Battlemech Cockpit Project

[BattlemechDood No.412785]

Man, 150 images just isn't enough. Here's the third installment of the Battlemech Cockpit Senior Project.

First thread here:
http://archive.installgentoo.net/diy/thread/380959

Second thread here:
http://archive.installgentoo.net/diy/thread/405802

tl;dnr; I'm making a fully operational mechwarrior-ish cockpit for my senior project at school, including programming my own mech game to run in it.

Pic related is a cabin air bilge pump. It's for not to suffocate/die of heat stroke while enjoying the game.

Gonna put some kind of air flow direction inside. Maybe just a piece of pipe that goes straight across with some holes in it to diffuse the airflow.

[BattlemechDood No.412786]

captcha: "makeywr electrical"

I will, thank you, captcha.

[BattlemechDood No.412787]

[Anonymous No.412796]

OP is a legend

[BattlemechDood No.412823]

Modifying the door after some live-fire tests confirmed that the old door was too damn small.

>>412796
Nah, just a dude with tools and an idea, but thanks!

[BattlemechDood No.412833]

Woot woot, door open...

[BattlemechDood No.412836]

...door closed.

[Anonymous No.412867]

I was thinking of making a cockpit with an old propane tank. Cut out actual windows and surround with video. Figure out a way to remove overlay's from the screen and run them to screens inside. Use actuators to hit the tank w/rubber mallets for footsteps?? Never happen probably, but it's nice to dream. Project looks good. Good idea to breathe too.

[Anonymous No.412887]

>>412836
Have a good time suffocating?

>mechan Ornicopter

[BattlemechDood No.412891]

>>412887
Diiiiiid you even see the OP pic?

Also pic related, vents on the back.

[Anonymous No.412895]

are you gonna make it shake back and forth when you get hit and have a slight vibration form the mechs onboard engine?

[BattlemechDood No.412896]

>>412895
Still devising the system for that, but yes, there will definitely be some kind of motion feedback.

[Anonymous No.412897]

>>412896
You could have remotely activate air rams and airsoft guns to simulate incoming attacks.

[Anonymous No.412936]

>>412897
>airsoft guns

>get shot in-game
>a bunch of airsoft guns are triggered and shoot pellets at my face
lold hard thinking of that

[Anonymous No.412950]

>>412785
>including programming my own mech game to run in it.
Make hawken and MWO work on it too when it's done. You'll get mechacreds along with game-site coverage for that.

[Anonymous No.412983]

>>412950
The game he is designing and coding is the project, the cockpit is just something to spice it up.

[BattlemechDood No.413030]

>>412897
That's a wacky awesome idea; I could simulate the same effect with just a bunch of little solenoids to thwack against the shell... we'll see.

>>412936
Pfffthahahaha

>>412950
That's def the plan; gonna figure out how to get the controls to run hotkeys and key macros for other games.

[Anonymous No.413047]

As much as I love battlemechs the #1 thing I was hoping for here was motion simulation.

[BattlemechDood No.413079]

>>413047
Motion simulation is happening; I just gotta figure out a cost-effective way to do it.

[Anonymous No.413082]

>>413079
4 first year students holding the cockpit up, wearing shock collars.

[Anonymous No.413088]

>>413082
>>413082
second this

[BiomedicalEngineeringFag !BmEFaG6dOM No.413095]

>>413082
Thirded

[Anonymous No.413106]

>>413079
Bit of a tip, you don't need ultra powerfull engine if you use pulleys to multiply the strenght

[BattlemechDood No.413110]

>>413082
>>413088
>>413095
LOL.

>>413106
Well, the response of the articulation needs to be pretty quick... I'm thinking about using powerful short-stroke pneumatic arms or jacks. Probably two in the back with one in the front.

[Anonymous No.413113]

>>413110
>two in the back with one in the front.

[BattlemechDood No.413115]

>>413113
Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeez...

[Anonymous No.413133]

It would be cool to have some kind of air pistons mounted on he underside to simulate the noise of the mech walking instead of playing it though speakers to sound more authentic.

[Anonymous No.413141]

>>413110
>motion simulation
just how reinforced is the cabin? being mostly wood, won't it all eventually come apart from all the shaking?

[BattlemechDood No.413146]

>>413133
I don't want to go TOO far with that kind of stuff... the speakers are there for the sake of sound effects. :\

>>413141
It's very, very reinforced... metal ties everywhere. I can't imagine it falling apart. I won't have it articular very much, either; just a few inches on each side.

[Anonymous No.413158]

The issue with using pneumatics for motion simulation is that you don't have an easy or fast way to control the speed of the stroke of an air cylinder. Speed is controlled by the flow rate of the air into an end of a double-acting air cylinder.

If you use gear motors (linear or not) you get control of speed by regulating voltage (directly or via PWM).

Large motion simulators tend to use hydraulics because the fluid makes the motion less "bouncy" since it's not compressible like air is.

Air cylinders are attractive because they're cheap. But you would still be looking at a decent amount of cash to get 3 air cylinders @ $90 each for 2" bore pivot-mount, 3 directional control valves @ $80 each (3-way for single-acting or 4-way for double-acting), a compressor @ $100, a power supply @$30-$60, and a bank of relays @$20.

One based on wiper motors will be much much cheaper.
http://hackaday.com/2012/09/24/wiper-motor-motion-simulator/

[Anonymous No.413167]

>>413146
Yeah just stick it on a plataform with a few pneumatic thingies.
as long as the movement is noticeable it will be a nice effect

[Anonymous No.413168]

>>413158
God dammit op, your project is glorious, if you're lacking funds can't you kickstarter it or something?

[Anonymous No.413244]

>>413167
how exactly would you do something like that? Make a moving platform I mean.

[Anonymous No.413250]

>>413244
You need a controller to convert motion output from the game into control signals for the actuators. Then you need actuators setup to mechanically move your platform.

The difficulty of doing so primarily hinges on what kind of actuators you use, how much travel you want, and how wide you want the range of actuation speeds to be. Getting actuators that can handle the load you're placing on them is also somewhat tricky above a certain weight threshold.

[Anonymous No.413279]

holy shit. I played something like this back in the 90s. As atalented /diy/erit was the most intense thing ever. OP this project is well worth the investment, fyi

[Anonymous No.413282]

^^ * as a child it was the most intense thing ever

[BattlemechDood No.413340]

>>413158
The wiper motor project looks frickin amazing... so simple, works so well. I'm not sure if those wiper motors would be able to handle the whole box though... shit's gonna be heavy. I may have to put the whole thing on some kind of gimble... bah.

The easiest would be to have it only pivot in one direction, and just hinge the other direction... but that's pretty lame.

>>413168
Thanks a lot! I don't think I could justify a kickstarter campaign, since I'm building it only for myself... "Give me money so I can build a cool arcade machine for a school project"? I don't think that would fly.

>>413250
Yeah; controlling the actuators would be pretty easy... I'd just rig it up through the arduino with a PWM motor controller or relays. The box is just so heavy, I dunno...

>>413279
Probably Dropship Command! Awesome! Thanks, I'm having tons of fun with it.

Once it's done I'll present it at a few exhibitions at UCSD... if any of you /diy/ers are in SD I'll post about those.

[BattlemechDood No.413341]

Didn't have the right size coupling pipe... so I made it the way any /diy/er would.

[BattlemechDood No.413342]

[BattlemechDood No.413344]

VROOM

[BattlemechDood No.413347]

[BattlemechDood No.413351]

[Anonymous No.413394]

>>412785
fuck you i know you, op. how is it going? you have had good threads. Agains thanks for sharing things that you actually do. You are awesome.

