Active Camera - Gone forever?

[curt1 79]

I remember an opinion poll where many simmers proclaimed Active Camera as the number #1 addon for FS9. It greatly enhanced the whole simming experience and allowed specific view flexibility for each aircraft. For whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be a similar program in the works for FSX.While Microsoft could have developed their camera system to be similar, they chose to create something that is not very flexible or user friendly. When you're busy in the virtual cockpit, switching views, zooming in, out etc.. it's nearly impossible to do anything fluidly without the Active Camera functionality. All of the views in AC were created by the simmer, for his demands, for maxing out the potential for each aircraft. And the beauty of it, all the views combined could be created in less than two minutes.Frame rates have been the main topic of this forum for the past month, but the lack of Active Camera will be what sends me back to FS9 for good. Well, unless they bring it back for FS11.

[curt1 79]

I must be in the minority on this subject. I was hoping to start a "We Want Active Camera!!!" thread, with fists pounding the table. Then I was hoping ACES would realize how much we miss it and would include it in their patch, but obviously folks are content the way it is. Oh well, I tried.

[Guest Len]

Well I'm another who appreciated it. Only thing is that it would have been nice if the horizon messing up while walking outside could have been fixed. So if an FSX version is released that would be my hope.

[virtualstuff 758]

Lol find me still using it a lot that is my default sim is still FS9 :-rollAndr

[LAdamson 240]

While I suppose I could have used active camera for a stroll around the aircraft, I didn't. I would also keep head latency effects on the low side. FSX does have some head latency effects, and they are not overdone, at least at my default settings, and that's fine with me.FSX has a much superior effect of air mass movement, than you'll find in FS9, which makes up for a lot, IMO.Put me down as a simmer who doesn't consider "active camera" as #1. I'll go with FSGenesis as #1 for both FS9 & FSX. :D L.Adamson

[Guest mruane]

I also missed Active Camera. I found a free utility called AutoHotKey which enables a mouse scroll wheel press to be interpreted as a keyboard press. In my case I set it up to generate a "Space Bar" key press for as long as the mouse wheel was held down. That kind of simulates the way Active Camera worked and is close enough.Of course, the ability of Active Camera to quickly setup view positions is sorely missed.

[1mikel151 71]

I miss it as well and it was my #1 addon for FS. I would guess that if it had been easy for them to develop a version for FSX they would have.I am actually getting to a point that if there is not a way to move around a virtual cabin or around the ship, I might have to stop using FSX, bummer.Regards, MichaelKDFW

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI-x16 / AMD

[LAdamson 240]

>I am actually getting to a point that if there is not a way to>move around a virtual cabin or around the ship, I might have>to stop using FSX, bummer.You can certainly do it with the keyboard (ctrl/shift/enter/backspace), but I'll assume there are better methods.

[Guest cwright]

Active Camera was a great addition to FS9. Fortunately Microsoft have vastly uprated the view system (at long last) so that it provides most of the AC function. One big exception is the ability to get out of the cockpit and walk around the aircraft. If someone could create a utility to do this it would be great. Hopefully the scenery anomalies that badly affected the AC walk-around have been fixed in FSX.In FSX you can add a selection of custom views assigned to hot keys, but it requires editing cfg files. The major problem with this is setting the X,Y and Z coordinates. It requires quite a bit of trial and error to get these right. Again, a utility that could automate the setting up of the cfg files would be useful - you would set a position in the virtual cockpit and press a key for the position to be captured by the utility. It would then update the cfg files and you would have your preset views.Best regards, Chris

[DaryllB25840 1]

I don't have FSX but I drop by the forum once in a while just to keep track of what's happening with FSX.Not being able to use Active Camera in FSX is just one more reason to keep my efforts and enjoyment of flight sim rooted in FS9.I bought FSD's Navajo update for FSX because I wanted a standard Navajo model. I didn't really read the updated manual to find out what was new since I have had the FS9 Navajo Panther for some time.On a flight back from the west coast I turned the plane over to the copilot and used Active Camera to go back in the cabin. My cursor arrow displayed a hand a couple of times and I decided to see what was clickable in the cabin. The arm rests, like in the cockpit, could be raised and lowered for getting in and out of the seats. The tables could be raised and lowered. The fridge door could be opened and closed. One day I expect to see the seat in the back convert to a toilet.Active Camera opened up the whole airplane to me. Has anyone looked under the panel in the Carenado 206 ? The walk around on pre-flight is only marred by the scenery anomalies that can't be fixed in FS9. A pilot shouldn't be looking at scenery when inspecting the aircraft anyway. I'm VERY disappointed at not being able to use it if I had FSX. I had thought that this utility would have been bought by Microsoft and included with FSX.Oh well FSX has more serious problems than Active Camera.Daryll

[Guest fcpilot]

Are any of you having problems with the standard default keyboard commands showing the view there set up for ? On certain situations sometime they work, ans most of the time they don't I have never got the raise /lower your eyepoint to work in the 2D veiw. On other occasions, I can zoom out/in, then again I can't. All very flustrating. Veiwing via the standard KB commands should not be this confusing. Either that or I'm missing something in X that was very straight forward in the previous versions.Thanks Frank

[OwenHewitt 0]

>Active Camera was a great addition to FS9. Fortunately>Microsoft have vastly uprated the view system (at long last)>so that it provides most of the AC function. One big exception>is the ability to get out of the cockpit and walk around the>aircraft. If someone could create a utility to do this it>would be great. Hopefully the scenery anomalies that badly>affected the AC walk-around have been fixed in FSX.>>In FSX you can add a selection of custom views assigned to hot>keys, but it requires editing cfg files. The major problem>with this is setting the X,Y and Z coordinates. It requires>quite a bit of trial and error to get these right. Again, a>utility that could automate the setting up of the cfg files>would be useful - you would set a position in the virtual>cockpit and press a key for the position to be captured by the>utility. It would then update the cfg files and you would have>your preset views.>>Best regards,> ChrisChris,Jose Oliveira has a [a href=http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Change_cameras_views]tutorial[/a] on how to capture coordinates for custom cameras. While this method isn't "automatic" by any stretch of the imagination, it is very helpful and takes a lot of the guesswork out of setting up new views. What he describes is for use in the virtual cockpit, but it works just as well for exterior aircraft cameras. In fact, I used his technique for setting up some of the exterior shots seen in [a href=http://owenhewitt.blogspot.com/2006/12/real-world-paint-schemes-for-fsx.html]this[/a] blog post of mine. :)Best,Owen

[Johan_Dees 84]

Ok, but with one hand on the yoke, how can I look around and press space bar at the same time? or do I miss a hand?JohanA LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE.."The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but still they come!"Ulla!

[Guest Andy Dyson]

As noted above, you can assign your middle mouse button (scroll wheel - assuming you have this type of mouse) to the space bar. You need third party software to do it (my Logitech mouse has the functionality built in, and I know that you can do it with Microsoft mice - so long as you have their software installed (not just the driver)).

[Guest cwright]

Owen, that sounds excellent. I'll try it out shortly.Many thanks.Best regards, Chris