Hello all!Im making a panel background for myself and just got done creating the background bitmap.But I'm in the midst of a problem that has me lost & frustrated :(The problem is that in Paint Shop the finished bitmap looks great but when I ran FS9 to check it out...it looks horrible! It looks as if FS9 is zooming in on the bitmap so all the nice shadow effects are exaggerated and it looks awful http://www.planet-smilies.de/kaos/CreamPuffKaos/pcrying.gifSee the screenshots below. FS9 is obviously doing something (stretching, zooming, resizing) to the panel bitmap but even though I fiddled with the bitmaps entry in the panel.cfg I am unable to fix i.The bitmap size (panel with black background) is 1152 X 864, I also tried it by resizing to 1024 X 768 but no joy.Its *utterly* baffling, Id be grateful for any help & advice!Thank U :)All good in the graphics software:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Thr...eUp/Pnlgood.jpgBut horrible in the sim:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/ThrottleUp/pnlbad.jpg

FS9 is converting it to 256 colours (8-bit). Try converting it to 8-bit(optimized) yourself and saving as a 256 colour bitmap. If your 256 bitmap looks good then it should look good in FS9!RegardsJim

Thanks for the input Jim!I did as you said and unfortunately it looks awful :(I know theres a way because you see all these great freeware panels out there with nice bitmaps in full hi-resolution. Like this one:http://library.avsim.net/sendfile.php?Loca...e&ImageID=98169*Scratches head*Thanks for replying and I am still fiddling with the settings...

Make sure that FS9 is configured to display 32-bit color depth. It looks like it is set to 16-bit. R-

Yes it is set to this:1152 X 864 32bitBut it still looks bad :(I will try something else and see if it works, thank u for your input!

Try adding a little "noise" after you flatten it before saving it as .bmp. The noise is hardly perceptible on the finished panel .bmp, but the slight variation in color from pixel to pixel in the shaded areas seem to break up that banding that occurs in the sim.Caution, you don't want to add noise to the black windshield area as it will make spots that aren't transparent. What I do is flatten the image, select the windshield black area with the magic wand and tolerance "0", invert the selection, and add a small amount of noise. Then while the "inverse" is still selected I do a replace color, replacing anything black with #010101 which eliminates any transparent spots on the panel itself.I use PhotoShop, but I'm sure the functions mentioned above are available in PSP as well but maybe by a different name.Here's a shot of a panel I'm currently working on:http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/C170A-8.JPGJim

What scenery is that?Bryan

That's the new FS scenery "RealMountains 1.1" I found in the new files list last week :) !OK, I took a screenshot in the sim and pasted it as a new layer over top of a digi-photo I took from the top of a mountain while snowmobiling last winter. Then I cut out the windshield area of the FS screenshot. Probably should have spent that time working on a proper fuel selector gauge instead... :) .Jim

Thank you Jim for taking the trouble to walk me through all of that! I will do as you said and then get back on here to tell you how it went! Your solution looks to good not to work! And also your panel is looking awesome!! :)

Just sent over to me this is real easy :-)Andr

>Here's a shot of a panel I'm currently working on:>>http://www.cat-tamer.com/attach/C170A-8.JPG>>>JimJim nice one only to much hightlight at the gauges give it a more glass lookas in real life ;-)Andr

Andr

>Andr

Adding some noise has made a massive improvement - but I know Im not doing it as well as you Jim because your panel still looks better hee hee. But I shall keep trying, thank you for that useful tip!Andr

"...but I know Im not doing it as well as you Jim because your panel still looks better..."Nevin, you just need to get some gauges on your panel. That'll help break things up even more and you won't even notice the banding, or what's left of it. I'm sure it looks fine. Mine wouldn't look too good just blank either. Glad the noise trick helped :) ."Do you have any real world reference material to share too?"Andr