If someone know how to make something looks post apocalyptic, and stuff, that is OP!

How is the car? how is the pipboy?

[Anonymous No.413408]

>>413351
she is cute.

Also do you plan to put up more scifi surfaces on the inside of the pod so it feels and looks real?

[BattlemechDood No.413442]

>>413394
Hey man, thanks, it means a lot! Things are goin great. Been beatin the car up out in the dunes, including shooting holes through it... I'll snap some pics tomorrow in the daylight.

Pipboy works great; I use it while hiking and on long drives. I haven't solved the screen-exposed-to-the-elements issue yet so I haven't been wearing it 24/7, but it has its uses.

>>413408
Thanks, haha. Yes, going to paint the interior with plasti-dip for ruggedness and then probably some kind of matte black finish, plus odds and ends of prop hoses and stuff to make it feel like a legit mech cockpit.

[BattlemechDood No.413443]

Second mission for today underway... mounting the sub-panels. Here are the finished brackets after a lot of guess-and-check.

[BattlemechDood No.413444]

I decided to do the most sophisticated brackets first to get them over with... these took about an hour to design and fabricate.

[BattlemechDood No.413447]

Mounted with 1/4" bolts. Gonna get some washers in there once I get the brackets secured inside the box.

[BattlemechDood No.413449]

Roughly where it'll be mounted. Thanks to gf for 'modelling.'

[BattlemechDood No.413452]

ITS THE CAT

here to ruin everything as usual

[BattlemechDood No.413451]

She suddenly had a great look on her face so I snapped another pic. Why does she look so scared?

[BattlemechDood No.413454]

We had a little space heater running in the box for my gf while she internetted with the surround sound. Guess the cat liked it too.

[BattlemechDood No.413455]

Managed to kick her out of the box; this is her default perching place in the garage... it's a good height for her to bat at me when I walk by.

[BattlemechDood No.413456]

Countermeasures panel will go in the opposite corner like so.

[Anonymous No.413461]

Looks like it's for a Mad Dog/Vulture.

Awesome.

[BattlemechDood No.413468]

||>>413461||
Hell yeah! Vulture was always one of my favs.

[BattlemechDood No.413477]

Last but not least, grab-bars for the rear, strictly for the purpose of being able to lift this motherfucker on and off of a pickup truck.

'Night errbody.

[Anonymous No.413486]

>>413477
Do you actually have a pipboy? That's fucking awesome man, post some pic later if you can...

[Anonymous No.413504]

>>413347
OP, the last thing you want is to have an airflow coming in your face. Your eyes and mouth will dry in no time. You should put the airflow in your back.

[Anonymous No.413511]

>>413340
>The wiper motor project looks frickin amazing... so simple, works so well. I'm not sure if those wiper motors would be able to handle the whole box though... shit's gonna be heavy.
Then I would recommend power wheelchair motors. Same package/drive type, but much larger size with a constant duty rating. They can haul 500lb tubs-o-lard around, I'm sure three of them can gymble you and your whole box around.

They're around $120 each most places.

[Anonymous No.413512]

>>413442
O snap, are you the guy with the road warrior Scion?

[Anonymous No.413546]

>>413082
My sides

[Anonymous No.413619]

>>413442
i always recognize you by your GF or cat, i havent memorize your workshop, now i wonder how many thread you have made without being noticed?

fuck you, now you are my inspiration to do something.

Starting, NOW!

[Anonymous No.413633]

>>413512
>>413442
>>413619

I knew I remembered that girl from somewhere. nice history of projects, OP.

[BattlemechDood No.413663]

>>413486
It's not as cool as an ACTUAL pipboy, but it was inspired by it. Basically just a leather bracer with an external rechargeable power supply for my phone. Pic related!

I made a thread about it a while back... I'm sure it's archived somewhere. I'll try to find it.

>>413504
The port on the inside is angled down; the airflow is not noticeable. (At least, not with the fan on low... I'll hook it up to full power later today and make sure it's not annoying.)

I wanted it on the front because the vents are on the back; wanna keep the air from stagnating in the box.

>>413511
Very good call... those things wouldn't have any problem rocking this thing around.

That's gonna require some serious engineering but I am up for the challenge.

That's gonna be a chunk of change, so I'm going to go ahead and finish the rest of the box before I invest in the motors so I can devote all my funds/energy to making those work. Cheers!

>>413512
That's me alright, ahaha. Will post a pic or two. I'll try to find that thread as well.

>>413619
FUCK yeah! That makes me feel awesome. Post itt if you're gonna do something; I want to see!

Maybe I'll snap a few pics of my workshop later. I actually just cleaned up and reorganized so it's lookin pretty nice.

I don't post here all that often; just the pipboy/car/couple small questions about the mech project, and now the mech itself.

>>413633
Thanks!

[Wes !7OBa7p/bAQ No.413665]

Here's my car a few people were talking about. Base model is a Scion tC, did all the work myself (except for the final rendition of the exhaust pipe, which I had done professionally because it was pissing me off.)

Build thread here:
http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22149&page=11

Should I trip? Is this board trip-friendly? I'm not a super avid 4channer, haha.

[Anonymous No.413668]

>>413665
we haven't really had trips. Well, a couple, but recent shitposting sort of made them quit.

This board's a little different, but I wouldn't call it tripfriendly. I've been around since the beginning, and both support trips and refuse to join them.

[Anonymous No.413680]

>>413665
Very cool, I never saw pictures after you put the hatch on. Came out much better than the sketches had me envisioning.

[Anonymous No.413682]

>>413665
Oh, and so I can officially contribute something: that flag-holder on your trunk: I use those at work tons, and the section where the flag holder meets the "gear" is very weak. Ours break in 30+mph gusts often so I'm guessing if you put any decent size flag on there or give it a lot of freeway time, you may see the same. I'd suggest reinforcements. Carry on!

[gamedev No.413692]

>>413511
>I'm sure three of them can gymble you and your whole box around.
Actually, the windshield wiper sim guy's design is really elegant and it requires only 2 motors, which would save a fair chunk of change. He's got the whole thing balanced on a ball bearing and the motors placed a fair way in front of the center of mass. That way, when both motors are up, the thing tilts back, when both are down, it tilts forward, and when one motor's up it tilts to the side. The downside is that you can't tilt forward and sideways at the same time (you basically can tilt like a dinner plate that's always touching the surface of a table). The upside is a 33% reduction in cost and complexity and your motors don't have to actually support your weight, because it all rests on the ball bearing. Hell, if you added counterweights below the ball bearing, you could probably move the thing with a finger.

[Anonymous No.413712]

>>413665
We dont really care about trips, we have certain personalities around here, and i like it more when you end figuring out who is the guy posting, like you or bunkerfag, but you may need a nick, scionfag, pipfag or something.

the only tripguy i remember is scroton, a guy who gifted some tools to other guys, is up to you

[Anonymous No.413718]

>>413451
"and then she realized that her boyfriend made giant robot cockpits to play inside" narrated by Morgan Freeman
hahaha just kidding keep up the good fight anon.

[BattlemechDood No.413777]

Aight, remaining two subpanels are done. Gonna paint the brackets and install them by tonight!

>>413668
Got it, thanks. I'll stick with per-thread namefaggin'. As >>413712 said, it's fun when people suddenly realize who I am, haha.

And tripfagging is kinda pretentious I suppose. It's all good.

>>413680
Thanks! Yeah some of those sketches were pretty awful... but matte black spray paint makes everything better, haha.

>>413682
Thanks for the heads up! I fly a 5' x 3' on it from time to time, but only on a 3.5' pole, so there's not a whole lot of torque on it. I did replace the bolt with a grade-8, but I will be wary of it.

