Zoom view in panel.cfg

[Guest opedrosa]

I

[Guest Douglas K]

Oscar, You can change the virtual cockpit zoom from the controls in the view options menu and it will dutifully set all virtual cockpit zoom factors to whatever number you enter there, but it will set the those zoom factors for that FS session only. As soon as FS2002 is restarted the zoom factor will revert to the default (1.00), and you will have to go through the whole business of changing the zoom from the view options menu again. You could save a flight with the altered zoom factor and start FS from there, but I've found that a better and more permanent way to go about this is to make a change to the FS2002 default flight's zoom factor. In the FS2002 flights folder, the folder named "other" contains the default flight FLT file. This FLT file is named "fltsim". Open "fltsim" with notepad and scroll down to the section shown below:[Window.1]Order=0Active=TrueUndocked=FalseMaximized=FalseManualMaxed=FalseScreenUniCoords=0,0,8192,2500UndocCoords=0,0,0,0ViewType=NormalViewMode=CockpitViewDir=ForwardCockpitZoom=001.00VirtualZoom=001.00 <------ enter your preferred zoom factor hereTowerZoom=008.00TrackZoom=004.00SpotZoom=001.00MapZoom=011.00SpotDirection=090.00SpotDistance=+000123SpotTransitionType=RollSpotFastTransition=FalseSpotAltitude=+000010PanHeading=360.00PanPitch=360.00PanBank=360.00AutoFullScreen=Truethe zoom for the virtual cockpit will be found there, along with all the other viewing options available. (Among the many options is SpotFastTransition=False. If you want, you can change this to True for a permanent solution to the annoying and slow spot plane view transitions.) Change the virtual cockpit zoom factor entry (VirtualZoom=001.00) in this section to whatever value you desire. By changing the zoom for the default flight and aircraft you will change the 3d cockpit zoom for all aircraft, although not the 2d cockpit zoom. The 2d zoom factor reverts to 1.00 (or to the value entered in the panel CFG file View_Forward_Zoom) when you change aircraft. Changing the zoom in the virtual cockpit mode will zoom the panel along with the view. You can see this most clearly by watching the preview window in the view options menu while you change the zoom factor. Note that the panel moves forward and backward when you change the zoom.So, after obtaining the virtual cockpit mode outside view/zoom factor that you want by changing it per the above information, you should then change the eyepoint in the [Views] section of the aircraft CFG file to put the panel back where it belongs:[Views]eyepoint=-3.95, -0.85, 2.1 //(feet) longitudinal, lateral, vertical distance from reference datumThe first number is the longitudinal distance from the reference datum, change it to move the panel forward or backward as required after you have the outside zoom factor set to your liking.You will have to experiment with this entry a little until you get the panel placed where you want it.