Inverted Gauges in FSDS VC

[Guest Tom Goodrick]

I am slowly working my way through learning to design aircraft using FSDS 2. I have been using the VC to give a good pilot's point of view of the outside world, as required in FSDS. I decided that I might as well put a couple of gauges on the panel in VC mode. The aircraft I am modelling is a Velocity XL-5 canard which has a glass panel. So the two gauges I want to put on the panel are the Learjet PFD and the Garmin GPS map. I followed instructions as best I could and, after doing things other than what some instructions said, have succeeded in getting the gauges in view in VC mode. BUT THEY ARE UPSIDE DOWN!http://home.hiwaay.net/~goodrick/Vel_VC.jpgAny suggestions other than switching to Gmax would be appreciated. I am not a big fan of VC's and I may just remove these gauges. But it irks me to get so close and be so far.

[Guest Robert Sanderson]

Hi Tom,I can understand and appreciate your frustration.:-roll In case you missed it, FSDS2 has a VC tutorial by Bill Lyons in the Help section. Setting up the panel texture is among the many VC related modeling techniques that are well documented by Bill.Since you have already assigned the texture and viewed it upside down in FS9, you probably need only to open the Part Texture Assignments dialog for your panel poly, proceed to the Texture Properties dialog and put a check in the 'Invert Y' box. Your textured gauge poly will then look similar to the textured poly in the Perspective view window shown in the attached screenshot.Your VC gauges should now be right side up in FS9.:-)Robert http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/85189.jpg

[Guest Tom Goodrick]

Thank you. I guess that was what someone on another forum told me to do only they were not as explicit. This still amkes very little sense because there is no poly associated with this texture that I know of. It is a blank, dummy texture, according to Bill Lyon's Help. I read through that text but did not catch this detail. I am still perplexed by whatever the Y axis has to do with anything since that is the vertical axis in your notation. I have had considerable pain caused by the FSDS axes being totally unconventional, X=Y, Y=Z and Z=X when compared with FS and aeronautical convention.

[Guest Robert Sanderson]

"This still amkes very little sense because there is no poly associated with this texture that I know of. It is a blank, dummy texture, according to Bill Lyon's Help."The texture must be applied to something, a square poly, tube, box, sphere or whatever.I just had a look at Bill's tutorial in FSDS help, and he advises:"Add a square polygon "Gauges" part just in front of the panel as shown. This will be the part upon which we will project the virtual gauges."I like to think of the gauge polys as 'movie projection screens' and I name them accordingly; "instrument panel proj poly" etc. I'm up to 16 Vcockpit sections in the panel.cfg file of my current project, so things look pretty cluttered in the FSDS VC model views and this naming convention helps me recognize them quickly in the parts list when I need to hide them."It is a blank, dummy texture, according to Bill Lyon's Help."I also like to think of that dummy texture as the light from the projector carrying the movie images (gauges) to the projection screen (gauge poly)."I am still perplexed by whatever the Y axis has to do with anything since that is the vertical axis in your notation."Me too! Actually I believe it may be the result of how FS9 projects the gauges onto the poly. As you found out, it displays them upside down. By inverting the Y axis in Texture Properties the dummy texture is flipped upside down and applied to the poly. The gauges then appear right side up in FS9.Once you have it working you can create simple instrument backlighting for your panel by using another gauge poly copied from the first gauge poly and pasted in the same location. In the parts properties of this second poly assign it an emissive material (see 'Material Basics' in help if you are not sure how to do this) and then pre-process it (also found in help) to 'illuminate' in response to the light circuit of your choice (panel, cabin, wing, logo etc).If you want sophisticated panel lighting for your aircraft, then look into Bill Leaming's "VC Gauge Backlighting - A Tutorial Using Emissive Texture Lightmapping" found here:http://www.freeflightdesign.com/tutorials.htmlThese methods provide an alternative to the stock fx_vclights, and allow you to see outside the cockpit at night.Freeflight Design has dedicated modeling forums and a lot of useful stuff from knowledgeable folks, it's a geat place to visit if you're into designing for MS flight sims!http://www.freeflightdesign.com/Robert

[Guest Tom Goodrick]

OK. This has worked.Thank you very much.

[Guest Robert Sanderson]

You're welcome!:-) Regards, Robert