Hi

I have the Posky 747 with Alejandro Rojas Lucenda's improved VC running on FSX and I have been trying to get the pfd and mfd backgrounds to go black, with near success. The only problem is inside the mfd arc/circle when in fms map mode, which will refuse to go black (see attached). It will however go black in APP or VOR mode. I have no experience editting gauges and changing the textures in the B737_800 gauges folder in the new 747 panel folder is about all I can manage. If it is something in the xml file that is easy enough to edit then guidance would be much appreciated (I have the SDK if that helps). I was wondering if there is somewhere where all the textures for the map parts of the mfd displays on all default jets are stored but couldn't find anything like that to change. Any advise (or links to another solution I haven't been able to find) would be much appreciated.

 

Many thanks

 

Finnerz

Most likely that is an actual bitmap (.bmp) file in the XML gauge's folder, in which case your only option would be to load it into an image editor (such as Photoshop) and make any changes before resaving it as a 24bit or 8bit .BMP file.

If it's a cab gauge save the cab gauge somewhere, as a backup, and decompress a copy of the gauge to a folder named B737_800 and you can see all of the bmp's in the gauge. If you have FSPanel Studio it will allow you to view all of the bmp's too, You can edit the bmp's and put them back into the folder. You can either re-compress it or leave it as a folder. FSX will read the folder as well as the cab file. If you make a mistake anywhere you still have your backup. Bob.

It could be 1 of 2 things -

 

1. It is a vector drawn rose/arc done in XML. You would have to look for the following psuedo code and change it. There will probably be 2 sections, 1 for the rose and one for the arc.

 

In FSX schema it would look something like the following. Change the value in red to 0x010101

 

<CustomDraw Name="fs9gps:rose">.........

<CustomDrawParam Name="BackgroundColor"><Value>0x2B2B5E</Value>

 

2. A transperancy mask .bmp done with an Alpha channel.

 

After starting to write this I would opt for the latter.

 

Roman

Thank you all for your replies. I should have made clearer in my original post that I had managed to edit the bitmap files but the map part of the display hadn't changed. Roman's first idea had made the gauges go black which is fantastic but I was wondering if there was a value to put into the background colour that would make that part of the gauge go transparrent? I ask because I have used the pfd and mfd on the 2d panel and the rest of it has gone transparrent. Sorry I'm asking so much! The information about how gauge folders are read was also very helpful as this was not something I had undsertood until now. Thanks again and any transparrency suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Finnerz

It looks like you have some gps background.

In that case no transparancy.

It is possible to do, but then you need a whole lot of xml.....!!

Black 0,0,0 is transparent. you need to change that a little to make it opaque.

Finnerz - a question for clarification ... why would you want a transparent background? I don't follow your thinking on that part. Ultimately, the map display needs some opaque background.

 

Bob

Thanks for responses. Bob, the reason I wanted a transparrent background rather than opaque black was because I am using the 737 pfd and mfd in the 2d cockpit as well and the background jpeg doesn't have a solid black background for the electronic displays. This means that the opaque black parts of the rose and arc appeare out of place - in the vc the bakcground is solid black from when it was updated but the old background remains in the 2d view. I have attached a picture of both kinds of map in 2d cockpit view to help clarify.

 

Today I was thinking though that surely the real 747 would have an solid black screen background on the glass insturments and the texture that can be seen in the 2d cockpit below is incorrect and I should make the texture behind the glass displays solid black like in the vc. Of course if this is more accurate it would also get rid of my other problem as black on solid black is not noticeable.

 

Finnerz

Um, no... Do a bit of Google research before coming to that erroneous conclusion. PFDs normally have backgrounds such as shown in your screenshots to help keep the various bits of information "separated" and more easily identifiable.

 

See this image for reference:

 

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I mean in the 2D cockpit background image, the recatangles where each of the glass displays should be is not a solid colour, but is kind of a fuzzy gray, which I have never seen on any television, crt or lcd when off. Shouldn't it be more like the second picture below than the first?

Oh, I see. In that case, use Photoshop to edit the 2d panel background image as you like.