by Felix/FFDS » Wed Mar 19, 2003 4:34 pm
You are right in making a separate model for the VC. I don't recall which program you're using, but the principle is the same.
Basically, your VC should consist of those parts that are visible from the cockpit - for example, in a typcial modern airliner, you would include the wings, podded engines, fuselage inside... but not those parts you would NOT see - landing gear, rear fuselage, empennage, etc, then you could go further and delete the polygons you wouldn't see - undersides of wings "opposite" sides of nacelles, etc.
In gmax, you would take these and group them as in an "interior" group. In FSDS2, you copy and paste into a new model "page"...
As to a multi-res model, your "closer" models may be your basic model with small parts removed, including landing gear, etc., and the "farther" away you go, the models can be basic primitives - enough to give the basic shape.
For example, if I were building a new Grumman Gulfstream I, I would probably use an existing afx source file as the base for an LOD - I get the basic shape, but I don't need the details... Your lowest resolution model can be as simple as two triangles ..
Basically, use a combination of "removing parts" and quick and simple new models.
Hope this helps
Felix/FFDS