Hi,
some folks in this forum might enjoy a peek into the other area of time spent: the General Purpose Cockpit - or GPC.
GPC is an attempt at simulating a large variety of vehicles, from planes & helicopters, to mechwarriors & trains, to the occasional NASCAR racer.
It serves as a scaffold for developing various electronic bits (the part i enjoy most), and as a "get-away" - a sort of primitive version of Star Trek's holodeck.
Here's a shot of the console - a continual work in progress:
Just about everything (alpha displays, custom panels, things displayed on CRTs) is re-definable, so most things get re-used across the variety of simulations.
If an API is provided, (such as in flightsim or
Orbiter , you can get very involved with hardware support. Flightsim models many existing aircraft displays, and you can make your own if you are handy with C++.
Speaking of Orbiter (which is free, definitely check it out), here's a shot just prior to docking with "Space Station V" from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Note the information on the CRTs is different from the 1st image. A projector provides the 8-foot-plus view out the front window.
Contrast this to the original image:
Ever since i saw this movie as a kid, i wanted to shoot this approach. The major difference is: the simulator is much more functional than the movie set was.
It's a good place to "disappear" to when the wife wants to see a movie that i have no interest in.
Cheers,
Elden
