VC Gauge Question

[Duckie]

I fly 99% of the time in VC. I've been trying to configure an F-16 to my liking using Kirk Olsson's original Viper (tried all the other updates and modes, and keep coming back to this one).

Kirks original VC panel is good with one exception. I'd like to incorporate woking VSI and RPM gauges in his original panel. His 2D has them. The VIPER 1 update panel has them and as far as I can tell the basic VC graphics are essentially the same. However, the Panel config and guages are, to me, as different as night and day.

My questions (see creen shots below):

1. Is it possible to for me to update PANEL "A" with PANEL "B" (or similar) guages without any specialized gauge/panel sofware?

2. If yes to No1, can some one point me to a tutorial or instructions on how to go about it?

Note: this is for personal use and not for publication or redistribution.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Attachment 87995

Attachment 87996

[Tom Clayton]

I don't know much about the inner workings of the VC, but I seem to remember a conversation in which it was stated that each section of the VC needs to be coded to accept an entry in the panel.cfg. Without that coding, all you have is a polygon with (hopefully) a coat of paint.

I could be completely wrong about this, and if so, someone please feel free to smack me in the back of the head.

[jeroen79]

In the VC the gauges are placed on a texture.
This texture is then placed on one ore more places in the 3D model.
It could be a single flat panel but it could also be cut up into many smaller parts and dispersed around the VC.

If panel A and panel B are based on the same 3D model then you have a good chance of being able to add these gauges.

Open the panel.cfg of both panels in notepad and scroll down until you find sections titled [Vcockpit**]
These describe how the gauges are placed in the VC.
Compare these sections and see if you can copy something from B to A.

[Duckie]

...If panel A and panel B are based on the same 3D model then you have a good chance of being able to add these gauges.

Open the panel.cfg of both panels in notepad and scroll down until you find sections titled [Vcockpit**]
These describe how the gauges are placed in the VC.
Compare these sections and see if you can copy something from B to A.

And there's the rub! Panel A's cfg has 11 VC sections (01-11) with 1 or 2 gauges residing in each section.

Whereas, Panel B only has 1 VC section (01) with 29 gauges, some are ICONs, and only a couple are the same as listed in Panel A's VC sections.

I did try just copying a couple from one panel VC entry to the other without any luck.

So, guess I'll stick with it as is.

Thanks very much for the replies. :salute:

[Sunny9850]

Since you are trying to add only those two "missing" gauges into panel B the starting point would be to find these two entries in panel A and add them to the end of the VC section and adjust the gauge=xx number to keep them sequential but leaving the gauge coordinates as they are.
Reload the aircraft with the new changes and see if the gauges show up. They may show up but in a different position.
If they do not show up at all I would use the coordinates of a gauge you know is visible in this panel B and simply modify them slightly....add 10 or 15 pixels to the x and y coordinates. (the first and second number after the gauge name IIRC) and then again reload the aircraft.
If they still don't show up at this point you are probably out of luck.

If they do then you can try and modify the coordinates in trial and error fashion and "push" the gauges where you want them. BUT you might run out of room on the "paint able" area for that 3D model.
In which case you are definitely out of luck. That can only be adjusted with the original source in GMax.

Cheers
Stefan

[Bjoern]

Panel.cfg:

gauge05=F16maingauge!somegauge, 200, 511, 20, 25

"gauge05=" -> Gauge indicator and number; number needs to be unique, otherwise the second gauge using the same number will not be loaded
"F16maingauge" -> Container for the gauges, can be a .gau file, a .cab file or a folder in [youraircraft]\panel or [FS9]\gauges
"somegauge" -> Name of the gauge
"200" -> Horizontal, i.e. x-axis position of the gauge on the canvas specified in the [panelxx] or [vcockpitxx] header of the subpanel.
"511" -> Dito, but specifying the vertical, i.e. y-axis position
"20" -> Horizontal dimension of the gauge
"25" -> Vertical dimension of the gauge


Placing a gauge is always a matter of trial & error, but you can use the position of other known gauges as reference.


Things can be made easier by implementing a keystroke for reloading panels in FS9 as suggested here:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/inde..._Panels_in_FS9

(I use method 3 for my projects.)

[Duckie]

Thanks, Stefan and Bjoern, for your suggestions. I have tried what you recommeded but without any luck. So, as Stephan also suggested, it would seem that..."In which case ...[I am]... definitely out of luck. That can only be adjusted with the original source in GMax."

It's just a minor inconvenience but would have been nice to have. Thanks again to all who replied. :salute:

Steve

[Tom Clayton]

One side note about reloading panels... Instead of having to add a gauge or edit the fs9.cfg, there's another option. In the Commands menu, there's a handy little thing that's unassigned by default - "Reload Aircraft." I use Ctrl+Shift R for it. Not only will it reload a panel, but aircraft.cfg changes too. It's been years since I tried it, but I think it also refreshes paints too.

[Bjoern]

One side note about reloading panels... Instead of having to add a gauge or edit the fs9.cfg, there's another option. In the Commands menu, there's a handy little thing that's unassigned by default - "Reload Aircraft." I use Ctrl+Shift R for it. Not only will it reload a panel, but aircraft.cfg changes too. It's been years since I tried it, but I think it also refreshes paints too.

The *only* thing "Reload Aircraft" does, is reloading the visual model (and maybe the aircraft.cfgn and *.air).

To reload panels and gauges, either switch to a different panel configuration for the aircraft or use the trick mentioned above.

To reload aircraft textures, disable fixed virtual memory file size in Windows(!!) before starting FS9 and change from repaint to repaint. Or so.
There's a thread from me about this on FSDev, but the site is pretty much unavailable for me at the moment.

[Tom Clayton]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you in part on your first statement. I just ran a test where I modified the contact points and deleted a section of the panel on the stock Baron. I loaded up the plane (parked, cold and dark), then corrected both cfg files. After using my Ctrl-Shift-R shortcut, the panel corrected itself, but the contact points did not. I then switched to the King Air and then back to the Baron, and the gear was right. So yes, the panel will reload, but not the aircraft.cfg, and since that file calls up the .air file, I'm guessing it won't reload either. But that's a lot harder to test...

[Sunny9850]

Reload Aircraft does work with the aircraft.cfg as well as the panel.cfg ...... in most instances. I have used that method for years now. The only catch is that there seems to be a point at which it quits working until you manually load a different aircraft. Then you can go back and reload with whatever shortcut you use for a number of cycles.

Certain parts of the aircraft.cfg however which are tied more directly to the .air file seem to be excluded from that reload. The contact points are probably part of that group.

Cheers
Stefan

[Tom Clayton]

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking after I posted that something didn't sound right since I thought I remembered radio section updates did work with the reload.

[Bjoern]

Found my thread, btw. It was about reloading gauges. Which will not reload with the "Reload aircraft" key.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=425254


This one's about reloading textures:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...2&postcount=13
(A dynamically, i.e. Windows managed page file also works.)