Cockpit Views

[Guest CaptRolo]

HI all ; I just spent the last weekend repairing the "inside rectangles"for all views that had lines running across the middle of instruments. Useing Cockpit designer ,not that hard to do . I added 4 to the number which seems good enough. Example ; if it was 799.350 I made it 799.354. I also made Port Angeles(Fairchild Intnl) an ILS 108.90 runway 08. Like it's supposed to be .Feels good to be messing with Fled again . CaptRolo

[Guest glidernut]

Hi CaptRolo,I presoom you did that in CockpitDesigner to fix the dreded lin acros the art workthat can be seen in sum aircraft in the game, very anoying that line.Sory for stateing the obvyus, I just like to bee shoower peopl know what we aretalking about. There is sumthing els that anoys me, that can be fixed by altering the rectanglesin CockpitDesigner.Most of you may not hav even notest this, but it driv me crazy.I speec hear of the head tilt.The head tilt makes it easyr to see over the panal, and is very usefall to hav,mor so on sum aircraft than others.But the head tilt has the unfortunat side afect of makeing the landscape horizan hiyer than it is in other vews, so when you swich from one vew to another thehorizan jumps to another leval, I hate that, it drives me mad, theres nuthing natural bout the horizan jumping to a diferan levalever time you chamge the vew.For the peopl that do like to use the head tilt featuer, there are lines or setingsthat thay can put in there cfg file. With thees setings thay can increes or deecrees the amount of head tilt thay whant.So in my opinion there should be no resan to force an aircraft to hav a head tiltby difalt that can not be over riden with the setings in the cfg, posably aganst the wishes of the pilot.Its the "outside rectangles" in CockpitDesigner that ditermin wether or not thatvew has a head tilt or not by difalt, and by how much head tilt it has.In my opinion the "outside rectangles" in CockpitDesigner should be set to maximumsize, as big as posibl, thats no head tilt by difalt.If others want a head tilt, thay can put a line in there cfg.Im glad I got that off my chest.glidernut.

[Guest glidernut]

I dont think divelopers working in CockpitDesiner diliberatly set outto giv there aircraft`s vews a head tilt by difalt.I think most divelopers working in CockpitDesiner dont fuly understandwhat the "Outside Rectangles" actualy do.And why should thay? I mean theres no mention of head tilt in theCockpitDesiners tutorials.So when it cums to seting the "Outside Rectangles" its understanabl for divelpers to simply do what was ther bifor.Or folow what thay hav seen bifor.Its understandabl for Cockpit divelopers to think that the "Outside Rectangles"need only cuver that part of the screen that is not the airt work.But that is not the caes.If the "Outside Rectangles" are any thing les than full screen, it willhav a head tilt by difalt, a bilt in head tilt.Any arguments?Any one.glidernut.

[agtim 0]

Hi Glidernut,in earlier time the size of the rectangle has to be set as small as possible to get higher framerates, but that was the time of the 300Mhz cpus and voodoo 3. It's the first time I hear about this head tilt problem - never mentioned before but good to know, thanks for the hint. :-wave agtim

[Hans_Petter 1]

Glidernut, are you saying that a full outer rectangle makes the side view head tilt match that of the panel view? I've tended to use a slight downward head tilt and I've noticed that the other views cause the horizon to shift. While an excessive head tilt should be avoided it would be nice to have all the views "synchronized", no matter whether one chooses a tilt or not.best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest glidernut]