>>413692
Right; I was looking over his designs. Very cool. Building parallel left/right systems will be a piece of cake. I was worried about having the system on a pivot in the middle but then having motors across from each other; if something went wrong and they both tried to push up or down at the same time, shit would've started breaking.

Thanks again for the posts; motion articulation is definitely happening, all thanks to you!

>>413718
Pfffthahahahaha!

[Anonymous No.413798]

>>413665
Woah woah woah. SergeantBiscuits? As in the same Biscuits who made this flash back in the day? I've been following this project for a few threads now and never made the connection!

Damn, dude, I used to talk to you a lot on deviantart. Never would of thought I'd see you here!

[Anonymous No.413802]

>>413777
Woah woah woah. SergeantBiscuits? As in the same Biscuits who made this flash back in the day? I've been following this project for a few threads now and never made the connection!

Damn, dude, I used to talk to you a lot on deviantart. Never would of thought I'd see you here!

And finish Axis and Allies some day!

[BattlemechDood No.413805]

>>413802
Oh shit! How'd you make that connection? Awesome! Small world, god damn.

Man, I haven't worked on A&A in yeeeaaars... I still have the project files though. I dunno if it would be relevant nowadays though... does anyone still play Enemy Territory? Haha

[Anonymous No.413809]

>>413805
Your name on the dirty impreza forums gave it away.

And I'm sure no one these days plays Enemy Territory, but I always enjoyed that flash. However, making a honest-to-god mech cockpit kinda take precedence to finishing up a flash from ~six years ago, that only a couple people in the world care about.

[gamedev No.413819]

>>413777
> I was worried about having the system on a pivot in the middle but then having motors across from each other; if something went wrong and they both tried to push up or down at the same time, shit would've started breaking.
In the wiper guy's build, I'm pretty sure that can't happen. The whole point is that the motors are in front of the ball bearing, so if they both "extend", it will just tip the seat backward, and if they both "contract", it will tilt the seat forward.

(in the picture, the center of mass is in front of the bearing/support column, but you get the idea)

[gamedev No.413820]

>>413819
Here's the bearing he uses for the support column.

[BattlemechDood No.413826]

>>413819
Right; I meant I was worried about it before but not anymore, now that I understand how his two-arm system works. Way cool!

[BattlemechDood No.413863]

Prepping everything for mounting in the box... here's the back shell for the main console.

[Anonymous No.413865]

>>413863
All of that through 1 USB?

[BattlemechDood No.413867]

Mounting brackets painted...

[BattlemechDood No.413868]

>>413865
Yep, aint serial great?

[Anonymous No.413874]

>>413819
The bottom image is how I browse this thread.

[iLostToTheInternet No.413893]

>>413868
Dang!
>>413874
>this thread
You mean these threads

[Anonymous No.413923]

>>413447

What brand push-buttons are those? They look exactly like these Chinese ones I kept having to replace on arcade cabs and prize machines. 5-pronged green switch, Happ-style long thread body, etc.. The leaf springs inside the microswitches kept jamming up.

Stacker owners: It's one button. Stop putting ten-cent switches under it.

>>413665
>>413777

Usually when people trip there's no justifiable reason and they're just being obnoxious. On the whole /diy/ has demonstrated very little patience or tolerance for that.

Benign use of a tripcode is pretty rare. eg: Scroton giving away tools, needed to give people instructions and it was important that they know it was actually him, and then dropping the trip in other threads where it's not needed.

[BattlemechDood No.413957]

>>413874
lol'd

>>413923
They read "Newlt Liguang" if that helps. They're nice; got them from a surplus store.

Thanks for the lowdown on trips. I'll follow suit.

[BattlemechDood No.413958]

Woot, subpanels ready to install... let me throw these in and I'll take a pic of the layout.

[Wes !7OBa7p/bAQ No.413968]

Awriiiight, here's what we're lookin at.

[Wes !7OBa7p/bAQ No.413969]

[BattlemechDood No.413972]

Ack, my trip test was saved on my other computer. Sorry.

[BattlemechDood No.413974]

Time for Operation: Transfer Shit To A Box

[Anonymous No.413979]

"Our teammates got alpha'd by the whole enemy team while we capped with our 4 Chichada premade, lol our team is such noobs"
-Gold Logic

[Anonymous No.414004]

>>413957
>They read "Newlt Liguang" if that helps.

Nah, that's a generic Chinese non-brand. Liguang is probably the proprietor''s name and Newlt their idea of a "brand" name.

Most likely they made a couple runs of the switch and then moved on to other things or disappeared entirely.

Maybe they copied the switches I've seen, or someone else copied them. No way to know.

[Anonymous No.414015]

>>414004
My G500 started crying when she saw that, I hope you are happy with yourself.

[Anonymous No.414023]

>>414015

Two of the buttons were fucked. This way it lives on as a virtual pinball plunger.

[BattlemechDood No.414030]

Alright, today's mission accomplished... built a break-out board for two MCP23016 I/O expanders. Tested and works.

>>414004
Oh dear...

[BattlemechDood No.414031]

8 (actually 7) output pins, 24 input pins.

[BattlemechDood No.414032]

bitches don't know

[BattlemechDood No.414034]

Alright, today's mission accomplished... built a break-out board for two MCP23016 I/O expanders. Tested and works.

>>414004
Oh dear...

[BattlemechDood No.414035]

8 (actually 7) output pins, 24 input pins.

[BattlemechDood No.414036]

bitches don't know

[Anonymous No.414041]

>>414036
i applaud your perfboard craftsmanship, it looks quite nice

[Anonymous No.414042]

>>414004
holy fuck, i never thought of using a ir mouse as a linear distance-meter thing, thats amazing, imna steal that amazing idea

[Anonymous No.414051]

> My neighbors hate it when I idle my bikes at all
Go to /k/, find proper caliber of gun to kill neighbors, problem solved.
FFS, son, there's some reasonable things for neighbors to be upset about, but this ain't one of them. Either kill them or just tell them to fuck off.

[BattlemechDood No.414231]

>>414041
Thanks! I'm kind of a perfectionist with perfboard, haha.

>>414042
That is pretty briliant... One of my friends had an internship where she made a microflowmeter out of one for detecting rate of flow in a tube.

>>414051
I support this solution.

[Anonymous No.414247]

>>414004
What is this for again?

[BattlemechDood No.414262]

>>414247
I request more pictures of this too, ahahaha.

[Anonymous No.414302]

>>414247
>>414262

[gamedev No.414334]

>>414302
Hah, awesome! I love diy MacGyvering.

[BattlemechDood No.414585]

>>414302
That's awesome, haha. Looks pretty clean, all things considered!

[BattlemechDood No.414586]

Spent this evening finishing up the sub-panels. Got 'em all wired up and operational.

[BattlemechDood No.414587]

[BattlemechDood No.414588]

SHAMEFUR DISHPRAY

[BattlemechDood No.414589]

Inside of the ignition panel...

[BattlemechDood No.414590]

Fire suppression panel...

[BattlemechDood No.414591]

Countermeasures...

[BattlemechDood No.414593]

Aaaand power routing panel... this one was interesting.

[BattlemechDood No.414595]

Ready to install! I may paint the interior of the cockpit before these go in... we'll see.

[BattlemechDood No.414596]

SUPRISE MOTHERFUCKER, green LED up in here.

[BattlemechDood No.414597]

And blue, because blue is purdy.

[Anonymous No.414606]

Im having Megas XLR flashbacks

OP rules!

[BiomedicalEngineeringFag No.414663]

>>414606
Seconded, thirded and infinityed!

