Get rid of cockpit view if you don’t have enough (good artists, money) resources to make it awesome.
1.GRID2 has canceled cockpit view, and focus on 3rd view. Cause only 5% players use cockpit view.
2.See how X: Rebirth messed up the cockpit view and station walking… (A OK cockpit cannot be satisfied with fastidious players.)
While getting rid of the cockpit would certainly help if art resources are too limited, I disagree with getting rid of first person view entirely. Sure, more arcade, non-newtonian space shooters are better played in 3rd person for many. But for I:B, first-person view will probably be used by more people.
And quite a few older games successfully used cockpit-less first-person view. Freespace 2, Allegiance, or even the old ICP…
But yes, modelled cockpits should be low priority. They take resources, add little and can be done badly.
I agree. I believe 1st person with HUD like in the ICP is a must.
On the old forum I posted this cockpit from Star Citizen.
The cockpit interior takes up 68.2% of the screen!
Maybe when technologies like Oculus Rift become ubiquitous then perhaps it would be viable, but until then it just doesn’t make sense to block the player’s view of the environment.
In the MMO I think first-person is a absolute must. Third person lacks immersion, for me. I want to be exploring distant, incredible planets - in first person. Being able to walk around and/or get out of the ship would be absolutely incredible. But that’s only because I couldn’t care less about fighting people, just exploring and being immersed.
In Battlescape, I don’t care what it looks like, just be nice to have it in there.
I’m not saying cancel first-person view.
Making a cockpit need a senior industrial standard artists and a lot of work to make it awesome; A OK cockpit model cannot be satisfied with fastidious players in nowadays.
I like having it as an option, but then again, I’d rather have the game.
Ah, my bad then. In that case, yes, pretty much that.
Actually, it seems I-Novae Concept artists are trying to create a cockpit that did not obscure your view that much. Look at the following concept:
On the other hand you could have some Sci-Fi device which is able to make most of the cockpit transparent.
BTW how did you measure that @hrobertson?
Cockpits are planned for I:B for sure.
I used a program called Inkscape. I drew a vector shape over the windows and the program calculated the area of those shapes.
That’s right - a blocked view = bad gameplay. I personally very often like to give a widely open view to the underside, so that a pilot can clearly see what’s going on on the ground. It’s generally quite clumsy to sense what’s happening in game worlds - much easier in real life. In games FOV is usually around 90 degrees compared to over 180 of real life - and in real life you get way better “framerate and resolution”. Not good to have only a tiny screen inside a tiny screen (monitor). 
If cockpits are implemented, first off I would say they definitely have to be part of the model (in effect), rather than some sort of overlay (as demonstrated in the last tech demo). Some way of easily switching between looking and flying would be useful.
I do like cockpits, but they can make life difficult. To make up for the reduced view of space, the cockpit should be useful - displays showing radars perhaps, or other data that gives extra detail you don’t get in third person.
Right now I’m too sleepy to come up with any coherent ideas but I think I’ve at least made my point. 
I believe I’ve read/watched somewhere that on a U.S. fighter plane that some sort of technology turns the entire canopy into a HUD, giving the pilots a virtual 360 view without having to turn their heads very much. I have no idea of what kind of detail the HUD gives, but I believe that it gives some sort of visual advantage.
Whether I’m right or wrong, this concept could be used. A cockpit could be used, even if the details cover a goodly portion of the screen. However, a SHUD (Super-HUD, patent pending :P) could be turned on, causing the player to be able to ‘see through’ the cockpit and walls (with a cool honeycomb-grid affect). That way, players that want a super-detailed cockpits and love tiny-porthole windows can have them, while others can have a bumper-cam.
That’s my two bits.
Even simpler would be having separate “cockpit” and “first-person” views. Separate cameras instead of tricky shader shenanigans.
(And please, for the love of all that is righteous and good in this world, stop with the gratuitous hexagons!!! They’re beyond cliche by this point!)
EDIT: fixed tags to something more sane; hooray for html tags!!
