• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Size of outside view

Fern

Fern

Messages
537
Country
canada
Hi,

(Forgive me if this is mentioned somewhere else)

When I make a new plane, sometimes the "outside" view (scenery) in 2D cockpit appears squashed. The view always aligns with the top of the screen, but it doesn't go all the way down to the bottom.

I have noticed that this doesn't seem to have anything to do with what is in the Panel folder, but everything to do with the aircraft.cfg and the xxxxx.air files.

I am currently working on a plane and, if I use these two files from one plane, the outside view appears fine, filling the screen, with the panel bitmap hiding the bottom part. But when I use the aircraft.cfg and the xxxxx.air from, say, the Extra 300s, the outside view only comes down to about 40% of the screen from the top, being "squashed". I can manually stretch it all the way down with the mouse, but that isn't good enough. (The bottom of the outside view appears black.) This is using the same Panel folder unchanged in the two events, of course.

This indicates to me that the aircraft.cfg and the xxxxx.air files have a lot to do with the size/squashiness of the outside view in the 2D-cockpit view mode, while panel.cfg and the panel bitmap don't. I looked at everything in as much detail as I could, but didn't find the culprit. I looked for "zoom", I even changed numbers under "View", no go.

Any hints?

Thanks very much.

Fern
 
It has ONLY to do with the last four lines in a panel.cfg file... ;)

[Default View]
X=0 // left edge of screen
Y=0 // top of screen
SIZE_X=8192 // full screen width in mm
SIZE_Y=3900 // partial screen height from top in mm

Normally in the 2d panel, you WANT the bottom edge of the "3d outside view" to come just below the top edge of the glareshield.

Since I use FS Panel Studio, I simply use the WYSIWYG editor to adjust the 3d out the window heights by dragging the slider... ;)

Frankly, it's the best $40 I've ever spent. It has saved me over $4000 in time over the past four years! :D
 
Size of the outside view

Hi, n4gix

Thanks for your reply.

Well... Here in my two systems those numbers make... errr... no difference. They seem to be totally irrelevant.

That is where I started even before I asked the question, but it made no difference then, and it makes no difference now. :(

I did follow your advise, of course, but for a properly "scientific" approach, I started with the original panel.cfg with the original numbers and... the problem had disappeared.

I can only make it appear again if I change the "air" and the aircraft.cfg files with different ones. Go figure.

However, I did change those numbers from 0 and 0 to 9000 and 9000 in many, many steps, and it made absolutely no difference.

(The comment in your example says 8192 and 3900 are in mm. I presume that these mm are milimetres, and I just can't visualise any screen with 8192 mm, as that is over 8 metres. However, if I knew what I was talking about, I wouldn't be asking the question, eh? :D )

So, my problem presists: What really controls the height of the outside view in the 2D panel?...

Thanks!

Fern
 
Actually 8192 means nothing else than 100 percent screen size. If you want to have your outside view to be 100% of the screen width and 50% of the height, you enter:
size_x=8192 // = 8192 * 1.0
size_y=4096 // = 8192 * 0.5

For 57% height it would be
size_x=8192 // = 8192 * 1.0
size_y=4669 // = 8192 * 0.57

So if you create your panel for a 1280x960 resolution (usually the size of main panel bitmap) and would like the outside view to be 367 pixels high, the calculation would be like this:
percentage = 367 / 960 = 0.38229
size_y = 8192 * percentage
=> size_y = 8192 * 0.38229
=> size_y = 3132 (rounded to integer value)

If the panel is loaded in a different screen resolution, FS will automatically calculate the correct height for your outside view.

Hope that helps.
 
Size of the outside view

Thanks, Hans

Unfortunately, as I said before, changing the height number makes absosutely no difference. I didn't try changing the width number, as it appears to always work properly.

I have changed the resolution several times in the past (not this time) and FS always seems to know what to do about that, and the outside view is never affected in size (it doesn't seem to matter what numbers are in X_SIZE and Y_SIZE.

So, my question persists...

Thanks

Fern
 
Hi
A long shot but try this
when in fs9 with the aircraft that has the panel problem hit the alt key and load the default Cessna or other default aircraft,then alt again then load the problem aircraft.Sometimes the saved flight keeps the panel coords if the panel sorts itself out then save the flight,(I think there is also a keystroke for reloading aircraft/panel but this wont always work)
cheers
Wozza
 
I saw exactly the same thing last night!

There is something weird going on though I really have no idea what. I spent something like 2 hours trying to get an empty panel bitmap to appear and one point it did appear flush with the top of the screen but squashed upwards to about 25% of its actual depth.

Now the strange thing is that we all know full well, that how the panel bitmap displays, and the size of the outside view etc, is all controlled by the panel.cfg file.........don't we?

So in total frustration an honestly believing I was making some large fundemental mistake but was too tiered to recognise it, I copied the panel folder over to the A321, switch aircraft and there was my panel. I added a few pop-up window panels and reloaded the aircraft, and again it appeared with no problems.

So why when I copied this back to the project aircraft did I have no panel again?

Things are not what we think............spooky eh?
 
Paul Golding said:
I saw exactly the same thing last night! <snipped for brevity>
Things are not what we think............spooky eh?
Click to expand...

Paul, indeed some things are totally inexplicable...

I have several panels that - when loaded - wind up with a "gap" along the right edge (the panel background doesn't fill the screen width).

This problem disappears after shutting down and restarting FSX, so it's clearly "something" that's happening within FSX's display engine... :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top