OP, you are a god among men.
That is absolutely incredible!!

[BattlemechDood No.414744]

>>414606
Aw hell yeah, Megas was rad! The high point of my highschool days was coming home just in time to catch it.

[BattlemechDood No.414745]

>>414663
Thanks! Man, you guys are encouraging. The moment I begin to burn out on something I just have to check this thread to boost morale.

[Anonymous No.414756]

>>413455
>>413455
10/10 would pet

[Anonymous No.414778]

do you have a full layout diagram?

i'd be intrested in seeing what all those buttons do

[Anonymous No.414780]

How sturdy are the legs? That cockpit looks really heavy...

[Anonymous No.414797]

>>414745

You srsly need it?! Your shit looks legendary, man.

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you (abouts)? Just curious!

[BattlemechDood No.414799]

>>414778
I'll put one together tonight. I needa make one anyway to help keep track of everything while I interface everything with the computer.

[BattlemechDood No.414801]

>>414780
It's gonna sit on the floor for now. When the motion system gets rigged up it'll basically sit on one gigantic ball bearing in the middle.

[BattlemechDood No.414804]

>>414797
Well I mean when somethin doesn't workand I wanna say "fuck it I'll do this later", hahaha. The effort itself is definitely the reward on this project though! And like a good varmint gun, I am 22.

[Anonymous No.414807]

>>414804

Ah! I'm 28, I feel like I have no excuse for not making cool shit now! :)

[Anonymous No.414835]

Hey OP not sure if you plan on it already but you should totally deck out the interior (cover up all that wood in there) maybe with some sheets of metal and some vinyl or something to give it a cleaner look.

[BiomedicalEngineeringFag No.414872]

>>414835
Please read the threads. OP is going to take care of the bare wood

[BattlemechDood No.414947]

>>414835
>>414872
Yep. Gonna plastidip everything and then a matte coat of something over that.

Might actually start on that tonight if the sun stays up long enough.

[Anonymous No.414988]

>>414947
Hey man, I would like to thank you for answering the many questions and ideas i have had, and you have inspired me to do a small race car simulator. Good job and keep up the amazing work.

[BattlemechDood No.415112]

>>414988
Rock on, my pleasure. Good luck; make a /diy/ thread when you start!

[Anonymous No.415232]

What sort of motors are you using to control the tilting?

[Anonymous No.415249]

>>413820
Thats not a ball bearing you idiot, its a ball joint.

Also OP, if you chose this method (i would) go buy a ball joint spare part for a car. Many models have separate ball joins as replacement parts. Its bound to be strong enough for your machine.

Also, you're gonna die of a heatstroke inside that thing, you need some ac at the very least.

[BattlemechDood No.415250]

>>415232
Current plan is to use mobility scooter motors.

>>415249
Good plan with the car ball joint. I'll make an excursion to the junkyard when it comes time to start working on the tilting.

Note the bigass blower in the OP pic and the vents on the back. It stays nice and cool in there.

[gamedev No.415255]

>>415249
>Thats not a ball bearing you idiot, its a ball joint.
Heh, derp. My bad.

[Anonymous No.415293]

>>413146
>It's very, very reinforced... metal ties everywhere. I can't imagine it falling apart.
Reminding me of struts in KSP.

[Anonymous No.415758]

>>415293
Heh

[BattlemechDood No.415803]

Too tired to go into detail tonight on this one... but I managed to build the rack for the main console today.

Also got grills for the front speakers and the sub. I think I'm going to paint the inside tomorrow... we'll see.

[BattlemechDood No.415805]

Only thing structural remaining is the monitor mount, which should come in tomorrow.

I gotta have a working prototype of this thing by Friday. Wish me luck, haha.

[BiomedicalEngineeringFag No.415870]

>>415805
>working prototype of this thing by Friday.
I guess it depends on their definition of working. You're literally almost there if you're painting the inside tomorrow!

[Anonymous No.415898]

>>413663
Erect. Awesome pip-boy.

[Anonymous No.416222]

>>413461
>>413468
my nuggas

[BattlemechDood No.416315]

Countdown to Zero Hour... painting the box today.

Got some nice speaker grills for the front.

They're JL Audio speaker grills... they sound better.

(If you believe that, kill yourself.)

[BattlemechDood No.416317]

Been putting actual machine screws in all the wire mount plates. Here are some recessed nuts for the pedal board.

[BattlemechDood No.416316]

Holes drilled for control panels.

[BattlemechDood No.416321]

Fancy 'n shit.

[BattlemechDood No.416318]

Spade bits are rad.

[BattlemechDood No.416324]

All stripped down and ready to go.

(twss)

[BattlemechDood No.416325]

I bought six cans of Plasti-Dip. This was one can.

I think... I think I need more cans.

[BattlemechDood No.416329]

This is like... four cans. I stopped takin pics between cans.

[BattlemechDood No.416327]

Two cans. Note this is just the base coat. Gonna do 3-4 coats total.

[BattlemechDood No.416331]

Fuck it, MOAR PLASTIDIP

[BattlemechDood No.416333]

Got scared I was gonna run out of daylight so I just beasted the rest without taking pics. Woot!

[Anonymous No.416337]

>>416333
I blasted the rest too.... Ended up with 2 boys and a girl....

[BattlemechDood No.416346]

In case anyone's concerned; I finished everything off by "dusting" it with a very light top coat so it doesn't have that faggoty ricer plastic sheen that Plastidip usually has.

[Anonymous No.416359]

>>414807
what are you studying in school?

[Anonymous No.416371]

>>412897

Motor, attached to some kind of whip, hits cockpit when shot to simulate bullets smacking.

[BattlemechDood No.416374]

Lookit dis beautiful beezy.

[Anonymous No.416387]

>>416371
This

[BattlemechDood No.416391]

>>416371
Thanks for the suggestion, but, uh... no.

[Anonymous No.416403]

>>415112
thanks man, im drunk in hawaii right now but i am looking forward to going back to michigan

[BattlemechDood No.416481]

Call me ocd but I went and bought colored LEDs to match all the arcade buttons so there wouldn't be any white showing through the cracks in the buttons...

[BattlemechDood No.416484]

[Anonymous No.416524]

>>416481

I thought those were those high power LED's that needed a heatsink for a minute.

I was like Jesus fuck what are you doing?? Going to turn those on when the Mech gets hit in game? They'll burn out in about a second and a half but they'll temporarily blind everyone in the room.

[Anonymous No.416555]

>>416331

Yeah those cans don't take you very far. For something that big you'd have saved money and had an easier time with an industrial drum and a spray gun.

'course you need to thoroughly clean that bastard after putting something like plastidip through it.

[Anonymous No.416565]

>>412785
All of this effort in what I admit is a very cool and well done project, but why no sound proofing/dampening on the inside? Not only reduce exterior noise, but produce a better quality sound inside? On that not, very cool project.

[Anonymous No.416573]

>>416565
+1 for sound dampening, would increase experience tremendously, also its pretty cheap to use duct tape, egg crates and foam lining and doesnt take much space

[BattlemechDood No.416581]

>>416524
Bahaha, nah, they're not anywhere near those high-power LEDs they use in flashlights and such. They're just little surface-mount LEDs.

>>416555
I looked into using a sprayer with plastidip, but after reading some horror stories online I decided against it. Ah well. Cost me about 80 bucks all in all, not too bad.

I'll probably roll or brush on whatever paint I end up using for the outside.

>>416565
I am thinking about putting sound proofing on the outside to keep it from gettin ugly in there. Would that work? Line the /outside/ with dynamat or something similar?

