Panel.cfg and Vcockpit gauges confusion. Please help...

[cvearl 60]

Hello Panel guru's!

 

In the panel.cfg entry below, I would like to replace "gauge10" with a third party gauge I own (RXP) that is sadly too large when I adjust/stretch width and height to look correct behind the 3D bezel in the VC. I say sadly because when I make the gauge large enough to fit behind the 3d bezel in the cockpit, it clips into the other gauges/radios. This is because they all share positions on $DHC6VIRTGAUGES.bmp background?

 

So my theory was to create a second Vcockpit called [VCockpit02] like I see in other aircraft but I don't understand where in the plane model the Vcockpits are referenced so that the model knows how and where to display a gauge in the VC.

 

Is the reference "Vcockpit01" somewhere? Or is it "texture=$DHC6VIRTGAUGES" in some external folder/file? Like an XML? Am I on the right path?

 

[VCockpit01]
file=$DHC6VIRTGAUGES.bmp
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=512, 512
visible=1
pixel_size=512, 512
texture=$DHC6VIRTGAUGES

 

gauge00=TW_system!TW_Sys1, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge01=TW_system!TW_Sys2, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge02=TW_system!TW_Sys3, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge03=TW_system!TW_Ap, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge04=TW_system!TW_Ann, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge05=TW_system!TW_FDR, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge06=TW_System!TW_State, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge97=TW_System!Twot_vibr, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge08=ASC!MAIN, 0,0, 10, 10, 0
gauge09=TW_Disp!Com_Nav_Disp, 345, 4, 162, 218
gauge10=TW_Disp!GPS_530, 4, 4, 334, 248
gauge11=TW_Disp!DME, 8, 298, 357, 70
gauge12=TW_Disp!ADF, 8, 378, 475, 53
gauge13=TW_Disp!Transp, 8, 441, 457, 64
gauge14=TW_Disp!Clock, 377, 236, 125, 97

[n4gix 4,947]

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do. The "$xxx" textures are memory maps automatically generated by the sim dynamically.

 

They are defined in the compiled model, so you cannot just "add one" without having the source .max/.gmax files.

 

Finally yes, all of the gauges listed share the space on that $xxx bitmap and are very precisely aligned with the model's gauge polygons on which the gauges are "projected"...

 

Think of the $xxx bitmap as a collection of movie screens on which different movies are being projected simultaneously. ^_^

[cvearl 60]

Hey thanks for the reply!

 

Darn... Would it be safe to say that I could not simply double the size of that bitmap to 1024x1024 and space the gauges out to avoid the clipping? Yet at the same time keep their correct perspective in the VC of the plane somehow?

 

I think I am already getting that this is impossible without editing the source. :(

 

C.

[n4gix 4,947]

While you can double the size (or even quadruple it), the only result would possibly more clarity in the projected gauges.

 

Understand that the position and size of the gauges is mapped 1:1 with the vertex points of the projection polygons in the virtual cockpit.

 

In the "old days" the panel in a virtual cockpit was typically one or two "panel shaped polygons" and the artwork for the panel as well as the gauge sizes and positions was much more flexible. The downside of course is that both the artwork and the gauges were flat and sterile looking.

 

The newer techniques being used these days have largely sacrificed the "flexibility" of the old techniques in lieu of being able to create high-resolution artwork for the virtual cockpit, and crisp, high-resolution, three-dimensional gauge faces, needles, switches, knobs, and so forth.

 

If you would like to "see" what I'm speaking about, I suggest reading the "White Paper" I wrote for Microsoft/ACES describing the process:

http://www.freeflightdesign.org/tutorials/FSX_Emissive_Textures_and_VCLighting.zip