Why is the airport further away in the 2D cockpit than in the VC? Everytime I'm coming in for landing I gotta either ZOOM in to see the RWY properly, or press "W" a few times which removes the cockpit and gives me a much better slightly zoomed in view of the airport and runway. Is this normal? The zoom is on 1.00 by default in the 2D cockpit, and on 0.70 in the VC which I assume is normal. It's also on 1.00 in the "no cockpit" 2D view, but this view appears to be zoomed in a little giving a much better view. Confusing? It's like this in the 747, but I'm guessing it's the same with the other ones aswell. I haven't flown them in awhile. I know this is a weird issue, but what do you guys have to say? Are you zooming in on final approach, or do you squint and try to make out the runway?

I'm guessing the field of view is different in the VC compared to the 2d panel

I'm guessing the field of view is different in the VC compared to the 2d panel

Said everything. I use 0.30 zoom for both VC and 2D cockpit.

Zoom factor 1.00 seems a bit too much. I usually set about 0.60

Zoom factor 1.00 seems a bit too much. I usually set about 0.60

I see - but the default zoom is at 1.00?

Just try to imagine you seated in the plane and the kind of view you would have. In my opinion, the 0.30 zoom is the one that gets closer to reality.

Just my $.02, It varies greatly depending on your setup, resolution etc. When I only had one screen I would normally reset the view zoom by hitting backspace then go once back with the minus (-) key (I think that was 0.60). Once I started using the triplehead2go with 3 monitors I had to use 0.30. For me, it is the best and all I use.

Just try to imagine you seated in the plane and the kind of view you would have. In my opinion, the 0.30 zoom is the one that gets closer to reality.

The problem here is that in the real plane you have peripheral vision - on a monitor you do not. Setting .30 does somewhat simulate peripheral vision, but it comes at the expense of distortion the field of view - you create a fisheye lens type effect when you do it. 1.0 actually is correct as far as what you'd see proportion wise in the real thing, the problem is just that you have a MUCH greater total field of view with your eyes than you do on a monitor. It's just one of the tradeoffs you have to make with 3D graphics on a 2D screen - I usually compromise and set it to .60 or so, which gives enough peripheral vision that it looks closer to reality, but not so much that it causes the fisheye effect.Also - make sure you have the WideViewAspect setting in fsx.cfg set to True - this formats the aspect ratio for widescreen monitors - if you have it set to False (which is the default even for widescreen resolutions), it's going to look too narrow and you won't gain any of the area to the sides of a normal 4:3 display that you should when using a widescreen resolution.

Thanks for all the great input. I guess I should consider buying trackir and start using the VC, but I'm a little sceptical about it - is it really that much better than the 2D cockpit? Are there no down sides to it?

Virtual Cockpit flying is the only way to go in my opinion. When I switched, way back before I even had payware aircraft, i have never looked back. You will become spoiled. I will even refuse to consider buying or flying a plane that does not have a VC, i have gotten that used to it and that averse of 2D panels.

I agree with Scott but I haven't had as much time with VC. With my setup I was forced to use VC and 2D wasn't an option running at my res. I actually thought of just going back to one monitor :( . For me it took a while, I loved my 2D! But now, just like Scott said, I no longer look back, just long enough to shake my head and wonder why I didn't do it before. Of course, I also use lots of the 2D popups and couldn't fly without them, but again my setup is most likely different than others.

Also - make sure you have the WideViewAspect setting in fsx.cfg set to True - this formats the aspect ratio for widescreen monitors - if you have it set to False (which is the default even for widescreen resolutions), it's going to look too narrow and you won't gain any of the area to the sides of a normal 4:3 display that you should when using a widescreen resolution.

Thanks for the tip, I didn´t know about it. It made a huge difference.

I personally still prefer a 2D cockpit when flying airliners.Also, I tried changing the WideView settings to true, as I have a widescreen too, but the view in the 2D cockpit looked far too stretched for my liking. I assume this setting works best for VC users.Regards,Awais M.

Many payware planes have 2d panels designed for widescreen monitors that do not look stretched. You can also manually resize a panel if you think its looking weird, for example the CDU. For the main panel itself that is not really an option tho, as it would leave a gap between the end of the panel and the edge of the screen

Actually I have never seen any 2D panel that I could use with my current res. Even stretching isn't an option for me. I can with the 2D pop ups though, just not the main 2D panels.