I was gonna line the inside with fatmat but that stuff's smelly as fuck.

If all else fails there's no reason I can't add in sound dampening to the inside later.

[Anonymous No.416613]

>>416581
Well, I'm the one who suggested it, I would think if you're going to soundproof the exterior, you may as well build a box around it, essentialy making it like a houshold wall. That of course is if you're against it being on the interior, which would still work. Even a thin layer on the inside of say, 1/4 inch insulation, with something like faux leather over it (for appearance) would add to the quality of sound. It'll not only produce a better sound for the player, but as I mentioned, help dampen the exterior noise. Personally, I'd just insulate the interior of the box, you're not going to really notice it seeing as you're inside for the gaming experience, not to ooh and ahh over the walls of the box, it'd also be much more cost efficient that way.

[BattlemechDood No.416614]

>>416613
Good calls all around... Alright, once I have the box completely put together and finalized (probably within a week or two), I will look into some sound dampening for the interior. What sort of insulation would you recommend?

[Anonymous No.416617]

>>416614
Only real dampener I've used was some B-Quiet for my truck, just to cut down on the overall noise inside due to it being an older model. It's definitely worked well, not sure how well it'd work with your sort of application, I'd just suggest a little research, try to find some reviews for different products if no one else here has any opinions to add. Had to bring the subject up, was surprised to not see any mention of it prior to my post, with a gaming cabinet I cant imagine having 4 speakers with a sub going over well with nothing to just cut down on overall noise while you're inside, let alone outside.

[Anonymous No.416633]

>>416614

[Anonymous No.416637]

>>416633
There is a difference between soundproofing, and setting up a room for proper acoustics be it for listening/recording purposes. Polite sage.

[TheBlacksmith No.416659]

>>412823
This is how legends are made.

[gamedev No.416838]

>>416581
>I am thinking about putting sound proofing on the outside to keep it from gettin ugly in there. Would that work? Line the /outside/ with dynamat or something similar?
see:
>>416637
>There is a difference between soundproofing, and setting up a room for proper acoustics be it for listening/recording purposes.

I'm no expert but I believe the point of putting soundproof foam on the interior walls is to prevent echoing off the walls, which makes the audio sound worse. If you put the foam on the outside, it will prevent noise from leaving the box, but not from echoing.

In my opinion, soundproof foam looks cool anyway. Some back of the napkin calculations indicate that it will probably cost $30-60 to soundproof the interior, depending on how thoroughly you want to do it.

[BattlemechDood No.416874]

>>416838
That cinches it; I will be egg-crating the inside of the box for sure. Thank you for the simple and definitive explanation!

I'll try to find some with an interesting pattern; if not I will just use eggcrate. It'll be so dark in there it won't really matter if I end up using something ugly.

[BattlemechDood No.417221]

Slappin shit together for the exhibition this Friday...

[BattlemechDood No.417222]

[BattlemechDood No.417223]

[BattlemechDood No.417225]

It's like one of those /diy/ tiny houses, except not.

[BattlemechDood No.417224]

[BattlemechDood No.417226]

Poor man's dynamat acquired!

[BattlemechDood No.417228]

D-type weather sealers for the removable side. Holy shit is the adhesive on these things insane. I gotta get me some of that.

my box has the D

[BattlemechDood No.417229]

Cat was surprisingly cute and not at all obnoxious today.

[BattlemechDood No.417230]

Aw.

[Anonymous No.417268]

>>416874
You could also cover some of the ugly with some cosmetic touches like adding a life-support module, personals-locker, ejection-seat handles, neuro-helmet connectors, etc.

[Anonymous No.417269]

>>417230
Just wait til he hiss at penis.

Then you'll have the mad cat portion covered.

[Anonymous No.417285]

I always dreamed of doing this, I even had a whole book of sketches and plans as a teen.

OP, you're doing God's work.

[Anonymous No.417292]

>>417229
>>417230
I bet she's feeling left out.
>that's one fucking nice kitty right there

[Anonymous No.417304]

>>417229
>>417230
10/10, would pet

[Anonymous No.417315]

>dices
Fuck yeah we ballin now.

[BattlemechDood No.417352]

>>417268
Absolutely. Gonna have a control panel for HVAC and such, throw some hoses in there, etc. Personals locker is an excellent idea; I can put repair tools (for actually repairing stuff in the box) in there, etc.

I was actually gonna put an ejection seat handle in as part of the game... I'm still trying to find a suitable switch/button/whatever for it.

>>417285
Cheers, hahaha.

>>417292
>>417304
Despite all the manly construction and giant-death-robot-fabrication going on in the garage, she is a constant anchor of adorableness.

>>417315
aaaaaaaaaaaaaw yeah.

[Anonymous No.417366]

>>417352
>I was actually gonna put an ejection seat handle in as part of the game... I'm still trying to find a suitable switch/button/whatever for it.
Make a simple tension switch that is kept open by a T-shaped bar.

[Anonymous No.417411]

>>417366
How about the handbrake from a car? You could use a microswitch to determine when it's pulled and rig a spring on the wire coming from it for tension.

[Anonymous No.417827]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuPDQ8H3qM

Next project?

[Anonymous No.418016]

>>412785
Hey BattlemechDood
ive followed all your previous threads and i must say, job well done! You are what this board is all about. Thank you

[Anonymous No.418019]

>>417827
>weapons activated by smiling
Oh god.

[Anonymous No.418163]

>>417352
>I was actually gonna put an ejection seat handle in as part of the game... I'm still trying to find a suitable switch/button/whatever for it.
You can use any pushbutton switch you want (projecting style will be easiest), you just need to mount it to a plate that you can attach the eject handles to.
Then add a hard stop to the plate so that a really strong pull won't result on the switch getting crushed.

You can also add die springs to the bolts that hold and guide the switch plate (5 to 19 pounds of compression each) to increase the amount of force required to pull the switch.

I'm quite fond of 22mm panel cutout switches myself. See Mcmaster-Carr catalog pages 858 and 859.

[Anonymous No.418319]

I love you OP !

[Anonymous No.418367]

I have like no fucking idea who you really are, and where do you live, or what is your real name, BUT I FUCKING LOVE YOU MAN

[Anonymous No.418506]

>>414593
so that's how patch cables work.. intredasting

[DURKO No.418511]

>>417221
>>417222
>>417224
>dice
fucking awesome

[BattlemechDood No.418940]

>>417366
I really like this, actually. Nice and simple design. I will probably end up with something like this. Thanks!

>>417411
There's not really enough room for a handbrake to the left or right of the seat. Thanks for the input though.

>>417827
I have a love/hate relationship with the Karatus... there's so much that is cool about it, yet so much that is ass backwards retarded.

>>418016
>>418319
>>418367
>>418511

Thanks guys! Means a lot!

>>418163
That's pretty neat; thanks for the graphic! If there was a little more room to the sides of the seat I might have done something like this; I'll hold onto that for future reference. Cheers!

[BattlemechDood No.418943]

Welp, the halfway-point exhibition went great. Everyone who tested out the cockpit loved it, even though only two or three people were actually able to manage the pedal-driving system. (peasants... the people who could do it said it was an excellent system and was "very intuitive." oh well)

I'll post a few pics of the fabrication leading up to the exhibition and then a few from it.

[BattlemechDood No.418945]

[BattlemechDood No.418944]

I blew up my i/o expanders so I went and put in some chip sockets just in case it happened again...

[BattlemechDood No.418946]

D Sub 9 all up in there

[BattlemechDood No.418947]

[BattlemechDood No.418948]

Modified a monitor stand for holding up the screens...

