partial success, 2D panel questions

[Guest t-force1]

Hi All,Well after many years of thinking about it, I'm trying to make an entire plane. Seemed like a good idea to get my feet wet by starting with a simple panel. Well I have photos of the cockpit and got a working front panel setup using a photo as the background and mostly stock FS9 guages, but I've run into a couple of snags I was hoping you could help me with.1) Why am I getting a 1 pixel transparent band along the border of my panel: top,left, right, and bottom? I sized it to be 1024x768.2) When I try to setup another view for front left, it persists when switching views from front left back to front. i.e. I can see the front left view THROUGH the window of the front view until I look in a direction that doesn't hava a view set up and then it goes away.3) Why are my .bmp files for the panel so large when everyone elses is so much smaller? Say, 2.2Mbytes vs. 700k or less. I got my files by cropping some digital photos down to 1024x768.If anyone can point me to any getting started guides for 2D panels or GMAX, I'd appreciated it. I'll tackle custom guages and VC LAST. Obviously, I'm a complete newb, but at least I realize it's a long term project with a steep(?) learning curve.BTW, I'm trying to model a 1939 Cabin Waco. I've got lots of photos of the inside and out plus copies of 3 view drawings w. dimensions and even cross sections of wing and fuselage at various points which should help, I would think, when getting around to the 3D model some day.Thanks!

[Guest dko60202]

T-force1,I'm a neophyte 'round here too, but until an expert chimes in, here's my 2 cents.1. When scaling down an image in Photoshop (for one) it will sample-in some pixels from outside the image, resulting in a partially transparent border of one pixel. This may be related to your problem. Try rescaling slightly bigger than you need, and cropping to size.2. Not sure3. Chances are, your panel background is a full-color .bmp, as opposed to an indexed (256-color) .bmp. MSFS will open and color index these 'on the fly' so to speak, but better you should do it yourself. I would open it in your favorite paint program, index (or color-reduce) to 256 colors, recolor any unwanted black pixels and save as a .bmp. (this may by itself solve #1 as well.)Hope it helps, and good luck on your project!Douglas

[Guest t-force1]

Hi Douglas,I zoomed in really close and examined the pixels at the left, right, top , and bottom. They are the colors they are supposed to be and I rechecked the dimensions and it is 1024 x 768.I changed the .bmp to 8-bit 256 color and the file size went down to about 700k so that looks like that is it. One down, two to go!Thanks.

[Guest t-force1]

Ok guys, now I'm really confused. Let me back up and ask this question: If I wanted to include, say, a front left view from a .bmp, where and how do I let FS9 know where it is and what is? I've been looking at some other aircraft (B-29) and can't for the life of me find the artwork fon any view but the main panel or see any reference to it in the panel.cfg I was trying to copy a technique used in 727 I found where the 2d views were taken from pics, but that ain't working out and would seem to be an exceptional technique and not the norm. Little help? Please?

[Guest _ak]

Download and read few times Panels SDK, it helps a lot :) http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimul...wnloads_sdk.aspOn some panels 2d views graphics can be stored inside gauges

[Guest t-force1]

I did but it doesn't really address these points directly... HOWEVER, it would appear that you can't get rid of the one pixel border for any view except forward. After much trial and error, I found you have to set render_3d_window=1 in the forward view AND crop the outside view in the [Default View] section of the panle.cfg After examing many freeware planes with photos backgrounds for views other than forwards, they all have this one pixel transparent border too. I guess I'm in good company.As for the side view still being visible after going to forward, this was due to needing VIEW_FORWARD_WINDOWS=MAIN_PANEL. Otherwise, I had the problem I was having. Hope this helps someone. Case closed. Awaiting next issue...