Hi all,Just ported my Carenado T-34 Mentor to FSX and I was wondering if there's a way to define a new camera for the back seat. It looks feasable in the aircraft.cfg file but the new format uses a 'guid'.I'm used to the concept of a 'guid' for objects but for views?The old FS9 T-34 file had the following entry only:[ Views ]eyepoint=-1, 0.0, 2.90An example from one of the FSX aircraft (Beech King Air) is as follows:[ CameraDefinition.0 ]Title = "Tail"Guid = {5c1df273-034b-4e7f-953a-9d5e26f1646c}Description = Looking forward from behind the aircraftOrigin = CenterSnapPbhAdjust = SwivelSnapPbhReturn = FALSEPanPbhAdjust = SwivelPanPbhReturn = FALSETrack = NoneShowAxis = FALSEAllowZoom = TRUEInitialZoom = .75ShowWeather = YesInitialXyz = 0, 3.5, -22.0InitialPbh = 5, 0, 0XyzAdjust = TRUECategory=AircraftMomentumEffect=TRUEClipMode=Minimum[ CameraDefinition.1 ]Title = "Right Wing"...etc...followed further down the file by:[ Views ]eyepoint = 4.3, -1.20, 3.35I figure the eyepoint just defines the pilot's seat and the CameraDefinition.x entries define the additional views.I suppose I could create a new version of the plane which has the eyepoint in the back seat for my own purposes but it'd be cool if I could create a new view on this awesome legacy aircraft! :)Any ideas?P.S. the < and > are the way I represented the square brackets because I couldn't get them to post correctly otherwise.

The GUID is just the ID for selecting in the drop down menu...Id start by using a copy from another aircraft...

Well, I don't know what all you need to copy into the aircraft.cfg to get views to work in the first place, but once you do have views working you just need to add one three-digit CameraDefinition to get the passenger seat in place. As far as I can tell, all VC views are three-digit (CameraDefinition.001, .002, .003 and so forth).You can, for example, copy the "Right Seat" definition from the Baron 58:(bracket)CameraDefinition.001(bracket)Title = "Right Seat"Guid = {195EAB58-9E4A-1E2A-A34C-A8D9D948F078}Origin = Virtual CockpitMomentumEffect = YesSnapPbhAdjust = SwivelSnapPbhReturn = FalsePanPbhAdjust = SwivelPanPbhReturn = FalseTrack = NoneShowAxis = YESAllowZoom = TRUEInitialZoom = 0.7SmoothZoomTime = 2.0ZoomPanScalar = 1.0ShowWeather = YesXyzAdjust = TRUEShowLensFlare=FALSECategory = CockpitPitchPanRate=20HeadingPanRate=60InitialXyz=0.52, 0.0, 0.0InitialPbh=3, 0, 0Then just give it a new title (this is what shows up in the view menu), a new GUID (you can generate GUIDs on this website: http://www.guidgen.com/Index.aspx), change the PitchPanRate and HeadingPanRate to 100 for faster panning, change the InitialPbh to 0, 0, 0 (this is the angle at which your view is set when you first go into it - the first number pans up and down, the second left and right and the third.. I think it tilts the view sideways).After that it's a matter of loading the aircraft in FSX and figuring out the InitialXyz coordinates for the seat you want the passenger view to be sitting in. The first number is the X coordinate (left / right), the second is the Y coordinate (up / down) and the third is the Z coordinate (forward / back). These numbers can be negative, too.I hope this helps!

Thanks!!!!Works great! Found out the x,y,z coords are relative to the eyepoint so basically a 0,0,0 location is the pilot's point of view.To give myself a backseat view in the Carenado T-34 I added the following to my already ported version of the aircraft.cfg file:(bracket)CameraDefinition.001(bracket)Title = "Back Seat"Guid = {79bf1be8-6314-11db-967b-00e08161165f}Origin = Virtual CockpitMomentumEffect = YesSnapPbhAdjust = SwivelSnapPbhReturn = FalsePanPbhAdjust = SwivelPanPbhReturn = FalseTrack = NoneShowAxis = YESAllowZoom = TRUEInitialZoom = 0.5SmoothZoomTime = 2.0ZoomPanScalar = 1.0ShowWeather = YesXyzAdjust = TRUEShowLensFlare=FALSECategory = CockpitPitchPanRate=20HeadingPanRate=60InitialXyz=0.0, 0.0, -1.2InitialPbh=3, 0, 0I added it after the 'General' section but before the 'flight_tuning' section. Not sure if that matters though. The GUID I'm using is generated from the previously mentioned site but now that it's supposedly unique (randomly speaking that is) you should be able to reuse it on your system without conflicts (I believe...)Sweet! Mentor flies great in FSX and now I have a back seat to view from with my head tracker. Maybe this version ain't so bad after all! (still wish the spot view was not tied to head tracker though).Works great!!!! Thanks guys!

Hi. I have the T-34 too with the back seat mod. When you look right or left in the 2D panel are the wing lights positioned correctlty? Mine are above the wing. They look OK in spot view. Thanks, regards, Bob.

BTW, complete documentation of the camera system is include with the SDK (on the Deluxe DVD 1).