[Anonymous No.418950]

looks like the cockpits from MWO

[BattlemechDood No.418951]

All loaded up and ready to go.

[BattlemechDood No.418952]

Installed and running at the exhibition! Somehow forgot to take pics of it from the outside... ah well

[BattlemechDood No.418954]

I had to coach everyone, seeing as there's no working tutorial or anything right now.

[BattlemechDood No.418953]

Here's my professor blastin bitches

[BattlemechDood No.418956]

Here's the pilot's-eye-view

[BattlemechDood No.418957]

look at this fucking glory shot

it might as well be a Dell advertisement

[teka No.418964]

Glorious

[Anonymous No.418969]

>>418957
This is HQ to any available units. We have mechs down at nav gamma.

[Anonymous No.419141]

>>418957

Good work brother. I salute you.

[Anonymous No.419145]

>>418957
glory to you, BattlemechDood-sama!

[Anonymous No.419151]

>>418951
like a glove

[Anonymous No.419161]

Are the pilot's able to read your embossed labels in there? It looks awfully dark.

[Anonymous No.419169]

>>418957
Any thoughts on backlighting the labels for switches? It seems as though you can't see which are which when the door is closed. It would make the requirement for coaching lower IMHO. It looks amazing!

[BattlemechDood No.419188]

Thanks fellas!

>>419161
>>419169
Very soon I will be installing red 'cabin lights' to let players read labels and stuff easier.

[Anonymous No.419190]

>>418957
Beautiful. Thanks, OP

[Anonymous No.419209]

>>418957
Is there anyway you could post the code or the game somewhere so we can play it too? That would be awesome.

[Anonymous No.419212]

>>418956
Had any thoughts on multi screen layouts? Say, a single 27" in portrait mode for main forward and two other angled 20" next to it.
Ideally with the assembly sunken into some mech like internal armor-lookalike structure.

Using freetrack or equivalent to track the users head to make the screen behave like a window would be quite awsome too.

[Anonymous No.419217]

>>413968
Is that a right handed joystick on the left?
If so, why?

[Anonymous No.419219]

>>419212
me again. made a photoshop mockup of what I had in mind.

[BattlemechDood No.419225]

>>419209
Within the next week or two I will try to have a web-player version up!

>>419212
I was going to do three in a panorama, but I really love the photoshop you did up. I will strongly consider doing that!

>>419217
Because I haven't gotten around to modifying it yet. I'm gonna dremel it apart and make it ergo for the left hand eventually. (I haven't actually managed to interface the joysticks yet.)

[BattlemechDood No.419479]

>>419219
Just wanted to thank you again for this mockup... this is spinning all kinds of gears in my head.

[Anonymous No.419733]

>>418957
This image gets around enough and you might find yourself a job at/sponsorship from Dell.

[Anonymous No.419734]

>>419733
Isn't DELL usually more interested in 'professional user'-group?

The people I always do business with seem to lack any kind of humanity or sense of humor.

[Anonymous No.419744]

>>419734
Well, he could always just shoop another brand logo on it.

[Anonymous No.419758]

>>419219
you could do something like the army humvee sims, putting the monitor outside of a window to make a realistic view of having to peer through the glass. not like a large screen like my pic, but one mounted in a closed area outside of a glass pane

[Anonymous No.419760]

>>419479
head tracking on a setup like this would be truly amazing too, if the mek is turning too slowly you can lean forward & peek aroundetc. before getting back into position to aim. It could really increase the link between the physical cockpit space & the ingame cockpit

[gamedev No.419763]

>>419758
A real mech wouldn't have windows, it would just have an external video camera, so I think it's reasonable to display the game on a monitor inside (and certainly cheaper).

[Anonymous No.419765]

>>419763
well looking at >>419219 makes it look like more of a window

[Anonymous No.419767]

>>419763
Battletech mechs generally have glass cockpits.

[Anonymous No.419771]

>>419763
Real mechs would never exist. Your point is moot.

[Anonymous No.419979]

>>419771
I think you can buy a street legal mech from Japan for like, $100k

[BattlemechDood No.420115]

>>419979
see >>417827

[BattlemechDood No.420152]

Woo! Sound dampener has been put in. Not putting any on the upper half of the windshield yet as I may be modifying it to fit bigger monitors.

[BattlemechDood No.420154]

Spent all that time and money on paint just to put this shit over it... oh well, such is life.

[BattlemechDood No.420156]

[BattlemechDood No.420155]

[BattlemechDood No.420157]

Door's unfinished, so no deadening on it yet.

I'll be painting over all this shit eventually... (again). Probably gonna go with a brushed-on matte black for the final color.

[BattlemechDood No.420158]

Big thanks to my older brother for this shit. I have twelve square feet. Where do I best put it? Top/back? Or the sides? I dunno.

[Anonymous No.420163]

OP are you the guy that did the Mad Max car project?

[Anonymous No.420165]

>>413665
>my other car is a siege tank

my nigga

[Anonymous No.420166]

>>419979
You and I both know that >>419763 was referring to an actual practical weapon of war, not a giant expensive toy..

[Anonymous No.420167]

OP
How much total has this project cost you?

[BattlemechDood No.420169]

>>420163
Yep! See >>413665

>>420165
Aw yiss... I was raised on Starcraft.

>>420167
About 1.2k all in all, not including all the stuff I had already (computer, donated items, etc.)

[Anonymous No.420172]

>>420152
I have that exact same colander/strainer. I lol'd.

Also great job so far.

[BattlemechDood No.420367]

>>420172
LOL. Brofist.

[BattlemechDood No.420368]

Soundproofing foam installed; it sounds super crisp and clean in there now. The deadening cut down on the hollow reverberation dramatically and the foam killed most of the echo. Stoked.

[Anonymous No.420378]

>>420368
i'd never leave it if it had running water and food available, fucking nice!

[Anonymous No.420396]

I'm just thinking of the Battletech universe mechs (MechWarrior 1, 2, etc.) but aren't you missing a big red covered switch/button/lever for the emergency reactor shutdown (SCRAM) and the shutdown override?

Would be kind of cool if flipping the emergency shutdown switch shut down everything but a few backup lights in your cockpit.

Likewise, flipping the shutdown override switch could turn on a dim flashing red light behind the chair/pilots head or some shit to give the feeling of a critical reactor.

I don't think either would be terribly expensive nor difficult for you to add in. I remember managing heat and pushing the reactor as far as possible on an override was a central part to mechs. Anywho, just throwing ideas out there.

[Anonymous No.420397]

>>420396
Forgot pic.

[BattlemechDood No.420403]

>>420378
Thanks! Girlfriend was suggesting I install boxes for snacks...

>>420396
I have a big red button on the main console for shutdown override that will double as emergency shutdown if you hold it. It's not quite as cool as the buttons in your pic, but it is pretty big and lights up.

[BattlemechDood No.420404]

>>420403

[Anonymous No.420408]

>>420368
Great !

sorry to bother you but are you making progress with the game so we can play it ?

[Anonymous No.420422]

>>420403
>SHUT DOWN
You really need some alternative buttons.

[Anonymous No.420438]

>>418019
No niggers in this thread, thanks.

[Anonymous No.421226]

bump

[BattlemechDood No.421815]

Sorry for the lack of updates; took a short hiatus from it so I could do well on the rest of my finals. Should have some more fun stuff up within a day or two.

[Anonymous No.421885]

>>421815
Looking forward to them. People like you make this board great.

[Anonymous No.422730]

I recall your game had some mechanic where the pilot could be killed by a cockpit hit but it was not immediately obvious what had happened so your friends thought it was a bug.

