The prt button only take screenshots into the RAM.You have to open a picture programm like Photoshop, open a new file and insert this screenshot.To make real screenshot with FS you have to press "V".The pictures are in your "pictures" folder under "flight simulator X files"

At .50 Zoom level - all relevent stuff on screen, good perspective, but text way to small.At .70 Zoom level - most relevent info on screen, less windscreen view, but text still a bit to small.I have manually altered the aircraft config file to adjust the defaults.Edit: Bleh - I got my taskbar up in the second one covering some of it, heh - noob.

Such a big help, thank you very much! :-)

I have always been one to use the 2D panel. I debated hard on purchasing the J41 due to it's lack. After 2 days of using the airplane, the ONLY "flaw" I can find with the plane, is the lack of a 2D panel.The VC looks great - I've no doubt it's the best one to be made yet. However, for me, the loss of information while flying is a killer. I use a 22" wide screen monitor with a 1680x1050 resolution (native). In Takeoff and Climb I feel blind flying this plane. I have to choose between:#1 - Default Cockpit View that PMDG provides = great view out the front windscreen...and that's it. Your flying by "feel". No access to any instruments, or information.#2 - Default Cockpit View panned down so that you can see a bit out of the windscreen, and most of the EADI. Limited view, limited info.#3 - Default Cockpit View panned down, and zoomed out. This gives a limited view out of the windscreen, but if positioned just right, you can get in the EADI, EHSI, and most of the left half of the vital engine gauges (Torque, EGT, RPM) - but left engine only. All fonts on instruments are either impossible, or very difficult to read in this setup due to being zoomed out.I primarily use option #3. I don't know how anyone can feel like they are realistically flying a plane, while doing it three quarters blind. Personally, I MUST have the EHSI, Torque, and EGT on screen at a minimum to takeoff and climb. #3 is the only option I can do that with, however, it severely limits your view outside the aircraft, and due to the zoom level, I find it very difficult to read the instruments. I must take a break after climb out due to eyestrain each flight. Perhaps those with better eyesight than my own do not have this difficulty, but there is no getting around the lack of visibility out the windscreen if you want access to the primary instruments that are vital to correctly fly the plane.The folks above who mention the 2D pop-ups - well they don't solve the problem at all. There are only two PMDG pop-ups. The first is to manage ground scenery and open doors. The second is a FMS, Autopilot combo box. The FMS/AP is useful for not having to pan around to use them, but they are not needed / useful for takeoff and climb out (not to mention you have no screen space to fit it anyways during these flight phases).Everyone has their own techniques, likes and dislikes, when it comes to flying these planes. I can respect that. But several times now I've seen someone like the OP here ask about the lack of a 2D panel. To respond that there are 2D pop-ups as some have done here comes across as very misleading to me (but not malfeasance), as these pop-ups do not address the compromises needed to use the VC.I've seen several folks state their previous devotion to the 2D panel, but now love the VC. I do not doubt their sincerity, but am left wondering how they are doing it. I have seen folks post up screen shots of the views they are using (all have fallen into the three categories I've listed). I spent several hours adjusting the aircraft config file optimizing the default camera settings but have come to the conclusion there is no way around it. You have to compromise outside view or crucial instrumentation.Maybe some are using extra large monitors and using lower (non-native) resolutions so they can be zoomed out, and still read the fonts. But dumbing down the resolution makes things a bit fuzzy to start with doesn't it? Perhaps others are able to fly the plane with one hand while able to maneuver the view zoom and pan with the other hand to go back in forth in flight - I cannot. I find trying that to be distracting at best, catastrophic at worst. Then there are those using the Triple-Head-2Go and Track-IR and such. No way the wife allows me to get away with these more exotic (read: expensive) options, and each of those has drawbacks as well.Bottom line is, when it comes to using the VC exclusively, FOR ME, it really takes away from the experience; looks pretty but takes to many compromises to be worthwhile. Eye-candy never trumps functionality in my book.All that said - this plane is an absolute joy to hand fly. The modeling is fantastic... hehe, this is simply an awesome plane but for the one issue of which this post is about. If this plane had a 2D cockpit I'd rank it the very best sim plane ever made. The MD-11 is great as well, but I prefer short haul to long. I hope this kinda lengthy post is informative, without coming across as a bash on the plane. It's a real love/frustrated relationship with the PMDG J41 for me. I bought many planes from PMDG - I'm not bashing on them, or the plane per se, I just strongly disagree with the design decision to not include a 2D panel. PMDG fills a small niche with their fantastic, but complicated and expensive planes. With the exclusion of the 2D panel, the J41 is a niche plane even inside the PMDG community.Steven Letcher