Am I to believe here the camera system is another !!!-HORRIFIC-!!! 23+ line config file modification for each view, and the product contains no wizard ?It true, this would be one more of many major league dissappointments for me.Bob (Las Cruces, NM)

The T-34 is the only plane that the wing lights are high in the 2D view right and left. I assume that the views are set to default values when using a non-FSX plane. If that is the case then why is the T-34 the only imported plane with that problem? The only view I changed was adding the back seat view and the wing lights were high before I added that view. Regards, Bob.

The camera system is quite promising and great fun - engrossing, I would say - once you try it out! Can't hardly wait to go home and mess with it some more!!While still limited to using the FSX Demo waiting for my AvSim Convention promo copy of Deluxe to arrive (not complaining!!), I've begun prepping certain favorite A/C for their transition from FS9 to FSX. Last night I attempted to add new external camera views to the config file for Airhead's A.C.A. Super Decathlon and ended up having a blast!The parameters aren't difficult to deal with nor hard to figure out, for anyone familiar with CFG files, X,Y,Z coordinates, and compass directions. The only thing missing, not having access to the SDK, was any optional values for parameters such as "Track", etc. A Google search yielded just a little bit of info, but certainly enough to make some very cool views that also apply to aerobatics and pleasure flying/viewing.In short I'd like to say thanks for the feature!! Hardly a "!!!-HORRIFIC-!!! 23+ line config file mod" that needs a wizard IMHO. Pbbbt. And hardly something that the regular Joe or Jane User would even HAVE to use anyway. If it's that overwhelming one could always stick with stock views...or revert to the camera definition functionality that was provided in stock previous versions of the sim... :)P.S. Also noticed when making prevew thumbnails and config file edits, that most changes take place immediately. Fr'instance, right after saving a new thumbnail with the sim loaded and in the background, the new preview shows up when accessing the "aircraft" menu without having to reload/restart. Also, config file edits take effect as soon as the aircraft is reloaded from the selection menu. And aircraft icons can be double-clicked to load, rather than select it then move down and hit the "OK" button...they function as real objects now. Sometimes it's the little things.... So with FSX in windowed mode, and the config file open in notepad, I can change a lil' number, hit save, go to the aircraft menu in FSX, load the aircraft, and see the change...binga bada boom! Wizard?Wizard??!!!WE DON' NEED NO STEENKIN' WEEZARD!!!(Just had to say that! Not that it wouldn't be a good training-wheel thing for newer simmers tho).That, coupled with the ability to save and restore graphic & general sim settings, means that for us repainters and fiddlers, we don't have to exit and reload the whole sim, plus we can set up a very simplified environment (minimal terrain detail, scenery, AI traffic, but with Ultra High Aircraft detail) to minimize flight load/startup times when doing our work...then when it's time to play, load the setting with the eye-candy turned on. When I think of all the time spent exiting and reloading previous versions of the sim to check out a minor touch-up to a paint scheme, a relocated rivet, or a change to a config file, I want to buy a beer for the devs who made that happen. Just added several more productive hours or days to my life! The only semi-funky thign is the need of GUIDS. That, I can see causing some consternation to some who don't know what they are or how/where to generate them. But it seems that just copying a whole section, with GUID and everything, from another airplanes config file, works just fine. For a new view, I even just modified a GUID by changing one number and that worked (sometimes you get lucky). The link above for generating GUIDS is most helpful. The essential thing to unnerstand is they're like a key that uniquely identifies the attribute you are defining.Otherwise it's cool as a jewel, baby....yeah!

Glad you're liking it. BTW the GUIDs are necessary because we save state information to flight files and GUIDs are the easiest way to restore these values to the appropriate cameras when you load a flight.

> So with FSX in windowed mode, and the config file open in notepad, I can change a lil' number, hit save, > go to the aircraft menu in FSX, load the aircraft, and see the change...binga bada boom!Clearly, you have never used the active camera addon. With it you use arrow keys to pan around and when ready press ctrl-alt-number. It takes less than a minute to set all 8. Its lot better than changing config file params and reloading the plane each time to see if you got it right.

yep, definately needs an auto-save eyepoint feature for each plane, and a slider to auto-adjust the head latency feature as well.

>With it>you use arrow keys to pan around and when ready press>ctrl-alt-number. It takes less than a minute to set all 8. Its>lot better than changing config file params and reloading the>plane each time to see if you got it right.Or even beter: look around with the mouse (and the mouse only!). And you are absolutely right about it being so easy... I sure miss Active Camera. I really hope some clever programmer can make an easy to use interface for the FS X view system!

Hiya wingnut (is this the wingnut I know from another place??)Actually, your inventory of my FS9 add-on inventory is out of date, clearly. :) I've owned and used Active Camera for some time in FS9. It's moot to adding views in FSX though, and also why I specified "camera functionality in previous STOCK versions of the sim...". Add-ons exluded, for a fair comparison of what we have now.Thot it'd be nice to maybe just illustrate a methodology for dealing with the FSX config file approach in a simple and relatively quick way, while tipping the cap to the oft-overlooked smaller improvements in the UI and how those little things can sometimes make life so much simpler. I definitely would like to see Active Camera...and FSRecorder.....coming down the pike for FSX. I understand that's questionable on either. In the meantime, no harm in embracing what we have now with a positive attitude.Tailwinds...

For the post much earlier asking about the Mentor's wing strobes. I do get them floating off the tips of the wings. Dunno what it takes to fix 'em as I haven't worked that far yet and maybe Carenado will update their Mentor for the FSX folks.