Simulating a Walk Around of the FBW A320N

[gb09f 298]

Hi all, 

I would like to simulate a walk-around of the FBW A320N while I'm waiting for the aircraft to refuel and for passengers to board. 

What is the easiest way to achieve this using the MSFS camera system / mouse? 

Is it possible to simulate walking out the flight deck door and down the jetway stairs? 

Appreciate any advice. 

Cheers, 

Dave. 

[Fiorentoni 4,471]

Drone camera with drone speed set to 1. You could simulate walking out of the cockpit but it will look weird, because there is no cabin modelled. I usually start downstairs.

[WestAir 2,530]

Fiorentoni hit the nail on the head, you've got to use the drone cam and sort of ham-fist it.

Slightly off topic but I'm surprised no one has made a version of the P3D Avatar for MSFS, yet. Heck I'm surprised ASOBO didn't do it. Most modern games have different control modes between player characters and vehicles. MSFS really has no reason to be different. We should totally be able to make our pilot avatar walk around our aircraft using in game physics.

Before I'm hit with a "bUt ThIs Is A fLiGhT sIm NoT a WaLkInG sIm." I've never once in my 16 years of flying not done a walk around. When complex sims hit the market, it'll be important to walk around and see if there's oil dripping or a remove-before-flight tag still on. That's just good simulating.

Edited March 17, 2022 by WestAir
spelling

[Fiorentoni 4,471]

11 minutes ago, WestAir said:

Fiorentoni hit the nail on the head, you've got to use the drone cam and sort of ham-fist it.

Slightly off topic but I'm surprised no one has made a version of the P3D Avatar for MSFS, yet. Heck I'm surprised ASOBO didn't do it. Most modern games have different control modes between player characters and vehicles. MSFS really has no reason to be different. We should totally be able to make our pilot avatar walk around our aircraft using in game physics.

Before I'm hit with a "bUt ThIs Is A fLiGhT sIm NoT a WaLkInG sIm." I've never once in my 16 years of flying not done a walk around. When complex sims hit the market, it'll be important to walk around and see if there's oil dripping or a remove-before-flight tag still on. That's just good simulating.

I'll add to that that it was never that visually intriguing to do a walkaround.

[Abriael 952]

 

[gb09f 298]

Thanks all. I'll give the drone cam a try. Appreciate the help!

[Farlis 2,341]

That is the one feature I miss from P3D. The avatar mode. I would go into first person mode without model and do my Walkarounds in VR.

[gb09f 298]

6 minutes ago, Farlis said:

That is the one feature I miss from P3D. The avatar mode. I would go into first person mode without model and do my Walkarounds in VR.

Oh that sounds amazing! I'd love to be able to do that in MSFS... 

[VFXSimmer 1,311]

1 hour ago, gb09f said:

Oh that sounds amazing! I'd love to be able to do that in MSFS... 

I'd love that too, to be honest.

Whats so fun about MSFS is that it simulated the entire "flying experience" in that its not limited to JUST the flying.  I quite often use the drone after parking at a gate and "walk" up the jetway and into the terminal.  There's quite a bit of "imagination" required because there is rarely a finished jetway interior, but there are quite a few terminal interiors and its quite "imerssive" to go inside and look back out the window at your parked plane.

Adding an "avatar" - or at least a "walking camera" mode wouldnt be that difficult.  

In the meantime, I HIGHLY recommend getting an xbox controller (if you dont have one) to operate the drone camera.  Makes it so much easier to move around compared to mouse and keyboard inputs.

[blueshark747 1,853]

6 hours ago, gb09f said:

Hi all, 

I would like to simulate a walk-around of the FBW A320N while I'm waiting for the aircraft to refuel and for passengers to board. 

What is the easiest way to achieve this using the MSFS camera system / mouse? 

Is it possible to simulate walking out the flight deck door and down the jetway stairs? 

Appreciate any advice. 

Cheers, 

Dave. 

The drone cam isn't the only way to achieve such, You can also map the sim's eyepoint functions which allows you to move about the entire aircrafts fully rendered interior and exterior.

Only issue with eyepoint functions are MS/Asobo pretty much set boundary limitations inside of the virtual cockpits of all default aircraft after SU6.

Meanwhile 3rd party addon aircraft don't have the boundary restriction. I need to dig into some files and delete MS/Asobos limitations for default aircraft.

I'm thinking they implemeted such boundaries to cut down on render resources/performance tax while in virtual cockpit view.

Feel free to check out my channel which is known for such walkarounds in VR.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcBhV_2yHYYaxriWJC0qtJA

Edited March 17, 2022 by blueshark747

[Flic1 1,012]

1 hour ago, VFXSimmer said:

n the meantime, I HIGHLY recommend getting an xbox controller (if you dont have one) to operate the drone camera.  Makes it so much easier to move around compared to mouse and keyboard inputs.

