Is there a way to light the instrument panel in Cockpit View F9?

[Guest AirAnne]

Is there a way to light the insturment panel in Cockpit View F9? It's very dark. The illumination in Cockpit View F10 is great. Any suggestions? Thank you! AirAnne

[Highmike 68]

A lot of panels will have a panel light switch, or sometimes the panel lights will come on when you turn on the rotating beacon. But if all else fails you can always hit the Shift + L combo which will turn on the panel lights in both the 2D panel and the VC.Mike.

[n4gix 4,947]

None of the FS9 default a/c have "backlighted VC gauges."Although the ability was there, the guys at ACES didn't know it until I told them......and no, I didn't make the initial discovery, but I was the one who brought it to their attention... :-lol When I first stated modeling and gauge programming, I noticed that a very few "payware" models had really neat "gauge backlighting," so I set out on a six month quest to crack the secret and make it public knowledge... :-beerchug About the only thing you can do for FS9 models with no such lighting is to add a vc_light.fx file to your aircraft.cfg file's {Lights} section.

[Guest jshyluk]

Oh, dear, Bill, Bill, Bill... how you brighten my day! Seriously!Certainly, if there's something to do with the gauges, you are THE go-to guy. If you hadn't helped me with gauge issues, I'd still probably be sitting in a cave somewhere pretending my hand was an aerofoil and making "Brrprrbrrprr" sounds with my mouth to imitate a propeller (note how I simulate a slight lean-ness to my mixture in the sound effect). And there's a jubilant note to your self-congratulation that may often be imitated but never duplicated. My wife gets the same way on Board Game Night. I find it kind of charming.However...I think at the top of the thread the original poster was referring to the actual F9 and F10 keys on the keyboard, which can be used to switch cockpit views, and not to FS9 and FS10 (FSX). It's just my guess. And Shift-L is a handy way to turn on all the lights without hunting for the light switches in the dark. It's almost as good as "The Clapper"!Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

May I just say in Bill's defense ...I don't know Bill personally. Never met him.I only know him from the posts I have read on this and other internet sites. First ... he's probably one of the top 3 most knowledgeable people there are when it comes to the inner workings of Flight Simulator (at least, in my view).But more importantly, the guy is just tireless. Why, just take a look at the post count: He's now over 5,000 posts on AVSIM. That's just flabbergasting to me.Bill is one of the reasons that AVSIM is the place to go when you have questions about Flight Simulator. He's an asset to me here.To write 5,000 posts, and not occasionally have a post where how you put something might come off as patting yourself on the back just a little bit will be a trick for anyone else who tries it.I for one think Microsoft would be foolish to let FS11 ship without gauge backlighting, and I'd be the first to criticize ACES if they did that. The lighting in FSX is horrid. No excuse for it in my view.If you look over on the Flightsim.com forums and on other forums, you'll see an astounding number of posts there as well.So ... if I might just take a moment and slap Bill Leaming on the back for the contributions he's made to flight simming, FSX, and more importantly, to my time here at AVSIM.I think AVSIM is lucky to have a guy like Bill posting here.

[phillroath 1]

Is this what you're looking for? I have a workaround when the SP2 changed the night lighting and it commented out the VC Panel lights in all the default aircraft.cfg files. Take a look here...http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ode=full#441789Phill

[n4gix 4,947]

>I think at the top of the thread the original poster was>referring to the actual F9 and F10 keys on the keyboard, which>can be used to switch cockpit views, and not to FS9 and FS10>(FSX). It's just my guess. >>And Shift-L is a handy way to turn on all the lights without>hunting for the light switches in the dark. It's almost as>good as "The Clapper"!You're perfectly correct Jeff. I did let my hubris take over for a moment... :-shyI would also like to point out that Phil's approach using the "smoke toggle" is a pretty simple and elegant solution as well. It is probably even simpler to implement, since it involves no gauge or panel.cfg file changes. It's a simply matter of editing the aircraft.cfg file (plain text!)... ;)F9 is the Virtual Cockpit View...FSX-RTM and FSX-SP1 both implemented .fx type lighting in the VC view, and some of the default a/c have a new form of gauge backlighting.FSX-SP2 has "updated" aircraft.cfg files that "commented out" (//xxx) the entries for the .fx lighting in the VC, presumably because (a) the .fx "lights" were now too bright, and (:( they (ACES) never provided a switch to control them, although the LIGHT_CABIN electrical circuit (type #10) was enabled back in FS2004!There is a thread on flightsim.com where I have a small XML "switch" file attached, along with instructions on how to install and use it, along with instructions on how to modify the aircraft.cfg file.I'll repeat it here at avsim.com (with some compression) to save anyone the bother of chasing it down "over there..." :-lol======================================================The following example is from the Maule aircraft.cfg file...The complete list of "light codes" is as follows:

[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing, 6=taxi,//7=recognition, 8=wing, 9=logo, 10=cabin light.0 = 3,  -2.76, -18.11, 2.97, fx_navred light.1 = 3,  -2.78,  18.11, 2.95, fx_navgre light.2 = 2,  -3.13, -18.31, 2.95, fx_strobe light.3 = 2,  -3.11,  18.31, 2.95, fx_strobe light.4 = 1, -20.51,   0.00, 6.20, fx_beacon light.5 = 10,  -2.27,   0.00, 1.45, fx_vclight

Note that the "fx_vclight" should be assigned to type #10, which is the cabin light circuit...The first part of editing the aircraft.cfg file is simple enough....It's the XML "gauge" that is slightly more difficult. What it requires is for anyone who wishes to "construct" one to spend a bit of time in study.To save time, I took about six minutes to create this simple toggle switch that will serve your purpose. Simply edit your panel.cfg file to place it somewhere on the 2d panel, for example:gauge45=CabinLights!CabinLights, 299,442,24,60http://n4gix.home.comcast.net/~n4gix/CabinLights.CAB