FSX-MS Assigning 10 hotkeys to 10 views: here is how!

[Guest]

In FS X you can assign ANY 10 hotkeys (or key combinations) to ANY view. This is very nice because not everyone likes to cycle through all views with the S and A keys. By assigning hotkeys you can access views instantly!Strangely enough you can

[Jure 36]

Wow! Thank you very much indeed for the detailed description of the hotkey system. :)The naming convention sure is strange in the Buttons/keys. I was about to start messing around with the hotkeys for I want to change a few of them to suit my needs. I've made a few new camera views and now it will be quite simple to attach hotkeys to them. Thanks again! Regards,Jure

[Guest dutton]

Wonderful!!!!!!!!!duttonhttp://dutton.fsblogger.com/

[Midnight Music 252]

This is what we need in this forum. Helpful constructive posts for those of us that are really willing to work on our sim. I spent a lot of time tweaking FS9, I'm sure I will do the same for FSX. It's part of the gig as it were. The whiners don't help anyone.Thanks for the tip.Lee

[curt1 79]

I very much appreciate your help with this, but I think I'm still lost. If I want to do the example #3 that you gave, how do I capture the specific view I want before assigning the hotkey? Would you give me the steps needed for this please?

[Guest]

Ah, yes, well, in this topic I only explained how to assign the hotkeys to the views. Making the views themselves is a totally different story! But that doesn't matter. ;) The easiest way of getting new views is to edit existing ones (one that's close to what you want, like a VC view in which you can pan around) in the Aircraft.cfg. In that case you (probably) only have to change the InitialXyz and InitialPbh numbers (and maybe zoom) in that Camera Configuration (more about that later). If you don't want to do that (because you need those views or they just aren't there) you have to copy a Camera Configuration you can use as a base for your new view into the Aircraft.cfg (again, one that's close to what you want, like a VC view in which you can pan around), change the GUID (which has to be unique: with a little luck changing one number will make it unique), change the number (CameraDefinition.#, which has to be unique too) and give it an appropriate name (Title).Choosing a view that's close to what you want eliminates the need for editing a lot of other entries, like PanPbhAdjust and SnapPbhAdjust.After that the only thing left to do is to set the right distances from the default viewpoint in the Aircraft.cfg: do you want to pan down? Move to the right or backwards? Or slide up or down? Well, you do this by editing the entries InitialXyz and InitialPbh in the Aircraft.cfg. But how do you know which numbers you need?By FAR the easiest method to do this is to get this information from a saved flight! (This great tip is from jcboliveira: if you want to you can read his tip here: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?...e_cameras_views but I'll summarize it for you right now.) Load the aircraft, go straight to the new view (which may be an existing one or a copy of another, as said above) and manipulate the view with the view commands until you have it exactly as you want it. Now save the flight. Open the saved flight (a flt file) in Notepad and look for the right view (camera) by searching for the right GUID (the names of the views are different so you really need to find the one with the right GUID!). Now you have to copy some numbers from te flt file to the Aircrft.cfg.- The numbers behind Translation (in the flt file) have to be copied behind InitialXyz (in the Aircraft file).- The numbers behind Rotation (in the flt file) have to be copied behind InitialPbh (in the Aircraft file). But beware: in this case the last two numbers have to be switched (because the flt file uses a different order than the aircraft.cfg!)Example: Translation=0, 5, 0.3becomesInitialXyz=0, 5, 0.3Rotation=15, 20, 0becomesInitialPbh=15, 0, 20BTW The numbers can also be 0, 0, 0 and are usually quit longer (5,27382778328881 ;))That's it!You can also set the zoom in these files (Zoom in the flt file becomes InitialZoom in the Aircraft.cfg) but I found out that zoom is overruled by savegames you make default. I personally have set the zoom ingame for all views (after making them) and then saved the flight, making it the default one.I made views this way and assigned hotkeys to them for the Baron with the G1000: pressing 1 (above the Q) gives me the VC (panned down just a little bit), 2 gives me the PFD (panned down further so the PFD fills the screen but still with an eye on the outside/runway), 3 gives me a full screen MFD (panned down, turned to the right and zoomed in a lot) and 4 gives me a passenger's seat view at the back (very nice!). It works like a charm!I hope this information helps. If not, just shout. ;)

