Cannot return to cockpit from fixed views

[robert young 2,897]

I've tried everything and nothing works!

The FBW A320 and other aircraft have custom FIXED views of the wings, belly, engines etc, some from outside, some from inside. You can edit these views in the Camera cfg, to produce for example an alternative wing view from the passenger cabin. But what I cannot do is find a key binding to get back to the cockpit view from a FIXED view. It just doesn't work whether I use standard view keys like restore cockpit view, or any other key. I can see from various past threads here and at other sites that I'm not the only one. It's very important to grasp that FIXED views are entirely different from other custom views. They are not the same as QUICK views or normal external or showcase views.

Most offered solutions are well intended but assume a fixed view is the same as any other kind of view and give answers that only work from other view modes. Quick views do not respond like other views when you use standard methods to get back to the cockpit. A key that gets you back in the cockpit in other views DOES NOT WORK when in a fixed view. But there must be a way, though I haven't found it.

I have literally tried every combination of known key bindings to get back to the cockpit but none of them work. The only way I can get back is by opening the camera menu bar and clicking the left mouse on the COCKPIT heading.

Does anyone have any bright ideas about how a simple one key press or joystick button press can get instantly back in the cockpit?

Edited February 5, 2022 by robert young

[Bernard Ducret 783]

Hi Robert,

On my yoke, I have set one button on "Ins" to toggle from the drone view to the cockpit view and vice versa. And another one to toggle from Cockpit to outside view with "End". Both work flawlessly.

[Phantoms 800]

A good overview of the MSFS Camera/View system:

 

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016003159-Camera-Overview

[BobbyFuzzy 82]

They keybind you need is 'Toggle Drone' under Camera > Camera Mode Switches.

[Drebin27 55]

I don't think there's a single button press that can take you from a fixed camera view back to the cockpit. I do it with two button presses.

For example, if I'm in the cockpit and I want to go to the landing gear fixed view:-

1) Press the button assigned to "Cockpit/External View Mode". It's in the "Camera Mode Switches" category. This switches between cockpit and the default external view.

2) Press the button assigned to  "Toggle Fixed Camera 4". The default is "Ctrl+Shift+4". This takes you to the landing gear fixed view. (You can go to any other fixed view now.)

To go back to the cockpit, you have to go back to the default external view first:-

3) Press "Toggle Fixed Camera 4" again ( or whichever fixed view you are currently on). This takes you back to the default external view.

4) Press the same button as point 1 "Cockpit/External View Mode"

This works reliably and doesn't mess up drone view. I have the camera mode switch button mapped to a button on my yoke and the actual fixed views to my Stream Deck.

 

[robert young 2,897]

Thanks for replies. As I said, getting back to the cockpit from a fixed view is completely different from getting back from other types of view. As I suspected there doesn't seem to be a one key press to go back to cockpit but I would be content with two. I think the reason I've struggled finding the key or combination is that I did not use the toggle function to get into a fixed view. I somehow set it up so that one key press opens a fixed view - no need to use the cockpit/external toggle first - and then two other keys to cycle forward or back through the remaining fixed views (very similar to FSX's Shift S/A combination).

Using the above method blocked the ability to get back to exterior view, then cockpit view, and it looks like it depends what path you take to a fixed view before "reversing" that path. So I will try remapping with Drebin 27's suggestion, by toggling exterior view first then to the fixed view. Thanks for your help!

[CFIJose 5,485]

I'm able to go from an external camera to VC with joystic and keyboard.

[robert young 2,897]

Nope. It doesn't work. I'm NOT looking to go back to the cockpit from external views, quick views or ANY other view. I know how to do that! I want to get back to either the standard external view or cockpit view AFTER I have done this: TOGGLE FIXED view 1,2,3,4 etc etc. You can set a key binding or joystick button to toggle a FIXED VIEW. Fixed views are not like ANY other view. Sure I can go back to anywhere I want using the toolbar camera menu, but I want a simple key press or two key presses to get back to the cockpit or external view. It doesn't work!

Once you have TOGGLED a FIXED view using a mapped key or button, it is locked as far as MSFS is concerned. It will not go back to a standard cockpit or external view. Furthermore, if I assign a key to toggle the drone camera after I have set a Fixed view toggle, then the drone toggle key now becomes a toggle key for the Fixed view again, even though I never assigned it.

