Distorted Mission Compass Fix

Hi All,

The mission compass display was designed back when monitors had standard 4:3 aspect ratio displays.  Most everyone now has a widescreen monitor, so the mission compass appears stretched horizontally.  With some detective work I have found a way to correct it.

In your FSX gauges folder, look for the file "missionpanels.cfg" and make a backup.  Open it in notepad and scroll down to the [Window00] section.  Despite rather standard-looking entries, many are overriden by FSX internal code.  For example, the 'window_size' and 'window_pos" entries are totally ignored.  So no help in fixing the problem.  I also discovered the "size_mm" value can be commented out completely with no effect.  In fact, the easiest way to change the aspect ratio of the gauge00 in this window I found is to remove it (comment it out).

Then I was able to change the compass display's aspect ratio simply by changing values on the gauge00= line.  The third and fourth parameter then directly control the width and height of the gauge.  For my 16:10 apect ratio monitor I made the following changes:

[Window00]

;size_mm=98,123  // this line is commented out

...

;gauge00=Missions!POI, 0, 0, 98, 123  // original

gauge00=Missions!POI, 0, 0, 82, 100  // My settings for 16:10.  For 16:9 displays, try 75 instead of 82

I haven't tested this fully in other missions but in simple ones with just the mission pointer it looks much better.

David CYXE