FSX night lighting with FS Panel Studio?

[turner112 52]

I haven't bought the software - the manual seems to say that the night lighting feature only works for certain versions of FS - but not FSX. I emailed them but have not received a response.Can anyone say whether or not it works in FSX?FWIW I'd like to dim down some of the included panels/instruments.thanks,Andrew

[fxsttcb 1]

The only "Lighting" dialog I could find in FSX mode was the one that sets the following in the panel.cfg...DonDay=255,255,255Night=50,50,50Luminous=200,200,200

[turner112 52]

Thanks - I assume that works. Are there other panel lighting properties that are not editable through FSPS in FSX?

[n4gix 4,947]

No, there aren't. FSPS is nothing more nor less than a WYSIWYG graphical panel system editor.

[turner112 52]

Thanks again - looks like they could use some editing in their manual...regards,Andrew

[n4gix 4,947]

FSPS remains the best investment I've ever made in flightsimulator tools, edging just ahead of FSUIPC by a tiny margin. Frankly, I would have an extremely difficult time without it. Even so, there remain a few items remaining to take it to the "next level..."

1. Add the ability to create the virtual cockpit section. At the moment, one has to add $VC sections via notepad.exe to the panel.cfg file. Once created however, they are easy to edit in FSPS.
2. Add the ability to create and edit 16:10 and 16:9 wide-screen panel.cfg files. At the moment one has to "fudge" with abnormal display parameters to achieve reasonably "round" and/or properly sized gauge displays for the sim, which look like crap in FSPS's display.

[turner112 52]

In fact, I'm interested in creating a few "no frills" (though nice looking) panels, to-scale and meant to run on multiple monitors, for use for my RW instrument training. I'm assuming, based on your experience, that FSPS may be helpful? ;)Ideally I want the radios on a 2nd monitor to the right, including my RXP 430. I don't know that I really -need- a dedicated moving map, but am looking into a way to send position information out to a Dual GPS receiver connected to my iPad.I'm currently looking to buy some 19" LCDs... I do hate the fact that widescreen isn't a standard choice.cheers

[n4gix 4,947]

1. FSPS will display a 2d background of any size you create, even wide-screen sizes.
2. FSPS will display all 2d gauges properly sized on a 2d background (main panel).
3. FSPS will display gauges properly sized on popup (sub) panels, but you have to adjust the displayed size parameters of the subpanels manually. It's a bit of hit-or-miss initially (since you need to squish 'em a bit horizontally to allow for the wide-screen stretch, but after a few successes it becomes easier to "eyeball" the correct amount of "squishing" required... ;)

[turner112 52]

lol @ eyeball, squishing... last night I was trying to figure out how the x/y coordinates are worked out. I was just looking regarding the AI but.... alas... Nothing I could find in Photoshop matched up. I was just scratching my head... can you shed any light on that?Good to know about the panels - widescreens can be just as inexpensive as 19" ones now, and I can fit a few more full scale instruments on there.I really appreciate your help. Some of this stuff is not as intuitive as I thought it would be.Andrew

[n4gix 4,947]

Here is a simple example. Note that both the gauge and the size_mm are 400x by 195y.The window_size however has been stretched in the y dimension to 0.306. When displayed on a 16:10 wide-screen monitor, it is re-rendered in more-or-less the correct size/shape. The window_pos (position) is shifted down 0.030y (~30 pixels) so it won't cover up the top menu's display when activated.//--------------------------------------------------------[Window11]Background_color=0,0,0size_mm=400,195window_size_ratio=1.000position=0visible=0ident=10090window_size= 0.400, 0.306window_pos= 0.000, 0.030zorder=2gauge00=Citation CJ1 MultiGauge!CJ1_Preflight, 0,0,400,195

[fxsttcb 1]

If you have a particular plane that has a RW representative VC, you can do as I do.It takes some time with your graphics editor, but, IMO works greatOrient the VC view to what you would like to see as 2D, cockpit lights on for brightness.Take a screenie, to use as 2D, and edit the transparent area and any other areas necessary.Not only will your panel background be roughly the same size as your monitor, your gauge placement will be virtually identical and intuitive...Don[edit] you will need to set your black level around "8,8,8" minimum to avoid unwanted transparencies.FSPS is the best $25 I've spent on my sim, bar none.

[turner112 52]

Thanks guys - Bill, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ratios thing (I like editing 1:1) but I've been able to figure out that the MM setting is because the original bitmap (2d normal panel view in this case) is scaled up by the software. So... for "size_mm=640", I just proportionally scale the bitmap up to 640 mm wide, do whatever I want, shrink it back to its original size, save, voila. I used this to figure out the placement of the gauges.I tried FSPS and I do like it. Great for identifying gauges real quick, and also found out how to enable compatibility with the RealityXP stuff. FWIW I'm scaling the gauges to 1:1... more on this in another post!cheersAndrew