I'm a 2D guy and regularly disable the VC in the .MDL file...FOR MY OWN USE ONLY...of course. The performance improvement resulting from this is immediately noticeable in texture loading times when using 2D. The main downfall to this is that I always seem to lose visibility of taxi/landing lights from INSIDE the cockpit (I can still see them in exterior views like "spot" and "tower").Is there a way around this? I have many aircraft which never came with a VC and I can see their taxi/landing lights, shining on the ground, from the 2D cockpit (the Tinmouse II as an example). I've thought about manually adding landing lights in the "aircraft.cfg" of aircraft that I have altered in this way...but I figure they will "conflict" with the ones that still show up in the external views of these aircraft?Anyone have an idea how to accomplish this?Vic

Hi :)I find that the aircraft's shadow disappears when you remove the VC. I would also like to fix this problem! :)

If you regularly disable the VC, as opposed to hacking the mdl file, have you considered changing this line in the "Graphics" section of your fs9.cfg from SEE_SELF=1 to SEE_SELF=0? Seems like it could accompilish the same purpose.-John

You lose the shadow because you have changed the FIRST entry of the hex: "00 22 00 39 00"...instead of only the SECOND entry. Always skip over the first entry you find and only change the "39" to "00" in the second entry. Here's some shots. The first 3 are the result of changing ONLY the second instance of "00 22 00 39 00" to "00 22 00 00 00"... 1. Notice I still have aircraft shadows. Changing the FIRST instance of the hex removes aircraft shadows.http://users.frii.com/viciii3/lights/fsscr016.jpg 2. I still have landing lights in this EXTERNAL view:http://users.frii.com/viciii3/lights/fsscr017.jpg 3. But I have lost them from the cockpit:http://users.frii.com/viciii3/lights/fsscr018.jpg 4. Here's the landing lights, from the cockpit, with the original, untouched .MDL file:http://users.frii.com/viciii3/lights/fsscr019.jpg Hopefully you backed up the original .MDL. Delete the one which has no shadows and only change the second instance of the string "00 22 00 39 00" to "00 22 00 00 00" in a copy of the original. Hopefully someone will be able to restore my landing lights from the 2D cockpit view. Vic

John, the reason I don't use the "SEE_SELF=0" .cfg change is it doesn't really delete the VC...it only deletes the VC rendition of "side views" in 2D mode. Using this still results in an active VC...which does nothing for my 2D performance. All this setting results in is having no "side views", in 2D mode. Going to "VC" view still shows the VC cockpit: http://users.frii.com/viciii3/lights/VC-1.jpg You can clearly see the VC's rendition of the cockpit's left window here. There is no performance gain in using the "SEE-SELF=0" CFG setting when trying to use 2D mode. The only way to trully get rid of the texture loading hit is to hack the .MDL file. Vic

Hi :)Thanks for the information. I kept a backup of the original files, and I made the adjustments you suggested. It worked :)Thanks again, and I hope you sort out the landing light situation. I'm not a Hex fan :-lol

Did anyone solve the lighting problem? I fly helos for the VUSN and coming in to land at night on a small ship without landing lights is very difficult. I've tried adding landing lights to the aircraft.cfg and they do show up in external views, but not from the cockpit. Actually, I'm not sure any of my planes have decent landing lights... Checking a dozen or so of my aircraft I find none that have them specified. Yikes! Maybe I'll have to load them one at a time in FS and see what happens when I turn on lights....

Hey Captain. Nope...I never did, anyway. I, like you, have tried adding lights in the {lights} section of the aircraft.cfg and they don't show up in the cockpit. I've got aircraft which never came with a VC...and they show landing lights from the cockpit (the TinmouseII as example)...BUT, they do not show any lines for the landing lights in the CFG. This leads me to believe that landing lights are configured in the Model (.MDL) file (at least as far as seeing them from the cockpit). Why disabling the VC, in an MDL, would also disable the landing lights is another question.

> I've got aircraft which never came with a VC...and they show>landing lights from the cockpit (the TinmouseII as>example)...BUT, they do not show any lines for the landing>lights in the CFG. This leads me to believe that landing>lights are configured in the Model (.MDL) file (at least as>far as seeing them from the cockpit).you are correct.>Why disabling the VC, in an MDL, would also disable the landing >lights is another question.this is a designer decision. some designers make multiple versions of their aircraft mdl files so person wishing to fly 2D v VC can still have landing/taxi lights and wing views. (feelthere is known for doing this ... to save framerates as the primary concern.)the reality is 2D is on the way out ... thanks for that aces/microsoft.i'm a 2D person and fly all my aircraft 'in a flat world'. i dislike VC as perspective is a challenge: running a two or three person cockpit is difficult in a VC environment (lots of zooming/unzooming in order to see things ... and how real is it for the pilot to crawl over the center pedistal to flip a guage on the co-pilot side; or get up and to adjust the engineer's panel in a 727? i'll go with 2D's method as it is simpler FOR ME).--

To disable the VC and keep the landing lights coded in the .mdl file, use a hex editor to look for the second occurrence of 00 22 00 39 00 in the .mdl file, and change the 39 to 38 (not 00). This should kill the VC textures and keep the landing lights coded into the model visible from the 2D flight deck view.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

Excellent...I'll give it a try ASAP...which may be a day or two.All these years I've been replacing the "39" with "00"...sheesh! "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Vic