I forgot about this tip from some time ago...thanks for mentioning!  Just ordered one as I have never not had a good way to control the drone cam and have avoided using it.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Flic1

[VFXSimmer 1,311]

1 hour ago, Flic1 said:

I forgot about this tip from some time ago...thanks for mentioning!  Just ordered one as I have never not had a good way to control the drone cam and have avoided using it.

I should also mention that if you map the eyepoint functions that blueshark747 describes to the controller inputs, you can also very smoothly "walk" about the cabin (within the boundaries that he mentioned at least).  For example, in the Kodiak, I can engage the autopilot then virtually "unbuckle my seatbelt" and slide back into the passenger area and sit down in one of those seats for a bit.  I've done the same in the H145 helicopter and discovered that the luxury variant had moveable video screens modeled in the backseats (sady they dont display any video.... YET... hint hint - would be a "novel" way to watch a movie if we could stream a downloaded movie file into a texture map within a model... yes I'm looking at you Hype Performance Group to figure it out ./wink.).

[Steve Dra 7,606]

I have all the drone controls mapped to the spare HOTAS throttle I had after upgrading to the Bravo....which sits on top of it nicely and is very intuitive to use without having to grab an xbox controller (so at leave I have my hand on the yoke/stick while droning).

Anyway...I have buttons/hats/etc for zoom level, rotation, panning, elevation, drone speed intuitively at my fingertips to move effortlessly anywhere both externally for a walk around or in the cockpit.  One of the most important items to map is zoom level as it you leave it at the default (50% I believe)...you get too much fisheye, especially with long planes (like the subject below).  I've found the best setting is at 80ish%, which is where this setting is on the external shots...I backed it off a little in the cockpit as you don't have much room in there to pan around. 🙂 

So I can do a walk around with ease...

Heading down the air stairs....

Turn around and squat down a little to look under the plane (can't really walk under an MD)

Checking out the tail feathers....the APU is on but you can't see the heat blur in the pic...but its there...and its...LOUD!

Someone dropped the tail stairs as I was walking around the other side....glad I wasn't under it, LOL

Walk arounds are a snap. 🙂

And if I want to get an interesting angle in the cockpit...the same control settings are mapped to the VC, so I don't have to remember different buttons in either view....very handy. 🙂

In P3d, I relied heavily on Chaseplane®  to get the same types of shots I can with the MSFS drone.

Like this for example when I had to look closely under the nose of this United 737 I painted for the iFly 737 a while back. (you can see I still needed to paint the e-bay access door white, but in this session I was concerned with getting the "737-800 scimitar" text lined up properly.

As a painter, you have a good way to look everywhere on the model to correct small issues with your paint.   You'll never get the right angle with using the simple external view (which just rotates around a fixed point in the center of the aircraft).  Chaseplane rocked for this in P3d!  The avatar was good to...but had a lot of limitations.

 

[blueshark747 1,853]

41 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

I have all the drone controls mapped to the spare HOTAS throttle I had after upgrading to the Bravo....which sits on top of it nicely and is very intuitive to use without having to grab an xbox controller (so at leave I have my hand on the yoke/stick while droning).

Anyway...I have buttons/hats/etc for zoom level, rotation, panning, elevation, drone speed intuitively at my fingertips to move effortlessly anywhere both externally for a walk around or in the cockpit.  One of the most important items to map is zoom level as it you leave it at the default (50% I believe)...you get too much fisheye, especially with long planes (like the subject below).  I've found the best setting is at 80ish%, which is where this setting is on the external shots...I backed it off a little in the cockpit as you don't have much room in there to pan around. 🙂 

So I can do a walk around with ease...

Heading down the air stairs....

 

Turn around and squat down a little to look under the plane (can't really walk under an MD)
 

Checking out the tail feathers....the APU is on but you can't see the heat blur in the pic...but its there...and its...LOUD!
 

Someone dropped the tail stairs as I was walking around the other side....glad I wasn't under it, LOL
 

Walk arounds are a snap. 🙂

And if I want to get an interesting angle in the cockpit...the same control settings are mapped to the VC, so I don't have to remember different buttons in either view....very handy. 🙂

 

 

I can't wait to walk up to the MD80 and see it parked outside of my terminal!🍻

[VFXSimmer 1,311]

5 minutes ago, blueshark747 said:

 

I can't wait to walk up to the MD80 and see it parked outside of my terminal!🍻

Agreed.  I assume you just "happened" to chose THAT plane as your subject Steve 😉.    Well played sir!

Mapping to the HOTAS is pretty analogous to the xbox controller.  Whatever hardware you have at your disposal will do the trick.  Both allow progressive joystick movement which is the key to allow you to smoothly fly around (better than keystrokes).  The xbox controller also has the two paddle inputs which move you up and down giving you 6 degrees of freedom.  (Its pretty cheap too .. $50.. if you didnt have the spare joystick handy)