That would be the F-35, if it ever gets past prototype status The Rafale should also have it at some point - for the moment, the helmet-mounted display angle isn’t very wide, or so I’ve read ; other planes will probably get it as well. Note that a helmet-mounted display doesn’t make the cockpit disappear AFAICT, but “only” add an overlay (you know, the red or green lines) containing useful info like “Hey, your target is right there!”
In video games, I’m pretty sure it’s already the standard procedure. If there are HUD elements like, say, icons on enemy ships, it will appear even if you look around or back (for games that allow you to look elsewhere than right in front of you). Even more, some games like Freespace 2 don’t even display a cockpit for their first-person view.
That said, I second the motion against gratuitous hexagons; I’m a hexagon fan as much as anyone, but as with most things, we must learn moderation. In Battle for Wesnoth, hexes are great ; in HUDs, they may be used as icons and banned from any other use with extreme prejudice.
sputters
but… but… hexagons are so cooool!!! 
I agree about hexes. They’ve been overdone. 'nuff said.
Concerning other video games, the ones I have experience with (X3, XR, Nexus, IW2, etc), they all have little tiny icons that appear on the edge of the screen if you lost LOS that shows the general direction of the target. This is a tried and true system, and it works. But I want more.
What I want is a full-blown 360 tactical overlay, similar to the displays on Minbari ships and White Stars from Babylon 5, where you can turn your head to track an object, rather than relying on an icon in a corner to guesstimate where the object is and it’s trajectory.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve over-compensated when trying to shoot down another ship, and have it whip across my screen because it changed direction/speed/whatever. The overlay would not only be very cool (with a triangular grid :P), and be incredibly useful in a fight, but would probably be a first in any game, or RL for that matter.
Yeah, In the far future, you don’t even need a “traditional cockpit” with windows to look outside.
Every info/outside view can be display on your helmet HUD…
For the realism consider:
The pilot don’t need to sit in front of “weak glass” any more. They can be more protected in the center ship of somewhere.
So what’s the meaning of making a unrealistic cockpit anyway? Except increase the budget & workload, even delay release…
Wai wait wait. Since when have there been cockpits in this game? The old site was strongly against cockpits as a large resource drain and the management were in agreeance.
Looks like management changed their mind.I think that it’s a combination of, now, having an impending kickstarter (which both requires, and allows for, if it works, more shinies) and now having, as far as the general public is concerned, competition. Who both have cockpit views.
[quote=“Freeman, post:17, topic:179”]The pilot don’t need to sit in front of “weak glass” any more. They can be more protected in the center ship of somewhere.
So what’s the meaning of making a unrealistic cockpit anyway? Except increase the budget & workload, even delay release…[/quote]
The most important reason is also the silliest, at least in my opinion, and it can be described in one word:
“Immersion”
The hissy fits of a gamer who can’t experience this vaunted ideal are frightening in both ferocity and ability to spread. If said game can’t feel like he’s actually there sitting in an actual cockpit (assisted, of course, by high-definition graphics and full, orchestral surround-sound; because who needs imagination?), well, then that game is just bad, and the people who made it are bad, and it should never, EVER be played by anyone ever again, and anyone who does is a scrub who wouldn’t know a good game if it hit them in the face. And they’re a casual gamer and pleb.
A bit ranty, but hopefully it gets the point across.
And as for why they’re unrealistic glass-dome cockpits instead some armored shell? That’s easy. The exact same reason why we’re manually piloting starfighters in ww2-esque Old-school Dogfights:
It’s cool.
Sounds like you just threw a hissy fit. I personally would like to have a cockpit view in there, and yes it is mostly for IMMERSION’s sake. I don’t care what it looks like, and if it means seeing through walls or some other futuristic tech then good, I’m not bothered. It’s just personal bloody preference.
I have never, ever appreciated 3rd person as much as 1st. Skyrim, for example. I can use my imagination better if I’m looking out of the characters eyes.
You’re making some obscene stereotype of some gamer that doesn’t even exist.