At long last I have finally cracked the individual backlighted gauge illumination in the virtual cockpit!Man, does it ever look nice!I think I deserve to say, "Hot Diggity Dog Damn!" :)

...so we can switch off the unrealistic fx_vclight during flight? Great news. :)Claudius

>At long last I have finally cracked the individual >backlighted gauge illumination in the virtual cockpit! >>Man, does it ever look nice! >>I think I deserve to say, "Hot Diggity Dog Damn!" :) Now, the details!1) First, I created a square planar surface in GMax named P12) I applied a 512x512 pure black bitmap $P1.bmp3) I then created a 512x512 background image of the panel and named it panel_P1_background.bmp, leaving the unneeded part pure black (0,0,0). This file is saved in the panel folder.4) I then placed the gauges with FS Panel Studio, and tested it in FS2k2.5) I took a 'snapshot' of the panel in FS Panel Studio, and loaded it into Photoshop. I resized it to fit a black, 512x512 image, and scaled it to fit. I had to flip the image on horizontal and vertical axes. Don't ask why, it's an FS2k2 thing! :}6) Using that inverted and backwards image, I 'painted' light grey where I wanted illumination, then saved the file for later re-editing.7) I then merged the layers (discarding the image), and saved it as P1_l.bmp in the texture folder of the a/c.8) I applied the P1_l.bmp file as a 'self-illumination map' in GMax and re-exported everything to the .mdl file.9) I edited the panel.cfg file entry as follows:{Vcockpit01} <==these are square brackets!file=panel_P1_background.bmpsize_mm=512,512visible=0pixel_size=512,512background_color=0,0,0texture=$P1gauge00=TB20GT!Airspeed Indicator, 44,66,100,100gauge01=TB20GT!Attitude Indicator, 149,62,120,114gauge02=TB20GT!Annunciator Lights, 40,24,296,35gauge03=TB20GT!Horizontal Situation Indicator, 149,174,120,114gauge04=TB20GT!Turn Coordinator, 44,181,100,100gauge05=TB20GT!Altimeter, 277,66,100,100gauge06=TB20GT!Vertical Speed Indicator, 278,181,99,99gauge07=TB20GT!VOR2_GS, 386,66,100,100gauge08=TB20GT!RMI, 386,181,100,100gauge09=TB20GT!DME, 378,7,120,54gauge10=TB20GT!Tail_Number, 234,2,84,18By doing it this way, when the Landing lights are off (day or night), the normal background bitmap is displayed (panel_P1_background.bmp)When the landing lights are turned on, the self-illumination mask will apply 'back lighting' only to the designated area, and the normal background image remains unchanged!No more ugly black square showing! Yippee!'scuse me, I'm gonna go suck down a beer now! :)

>...so we can switch off the unrealistic fx_vclight during >flight? >>Great news. :) Yes, although there is a downside... the darn self-illumination is tied to the landing lights... but, who the hell is gonna notice that at night up in the air! :)I know that a lot of folks already know about how to do the 'self-illumination' trick, but no one was admitting to know how to (a) eliminate the ugly black box and (:( illuminate only the interior of the gauge, without the stupid bezel and background glowing also...So, now the whole FS world will know how... :) Well, at least the ones who read this forum! :)

If your landing light is gear mounted, use c_gearlight and it will be off during retracted state. (45 degrees or more)Milton

Seems interesting but i don't understand anything... :-lolI'm still strugling to make the cabin of my plane...it will be a long time before i get to the VC...then i'll dig up this message and try to understand.Take careMike

Hey Bill!And congratulations for your discovery. Well done!!I have one question though. With this method of yours, are you able to apply also flood lights on your 3D panel? I made the gauge backlights for the DreamFleet Cardinal different way and I also have flood lights on the panel itself. This all is without the outside of the gauges going black. See the attached shot:http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/Previews/C17...es/VC/VC_17.jpg

>Hey Bill! >>And congratulations for your discovery. Well done!! >>I have one question though. With this method of yours, are >you able to apply also flood lights on your 3D panel? I made >the gauge backlights for the DreamFleet Cardinal different >way and I also have flood lights on the panel itself. This >all is without the outside of the gauges going black. See >the attached shot: I sent a detailed reply via email, but I haven't gotten to that point yet... I see no reason why not though. It should be fairly easy to switch the background bitmaps at the same time.