>>It may well have simply been a case of "didn't want to..."Or not a "priority"L.Adamson

I can't resist jumping in an adding a request for "when we will have this"-and this is just a beginning of my list when it comes to instruments....I don't even care about self-illuminating ... :-) To drive the airplane in a real fashion-we need real instruments that are found in typical real airplanes. Unfortunately for me-my new aircraft is filled with these and others that don't exist in the fs world presently. Hoping that the inside views will improve in the future version of fs with as much reality as the outside views have now...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/78254.jpg

"Very nice model you're making! It looks to be an excellent model."Thank you Bill! Long way to go before I'm finished though, VC is about 75% done, exterior model 90% complete, XML gauges almost done (my brain feels like its been reprogrammed for RPN), just started on the 2D panel and exterior textures. Having a lot of fun but most nights I'm staying up far too late working on it!"Yes, I was refererring specifically to GMax, but the method in FSDS2 is effectively similar, albeit transparent to the modeler. Ask Louis Sinclair some day who helped him implement "VC nightlighting" in FSDS2..."Well then I owe you a BIG thank you for making it so easy in FSDS2. I just found your "VC Panel Lighting Tutorial" in the design forum here at Avsim, and I'll be going over it tonight."It's called............. you can do a lot, but not everything! Backlighting, bridges, circuit breakers, buss loads, etc, etc, etc!!!And keep the fps up too!"Understood. I think FS9 is an amazing simulation, it's absolutely uncanny how real it looks sometimes. And I can appreciate how difficult it would be to model everything, there aren't enough hours in the day!Take care,Robert

I've found the easy way to light up annunciators is just to use a different background picture for on or off.Here's a picture, for example, of my twin Turbo EICAS panel...http://members.aol.com/rickalty/turboeicas.jpgyou can see that the gear lights for down appear bright while those for in motion are dim. I just switch the background depending on the gear state.This panel, of course, is designed to be used in a hardware cockpit, rather than as a part of a VC, but the process is easily adapted.Richard

>I've found the easy way to light up annunciators is just to>use a different background picture for on or off.>>This panel, of course, is designed to be used in a hardware>cockpit, rather than as a part of a VC, but the process is>easily adapted.Richard, you are misunderstanding the issue. We are not talking about individual 'lighted elements' within a gauge, but rather are speaking of the absence of an emmisive texture applied to the projection polygon in the model itself.Without the designer spending the 3 seconds it takes to add a _L.bmp file name to the material's "self-illumination" slot, it is impossible to "backlight" gauges in the virtual cockpit.Think of it this way. How well would you be able to see a movie on the theater screen if the projection lamp was very weak? You would see something, but it would be very, very dim.Because the FS modelers didn't take that tiny extra step, it is impossible to properly backlight the gauges in the default models. That is a real shame, because the models themselves aren't too shabby at all! It's obvious that a great deal of time and effort went into updating the 'old models' and creating entirely new models, but the few seconds it would have taken to enable proper lighting in the VC were not invested. :(

You mean like this? :-)Hint: PMDG B1900 and Dreamfleet Cardinal

Oh, so it's wrong for me to accuse you of being rude and insensitve, but it's okay for you to accuse personal friends of mine of laziness and sloth. The very arguements you use to criticize me are the ones you broke when you basically called my friends lazy, or incompetent. I think thats called being a hypocrite.You attacked friends of mine with out having "any clue as to who they are, what experience or inside information they may have".As this little exchange has proven, words can stir up lots of emotions, and the people who are in the credits of FS2k4 are people too, and many of them read this forum. Microsoft may be a nice "handy" dartboard for many of you, but it amazes me, how a consumer base who gets SO MUCH ENTERTAINMENT out of a product can treat those who provide it for them with such disregard and disdain. I've seen Philadelphia sports fans who have more gratitude than you.The product is not perfect, nor are the programmers and testers (paid and beta) and artists, and technical writers, and managers, and other contributers. However, I find it hard for anyone to make the arguement that it fails to provide enormous value for the money.For the cost of a single Emma Field, and an Ultimate Traffic, you can buy FS2004, and neither Emma Field, or Ultimate Traffic, as fine a products as they are, come near to the breadth and scope of Flight Simulator 2004.I'm sorry you found my "attack" rude and purile. But I thought I might give support to collegues of mine, who are bound by their continued employment not to speak in defense of themselves.

Exactly-Now if I could just get a king rnav, century Iv autopilot-or at least one that has a GA (go around) mode,stormscope, kln 94 (I know-asking for a lot-but the elite sim is soon to have one) along with a whole slew of other gauges and instruments that just don't exist....http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

PSS's A330/340 VC's already have this.

Hi Bert,You showed graphics from 2D panel. From 2D everything looks fine because the 2D graphics do not receive dynamic lighting. However, in 3D VC when instruments fall into shadow they go very dark. I'm asking for self-illuminating gauges that won't go dark in shadows... like the way they are in real life!Warm regards,

>Hi Bert,>>You showed graphics from 2D panel. From 2D everything looks>fine because the 2D graphics do not receive dynamic lighting.>However, in 3D VC when instruments fall into shadow they go>very dark. I'm asking for self-illuminating gauges that won't>go dark in shadows... like the way they are in real life!I believe Bert was actually responding to Geoffa's desire for more true-to-life gauges, not the topic of the thread per se... :)

It's a shame PSS didn't do jack to their A320 series in FS2k4... :-hang The A320s would have looked great with all the features of the A330/340s...

You mean something like these?Not finished, but getting there.http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/dcforum/Us...2754a3884fa.jpghttp://www.flightsimnetwork.com/dcforum/Us...2814a3e0973.jpghttp://www.blandreynolds.btinternet.co.uk/DF_PG_sm.gif

Very very nice Paul. [h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. SmithCaution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

Bill, Your tutorial is great for backlit gauges at night, but unfortunately, it does not address the original poster's query. The original poster showed a picture of a panel during the day. That same panel has night time backlighting. Currently, as far as I know, there is no way to backlight gauges during daylight hours. (Please correct me if I am wrong!)-Luhiss