Best 3rd party view/camera system

[ejoiner]

Since I installed P3D4.3 as a totally clean install, I am thinking of changing my 3rd party camera system as well. I had Ezdok, which I liked, but seemed to have a big ram overhead. My system is a few years old now and I need to be careful what I load on top. What are the recommendations from the folks here on best 3rd party viewing systems? In particular, head movement in the cockpit. I like that effect.

[Navy Chief]

Eric,

I have EZDok and Chaseplane. To me, Chaseplane is the winner. There's a good YouTube review of it. Pete

[docjohnson]

ChasePlane

[roger-wilco-66]

Also here, Chaseplane. It also has some interesting physics features, and a replay system. What I also like about it is that the devs are constantly working on it. It's not one of these addons that were created and then abandoned.
The devs also listen to the community when new features are proposed, and bugs are found.

I hardly ever use the sim cams anymore since running Chaseplane.


Cheers,
Mark

[cavaricooper]

I have used EZCA since leaving Active Camera and haven’t looked back. Simple or complex- you choose. Plus, I like not needing an active connection... I have the bandwidth- just don’t like the idea of it phoning home constantly.

One opinion- there are others- HTH- C

[YoYo]

I love ChasePlane (bought 2 weeks ago only) and recommend it! Fantastic tool and on my „must have” list.

[expat]

Got fed up with the Chase Plane YouTube review above when after 10 minutes he was still talking about the click spots on the User Interface rather than showing what the add on actually does or adds.

I guess I don't really get the camera angle stuff. Since FSX I immediately delete any cameras in the air.cfg - the more there are the worse it is - as these entries just delay the time it takes and my ability to cycle through all the unnecessary VC and passenger cabin (bottle opener on the bar close up) angles to get to the "main" panel view to click something important on the VC panel - fast - in time to avoid a catastrophic incident. I like to cycle between just a locked spot outside and the main VC. If I need to look e.g., above, around or down at the center console, then it is fewer steps to just use Ctrl + mouse w/zoom etc then to have to open a whole different UI, etc, etc.

[ejoiner]

Eric,

I have EZDok and Chaseplane. To me, Chaseplane is the winner. There's a good YouTube review of it. Pete

Hi all. based on the positive reviews, I went ahead and installed Chaseplane. Looks good. Now starting to configure it. Not very complicated, though there are nuances still. Head tilt, anticipation works differently in chaseplane than ezdok, but think I have that sort of figured out. What I am more at a loss on is that my Hat wont pan around any more on my joystick. I did **** and saw on the chaseplane site that this complaint was answered and that this could be addressed in ChasePlane > Preferences > Control Assignments. What I want is to get back my ability to universally pan around my airplane the same way I could with P3D or FSX.

What I have come up with under "preferences" is:
ChasePlane > Preferences > Control Assignments


Pan Left => assign to hat 1, look left
Pan Right=> assign to hat 1, look right


Tilt Up => assign to hat 1, Up
Tilt Down=> assign to hat 1, Down

That "more or less" accomplishes the same thing, but is still tied to the camera preset you are in. Is there something else I need to do to make this work the way that P3D default does?

Thanks men.

[Navy Chief]

Hi all. based on the positive reviews, I went ahead and installed Chaseplane. Looks good. Now starting to configure it. Not very complicated, though there are nuances still. Head tilt, anticipation works differently in chaseplane than ezdok, but think I have that sort of figured out. What I am more at a loss on is that my Hat wont pan around any more on my joystick. I did **** and saw on the chaseplane site that this complaint was answered and that this could be addressed in ChasePlane > Preferences > Control Assignments. What I want is to get back my ability to universally pan around my airplane the same way I could with P3D or FSX.

What I have come up with under "preferences" is:
ChasePlane > Preferences > Control Assignments


Pan Left => assign to hat 1, look left
Pan Right=> assign to hat 1, look right


Tilt Up => assign to hat 1, Up
Tilt Down=> assign to hat 1, Down

That "more or less" accomplishes the same thing, but is still tied to the camera preset you are in. Is there something else I need to do to make this work the way that P3D default does?

Thanks men.

Chaseplane has a LOT of adjustments. You can really make finely tuned changes! Pete

[Navy Chief]

Oh, as a aside, if you have Flyinside, it will NOT work with Chaseplane installed; leastwise it will not for me. I can simply uninstall Chaseplane if I want to fly via VR. No problem. Sort of annoying, but maybe someday all will work together, nicely. Pete

[ejoiner]

Chaseplane has a LOT of adjustments. You can really make finely tuned changes! Pete

Hi Pete. Im figuring that out...

What I am after is how exactly to be able to replicate the default ability to pan around the outside of the plane completely around it like I can in default P3D. I will keep tweaking...

[Javis]

I am perfectly happy with the default views. Only one thing missing : i want to stand along the runway and watch my aircraft take-off and land. Apparently that was too much to ask for because it never became possible with the default camera views.

ActiveCamera made it possible for FS2K and the next versions, up until FSX sadly enough. However with FSX a modification of the default camera.cfg by a clever person brought this 'aircraft spotters' view option back into FSX and even still in P3Dv3.

In P3Dv4 my beloved camera mod doesn't work anymore..... ( i.e. 'moving' key combo's ctrl/shift, shift/enter, enter/back simply don't do anything anymore )

Question : do any of these camera proggies include a simple way to place yourself along any runway at any airport so you can watch your aircraft take-off and land ??.......... (i.e. place a camera in 'fly-by' mode anywhere around an airport.. )

Thanks much for any hints/tips !

[Navy Chief]

This is from the P3D manual online:

Outside Views

Outside views place the camera at a point in space, viewing your aircraft from outside. There are four options for outside views:

View	What you see
Spot	Your aircraft as viewed from a chase plane (fluid transition).
Locked Spot	Your aircraft as viewed from a chase plane (direct transition).
Flyby	Your aircraft as it flies past a fixed point.
Top-down	Your aircraft viewed top-down from high altitude.

[Javis]

Yes, pretty meagre isn't it.. The two spot views are fine. Never use 'top down'. Flyby is great and exactly what i need but 'on the ground' too! And *I* get to pick the view point. ;-)

That's what ActiveCamera made available ( in replay mode click a point along the runway from within the VC et voila you're there ! ) With the camera.cfg mod you could just run around the airport via the ctrl/shift/enter/back key combo's and your aircraft kept in focus. Not anymore with P3Dv4...

Would love to know if there's any thirdparty camera proggy that can do that ?