Seems to me like your game engine has enough detail that you could simulate something like a blood spatter on the cockpit window. eg: seen as a different window texture in-game and a splatter effect across the screens of the hit player.

You could also use the sound system to enhance the effect for whoever got hit. Like a "splat" sound followed by the game audio becoming very dull and distant.

[Anonymous No.422737]

OP, I too am building a cockpit although mine is for Star Citizen. I am going to shamelessly steal your detailed wiring designs.

[gamedev No.422835]

>>422737
You're stealing OP's design, but you're omitting the giant buttons and switches? Come on.

Also, what is that controller on the left arm rest?

[Anonymous No.422868]

>>422835
I couldn't be bothered to mock up all the damn switches and greeble in there too, that took me like a day to get 1:1 properly in sketchup.

That's a HOTAS Warthog.

[Anonymous No.423149]

>>421815

OP could you do another video sometime? I'm curious to see how the game looks now.
Great work btw.

[Anonymous No.423163]

I hope Op starts working for HiRez. Or someone else doing Torque/Dynamix games.

If you end up re-doing it sometime I'd recommend Torque Engine, it's got mech games in its blood and specializes in huge areas to walk around in.

[Anonymous No.423400]

>>422737
1. Where do you enter?

2. What's the point of having a large simulator if you're playing on a small screen?

3. Why do you have a standard keyboard in it? You couldn't put the time into making it not look like a shitty last-minute addition?

[Anonymous No.423405]

>>420169
starcraft player also? dude, if you ever broke with your gf, im here for you, i mean for drinks and stuff

(no homo)

[Bigfat No.423688]

Bump, because I love you and this thread (totally homo) and I want some new posts

[BattlemechDood No.423846]

>>422730
Good call... perhaps I'll put this back in. I've decided to make the scale more or less that of the Battletech universe, so a bloodied cockpit would be easy to make out.

>>422737
Looks awesome! Link to your build thread if you get one goin!

>>423149
Just started up coding again today. Working on systems. May have a vid up tonight!

>>423163
Been looking at Torque... after this project I'll try my hand at it. Thanks!

>>423405
Cheers man, haha. I'll hit you up!

>>423688
Hey thanks! New content coming soon, I promise... been super lazy on the first weekend of spring break, but now that the week has started I feel obligated to do some actual work.

Currently putting together the power systems... going to have a diesel engine, reactor, and capacitor. Coding up a current draw system (each weapon/system will have a certain amperage it requires to function, which will deplete the capacitor, which is charged by the reactor.)

The 'lore' behind the function of the mechs is as follows (since I want to have both an internal combustion engine and a reactor, even though a reactor supposedly would make an engine obsolete):

In this world, which is a mildly-rebuilt post-apocalyptic earth (about a century ahead of doomsday), complex electrical systems are more difficult to service than kinetic/mechanical systems. So, most machinery runs on combustion engines.

However, electrical weaponry (such as lasers and plasma cannons) that survived doomsday or have been rebuilt by specialists require heaps of electrical power, so most mechs sport a miniaturized cold fission reactor to power computers and frickin laser beams.

The idea is that since strictly-electrical systems have few to no moving parts, they require less maintenance than mechanical systems such as joints and such (a gross generalization, I know.)

So, mech engineers rely on combustion engines as much as possible for moving parts, as electrical motors require relatively special equipment to service and repair.

[Anonymous No.423869]

>>418944
Might as well add some capacitors between the supply pins when you still have access to the I/O expander board. It's not required by the datasheet, but always a good idea when switching currents. 10µF electrolytic and 10nF ceramic are a good choice most of the time.

[BattlemechDood No.423919]

Here's a rough concept for the power systems of the mech.

[BattlemechDood No.423920]

>>423869
Good call, thanks; I'll slap some in there.

[Anonymous No.423968]

>>423919

big mistake there. your enemy will discover your vulnerability. in no time.

never use a single source power distribution. if it gets hit, you are dead in the water.

spread those batteries into banks all around the ship based on the needs of the systems located in those areas. weapons battery, life support battery, shields battery (inb4) radar battery, etc.
If a battery takes a hit, you can reroute power to that system to get it back online. but that will mean sacrificing power from the system you're stealing from. so if you tie the gun battery to life support, you'll have to go easy on the guns. or if your radar battery is you'll have to deal with using the radar intermittently to conserve power.

[Anonymous No.423984]

minigame - repair mode
rerouting power / fixing wiring
replacing parts and batteries
change filters on air scrubbers
clear jammed weapons
scavenge parts from enemy ships.

[Anonymous No.424087]

>>423846
That lore sounds bad-ass. Keep us updated.

Best thread I've seen here in a long while.

[Anonymous No.424092]

>>412891
Are you gonna hotbox this? Please yes

[BattlemechDood No.424232]

Stressing out over how polished I want this shit to be before I release another vid, haha. Here's a screencap of what I've been putting together.

Vid soon I promise. :]

>>423968
The assumption is that your core components would be very heavily recessed into the bowels of your mech, but point taken... I'll see about having batteries for each component. (That actually agrees with my power-patching system I had devised in the first place, haha.)

>>423984
I fucking LOVE minigames! I wrote down your suggestions... if you can think of fun actual mechanics for the minigames I'd love to hear 'em.

>>424087
Cheers, will do!

>>424092
LOL. It would get real dank, real fast...


captcha: fuldrox unbreathing

thanks for the nightmare fuel, captcha...

[Anonymous No.424267]

>>423919
>no backup for life support
>life support not controlled by independent computer

[Bigfat No.424276]

>>424267
Remember these are supposed to be post apocalyptic scrounged machines. To a certain extent with stuff like batteries I agree it should have seperation. With computers it's another deal, not enough part, and they need more specialize mechanics ( most people in post apocalypse situations have limited education

[Anonymous No.424293]

This is like my third or fourth time just surfing /diy/ and MAN AM I GLAD I DID TODAY.

OP you are a god man.

[Anonymous No.424323]

>>424232
OP That screenshot looks sooo, sooo good. I eagerly await the vid. But I can wait. Give it to us when it's ready.

I really like the power patching idea, and having to manage the mech's resources in real-time.

However, mini-games are tricky to get right. It's really easy for them to become tedious and busy work. Then again, you're awesome, so I'm sure you won't rest until it's perfect.

[Anonymous No.424325]

>>424232

You were talking about melee before, right?

What about punching? Like, imagine one of those mechs decking another. It could take it off its feet.

[Anonymous No.424366]

>>424232
I've got two suggestions; one for the next time you do a public/classroom exhibition, and an ingame mechanic to consider.

So the next time you plan on presenting this to your class or in public, you should consider setting up a projector and some webcams inside the cockpit (one on the main console to record pilot reactions, one mounted on the ceiling to record how a person operates the battlemech.).

This way, when people are standing in line to hop in the battlemech, you can entice them with real-time video of the game screen, pilot reactions, etc...

An absolutely ballin' out of control minigame to implement would be a smart weapons/drone interface. Can you imagine a player having the ability to pre-program the initial flight path of their own missiles, the firing pattern of their guns, all of it unique the person playing. The sheer creativity and ingenuity a player is allowed to express is staggering, true customization with which to give your players absolute dominion over how their mech operates, not mere cosmetic changes. Granted, this will most likely be a coding NIGHTMARE but you've come this far, right?

[BattlemechDood No.424369]

>>424267
>>424276
Precisely.

And note that this game takes place on an environmentally stable Earth, so to be honest the mechs probably don't even need a life support function.... hmm.