Yes Agtim, keeping the size of "Inside Rectangles" as small as possible will helpframerates, and peopl probably asoom its the same for the "Outside Rectangles"as well, but Im not so shoower. Hans Petter,Im useing the all round vews of the F1 key as a standerd. The all round vews of the F1 key is not part of CockpitDesiner, and as suchhas no head tilt, the horizan is allways at the sam leval.The best way to see what Im geting at, is to look forword at the horizan in theF3 vew and then swich to the same forword looking vew of the F1 key.Swiching back and forth bitween the forword looking F1 key vew and the forword looking F3 key vew should reveal the anoying problem of the jimping horizan,or head tilt.Its not just the forwrd vew that can hav a head tilt.In CockpitDesiner there is an "Outside Rectangle" for evary one of its all round vews, ie, forword, backword, left, right, and quorther vews, and every one of thees vews has its owme "Outside Rectangle" which may be set at a diferant siz, giving that vew a head tilt. Im saying that all of thees "Outside Rectangles" should all be set to the maximum siz,so that all of the F2 & F3 vews mach up with all of the corisponding F1 vews.Its very anoying "for exampl" When flying along in the cockpit, I might look left to see sumthing on tht ground,but if that sumthing is obsquerd by the wing and I carnt see it?!I like to temporoeryly swich to the same left vew of the F1 key,so the wing disapeers and I can see mor, after a quik lookI then swich back to having a wing agen.For me, doing this works well, I just wish the horizan mached up in the diferant vews. glidernut

[Christopher Low 5,354]

"When flying along in the cockpit, I might look left to see sumthing on the ground, but if that sumthing is obsquerd by the wing and I carnt see it?!"That's one of the many reasons why I like the Beechjet. The view from the side windows is superb.Chris Low.

[Guest fu3]

Ah ha!Then it's not truly head-tilt we're talking about. Here's one little-known thing about rectangles, or specifically 3D ones (the ones that let you see outside the aircraft):____________________________________________________________________The 3D image is the same, no matter what size the 3D rectangles are.____________________________________________________________________If you alter the 3D rectangle in any way (away from 800x600), it squashes the image to fit. If you want the view to be identical in F1, F2 and F3 views (and why not, as John points out, it's really annoying?), then ALL 3D rectangles MUST be full 800x600-sized.The purpose for deliberately squashing them has little to do with framerates (it would actually consume more graphics power to dither the images to size...) and more to allow SOME visibility over the dash. This is actually why I like the F2 view - it's the same as peering over the dash like in a 'normal' plane. When you look over the dash in a Warrior/Seminole/DHC6/S340/Dash8-300/737-800*, you can't really see the instruments. And, quite obviously, when scanning across 9 dials, 13 lights and a few switches, one has little time for an outside view! This is what we are taught to do as pilots - scan the panel/scan the sky, scan the panel etc. In FU3 it's simply a matter of hitting F2 or F3. Simple, eh?* 'Real' dashes I've had the pleasure of peering over...This all said, I'm sure there are people who would like to fly with a panel full of instruments and still have a clear view but, unless they're glider pilots:*It's technically infeasible due to our limited field of view (anyone running multiple monitors?).*It isn't the slightest bit realistic ;)I do runups and stops in F3, taxi in F2 or F1 (or F8 if I'm really lazy or there's a lot of AI to avoid) and most VFR flying in F2. When I want to really look around, I use F1. For IFR, I prefer to actually 'IFR' it and just use the F3 view.Just depends what your preference for flying is :-wave

[Christopher Low 5,354]

"In FU3 it's simply a matter of hitting F2 or F3. Simple, eh?"You would think so, wouldn't you ?So, have Microsoft implemented this extremely obvious and brilliant design concept into their flight simulator yet ?Chris Low.

[Guest glidernut]

Actialy, I think the best soution to how to fly the plain fromthe pilots point of vew gos to the flight sim "Condor".Condor,s way of doing things is exactly the same as FU3s F4 vew but it has beter textuers and all the instremants work.And insted of useing a head tilt like FU3, Condor uses a sistem of zooming in or out at what ever you want to see.It works very well.I think all flight sims will eventualy adopt Condor,s way of doing things.glidernut.

[Christopher Low 5,354]

To be fair, I think that some of the add-on planes that can be used in FS2004 these days have extremely good looking VIRTUAL cockpits. That would be the best way forward.....provided that the view through the windscreen isn't obscured by a mass of lights and switches !Chris Low.