Glass gauge faces-how?

[N2056 33]

I've been trying to learn how to use this effect on the VC guages I made for my Thorp project. The gauges are basic xml-essentially a background bmp and a needle (modeling a basic vfr panel helps!)I have PSP9, Imagetool, DXT-BMP, and FS Panel Studio. I have been reading the Panels SDK, but I have not had success. Can anyone enlighten me?Thanks!Robert

[dmaher 0]

I'm interseted in this to. I

[Guest iholrf]

If you mean truely reflective gauges, the answer given is correct. It might be more trouble than its worth.If you mean gauges that have alpha channels that help give it a look of light and shadow, this can be done. Look to the DC3 for nice examples. In PSP the alpha channel transparency is in masks and not layers like you might expect.The rest comes down to careful design of the face and bezels themselves. A lot can be emulated with careful design.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/134251.jpgThe thing to consider is the fact that the human brain is very good at "filling in the blanks" and will see things that are not actually there. The above gauge for example seems to have the reflection grow stronger depending on the light conditions in the VC, or disappears when lit, but this is only due to contrast changes... the eye thinks its right.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/134258.jpgI have been considering a state check on the gauges to see if the panel light is on, and if so remove the shadow layer, but my gauge pack is getting to be a bit of a frame rate hog so I will probably not add more code to it.CheersShad