Simviation Forums

by **alrot** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:38 pm

Yes,I been working hard ,very hard 3 or 4 days no stopping to find out what im missing to make the gauges show up?,Im using(borrow the *:AIR & *:CFG from b737-400),I follow all tutorials,available in internet and besides to understand its been a little hard

by **Milton** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:45 pm

Alrot,

Believe me we understand your frustration. We have all experienced it.

Here is another VC explanation to study. Maybe it will help.
http://www.flightsimonline.com/tutorials/VCTextures.htm

I usually put a panel background behind the planars and texture it dark. Then put the VC planar in front of it. Are you sure you have the file= parameter in your vcockpit section of the panel.cfg? Make that texture 8-bit for your tests, use no alpha.

by **Travis** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:57 pm

First, breathe in . . . out . . . in . . out . . .

Now.

Most of what you said in your post is a little hard for me to understand, so I'm just going to go through a small tutorial-type thing here.

First step: Gmax recognizes a texture titled $whatever.bmp as a ghost, so that the gauges can be placed there without the poly or texture actually showing up. The texture must EXIST in the actual Gmax scene, so there should be a texture that is 512x512 (or 256x512, or 1024x512, or any of those multiples). So we first create this texture, then apply it in Gmax. I usually make a black bmp that has something written in red on it, so I can easily identify it in Gmax.

Next step: compile this model, making sure the interior and exterior models are made correctly (hierarchy, links, etc).

Third step: in the panel.cfg, specify a {VCockpit01} that has a texture applied as so:

{VCockpit01}
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=0
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$pan1

Everything here is important. The background color should ALWAYS be black (0,0,0). The size_mm can be whatever you want, really. This just makes the gauges show at different clarity levels. I always set mine to 1024x1024 to start with, and edit as necessary.

The visibility MUST be set to 0, so that it does not show in FS.

The pixel_size in FS can (again) be whatever you want, but (again) I always use the same size as what I just made the size_mm, so that I can be SURE it will show.

If all this is not met, sometimes the gauges will be there, but will not be within the defined area of the texture. They might be outside the bounds, making them invisible. Lastly, the texture should be EXACTLY the same as the name you gave the original texture in Gmax, minus the bmp.

Fourth step (almost there!): You can have the texture that you added in Gmax ($whatever.bmp) in the panel folder of the aircraft, to make this next bit easier.

If you have CfgEdit, now is the perfect time to open it. If you don't have it, go get it HERE.

PAUSE

If this has been helpful so far, I can continue with it, but I will have to go relearn CfgEdit to do so. Many people think CfgEdit will not work for ACOF, but it will just not show the bitmaps for the gauges. It can work, but takes some patience and re-editing of the panel.cfg after the fact.

Would you like to know more?

by **garymbuska** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:45 am

For what it is worth CFGEDIT is no longer available you will now have to use FS PANEL STUDIO DESIGN there is a trail version but I am not sure what its limitations are.
FS PANEL STUIDO is payware but it is the big brother of cfgedit except it has the ablilty to read XML gauges where cfgedit will not.

by **alrot** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:46 am

fortuanly I have it,I mean Cfgedit Gary,that the good thing about not have Internet at home, Ive got hundreds of cds recorded through all Flight Simulator history 98,2000,2002,and FS9,I won't buy a drive stick drive pen,or whatever the name is neither CD rewritable, and Thanks a lot Milton ,I'm going to study and practice this new tutorial you link me,and see if I can make this Gauges appears,and Locke