New to panel designing(photo editing)

[kramerdc9 0]

Hi all,

 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Dirk, and have been a flightsimmer since the '80s as well as an avid pilot. I still use fs9 and quite happy with it. I want to explore 2D panel design. I am a beginner at this, and have researched it here and other sources on the net. I am comfortable editing the panel and aircraft config and understand the basics of gauge files, xml gauges and bitmaps. I do, however, not understand the coding involved. Before I delve into that, I would first like to understand photo editing a panel. I would like to download some photo realistic pictures from the web and make them work in fs9. When I'm comfortable with that, I can later start gauge designing (I'm aware this is difficult and time consuming). I downloaded gimp but finding it difficult to understand. I know the background has to be transparent, but can't seem to make it work. So I guess the main question I have is, can someone help me with photo editing a panel for starters? I would really appreciate any help I can get.

 

Thanks in advanced,

 

Dirk

[N60JBravo 26]

Start with pictures as straight on as possible, pictures taken on an angle will require more work to get them usable.

 

Getting the size right is important, best thing to do is look at existing panels and see how they were done.

 

As far as transparency goes, anything in your bitmap that you do not want to see in the sim has to be pure black, 0,0,0 RGB.

 

Hope this helps get you started.

 

regards,

Joe

[kramerdc9 0]

Thanks Joe,

 

I will give your suggestions a shot. Finding a good photo and size is a little more difficult than I thought. Still trying to familiarize myself with gimp to edit photo's. I think I understand transparency and pure black now. Just have to edit it when I get a good photo. Thanks again.

 

Yours,

Dirk

[dragonflightdesign 24]

Believe it or not, ebay's your best friend for decent pictures. Look under Vehicle Parts and Accessories | Aircraft Parts and Accessories | select the Gauges checkbox and search.

 

-Dai