I use Paint.net and Gimp for all the gauge image modifications. These programs work well enough with FS Panel Studio.
I use Paint.net and Gimp for all the gauge image modifications. These programs work well enough with FS Panel Studio.
♠ ♠
"If you're in a fair fight, you didn't plan it right"
How do you get the bmp out of the mlx gauge file? The GauBMP changes the gau to bmp... and reverses it... using a paint program as editor... I use PSP8 or PHOTOSHOP...
I am interested to know how you get the bmp file out of a gauge mlx... never hurts to know another way to skin a cat... lol
G.
Morton, your work looks amazing. Thank you for making these available to us.
msfossey
never really used it... exchanging ideas with you I checked it and see that it is REALLY nice... and will start using it to modify and create gauges...
Thanks for the inadvertent tip... I was using ConfigEdit and gauBMP.... and this panel studio makes a lot more sense to me now...
I guess I was so used to those two freebies I never used what I already had in my computer... FS Panel studio really offers a lot more latitude...
Thanks again for "teaching an old dog new tricks"... lol
Cheers,
G.
Hello all,
Boy, this thread has really gotten active. After having read this, I need to clarify a couple of points.
1) Morton and Gaucho_59, let's take a deep breath here. Both of you are very talented, and both of you have been civil to this point, despite your disagreements on this. We have a very small band of CFS2 brothers now, and with SOH needing to raise money, we need to support one another, not tear each other apart.
2) A more tactful suggestion in the future is to start a new thread if you are providing an alternate panel or other major item as an adjunct or compliment to someone else's release. Although not intended to one-up their work, to put in that user's existing thread can be perceived as rivet-counting or thread hijacking. Many of us work hard trying to improve CFS2, and we all have our talents, but just remember that we don't want to step on anyone else's toes, either.
Let's settle this before things really roll downhill, please.
"Rami"
"Me? I'm just a Sea of Tranquility in an Ocean of Storms, babe."
My campaign site: http://www.box.net/shared/0k1e1rz29h
My missions site: http://www.box.net/shared/ueh4kazk3v
My scenery site: http://www.box.net/shared/knb1l0ztobhs2esb14rb
Gaucho, a final word on this matter.
It's nice of you call me an artist, but I'm no such thing. Hell.. I'm an engineer in the Air Force. Actually I think you are more into the graphic business than me. But the disagreement about panels/textures we can do nothing about. Positive criticisme however is welcome.
Secondly I want to clearify something. As I said this is not about any copyright. Because there's none. But when you crash the party with comments on poor artwork etc etc, I feel the need to explain something. In CFS2 it's a good idea to keep the filesize down to reduce the load on the graphic engine. It's no problem to make 24 bit bitmaps with millions of colors. However in CFS2 panel bitmaps are often optimized to 8 bit palettes giving only 256 colors. For a 1680x1050 bitmap this decreases the file from 5100 Kb to 1700 Kb! This will of course reduce the quality of the bitmap considerably, but it's a compromise. So this should explain at least some of the reasons why your pictures are prettier than mine. The rest has to be blamed on me..
cheers
Morton
My AC, Panels & skins: http://mycfs2.wixsite.com/cfs2-aircraft
I can let you in on a little trick with PSP to reduce size and maintain detail even in 256 colors... No charge... absolutely gratis...lol
(ending up with no more than 1 mb files)
Cheers,
G.
Thank you!
I was curious about the comment regarding Phillips head screws. According to what I could find the Phillips screw was invented in the early 1930s, and manufacturing started in 1935. Use of the screw quickly spread throughout the automotive manufacturers and by 1939 only 2 manufacturers were not using it. By 1940 all manufacturers were using them although one still used slotted heads on passenger cars. 85% of all the fastener manufacturers were making them and 10 foreign manufacturers had purchased licenses. ( I couldn't discover which ones though)
Evidently aircraft manufacturers in the USA also adopted the screw about the same time. I found two specific references to prove it.
