Slightly off Topic PostBit of a Rant about a thing that I think makes current FS airliner VC's poor when compared with the excellent GA offerings available.I must admit to being disappointed with the way VC are built for airliners in FS. In trying to simulate the complete 3-d environment of the flightdeck the aircraft tends to lose some features that make you prefer using the 2-d panel. For me the main thing I dislike about the VC in airliners for FS is the Perspective. The panel seems too far away from you, in most cases making the gauges etc appear smaller and harder to read. A 2-d panel is for me an attempt by the designer to create a realistic viewpoint and perspective for the aircraft being modelled given that we sit at a desk when flying FS, in most instances the distance between the monitor and the sitting position is about a similar distance to those in an airliner.Therefore the perspective of the 2-d panel looks quite normal when using FS. However with a VC the 3-d flightdeck is modelled so that all of the instruments and gauges etc appear to be further away from you when looking at the monitor.For this reason and this reason alone, I would like to see a designer develop a 3-d VC that resembles the perspective of the 2-d panel. Imagine a version of PIC with a VC that could be panned around using the Hat function, returning to the original eye position when the hat button was released and the panel perspective of the current 2-d panel. This would take FS VC to a new standard.

You can certainly move your VC eyepoint anywhere you want and change the zoom to capture any perspective you'd like. Are you saying this still doesn't produce a realistic VC experience?I think I know what you might be saying. With a 2D panel, we essentially can have two different perspectives, one for the outside view and one for the panel. With a VC, you get one perspective. Chances are we tend to use too wide an angle of view because scanning around with a hat switch is much more cumbersome compared to our eyes flickering around the real thing. Having never been in a 767 cockpit, I'd venture to guess that you can't really see the EADI when you're looking straight ahead at the landing spot. When you want to see the EADI you do a quick glance down. In FS, glancing around is not convenient, so we tend to widen out the view so we can squeeze more on screen, which makes the gauges small.I do agree that having the ability to snap back to the straight ahead view would be useful.Lee Hetherington (KBED)http://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

You have summed it up better than I have.What I was trying to say was that the angle of view in the VC is too wide and set too far back. Having sat in the LHS and RHS of 757 aircraft talking with engineers and pilots at work, I can tell you that the eye level view is directly out the window. Not straight ahead at the EADI or EHSI.The EADI sits directly in front of, and just above the top of the Yoke with the Main Panal being angled back to provide a perfect view of the instrument with a downwards glance. I suppose that this is the sort of ground breaking modelling that I would love to see in FS. As I normally only use the VC in GA aircraft - Dreamfleet Cessna Cardinal & Piper Archer - I don't tend to move the zoom and eyepoint settigns as I like these as is. Also I don't really know how to move the VC position for the airliners.

There's a great addon you can download here called "Active Camera Pro 1.3" that gives you mouse panning and zooming in the VC...Personally, I think VC's are about to improve a TON with FS2004 - they're clickable now and the refresh rate is supposed to be as smooth as the 2D gauges are...