dark VC's

[hurricane3]

I have noticed that for most addon planes for CFS2 the VC's are very dark.Most don't seem to have panel lights to help out.Anyone else notice this? And is there a fix that even I can do?

[sc7500]

I pondered this a bit. I'm NOT a VC expert by any means, but the idea of adding lighting IS intriguing...

First, have a look at this thread for the S-O-H past:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=12177

Regarding adding lighting to a Bomber's VC.

THEN, try d/ling the following:

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/syb2.cgi?section=cfs&file=VCLC.zip

And let us know how your luck ran !

Best
SC
:kilroy:

[bearcat241]

VC lighting is a component which cannot be "added" after the fact to any exisitng model. It's a feature which is either designed into the mdl during construction or not. The VC lighting entries in the aircraft.cfg are there to "activate" what's designed into the mdl. If the component is in the mdl and you have the proper cfg entries present, you can toggle it on/off manually by assigning a Lights keystroke command. If your model doesn't have VC lighting built in, the standard aircraft.cfg VC entries will not help.

The VCLC.zip package won't add VC lighting to any model. It only gives you multiple options for changing the lighting color for a model which has active, built-in VC.

[hurricane3]

That all makes sense but why are the VC's dark in the first place?The stock aircraft have mostly lighter panels that you can at least see without squinting.Most (not all), but most addon aircraft VC's ,the ones that even look like panels and not just black sheets of plywood,are so dark you can barely make out the gauges.
Just always wondered why that is.Or maybe it's my old eyes.

[bearcat241]

Nah...its not just your eyes. Some designers use darker palette colors than others in VC cockpit painting. Video drivers, namely ATI and Nvidia, install with system tasktray control modules that allow quick adjustments to display settings.

These modules are easily found in the Windows tasktray by their native icons. If a darkened cockpit gets too annoying when flying a specific model, just click on your icon to pull up the display program and chose color correction to lighten your display's gamma or brightness settings.

[hurricane3]

I have the ATI control panel and can adjust color and gamma settings from there,but that affects the whole computer not just the VC's in CFS2. I guess I'll have to get used to squinting. Thanks for the reply.Course I could always set em back after flying(mainly getting shot down,but thats another post) ,but that can get to be a hassle.

[Oglivie]

I have noticed that for most addon planes for CFS2 the VC's are very dark.Most don't seem to have panel lights to help out.Anyone else notice this? And is there a fix that even I can do?

Maybe...
Setting the VC light position in the aircraft.cfg to the eyepoint coordinates.

Samples:

[Views]
eyepoint=7.90, -1.20, 3.70
//CFS2 LONG LAT VERT distance (feet) from reference datum

Conversion:
1 foot = 0.3048 meter
7.90 x 0.3048 = 2.41 meters
-1.20 x 0.3048 = -0.37 meter
3.70 x 0.3048 = 1.13 meter

[LIGHTS]
panel = -0.37, 1.13, 2.41, fx_vclight
//CFS2 LAT VERT LONG distance (meters) from reference datum

If it does not work when the L key is pressed then the VC light is probably not in the model, but this is a way to check to see if it is or not. You need the [LIGHTS] section in the aircraft.cfg with the proper coordinates (shown above). The light probably could be moved forward and down about 0.3 meter moving it closer to the panel.
Thus:

[LIGHTS]
panel = -0.37, 0.83, 2.71, fx_vclight
//CFS2 LAT VERT LONG distance (meters) from reference datum

[hurricane3]

That might work but I think most addon aircraft for cfs2 don't have cockpit lighting ,for some reason most of the people who make them make the VC dark,I don't know why.A lot of the addon aircraft are older and have very bad VC's.
I know VC's can be made to look good in cfs2 because the stock aircraft have good VC's and panel lighting too.