The first is from the J3 Cub forum:
"The slotted head screw story is an example of repeating something often enough until it becomes the truth. Piper used Phillips head screws way back, pre-war. Interesting in the video at 3:01 they show the well known photo of the L-4A or B instrument panel that is loaded with phillips head screws."
The second is from the US Army Air Force:
PROOF DEPARTMENTm. Maintenance.
ARMY AIR FORCES PROVING GROUND COMMAND
EGLIN FIELD, FLORIDA
FINAL REPORT
ON
TACTICAL SUITABILITY OF THE P-38F TYPE AIRPLANE
6 March 1943
(3) Considerable time is being lost due to difficulties in removing inspection panels throughout the airplane structure. It is believed that a great percentage of these panels could be installed with dzus fasteners which could then be removed in a matter of seconds and not hours. All panels now installed with Phillips head screws have a tendency to freeze making their removal impossible without the aid of an easy-out tool.
(8) Inspection plate be installed to allow inspection in rear of instrument panels. At present there are ninety-six (96) Phillips’ head screws that have to be removed to perform inspections or maintenance work on instruments.
I think the statement that slotted head screws were used is correct at least for German aircraft. I found a comment from the group rebuilding the Me-262 on the advice they were getting from the Messerschmitt Foundation:
Follow us: @AirSpaceMag on Twitter"
"Overall, though, the team has stuck as closely as possible to the real thing. While aluminum would have been lighter, the skin was made of steel, like the skin on the originals—a concession to wartime aluminum shortages. The instrument panel was made from plywood, as were the landing gear doors. The use of Phillips-head screws seemed like a reasonable substitute, but guests from the Messerschmitt Foundation, who planned to make a flying copy of the Me 262 the centerpiece of their collection of Willi Messerschmitt-designed airplanes, insisted that slotted screws, identical to those in the original, be used.
Read more: http://www.airspacemag.com/military-...m99LchSh7FH.99
Save 47% when you subscribe to Air & Space magazine http://bit.ly/NaSX4X
I couldn't find references for British, Russian, or Japanese aircraft. But at least the American WWII aircraft did use Phillips screws.
Cheers,
Captain Kurt
------------------------------------------------------
"Fly, you fools!" Gandalf the Gray
[Originally Posted by Captain Kurt
Thank you for the exhaustive explanation Captain Kurt!
MVG3d told me a few months back that instruments on Italian Regia Aeronautica aircraft panels were installed with slotted screws as well. All screws used on Italian WWII aircraft were of the slotted head type. Phillips head screws were brought over here by the U.S. Armed Forces through their vehicles and military equipment.
They were virtually unknown by ground crews here before 1943, apart from those who happened to work on very few captured US aircraft.
KH
(from biographical data on who invented the cross-slotted screws):
"After failing to interest manufacturers, Thompson sold his self-centering design to Phillips in 1935.[4] Phillips formed the Phillips Screw Company in 1934. After refining the design himself (U.S. Patent #2,046,343, U.S. Patents #2,046,837 to 2,046,840) for the American Screw Company of Providence, Rhode Island, Phillips succeeded in bringing the design to industrial manufacturing and promoting its rapid adoption as a machine screw standard.[5] One of the first customers was General Motors who used the innovative design in 1936 for its Cadillac assembly-lines. By 1940, 85% of U.S. screw manufacturers had a license for the design.[6] Due to failing health, Phillips retired in 1945. He died in 1958.(Mr. Phillips)"
Obviously, it seems that Japanese, German, etc. airplanes did not used them... or made very sparse use of them.... and from the 1943 date of USAAC data cited... probably their use was not so successful for a bit after introduction... and their use in inspection panels was apparently questioned... in sum, certain gauges in our midst should probably be corrected...
G.
OK Mort, i'm settling on this one as my main squeeze from the lot...
PS...You wouldn't be holding out on a 'hard winter' coat would you? (*hint*)
♠ ♠
"If you're in a fair fight, you didn't plan it right"
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