Four cockpits.
One closer look.
The Hellcat, Arrow, Thunderbolt and Excalibur have had a substantial cockpit pass. The aim: keep the ships we remember, and make the place we fly them from feel properly built.
A smaller fighter, a believable cockpit
This started with scale. Comparisons with the original Wing Commander III showed that the remake’s fighters needed to feel smaller alongside the capital ships. We settled on two-thirds of their previous airframe size, while keeping the pilots and missiles at full size.
That made the cockpit a fitting problem, not just a scale slider. The canopy still had to belong to the aircraft. The pilot needed room, and the dashboard, struts and screens had carefully shaped proportions worth keeping. Simply putting the large cockpit on a smaller fuselage was not the answer.
We worked through the fighters one at a time, starting with the Hellcat. Thinner cabin walls, carefully fitted side panels and local footwell changes helped recover space. The display aspect ratios and forward view remained important constraints throughout.
Hellcat: the details around the instruments
The Hellcat set the direction for the material work: restrained blue-grey paint, darker graphite instrument housings, olive structural inserts and controls with their own illuminated details. The MFD surrounds now read as separate parts of the dashboard.
Close-up review found the less glamorous problems: open-looking sidewall corners, a throttle that did not line up convincingly with its base, and a flat COMM/O2 panel. We closed the corner returns, aligned the throttle assembly, and rebuilt the service fittings with recognisable contacts, an oxygen valve, a gasket and a mounting plate.
The side braces gained pressed channels and fitted hardware. Fine surface detail replaced the oversized scratches and heavy grain that made earlier materials feel dated.
Arrow: keeping the light fighter’s character
The Arrow received its own fitting and material pass rather than a copy of the Hellcat dashboard. Its separated displays, compact central radar and distinctive canopy arch still define the view from the seat.
The work carried the same attention to panel finish, controls, sidewall joins and local lighting into that different layout. Forward views and close inspection angles were checked together, so small details did not come at the expense of the cockpit’s overall shape.
Thunderbolt: a throttle worth holding
The Thunderbolt needed a more substantial correction. The earlier throttle was cluttered with rings, blocks and switches; it looked decorated rather than designed for a hand. We rejected that version and rebuilt the grip.
The replacement has a continuous moulded palm surface, a separate lower housing and a tapered lever. The afterburner button sits in an integrated thumb shoulder. The finish is a quiet polymer, with the controls and pivot kept in their functional locations.
Several revisions went into the ends and shell seam. A dark wedge that initially looked like a lighting problem turned out to be the lower housing tapering around the wrong height. Fixing the geometry gave the assembly a more coherent shape.
Excalibur: one continuous display, properly seated
The Excalibur’s left display continues across the centre instruments and includes the radar. Treating those parts as disconnected screens left awkward borders, protruding surfaces and a deep channel where the dashboard should meet the display.
We corrected the screen surrounds and rebuilt the lower join so the dashboard continues on its own plane beneath the display and radar. The dark instrument frames remain distinct from the surrounding coating, with a more consistent edge treatment.
The screen artwork and proportions were preserved. The repair was checked from both oblique angles as well as straight ahead: a join that looks fine in one screenshot can still reveal a gap when you turn your head.
Lighting and screens that earn their space
The finish work also brought locally authored cockpit lighting, controlled through the cabin, console and tone options. This lets the instruments retain their character as the cabin lighting changes. It is not a new ray-tracing mode.
After the geometry pass, we replaced the angular “bamboo” lettering with cleaner military-avionics-style text across the HUD, menus and live MFD pages. Comms menus, video and targeting artwork now use more of the available screen area, with image proportions retained.
The cockpit changes were installed in the development build on 22 October. Checks covered the live displays, lighting options and boarding-to-flight journeys. Hand contact still has known limitations, and those checks do not replace physical controller and headset testing.
These images show work in progress, not a public game release. The next refinements will continue to come from the view that matters most: sitting in the cockpit and actually flying.
Take a look around
Explore the fleet in the browser showroom, or help support the work on Victory.