How to make a "Night Panel?"

[Guest]

I want to make a 'night version' of this panel I've designed so that I can have soft, 'spot lighting' effects.Can someone please instruct me on how to do this? This is my very first panel project, so be gentle... :)More pics are available at http://catholic-hymns.com/frbill/FS2002_Pictures/

[Guest Matthias Lieberecht]

Hi Bill,Wow, maybe one of the best Socata Panels I've seen. Looks very nice and realistic. Just some questions. What illumination do you want? Just illuminated instruments or illuminated instruments and a soft illuminated cockpit? You could realize both in the Panel.cfg with those lines:Day=255,255,255Night=90, 0 ,0Luminous=255, 100, 100the numbers means the R,G,B color code so you can change it if you want to have another color inside. Night means the illuminated color of the complete cockpit and Luminous is the color of the illuminated instruments at night.Or do you want to have a switchable spotlight which illuminates several parts of the Cockpit (depending where the lamp is) without using those color codes of the Panel.cfg? This requires a separate Gauge and some programming knowledge.Best regardsMatthias

[Guest]

>Hi Bill, >>Wow, maybe one of the best Socata Panels I've seen. Looks >very nice and realistic. Just some questions. What >illumination do you want? Just illuminated instruments or >illuminated instruments and a soft illuminated cockpit? You >could realize both in the Panel.cfg with those lines: > >Day=255,255,255 >Night=90, 0 ,0 >Luminous=255, 100, 100 Thanks! I'll try these values to see what effect they have. I've twiddled with them a bit, but things went from ghastly white (default) to sickly green and putrid yellow... :(>Or do you want to have a switchable spotlight which >illuminates several parts of the Cockpit (depending where >the lamp is) without using those color codes of the >Panel.cfg? This requires a separate Gauge and some >programming knowledge. I would prefer a 'switchable' night view, that would use a separate bitmap with 'night effects' of soft floods applied, but no absolutely nothing about gauge programming, except how to alter the called ID values.The complete beta version of this panel is at:http://catholic-hymns.com/frbill/FS2002_Pictures/Right now, I'm trying to integrate the 'right seat panel view' into the panel.cfg file...

[Guest]

bill...don't know anything (yet) about night lighting...just wanted to complement you on a great looking panel...nice job

[Guest]

I don't know which gauges you are using, but some gauges (baron.cab) don't have the luminous effect built into them by default. You can easily add this backlightning effect yourself if you want to.Instrument Backlightning:Extract the baron.cab into fs2002gaugesbaron (xml files and two directories, 1024 and 640). Now, open each xml file in notepad and change any line that has an image you want to nightlight to the following:You could also use Bright="1" instead of "Luminous="1", but that would result in a fully original image unaffected by lightning, and should require checks for failures to be only a little realistic.Cockpit floodlight:This one is controlled by the panellight switch (although it should have been controlled by a floodlight switch), and its intensity and color is derived from the effect (fs2002effectsvccockpit_fx). The luminous effect for backlightning is controlled by the same switch. The night color is used for the 2D panel - same switch.Instrument postlights:This would require a hefty recode of the instruments, and a lot more graphics prepared for the gauges if you want a variable intensity control. May not be an option for you as you say you don't know how to code 'advanced' code.Cockpit spotlights:If you want this, you WILL have to code a little bit. Make the panel background in both normal and nightlit modes. The normal is assigned as a panel background in panel.cfg, the nightlit one is assigned in a gauge, covering the whole panel area. Then check the state of the panel light switch, and set a BRIGHT version of this image if the switch is on. Now it will be unaffected by any other lights though. In the panel.cfg. 'Holes' should be cut into this graphics so the instruments come through.Virtual cockpit lightning:If you don't have access to the gmax model of the virtual cockpit, your only option for night effect is the cockpit floodlight. The luminous switch doesn't work here :( If you have access to the model, you can assign a bright toggle to the polygons that will have any VC gauges on them - but this is a bit complicated to get both correct and good looking at the same time.Excellent panel by the way.

[Guest]

>I don't know which gauges you are using, but some gauges >(baron.cab) don't have the luminous effect built into them >by default. You can easily add this backlightning effect >yourself if you want to.Thank you for the very detailed information. I'm printing it out for safekeeping as I type... :)All but a few of the gauges are FS defaults. The one's that aren't I've built myself.I have discovered by trial and error (with emphasis on the error part!) that the following values in the aircraft.cfg have toned down the brightness of the panels I'm using, *and* had the added bonus of disabling the nasty 'pink' backlighting of the older gauges. I tried removing the 'pink,' but wasn't happy with the alternative: dayglow white! :(Day=255,255,255Night=150,150,150Luminous=100,100,100>Instrument postlights: >This would require a hefty recode of the instruments, and a >lot more graphics prepared for the gauges if you want a >variable intensity control. May not be an option for you as >you say you don't know how to code 'advanced' code. Well, since I seem to have some small talent for design, I'm determined to learn enough C++ to accomplish whatever I need, although truthfully, most of this stuff can now be done in XML anyway... :) If I decided to go this route I'd probably limit the choices to three OFF-DIM-BRIGHT.>Cockpit spotlights: >If you want this, you WILL have to code a little bit. Make >the panel background in both normal and nightlit modes. The >normal is assigned as a panel background in panel.cfg, the >nightlit one is assigned in a gauge, covering the whole >panel area. Then check the state of the panel light switch, >and set a BRIGHT version of this image if the switch is on. >Now it will be unaffected by any other lights though. In the >panel.cfg. 'Holes' should be cut into this graphics so the >instruments come through.Now that is a variation of an idea that occurred to me as I went about developing the "copilot's" panel. I built a simple XML icon switch to 'click' that switches the panels. The same toggle icon will work for both panels, so it is a fairly simple task to accomplish.It occurred to me that I could simply have two 'night time' versions of the panels and swap 'em out in a similar fashion. No "holes" for the instruments would be required in this case, since the day/night versions are identical, save for the "spotlight" effects painted on.In this case two icons would be needed, one for each side, as they'd be calling different ident codes.>Virtual cockpit lightning: >If you don't have access to the gmax model of the virtual >cockpit, your only option for night effect is the cockpit >floodlight. The luminous switch doesn't work here :( If you >have access to the model, you can assign a bright toggle to >the polygons that will have any VC gauges on them - but this >is a bit complicated to get both correct and good looking at >the same time.Well, at this time my collaborator and I haven't developed the GMAX plane yet! He's busy learning GMAX, and I'm learning the technical bits of gauge programming. Warren is a professional graphic artist, while I have the programming and technical background. :) >Excellent panel by the way. Thank you! We're quite proud of how it's coming together. The latest release now features the switchable 'seat views' and I'm working out a compromise between panel height vs. visible view. Right now, my feeling is that the current version is 'squished' too much vertically. On the other hand, if I insist on the actual 'real life scale' the compass housing is forced halfway off the top of the screen... :)Once again, thanks for the great information! I've begun working on a photorealistic panel for the new GMAX L-1011, as the one supplied with the a/c is - well - pretty lame...:)