[Guest]

Er... after typing all this I read your post again and now I wonder if I did really answer it or not... ;) If you are only interested in Example 3: the Beaver comes with a view called Right Seat. You will find that one by default in the Beaver's Aircraft.cfg. You don't have to 'capture' it, it's already there. In the example I just added HotKeySelect=# to the Right Seat Camera COnfiguration and that's it.Still, the long post above, which was written in direct reaction to the words 'capture the specific view', will give you more insight on how to edit or add views so I don't think it was a waste of time typing it all. ;)

[curt1 79]

I very much appreciate your time to explain the details for this subject. It is certainly more complicated than Active Camera was, but you are the first to lay out a plan to get the results I'm looking for. Thanks again!

[Guest bustervk]

Thanks; Very usefull!ByeBert

[Guest cwright]

Thanks very much for this, it was very useful. I had been thinking of doing this for some time, so seeing your post prompted me and it works a treat. Now the S key has been assigned to oblivion (well, almost!) Best regards, Chris

[Guest]

Glad you all like it. :) But hopefully this information won't be needed very long: it would really surprise me if there won't be a uility released within some time which would make settings up views a lot easier: sort of like Active Camera, but than using the FS X viewing system. It's all there, only some clever dev has to write a program with a nice interface to make it all easier. ;) Even though I can't program myself I cannot believe this should be so hard to do (in other words: I hope it will be a freeware utility ;)). Maybe my posts will convince some dev to start writing that util today! :)But until then this works like a treat indeed. ;) It may look complicated when you first read it all, but as soon as you know how to do it, it's really quit easy and it works very fast, so... (BTW To test a new view you just have to reload the aircraft! No need to restart FS X all over again! So when you've got FS X in windowed mode and the cfg files at hand, it really works very fast!)BTW 2: a utility might force you to use specific keys for the views or something like that: by doing it all yourself you've got complete freedom and control, so... it better be a very good utility otherwise I might not even use it. ;)

[jcboliveira 1]

Very good explanation. Just to add something:If you want to change the default VC camera just add a camera withGuid = {C95EAB58-9E4A-4E2A-A34C-D8D9D948F078}An example for Real Air ScoutJos

[Midnight Music 252]

Fantastic post! I just got Peter James file which gives the default airliners wing and engine views and using your hot key system I've now put keys 5 through 8 assigned to my wing and engine views of each aircraft. Now when I fly I just hit one of those keys and I have an instant view, I don't have to cycle.For example, I now hit the 5 key and instantly get this view:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/160458.jpgLee

[Guest]

>If you want to change the default VC camera just add a camera>with>>Guid = {C95EAB58-9E4A-4E2A-A34C-D8D9D948F078}Hm, when I tried that I got the default one (from the Cameras.cfg, not the changed one (from the Aircraft.cfg). Seems the GUID's really have to be unique. And if they aren't apparently the GUID from the Cameras.cfg overrules the GUID from the Aircraft.cfg. But if you really got it working with the Real Air Scout I probably did something wrong (although I tested it several times).

[Guest]

Yes, it's great, isn't it. :) The very strange thing is that this information isn't mentioned in the SDK at all! Or I must have missed something... The SDK only talks about the four default camera's, F9 - F12, and it mentions those as if they can't be edited! And the SDK just briefly says there is an option called HotKeySelect=#: Links the camera to one of the 10 pre-defined key events for activating cameras; see the Control Assignments dialog. And that's it. The Control Assignments dialog contains no info about this hotkeystuff at all.The viewing system is great and has nice possibilities but somewhere someone forgot to add the info in the manual. ;) And the naming on the Buttons/Keys page didn't help either. ;) It wasn't until I read a post from tdragger on this forum, mentioning the option to 'assign up to 10 of your favorites to any key/button', that I began to understand that the viewing system was capable of some very nice things! (Or, again, I must have missed something somewhere... ;))