Get it here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/7o1zkcmr3egyyc8/%2521__New_F2A-2_tube_sight.7z/fileFrom the included readme file:
A New Tube Sight for the F2A-2 (USN Brewster Buffalo)
This mod was obtained by me about a decade ago from the old AAA website. That was back when I was still flying 4.08. The author of this excellent mod has long since been forgotten by me, unfortunately. I really wish I could contact this genius! I am but a purveyor of his wonderful work.
This mod concerns essentially just the tube sight and related resources. However, I include Body.msh for three reasons: I've fixed a LOT of bad surface normals; I reversed the perspex surface normals; and I retained the denigration of the use of this file as the repository for the view hooks. That is, the view hooks are now found in a dedicated mesh called Hooks.msh. (More on this below.) The other non-sight related files included are Canopy.msh, wherein the perspex surface normals are reversed, and the perspex texture.
The mod very significantly improves upon the stock tube sight implementation. It employs multiple masks so as to present a device that much more closely represents a real sight in operation. Especially so where the real sight magnification is unity (1X).
With the hitting of the gunsight view key (default is SHF-F1), most stock tube sights in our game draw a completely new view of just the sight's circular field, zoomed in so that the small-ish FoV fully fills (or somewhat spills beyond) the screen's vertical dimension. Many players find this restricted--and notably zoomed--view to be difficult to use when in a turning fight with a more agile opponent. Understandably so, for the lack of any peripheral vision.
Real tube sights did not always require the pilot to press his eye against an eyecup, thereby losing peripheral vision. These optical devices employed only pretty low magnification, if at all, and this combined with the somewhat large eyepiece lenses delivered fairly long eye relief. This means that most or all of the FoV could be seen when the eye was some distance behind the sight, in the way a riflescope does so in order to afford a buffer in distance against recoil.
This new implementation works much more like a real sight of the type. While still in the 'normal' pilot position, you see the image as you really would. At all times the reticle shows the correct lack of parallax. If far back, just a small portion of the field is seen, and if you have 6DoF capability you'll see a changing portion of the sight image as you move your virtual head/eye about. Lean forward as far as you can and you'll see the full image, some 20 degrees wide, at the same magnification as for the rest of the scene. But you'll still see the surrounding scene, especially if zoomed out. If you zoom in, both sight image and general view magnify equally. You can always freely move and swivel your virtual head to see more or less of the sight image as desired. Very liberating!
Even more intriguing is the employment of a special version of the forward cowling which appears through the sight only. It's depressed in angle for the following reason.
An afocal optical instrument such as a telescope projects upon the objective an image of the observer's eye. This is how the eyepiece couples the light gathering objective to the eye's iris, by working 'both ways' as a coupler between objective entrance pupil and eyepiece exit pupil. Given that the eye is placed at the exit pupil, the eye's pupil in a very real sense is moved forward to the location of the entrance pupil (the objective.) And so this more forward position of the eye sees the foremost cowling surface as being depressed in angle compared to the view as seen from back in the observer's head.
As you can appreciate, a longer tube sight whose objective end projects farther forward will deliver a more depressed cowling, thereby affording a better sight picture over the nose.
This sight has a FoV of roughly 350 mils, or about 20 degrees. That seems accurate enough to me for a sight working at 1X or very low magnification. The circles are for 100, 200 and 300 mils. (Note that many reflector sights have 100 mil circles in their reticles.)
I made a few changes of my own:
- Altered the 3D so that no flat polygon segments could be seen whatsoever within the sight's field of view.
- Ensured that no gaps appeared between masks (there are 3) due to the more extreme PoVs permitted with my expanded 6DoF code for range of head movement in the cockpit class.
- Added a reflection texture of the canopy on the eyepiece lens.
- Further darkened the texture inside the rear end of the tube.
- Fixed the awfully wrong surface normals for the antenna post.
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I set the view hooks in Hooks.msh to suit my use of TrackIR. (I added a new, third one for CAMERAUP, which is for the 'seat raised' position once the canopy is opened.) But I also include REM'd out versions that will work for users having no head tracking gear. Here are the [Hooks] and [HookLoc] sections from that file:
[Hooks]
CAMERA <BASE>
CAMERAAIM <BASE>
CAMERAUP <BASE>
[HookLoc]
//0 -1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0 0.35 0.118 //CAMERA aligned with iron sight on top
//0 -1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0 0.35 0.06 //CAMERA aligned with optical sight
0 -1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0 0.35 0.09 //CAMERA aligned between (good for 6DoF)
//0 -1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0 -0.58 0.05947 //CAMERAAIM stock--at objective lens (BAD)
0 -1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0 0.12 0.06 //CAMERAAIM for new sight
0 -1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.2 0.36 0.114 //CAMERAUP
NOTE: The last 3 values, in meters, for X, Y, Z, when increased will move the PoV Left, Back and Up, respectively. This is noted at the top of the file.
For CAMERA, CAMERAAIM and CAMERAUP, there are 3, 2 and 1 entries, respectively. The active one for each set has no // characters preceding. If you wish to use another, remove the // characters for it, and add // charcters preceding the line for the now-to-be-disdabled entry.
For players having no head tracking capability, the best CAMERA choice is #2 (aligned with optical sight). For CAMERAAIM, the current active line is best for all situations; I include the preceding disabled version to show how far forward the stock PoV was--way out front at the forward end of the tube.
If you have head tracking gear and 6DoF enabled, and fly 4.12 or later, enjoy the increased freedom of virtual head movement and ease of using this sight!
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The mod originally had 4.09 compatible classfiles. I made the tiny alterations to bring them to the 4.12 standard, and expand the range of head movement. The root folder has the 4.12 classes as the default. I include separate folders containing 4.09 and 4.12 classes. Rebels can overwrite these 5 classes copied from the folder [4.09 class files].
Classfiles:
F2A2.class
749674D685927F52
CockpitF2A2.class
2A53A980634FCFE6
03EF6498B75EE724
5ED691C890D2BF50
AC47259A93F4E89A
I include the 4.12 Java, for modders to alter or draw inspiration from. Such as to use as a template for the addressing of tube sights on other planes. Hint, hint!
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In the [Plane] folder are meshes for both the 'normal' cowling/antenna post, and the new 'refracted' cowling segment that appears through the sight only. As noted, the antenna post has had its formerly ludicrous surface normals fixed.
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Place this mod ahead of all others you may have that deal with the F2A2.
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As always, this work is offered for use by any and all, for any purpose, without restriction.
WxTech
Feb 1, 2021
Author
Topic: New F2A-2 Tube Sight Mod (Read 4873 times)