Please try it. It must be a bug. I've tried many, many combinations and none of them work. That is why I stated really emphatically at the beginning of this thread that FIXED VIEWS are completely different from any other kind of view and the normal key bindings to get back to where ever you were do not work.

If anyone has a clever solution to this I'd be very grateful to receive it. Please FORGET other views. I'm talking only about a key to toggle a FIXED view and back. Toggle should mean one press gets you somewhere and pressing it again should get you back to where you were before. It doesn't work in this case.

Edited February 5, 2022 by robert young

[Drebin27 55]

Look at my instructions again.

The fixed view is a "toggle". You have to press the same key again to come out of the fixed view.

Example, press "Ctrl+Shift+4" to go into landing gear fixed view, then press "Ctrl+Shift+4" again to come out of the fixed view. You will now be in the standard external view.

(Don't go into drone view until you've toggled back out of the fixed view.)

 

[kerosene31 349]

Not sure if this is the same problem, but some of the key mappings changed at some point.  If you happen to use ctrl-shift-0 as your default, they now use 0 as something else that throws me into an external view. 

I ended up just using ctrl-shift-9 instead and remapping my button.  I could not unmap whatever they did to the 0 key.  I had that button programmed on my joystick to return to my default cockpit view and it would not work until I changed it. 

Not sure if this is the problem you're seeing at all, but it drove me crazy for a few days. 

[robert young 2,897]

6 hours ago, Drebin27 said:

Look at my instructions again.

The fixed view is a "toggle". You have to press the same key again to come out of the fixed view.

Example, press "Ctrl+Shift+4" to go into landing gear fixed view, then press "Ctrl+Shift+4" again to come out of the fixed view. You will now be in the standard external view.

(Don't go into drone view until you've toggled back out of the fixed view.)

 

I think I saw another thread where you were grappling with the same problem. I'm glad you found a fix. The issue for me is that using the "Toggle Fixed View nn" is not a toggle, even if I go to external view first. Pressing the toggle key or button again does not toggle it back to external view, so I am now stuck in the Fixed view unless I return using the toolbar menu. It's quite odd. There must be a combination of other keys I have set that stops it being a proper TOGGLE. But worse still, if I press the key I assigned to Drone mode when flying from ANY view, that key now becomes a command to go back to the Fixed view, even though I never programmed it to do so!

I think the only solution might be to switch everything to default and start again, which is a bit if a pain as I must have around 50 different custom key bindings on my HOTAS/Stick.

Kerosine 31: Yes it does sound similar.

[hangar 658]

Shouldn't have to be this difficult, that's for sure.

[Drebin27 55]

@robert young could be you have a mapping issue with the fixed view assignments.

They toggle fine for me. I've put all ten fixed view key presses (ctrl+shift+0 to ctrl+shift+9) on my stream deck.

I press a button on my yoke to go into standard external view. Then I can either use the hat switch on the yoke to move around or press any of the stream deck buttons to cycle between the fixed views. Whichever fixed view I'm on last, I make sure to press that button again to toggle out of fixed view back into standard external view. 

This works reliably for me. 

[Phantoms 800]

It"s a shame you have to remember which fixed view you're in to toggle out of instead of having a simple button to switch to standard view.

[USERINPUTERROR 1]

Switching from the 'fun landing view' below to cockpit and back into the actual cockpit is one of the most basic and obvious elements of gameplay designers should have addressed

Instead they've created a maze of confusion; to wit:

1 USER ASSIGNS BUTTON X TO THE "COCKPIT/EXTERNAL VIEW MODE"

1a. USER PRESSES BUTTON X to leave the cockpit view and go to the (default) external view

2 USER PRESSES BUTTON Y TO THE TOGGLE FROM THE DEFAULT EXTERNAL VIEW to the FIXED VIEW 4 'fun landing view'

2a USER THEN ATTEMPTS TO PRESS X TO TOGGLE BACK INTO THE COCKPIT VIEW from this (fixed) EXTERNAL VIEW MODE

3 USER IS NOW IN ANOTHER (DEFAULT LOOKING) EXTERNAL VIEW

The error is in between 2a and 3

Has anybody got a way to fix this

This is absolutely insane and classic Microsoft idiocy.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Ray Proudfoot
Converted to standard text