Better VC's for CFS1

[hertzie]

Hi all,

I would appreciate all your information/suggestions/ideas/knowledge about how to make better VC's for CFS1, especially IF it's possible to make better VC's for CFS1.

I still think it's great fun to keep CFS1 alive and as I'm so rich to retire the next 3 months on Lanzarote, it might give me someting useful to do in the evenings (hahaha).

Cheers,

hertzie.

[Ivan]

Hello Hertzie,

It isn't any more difficult to build a good virtual cockpit for a model than it is to build a good model.
It can even be done for a model that does not already have a virtual cockpit because it would involve creating a 3D model of what is to be seen from inside the VC and then combining it with the external model via SCASM.

I actually have thought about doing better cockpits for my own models but have been so lazy that I haven't even put interior canopy frames into the older models and I obviously know how to do that as can be seen with the current releases.
As with anything else, it is just a matter of the amount of work that you want to put in.

If you pick a model, I can take a look and tell you pretty quick what the level of effort would be.
Do you have an installation of Aircraft Factory 99 to build the cockpit interior?
If so, I can give you some pretty clear instructions on how to go about doing it yourself.

- Ivan.

[hertzie]

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for your answer. Your help would be much appreciated! As I have to make a start from point zero, you'll have to tell me everything, for I even don't know what SCASM or Aircraft Factory 99 is and where I can find/get these. And you'll need a lot of patience too, I think....

Please be so kind to send me a PM, maybe that makes correspondence easier.

Thanks again,

hertzie.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Hertzie,
Welcome to the sub-sub basement! ...as Ivan would say...

It is good that you are interested in making virtual cockpits!
As you say, it helps keep CFS1 alive!

With Ivan´s help and patience I learnt to add simple virtual cockpits made with Aircraft Factory 99 to my models by running them through SCASM, at the same correcting the CFS1 bug in the virtual cockpit view in Chase Mode.

It´s not really very difficult, so I can only encourage you! I believe it was NoDice who sent me a tutorial for SCASM, which would be the starting point for this journey, once the Building Programme is sorted out.

Apart from AF99, there´s another building programme, if you can find it, which even older:
It´s its predecessor, BAO Flight shop also known as AF5. Although it only allows 800 parts for an aircraft, it´s enough to make a virtual cockpit, and then add it to a model by using SCASM.

I believe any aircraft made with BAO Flight Shop would have to be run through FSFS Conv (Flight Shop Flight Simulator Converter) first, to be made compatible with the FS98/CFS format, but Flight Shop Converter is easily available for download on the internet, and probably comes with Flight Shop anyway.

The only drawback is that AF5 is a little cumbersome to use as far as paths and project folders go, and can take time sorting out. This confusion was then corrected when its successor AF99 came out. The whole AF5 layout is a little more uncomfortable too.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp, Hertzie,

Thanks for the credit, but most of it does not rightly belong to me.
The term "sub-basement" is not mine. I don't even know where it came from though I am pretty sure Smilo had something to do with it.

The Virtual Cockpit thing started off as an email from Hubbabubba about a method he learned from Bretoal about how to change the Virtual Cockpit POV for Quick Combat and Chase views.
In fact, my own instructions for building a Virtual Cockpit are just a heavily modified version of the email from Hubbabubba that has been saved into a MS Word document.

My contribution was the realization that with a variable that gave a reliable determination of interior or exterior viewpoint, I could choose what to display in each view. *I* am still certainly not a SCASM expert; I just know how to get MOST of what I want by tweaking a few variables. There is still an awful lot I haven't figured out yet.

On a related note: This morning, I woke up much earlier than I was intending to and started poking around for a good candidate to use for testing ideas for a Virtual Cockpit. A couple hours later, the machine finally locked up. It had frozen twice before and require hard shutdowns but this time it looked worse: Black screen. I will see if it starts up the next time I try.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Hertzie, Ivan,
I wonder why Microsoft is so secretive as regards stock-aircraft VC´s.
They display working instruments! Where and how are they built?
Until Hertzie pointed it out, I hadn´t realized that what´s amiss is that
we don´t have the tools for that, not that CFS1 is incapable of it.
I wonder...
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[hertzie]

Hi all,

I will send an email to Erwin Welker, he knows a lot about VC-making, maybe he can put me/us on the right track.

Cheers,

hertzie.