Exactly.I've experimented a lot with VCs using different methods and hardware devices and even have some VC-only planes, but I've come to the conclusion that only if the way how FSX implements head movements in the 3D world would be changed, I could become familiar using VCs.The problems I have are the same as steven discribes, namely the lack of information which is simultanously on the screen in a big enough size and the inability to quickly enough get informations spread across several panel locations into view.The methods to look around and zoom in a VC aren't sufficient for me. Without head tracking devices, I'd consider VCs unusable for a serious usage. You hae one hand on the yoke, the other on the throttle - and no hand free for mouse, keyboard or whatever else. These can be used only when there's time to let go the throttle. Since you're a one man show in the cockpit, you're condamned to do more than what a real life pilot does, namely tasks which a 2nd person would perform. And all that in a vision- and function-limited simulated environment - you don't have dozens of hardware knobs and switches available, they're all on your monitor within the sim. This way, any simmer is more than handicapped IMHO.So, imagine a hand flown approach to LPMA in very bad weather, you simply cannot take your hands off the yoke or the throttles, there's no time to fiddle around with mouse and keyboard, and still you need instant access to engine parameters, ADI, VSI and altimeter, maybe NAV display as well - AND you need to look right for the runway to judge your position. All that during keeping the bumping, shaking and rolling plane under control in the heavy gusts, not letting it sink too rapidly, trying to capture the runway centerline with the curved approach, and keeping the rocking speed needle above a minimum.In such situations, I never found a way using a VC, there's simply too much going on. A 2D panel partly resolves this problem since many informations are available to you in a more natural way because you can use your real head to look at them and not panning with a virtual avatar in a virtual world. Sight is limited with 2D panels, agreed, but that's the compromise.Not having a 2D panel available renders a plane un-buyable for me, it's that simple. I don't like to buy the J41 just to test and find out I cannot use it, there needs to be a trial version then...Andreas

Wide screen rocks.I'll try it here later. Keep getting distracted from work. :(Best regards,Robin.

I don't like to buy the J41 just to test and find out I cannot use it, there needs to be a trial version then...Andreas

Agreed. I guess that opens up PMDG to piracy, though. And - quite right too - they need to protect themselves from it.But, like you, i dont fancy shelling out money for a plane that i might not be able to use... Although something tells me with the PMDG, its should be sweet!

Do any of you have the MD-11?If so, try using the VC in that. Be sure to shift the view back/up first!Best regards,Robin.

Do any of you have the MD-11?

Yup, but it has native widescreen 2D panel - no need to "suffer" with VC :(

hehe! I think you intentionally miss the point! :DPS: I note my screenshots were removed from the previous page.Best regards,Robin.

The last ones I posted are missing as well. <shrug> Avsim forums deff NOT known for reliability / being bug free.

PS: I note my screenshots were removed from the previous page

They were probably too big, I think the forum software automatically deletes files that are too large a few times a day.

When I was still an active real-world pilot, I used to move my head around quite a bit. I don't ever recall having my head welded to my shoulders with a fixed view all the time. I find panning around the VC quite natural. You can't always see everything at the same time. In fact, for me, it increases the realism. Because you can't see everything at once, you need to manage what you do, when you do it, and how quickly you do it, so you can get your eyes back where they need to be.

Here they are again.Best regards,Robin.

you need to manage what you do, when you do it, and how quickly you do it, so you can get your eyes back where they need to be.

My wife believes this is HER job, but she does not fly with me. Something about a an expensive, time consuming...

I use CTRL+ENTER/CTRL+BACKSPACE to move back/forward, and SHIFT+ENTER/SHIFT+BACKSPACE to move up/down.

That is exactly what I have done. The default position is too close to the windshield, and "zooming out" isn't a satisfactory solution, since it changes the perspective. Moving the seat back allows me to look down at some of the important instruments (or slightly to the right in the case of the engine power and torque readouts), whilst still being able to look through the windshield. Maybe not the perfect solution, but it does the job.