]

yes i tried that ....the node is only in the external model. I might not be understanding the new internal and external models work as much of the external model shows up when not created for the internal model... This seemed a departure from how things were done previously so if anyone can shed a light.. that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wallydog69]

Figured out the issue within the model. cfg.

 

[Vigomat]

Hallo guys, is there any chance to change pilots pose? Move hands or legs?
Thank you
Jan

 

[superspud]

Same question as above.

Once upon a time the simobject pilots were available in a sitting position so you could use them in scenery. Not any more. Now they're all in a slightly strange semi t pose.

Do they need to be attached to a flyable aircraft to return to a normal position? I presume that's the case.

 

[Mathias]

Okay, what's the trick to let the pilot appear in external view only?
I dropped a dummy into the exterior model and the pilot shows up both in exterior and interior view.
The only thing I can think of regarding the model.cfg is setting the switches like this:
withExterior_showInterior=false
withInterior_showExterior=false
...but that would be old FSX style and it's not how the default planes are configured.
Am I missing something?

 

[=rk=]

It seems like you may be confusing aircraft that have distinct virtual cockpit models, with those that do not. Have you allowed for this difference?

 

[Mathias]

Not sure if I understand what you're saying.
My plane has separate exterior and interior models just like the stock planes with the model.cfg configured pretty much stock:

[model.options]
withExterior_showInterior=true
withExterior_showInterior_hideFirstLod=true
withInterior_forceFirstLod=true
withInterior_showExterior=true

[models]
normal=classics-hangar-kl25d-exterior.xml
interior=classics-hangar-kl25d-interior.xml

Initially I had this:
withExterior_showInterior_hideFirstLod=false
but it makes no difference, probably due to the fact that I don't have multiple LOD's yet.

 

[=rk=]

I see. I don't know if I can help, because I had the opposite situation. My aircraft is remotely piloted, so the "cockpit" is the equivalent of a workstation, which is what I'd made, wooden desk and all. I do not want it to show ever, except in interior view. Previously, I had set the switches to the obvious values, with the "withExterior_showInterior_hideFirstLod" flag set to default false and the model showed only the vehicle. After this most recent update, the model rendered with the workstation straddling it, hideously, and even though doing so defied the syntax of the statements, setting that flag to true resolved the condition.

As to LOD's, if it helps, the basic model has three, which never render and I presume are reserved for AI iterations, the VC has only one LOD and at this point in development the model renders as expected.

 

[Anthony31]

Okay, what's the trick to let the pilot appear in external view only?
I dropped a dummy into the exterior model and the pilot shows up both in exterior and interior view.
The only thing I can think of regarding the model.cfg is setting the switches like this:
withExterior_showInterior=false
withInterior_showExterior=false
...but that would be old FSX style and it's not how the default planes are configured.
Am I missing something?

I don't know how the default aircraft do it. Perhaps it's something in the animation of the pilot and copilot models?

There's a couple of ways you can do it yourself. The easiest would be adding the following to each one of your [cameradefinition]s in the cameras.cfg file.

NodesToHide ="name_of_node_to_hide multiple_nodes_should_be_separated_by_a_space"

Whenever the user selects one of the internal cameras those nodes (which your pilot model should be attached to) will not be shown.

This is how Asobo hide the joysticks/yokes in some of the cockpit camera views.

The other way is to use a visibility condition in your model behaviour file. Check the status of A:CAMERA STATE. If it returns 2 then it is a cockpit view.

SDK Documentation

docs.flightsimulator.com

 

[Mathias]

Ahhh, thank you Anthony, that could be the ticket!
I'll have a deep look into it, thank you very much!

 

[Mathias]

So the NodesToHide action doesn't work, that's for sure.
Makes sense because the camera.cfg would probably look into the behaviour files to gather the node. so...