How Do You Turn Off the Light ??

[Guest Heather 636]

G'day gentlemen!I fly Jan Visser's DC-3 with the R4D dual panel for a virtual airline, therefore, involving a fair number of night flights.Do you enjoy driving down the highway at night with the dome light left on? Didn't think so, neither do I.How do you turn off the cockpit light yet leave the instrument panel lamps lit? Turning off the "Battery" and "Generator" switches on the overhead will achieve the desired effect but it also turns off too many other things too!!On a night flight, it's MUCH more pleasing to the eyes.PLEASE tell me that there's an easy fix for this. Like a minor change in a cfg file or something. I could do without that bright cockpit lamp altogether.Thanks!Heather

[Guest]

My immediate reaction would be to bring the panel(s) into Photoshop and edit for the desired effect -- would be a job of all about five minutes or so, but that's just me (presumes you have PS or some other type program and some degree of comfort with image editing). Perhaps others will have better ideas that don't involve changing the actual panel.

[Guest Heather 636]

Thanks for the reply Kelly.After your suggestion, I went into the panel folder and took a good look at the graphics. I am this desperate if nothing else will work but I just don't see how it can be done with graphical editing.The lighting I'm trying to eliminate seems to be almost like an overlay because when the lights are on (the one that I don't want) you have to switch off the panel lamps as there is a slight bit of off-alignment on some text on the panel, as if there are two images on the screen at once.Hopefully, someone will read this who knows something about designing these FS planes and will know how to change something in a configuration file that will eliminate this light altogether, or at least know something about cockpit lighting and how to edit it.PLEASE.Regards,Heather

[Guest]

Hi there,The DC3 uses nightlighting in the panel.cfgYou can try other values if you like (only for your own use, since Roy Chaffin won't be pleased if you upload it ;-) )I made the panel for the DC2 package (see the link below) and this is what she looks like.http://www.avsim.com/hangar/flight/dc2uive...iew_Cockpit.jpghttp://www.avsim.com/hangar/flight/dc2uive..._On%20Final.jpgSo, give it a try and see what you can do, good luck.Cheers, RobThere would be no DC3 without a DC2;-)Visit http://www.avsim.com/hangar/flight/dc2uiver/index.htm

[Guest Heather 636]

Thank you Rob! That's certainly more than I've had to go on so far, and, ironically, I had almost looked in the DC2 cfg files to see if I could find anything enlightening. I most certainly will now.Yes, I have the DC2 downloaded. A beautiful model.I first posted this thread in the DC Airway forum and Charles Wood himself asked that if I find the solution to this problem to please post it there for the benefit of the other DC Airways pilots. Hopefully you have put me onto the right track.Oh, and if I do get something to work, rest assured that I would not upload without the express permission of Roy Chaffin. I'm a good girl and mind my manners ;)Thanks!Sincerest regards,Heather

[Guest Heather 636]

No luck Rob. I tried copying the "Lights" section over to the DC-3 cfg file, even tried using the whole darn DC-2 cfg file, still with same results. :(The only way I can get the results that you have on your panel, soft subdued panel lighting, is to turn off BOTH the generators AND the battery. Desired lighting but again, turns off too many other things in the process.Apparently they have the controls for the lighting manifested somewhere else which is not immediately editable. Perhaps the model file?Hopefully my plea to Roy Chaffin will get positive results.One can hope.Heather

[Guest Heather 636]

Perhaps there's a round-a-bout way of achieving the desired results.Turning the battery and generator switches off from within the cockpit, thus achieving the desired lighting, but then turning them back on with some "key command?"Am I grasping at straw here?I fly this plane a lot and this REALLY bugs me! Like an itch that you can't reach to scratch!regards,Heather

[Guest UweR]

Hi, you may want to try to edit the color section of the panel.cfg (and not the aircraft.cfg), but the results won

[Guest Lizardo]

I have flown them, and it bugged me a lot too. "COCKPIT!(scenery)" For the MAAM r4d or BFU DC3, open up it's panel file. In there open up the file whose icon is a notebook. (pause while experts groan).Way down in the list is "night lighting", which reads "100,75,00".I changed mine to 80,55,00. Next line down is "luminous" (200, 200, 100). I changed mine to 150,150,75. It's not perfect (they are RED lights in there, extremly adjustable)..but it's satisfactory.

