I've notice that in the A2A WoP3 Spitfire and Mustang that VC shadows vanish when projected on to the cover plate of the instrument panel, though they do show up on the faces of the instruments in the panel.  Not a big deal, but something curious none the less.  Any thoughts on what is happening here?  Thanks for reading.

 

BTW, your fixer is amazing...only reason I've held on to FSX for nearly 10 years now!

That is an interesting question.  The same also applies to the A2A pup but not to  for instance the A2A C172.

 

Its a combination of what I think is a house style for modelling and the way FSX works.   Do remember at the time these aircraft were designed no one would even have been considering VC shadows so this is not a criticism of A2A.

 

My belief is that FSX doesn't show shadows on transparent surfaces (like the windows).  However it isn't clever enough to differentiate within this between a portion of the transparent surface which is 100% opaque - its a blunt rule if the surface uses alpha blending then none of it shows shadows.  Now I must confess that I haven't ever explicitly tested anything to prove this - its just an observation based on what I have seen that I have always assumed to be true.

 

A common A2A house style would appear to be to have a dashboard with holes for the instruments and to use alpha blending (transparency).  The dashboard other than the instrument holes is 100% opaque  but FSX ignores that.

 

The combination of the two results in the dashboard itself not showing shadows.

Wow, that was quick!  Thanks for the info.  My thoughts are any VC shadows in aircraft not specifically modeled for them are a gift. And with your HD VC shadows working everywhere (that I've tried), it's perpetually Christmas!