Has the plane selection screen changed much?

[Guest JSPuonti]

I was wondering if the devteam might give us a peek at the plane selection screen or perhaps outline any changes it's gone through? :) One pet peeve I have with the FS9 plane selection screen (as with many other dialogs) is that it's so small at higher resolutions (1600x1200+). Some dialogs - like the display settings - don't suffer much from a small window area, but plane selection is one of those things that could benefit from more real-estate. This would afford a bigger preview of the plane, which would be nice.Another minor problem is the fact that the plane model autorotation restarts every time you select another model. Since the plane starts rotating from the forward view, it takes a while before we see the profile of the plane / repaint, which arguably is "more interesting" than the forward view.One way to improve this (IMO) would be to keep the plane's rotation when switching models. So, if the plane I had previously selected had rotated to a side-view, the next plane I selected would start rotating from the same angle.The selection screen could also do with some other minor visual changes - I imagine not everyone would want these, though, so there should be an option to use either the old or the new plane preview:1) Instead of rotating on a flat 2D background, have the aircraft load within a simple 3D environment (such as a plane parking area) where the camera rotates around the plane (on its own or through user input as in FS9)2) Add a small slider or a virtual jog wheel (which accepts mousewheel input) which changes the time of day in the plane loader (parking) environment. When the lighting drops sufficiently, have the plane turn on all lights and bring up the parking area lights (you know, the ones on top of tall poles?). This would showcase the plane's nightlighting and FSX's self-shadowing; as the sun moves through the sky above, the plane's self- and drop shadows move about, and during night the parking area lights light the plane up3) Another user already suggested this, but I thought it was a great idea and needs to be repeated - allow the user to add "tags" to planes, which can be used to filter the plane list. Tags would be human-readable words or short phrases like "1980s", "colorful repaint", "vintage", "favorite", etc. Tags could be added / changed / removed by the end user, but also included in plane packages by their authors when they release new planes (perhaps a separate "tags" file within the aircraft's directory?)I think that's about it :) Don't know if it's too late for these, but even if it is, I'd still be interested in hearing what's been done to the plane selection screen.

[MarkW 1,491]

I would really like to see a line added in the fuel/payload dialogue that shows Zero Fuel Weight. Just saves us adding together the Empty weight and payload manually. Mark.

[Guest JeanLuc_]

"Another minor problem is the fact that the plane model autorotation restarts every time you select another model". Do you know you can actually turn the aircraft around at will with your mouse in clicking the left mouse button over the 3D aircraft and moving the mouse around?Hope this helps!

[Guest JSPuonti]

Yeah, I'm aware of that, but it doesn't stop the plane's rotation from resetting whenever you change a model :( I'd just like to be able to browse through my "All planes" list swiftly, without having to wait for each plane to rotate sideways (or do it manually).

[badderjet 181]

>Do you know you can actually turn the aircraft around at will>with your mouse in clicking the left mouse button over the 3D>aircraft and moving the mouse around?Thats weird. I remember that feature from older versions though, but in FS9 my mouse cursor always seems to go 'behind' the 3D preview (i. e. it is hidden) and I can't even click inside that area. I can move the cursor around, and it becomes visible again once I leave the preview, but I cant click and rotate the aircraft within the 3D preview. Prolly a display driver issue.

[Guest tdragger]

The Select Aircraft dialog has been completely rewritten. I think (hope!) you will like the new one.