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MSFS2020 TRICKS AND TIPS HOW TO CREATE AND SAVE A COCKPIT VIEW THAT IS OUTSIDE OF THE COCKPIT BOUNDING BOX. The Problem: For most of the Asobo stock aircraft, there is an invisible bounding box around the cockpit, and the sim will not allow you to translate your Cockpit View eyepoint outside of this box using the arrow keys (UP=raise eyepoint, DOWN=lower eyepoint, LEFT=Translate eyepoint left, RIGHT=translate eyepoint right, Left-Alt-UP=Translate eyepoint forward, Left-Alt-DOWN=Translate Eyepoint Aft). Back in the days of FSX, if you wanted to have an unobstructed view while flying, you could simply undock and close the instrument panel, or fly with the "MiniPanel" only. Using third-party tools, you could even move the MiniPanel to the top of the window, and have an unobstructed view of the ground, yet still have a quite comprehensive suite of instruments across the top of the window. This made it easier to land planes like the B-747, or do takeoffs and taxi in the tail draggers, where you can't see the ground in front of you. In MSFS, the only obvious way to get unobstructed views is to shift to External or Showcase mode, and then move the drone camera below the nose of the aircraft and point it down. This is a less than ideal workaround, because the view can't be saved as one of the 10 Custom Camera views. At least I haven't found a way to save it. The good news: there is a way to get your cockpit view eyepoint outside of the cockpit bounding box, and then create and save custom camera views to the NUM-0 to NUM-9 keys. 1. First, we are going to check for the presence of an existing Custom Camera file for the aircraft you are working with. For this example, I will assume the aircraft you are customizing is the Asobo Beechcraft KingAir 350. Look for this folder on the drive where your game is installed (usually the C: drive): "C:\Users\[your_name]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SimObjects\Airplanes\Asobo_KingAir350\cameras.CFG" 2. If you can't find this file, don't worry, it just means that no Custom Camera definitions have been saved yet; in which case, skip ahead to Step 9. 3. If you did find an existing camera.cfg file, then go ahead and open it in a text editor after making a backup copy of it somewhere. 4. There will be anywhere from 1 to 10 Camera Definitions in the file. Look at the "Title" and "UITitle" lines, and you will see a number there, from 0 to 9. This number corresponds to the Alt-Num Key combination you use on the keyboard to select that camera view. 5. Pick one of the camera definitions, it doesn't matter which one, but make a note of what the UITitle number is. For example, let's assume it's 2. 6. Look at the last two lines of the #2 camera definition, the "InitialXyz" and "InitialPbh" values. We are going to change the values to: InitialXyz= 0.0, -2.7, -10.0 InitialPbh= 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 For the "InitialXyz" values, the first value, "0", is the lateral translation from the origin point of the aircraft model, the second value, -2.7, is the vertical translation above or below the origin point, and the third value, -10 is the fore-and-aft distance from the origin point. These values are in meters, since Asobo is a French company and they use metric there. In fact, the metric system was invented in France if I'm not mistaken. 7. Save the file, and run the sim. What you just did was modify the existing Alt-2 key combo to place your eyepoint approximately on the ground, on the centerline of the aircraft and 10 meters behind it. The "InitialPbh" values of 0, 0, 0 will set the camera looking horizontally, and straight ahead. 8. Once the sim loads and you are sitting in the pilot's seat (presumably on the ground at an airport somewhere), hit Alt-2. You should see the camera view change to "on the ground, looking straight ahead, from 10 meters behind the plane". You are still in Cockpit view, but now you are outside the cockpit bounding box, and are free to move the camera anywhere you want and create and save whatever custom camera views that you want, wherever you want. NOTE: If you move your eyepoint back within the cockpit bounding box with the arrow keys, you will be "trapped" and can't move back outside with the arrow keys, If this happens, just hit Alt-2 again, and you will be back outside, 10 meters behind the plane. ---- 9. If you didn't find a camera.cfg file in Step 1, you need to create it. Load the sim and then select the KingAir (or whatever plane you are working with), and start a flight in daylight on the ground somewhere (any airport, it doesn't matter). 10. Make sure you are in Cockpit View, in the pilot's seat (the default position for every flight). Move the camera a little with the arrow keys. Up, right, whatever, just so that it's been moved from the default position. 11. Press CTRL-ALT-2 on the keyboard. This should save the camera position in a new camera.cfg file in the path noted in Step 1. 12. Open Windows File Manager, navigate to the path in Step 1 and see if there is in fact now a camera.cfg file there. If there is, shut down the sim, and go back to Step 3. If not, shut down the sim and see if the camera.cfg file appears upon shutdown, then go to Step 3. If there is still no camera.cfg file in the path, repeat Steps 9-12, in case something went wrong; this should work with any of the Asobo aircraft that doesn't allow you to move the eyepoint outside of the cockpit.