[Guest Heather 636]

I appreciate the input Lizardo, wish it would work for me.Unfortunately, I don't have the MAAM DC-3 (yet). I do have the BFU DC3 but in it's Panel folder is only the configuration file that gives an alias to the Douglas R4D panel.Now don't get on to me about a mere 5 bucks for the MAAM, okay. A very fair price but I'm on hard financial times at the moment. Things like, um, food take a slightly higher priority. Things will eventually get better though. Then I will have that new MAAM GMAX DC-3 that will be coming out soon as well as FSMAintenance. A great add-on that adds to the reality aspect. I'm using the demo but it will quit after 6 hoursI'll keep this info you gave me for when I do have the MAAM. So far, that looks like the ONLY way I'm going to get rid of that overhead cockpit lighting. Too bad the "virtual" light bulb won't burn out.;)Cheers!Heather

[Guest]

Hi! The topic has me a little concerned. I have not done any night flying yet, cause I'm still learning to fly period. :-hah But...I gather from this discussion that there are no panel lights or at least none that are separate from the cabin lights. Is that correct? Please tell me it's not. I realize you're focusing on the DC3 here, but would these lighting issues be present on the other aircraft in the sim?Dave

[Francois_Dumas 10]

There IS of course the earlier FS2000 freeware DC-3 available somewhere... the ones they made before it became donationware.... But hey, $5 ??? LOL... now I am in the situation that I really NEED to eat less, so I could easily save that money..... so that might not be fair ;-) :-lolThe $ 5 is more than worth it after this weekend when it will include the new GMax model and the new Virtual Cockpit !!!! ;-) :-outta Francois :-wave[table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0][tr][td valign=bottom" align="center]"At home in the wild"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:avsim.com/alaska/alaska_051.htm|Don's Alaskan Bush Charters]"Beavers Lead the Way"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:www.avsim.com/vfr_center/mainpages/vfr_flights_main_page.htm]VFR Flight Center]"Looking Good Outside"[/td][/tr][tr][td valign=top" align="center]http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif[/td][td valign="top" align="left" colspan=2]http://www.fssupport.com/images/moose2.gif[/td][tr][/table]________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online![/bemail: fdumas@avsim.com________________________

[Guest]

Francois,I don't want to beat this to death (because I've already posted in another thread) but I really want to understand this -- am I wrong in thinking they want more than $5 for this plane? It looks to me like they want $25 for the CD and then another $5 for the upgrade to FS2K. I don't see any other pathway or information to the contrary on their site. I don't have the original CD, and $30 is more than I'll pay for any plane (well, perhaps the Boeing Clipper but that's another story :>)I'd really like to support their efforts, but not to the tune of $30. Heck, I'd even pay $15 or so (not much more because I don't like to fly big planes much, just GA). I just don't see the path to doing this. So tell me exactly where I'm wrong here.

[Guest Heather 636]

Hi Dave.Didn't mean to get you confused. Yes, there are panel lights but in the instance that I am speaking of, which I haven't seen in other aircraft (although I don't fly many others), is that BOTH the panel lamps AND general cockpit lamp stay lit. While flying for a virtual airline, I get a fair number of night flights. On my computer desk, I have some subdued lighting that illuminates only my keyboard so that I can have all the lights off and still see what I am doing. With ONLY the panel lamps lit, there is a much more comfortable atmosphere. What I'm trying to get away from is the sensation of driving at night with the overhead dome light on.I know this may seem like making a mountain out of a molehill but,1) I tend to be a perfectionist and I like things to work the way they're supposed to.and,2) Unlike most of the other planes, I spend a lot of time in this one, with almost 300 hours of FS time logged so far in this one aircraft alone. I just want to turn off that darned light!!The newest release of the Jan Vissers DC-3 for 2002 will be available very soon. I'll probably just save myself the headaches of trying to turn off the light and hope that they have corrected the problem in the new release. At $5, I'll collect aluminum cans for the recycling center if I have to to get the money. If you haven't seen the screenshots for this new plane, I recommend it if your a DC-3 fan. Well worth the money and for a good cause too.httP://www.dc3airways.com/gallery-top.html

[Guest]

OK Heather, I understand now. Thanks for clearing it up. I feel your frustration, being a perfectionist myself. :) I am trying to complete a multi-computer/monitor setup to use with FS2002. Already have 4 computer setups and project magenta software. Just need to get an EPIC configuration or something similar going to finish it off. Flying on just one computer and monitor is just too limiting and not enough immersion for me. I need more!! :DThose pics of the DC-3 are incredible! I am no where near being able to handle that much steel yet, but when I am, I would love to fly this plane. I have a long way to go though.Anyway, I hope they get the lighting problem fixed for you. I know how even the smallest detail can kill the immersion in something like this.Dave