>>424293
Ahaha, thanks! :]

>>424323
Thanks; yeah I'm trying to figure out an intuitive power-patching system... I don't want any of the 'minigames' to be too complicated. I really like the quick-reload mechanics in, was it Gears of War? That kind of stuff. Nothing like the hacking in Dues Ex or whatever... while fun, I don't want to pull the player from combat like that.

>>424325
Still trying to work out how/if I'm going to do melee combat. Right now your arms are bristling with weaponry that can be blown off, so punching someone with your relatively fragile weapons doesn't seem like a good idea.

What I may do is allow you to install a single large melee weapon on an arm, such as a spike/chainsaw/morningstar/battering ram on one arm, and have that arm dedicated to pimp slappin other mechs.

[Anonymous No.424382]

>>424369
>Still trying to work out how/if I'm going to do melee combat.
The melee weapon could be selectable/deployable like the shield is. A hydraulically extended/retracted blade.

In order to balance the game so that you can't use the shield with the melee weapon, maybe set it up so that you can only choose one or the other.

[gamedev No.424597]

>>424369
> punching someone with your relatively fragile weapons doesn't seem like a good idea.
Bayonets, man, bayonets.

> quick-reload mechanics in, was it Gears of War?
I think it was. And yeah, I liked that minigame too.

> minigames
Another possibility is some sort of simple rewiring minigame. You have N power sources of varying strength and M power sinks (maybe 2 slots per sink). You have to reroute the wires along a grid so no grid cell has more than 2 wires on top of each other, and still get your power where you need it. If you want to divert more power to a sink, you can either plug into the auxiliary socket or replace one of the current weak power sources with a stronger one from somewhere else. Since some of the sources would be batteries, you'd have to rewire whenever a battery goes dead, but it might recharge over time from the reactor.

[Anonymous No.425238]

>>412785
bump

[BattlemechDood No.425396]

PARADIGM SHIFT!

Guys.

Guys listen.

My game design accomplice and I have decided to do something crazy.

Anybody ever play Widget Workshop? We're going to essentially combine Widget Workshop with a mech sim.

Just let that sink in for a minute.

Essentially you will be able to install equipment (weapons etc.) onto hardpoints, which you then control using simple (or complex if you choose) 'circuitry' to control what is mounted to the hardpoints. This idea started as a solution for making the game appeal to both 'gamers' and 'simmers,' people who want to just drive around and blow shit up and people who want a nitty-gritty simulator experience. The idea is that if someone wants a regular drive-and-gun experience, they can automate most of the systems in their mech. If someone wants a sim experience, they can wire their systems up with lots of buttons and toggles and inputs and displays, leaving the actual operational decisions up to the pilot.

I know this is a fairly large deviation from what I (and probably most of you) were anticipating in this game, but this is an area in game development that my partner and I have not seen explored.

For example, circuit in pic has a button to fire your machine gun and a toggle for fast or slow rate-of-fire. The toggle switches the fire button input between two 'repeaters' that run the gun at half-speed or full-speed.

At full speed, the gun will presumably overheat. So, a thermometer is hooked up to the gun that detects if it is about to overheat. When the thermometer hits that threshold, it overrides the fast-fire toggle and forces the gun to fire at half-speed, and also kicks in some kinda coolant system.

This is all super rough and up in the air at the moment but I am presently working on a prototype of the system. If all goes well, the emergent property of this system is a game with a distinct feeling of post-apocalyptic jerry-rigging and a control scheme/gameplay that the player has full control over.

[BattlemechDood No.425402]

Some sketches of circuit components and a rough mockup of a circuit that would fire two machineguns and a flamethrower for one second, followed by a quick douse of the flamer from a coolant system.

To clarify what I said about the game being tailorable to either a 'gamer' or a 'simmer,' a gamer would only have to do the nitty-gritty circuitry stuff once, possibly using pre-fabricated circuits you can select, and then forget about them for the rest of the game.

A simmer could constantly tweak and improve circuitry between each mission, or what have you.

[Anonymous No.425408]

>>425396
Well shit.

>>424366 here. Yeah that's pretty much everything I wanted.

[BattlemechDood No.425420]

>>425408
LOL! Holy shit I missed that post! Motherfucking great minds up in here. Thank you so much for the post! I hadn't considered missile behavior/firing arcs/etc.

I seriously didn't manage to see your post; you must have made it while I was writing my post right after yours, and I failed to catch yours when the page updated with mine.

Projectors displaying the in-game action is an excellent idea for a presentation setting; I will definitely go that route for the final. Thanks for the tips!

I am putting together a list of input/output types I want to have in the coding minigame system... I'll post it up here for you to review--sounds like you have a good grasp of what would make this kind of system successful, so your appraisal/input would be awesome. :]

[Anonymous No.425423]

>>422868

[Anonymous No.425431]

>>425420
Another thing to consider for the next presentation: since your game is post-apoc and you've already got the dice in the cockpit, why not get in character a bit? Set your exhibition up as a recruitment session, act the part of a scrappy soldier of fortune talent scout. Offer the players who exceed in certain parameters, (most kills, fastest reaction speeds, most creative uses of weaponry, etc...) places as official beta testers and members of your "faction".

[BattlemechDood No.425498]

So I quickly realized how complex this stuff can get if you try to make useful systems... this here is circuitry that would turn a semi-automatic rifle into a full-auto machinegun. It would fire it at its maximum rate of fire until it began to overheat, at which point it would throttle the rate of fire down to half speed and engage a coolant system. This circuit also allows you to reload the weapon if the magazine is not full, and it will automatically reload if the gun runs out of ammo.

This is obviously not the prettiest or most well-drawn diagram, but does looking at this immediately make you guys say, "I don't even want to touch this"? Hahaha

>>425431
Hahaha, we'll see. I don't want them to think I'm /completely/ nuts! I already scare them enough as it is!

[BattlemechDood No.425501]

>>425498
(for anyone trying to dissect this, the clocks run on seconds--top one is 0.2 seconds, the maximum ROF of the gun, and the bottom is 0.4 seconds. The magazine size of the machinegun is 150 rounds. The thermometer clicks on when the gun begins to overheat.)

(Also it's not a legit circuit diagram... 'wires' are just digital or analog 'hot', assuming everything is grounded appropriately.)

[Anonymous No.425508]

>>425396
>>425402
>>425498

DAMMMNNNNN. You have no idea how much I want to play with this.

The custom circuits idea is brilliant. But I don't know how much a layman would want to play with it. I really love circuits, so I'm probably in the same boat as you. Personally, I love the idea. I think it's brilliant.

You could make the system pretty intuitive. Circuits aren't that complicated, It's just logic.

Also.... You mentioned before a new video? :[

[gamedev No.425664]

>>425498
You can pretty easily fine tune the difficulty for laypeople by making more macroscopic circuit components. For example, if you wanted to make automating machine guns easier, you could introduce an "if-then-else" component that just checks some condition at each timestep and branches the circuit accordingly, instead of doing a conditional component, a branch in the wire, and a NOT gate. You could also decouple the GUI from the circuit, so your circuits don't get so cluttered. Finally, you could make the individual components as error tolerant as you want, e.g. you could just rig the R key directly to reload, and have the gun just do nothing if it doesn't need to or can't reload.

As a case study, you can look at Blender's logic system, which is kinda similar to circuitry and actually favored by laypeople who don't know how to code. (pic related)

[Anonymous No.426026]

I can't say how excited I am to see this (the game and the cockpit, and the combination) in action.

[Anonymous No.426809]

bump
was getting pretty far back in the catalog

[Bigfat No.426820]

This is going to get archived right? If so where, I wan to keep this since its so amazing

[Anonymous No.426935]

is finished product pictures around?
I'd like to see it.