How to set custom zoom distance for individual aircraft?

[Guest Kalnon]

I was just wondering if there is a way I can manually set the default zoom distance for inside the cockpits of individual aircraft like in a configuration file or something?

The default of 50% is ok for some aircraft but not for others and I want a way that I can have it so that the aircraft load up with the correct zoom distance that I want and also when I hit the "reset view" button, it will revert back to the zoom level I want instead of 50%.  I hate messing around with the camera zoom sliders in the camera options menu while I'm trying  to fly or using the mouse wheel which is not very precise.

Thanks

Edited December 18, 2023 by Kalnon

[Ohmsquare 110]

Set your desired zoom and camera position and press Ctrl+F9/F10/F11 to save a new IFR/VFR/Landing Pilot View. Press Shift instead to reset camera to default. Not sure if these are the default keybinds.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ohmsquare

[Guest Kalnon]

34 minutes ago, Ohmsquare said:

Set your desired zoom and camera position and press Ctrl+F9/F10/F11 to save a new IFR/VFR/Landing Pilot View. Press Shift instead to reset camera to default. Not sure if these are the default keybinds.

Interesting, I didn't know I could do that, thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.  That sounds much easier than doing it the way I was before.

I would still like to know though if there's an aircraft configuration file somewhere in the plane's installation folder where I can change it permanently for each plane.

[Ohmsquare 110]

It is permanent for each individual aircraft.

AFAIK, your saved camera settings are then automatically stored in the respective camera.cfg file in \AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SimObjects\Airplanes folder.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Ohmsquare

[Guest Kalnon]

33 minutes ago, Ohmsquare said:

It is permanent for each individual aircraft.

AFAIK, your saved camera settings are then automatically stored in the respective camera.cfg file in \AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SimObjects\Airplanes folder.

Ahh I see, thank you again.  It certainly does make things a lot easier than constantly fiddling with the zoom all the time.

[Tom_L 570]

You can also save custom camera views with leftCTRL/leftALT + number (not Numpad). Basically you adjust the view you are currently in to your liking, press CTRL+ALT+1 and can recall this view with ALT+1 from wherever you are. I have set up my cooliehat to pan left-right-up-down, and with pressing another button on my joystick together with cooliehat movement I change views Pilot-Copilot-Overhead-Pedestal.The camerasytem in MSFS is very versatile, but it needs some time to explore all the possibilities.

Here's how i set it up: I adjusted the pilot view to my liking, saved it as "User Defined Camera 1" (CTRL+ALT+1). I can change to that view anytime by pulling the lever (4) and simultaneously pushing the cooliehat to the left (POV <-). The other views are defined accordingly. Here's a sceenshot. It's german, but you'll get the drift.

[Guest Kalnon]

16 minutes ago, Tom_L said:

You can also save custom camera views with leftCTRL/leftALT + number (not Numpad). Basically you adjust the view you are currently in to your liking, press CTRL+ALT+1 and can recall this view with ALT+1 from wherever you are. I have set up my cooliehat to pan left-right-up-down, and with pressing another button on my joystick together with cooliehat movement I change views Pilot-Copilot-Overhead-Pedestal.The camerasytem in MSFS is very versatile, but it needs some time to explore all the possibilities.

Here's how i set it up: I adjusted the pilot view to my liking, saved it as "User Defined Camera 1" (CTRL+ALT+1). I can change to that view anytime by pulling the lever (4) and simultaneously pushing the cooliehat to the left (POV <-). The other views are defined accordingly. Here's a sceenshot. It's german, but you'll get the drift.

That's awesome, I didn't know that was possible either.  That's a fantastic way to set it up.  I'm definitely trying that.  Thank you so much for sharing.

BTW anyone know how to free roam?  I want to be able to get up and move through the cabin and look closely also at the outside of the airplane, get up close and personal.  I see people do it all the time in YouTube videos but I can't figure out how to do it.

[Tom_L 570]

I think youtube and searching for "MSFS"  +  "camera system", "drone camera" or "custom views" is the way to go.

[MadDog 357]

 

[Guest Kalnon]

Thank you guys, very helpful, I appreciate it.

[reecemj 156]

I use right CTRL and the number pad to set views…5 pilot view/6right/4left/..and others..

[danhenri 25]

9 hours ago, reecemj said:

I use right CTRL and the number pad to set views…5 pilot view/6right/4left/..and others..

That's what I did, until I read MadDog's post above. Indeed, if you are simply bending a button of the joystick to reset a saved custom cockpit camera view (numpad "4" in my case), you will have to press the button two times, because, the first time, you are getting another view. So, I discovered that the button has to be mapped to "cockpit view reset". As MadDog suggests (thanks to him), I edited all my camera.cfg files (I only use third party aircrafts) to make this function working. A small issue though : the transition from any custom view to the cockpit view reset is not pretty fluid (I run my PC with a RTX 4060, so it's not a GPU limitation).

Edited December 20, 2023 by danhenri

[Guest Kalnon]

So many different ways to do it it seems, just have to keep tinkering and learning what all the different controls actually do.  That's always been a frustrating part of flight simulation for me, learning how to setup the camera controls so that it feels as intuitive as possible when using nothing but a hat switch, buttons or key presses.

I really need to get a Track IR already, but then I have to learn how to set that up too 😂