I'm currently updating Dave Eckert's great FSDS Eclipse--a project I recently announced in the screenshots forum (a link to the most recent pic is below).I've finished updating the VC, and it shows up great in the daytime. But the gauges all but vanish at night. I am not trying anything too fancy...I'm just interested in getting the gauges to appear with a fair amount of brightness. Any simple approach I can try?Also, is there a way to "preset" the VC zoom value? The perspective from the pilot's seat doesn't allow one to see the cockpit unless one pans the view down--the Eclipse has a fairly low panel unlike a Cessna or something similar where the panel would be in the field of "virtual" vision.Thanks, Johnhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/82229.jpg

Hi JohnThe simplest method (other than using vclight fx) is once you have gotten all the gauges Polly's/gauges where you want them,Make copy's of the gauges Polly's for the VC in FSDS,give the orig a preprocess of panel light off then the copy's a preprocess of panel lights on.Now give the panel light on gauges Polly's an new emissive material (I use 116 14 34 nice red color)As for the view in the VC cockpit have a look for this in the aircraft.cfg Viewseyepoint=-0.2, 0, 3.55-0.2 up/down center of model, 0 left/right center of model, 3.55 forward/backward center of modelThink thats right :)hope this helpsMaV

Thanks.... Worked perfectly and my panel looks nice and bright now. I've tried tweaking the eyepoint.... Likely I'll have to preset the forward zoom....-John

I should add, I expanded on your method a bit...I created two night polys--one for my panel background, and one for my VC gauge poly. Same pre-processing applied, but for the VC gauge poly I used an emmisive color of 180,180,180. For the panel background, I used the color you suggested. Reason I did this--it allows the glass cockpit gauges to have a slightly better lighting effect.I've attached a screenie of the final result... Thanks again for your suggestion, although I'm kicking myself for not thinking of the obvious :)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/82611.jpg

Hi Glad it worked out,you can also add a vclight.fx to give a bit of ambiance.Also it pays to check the panel lighting during the day with the sun behind you.Depending on the panel shape you may get a pinky hue to the panel.RegardsMaV(Just checking out attaching an image to see if it works :D)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/82627.jpg

>Thanks.... Worked perfectly and my panel looks nice and>bright now. I've tried tweaking the eyepoint.... Likely I'll>have to preset the forward zoom....John, the chief problem with that simplistic method is that everything glows... :(I much prefer the emissive lightmask method that I wrote about in my tutorial. I worked closely with Louis Sinclair to make sure that the method will work in FSDS2. I have really been hoping more people would begin using it, because it looks so much nicer... :)Take note that there is no .fx lighting here at all, and there is only one poly on which both the background and the gauges are displayed. The 'lighting' is done via a lightmask (_l.bmp) file with a black alpha channel to allow the panel lights switch to control the lighting... :)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/82642.jpg