Gauges

[whitley]

Hi folks,I was hoping someone could help me.

I found a copy of FSPanel Studio at a car boot sale the other day which I bought.

The idea was that I could install FSX compatible gauges in panels of earlier aircraft that otherwise work in FSX. I have successfully re-gauged the Alphasim Whitley (the more observant of you might notice a link between my user name and this particular aeroplane), but I have run into a problem.

I am having difficulty in finding gauges that are suitable for some of the panels, but other than downloading masses of aircraft I don't particularly want just to extract gauges that may or may not even be part of the download.

So the is there a hoard of gauges anywhere that I could download and store. I can't find any of the type of gauges I am looking for, most of the gauges in the download sections of Flight Sim sites like this one have one off gauges like the hover gauges etc, not period gauges or turboprop, jet etc gauges.

[whitley]

Just had a look at the 'seed' page and have a query. In the Moscow section there is an entry name Supermarine Hurricane which is an aeroplane I have never heard of 

[Hagar]

Depends what you want this for. If it's purely for your own use you can use any gauges you wish. The gauges on British WWII aircraft were pretty standard so the FS9 default gauges will do for the blind-flying instruments. For the twin-engine gauges what you need is a true- FSX aircraft of a similar type & period to the Whitley. I can think of at least a couple of examples. You can then use the gauges from that.

Of course, if you intend uploading the finished article for others to use you would need permission from the authors of the gauges before doing so.

Just had a look at the 'seed' page and have a query. In the Moscow section there is an entry name Supermarine Hurricane which is an aeroplane I have never heard of

Not sure what you mean by "seed" page.

[whitley]

The gauges are purely for my own use. I have been looking for gauges of the correct period for the aircraft panels

[Hagar]

[quote]The gauges are purely for my own use. I have been looking for gauges of the correct period for the aircraft panels

[whitley]

What I am really after is a big cache of gauges that work in FSX that I can take my pick of to make panels made for earlier sims work in FSX.

I am begining to get the hang of FS Panel Design now and converted three (all need fine tuning, but they are, at least useable), but I still get gauge erros even though I have deleted them and replaced them. I didn't realise that when I deleted the gauge from the BMP, I had to manualy remove it from ther CFG as well. As my late dad used to say, the first time with something new is the most informative.

[Hagar]

You're not likely to find what you're looking for in one download. My best suggestion is to collect the types of gauges you want to use. The cluster gauges included with some 3rd party aircraft contain a selection of gauges suitable for specific types/periods.

I am begining to get the hang of FS Panel Design now and converted three (all need fine tuning, but they are, at least useable), but I still get gauge erros even though I have deleted them and replaced them. I didn't realise that when I deleted the gauge from the BMP, I had to manualy remove it from ther CFG as well. As my late dad used to say, the first time with something new is the most informative.

Not sure what you mean about removing gauges from BMPs. The gauges used on specific panels are defined in Panel.cfg. FS Panel Studio should do that when you save changes. Did you mean FSX.cfg?

[whitley]

I meant removing the gauge entry from the panel cfg not bmp. I think I mentioned senilty before 

If the gauge made for FS98 is present in the FSX gauge folder, it will appear on the bmp even though it doesn't work. Deleting it and replacing it with one that does work only adds another line to the panel cfg and it doesn't delete the old gauge entry, I have to do that manually.
Maybe it is because the second hand copy of FSPD I have was made for an earlier version and has been updated for use with FSX, or perhaps becuase I am still learning about it and I am doing something wrong.

I am only tinkering with panels to make them usable in FSX for my own use, I have no intention of uploading them, certainly not in the foreseable future anyway.

[Hagar]

[quote]I meant removing the gauge entry from the panel cfg not bmp. I think I mentioned senilty before

[whitley]

I was under the impression from the instructions that the panel cfg would be updated automaticaly, but it doesn't and the old gauge entries have to be deleted manually. If, for example there were 20 gauges in the main panle before the edit and I replace five of them, there would be 25 gauges  mentioned in the panel cfg, so I have to manually deleted the unwanted gauges entries and renumber them.

Thanks for the help and advice Hagar.

[Hagar]

[quote]I was under the impression from the instructions that the panel cfg would be updated automaticaly, but it doesn't and the old gauge entries have to be deleted manually. If, for example there were 20 gauges in the main panle before the edit and I replace five of them, there would be 25 gauges

[Hagar]

Replacing an existing gauge in FS Panel Studio

First load the panel & select the gauge you wish to replace by clicking on it.

Double-click on the selected gauge to find out its name. This is the Alphasim gauge.


Close the Gauge Properties window. Right-click on the gauge & select Swap.


Then choose the replacement from the list of installed gauges. I've used the FS9 default spitfire_mki.gau which is compatible with FSX.


Click File/Save to save changes.

Hope this helps.

[whitley]

When swapping a gauge, the gauge entry in the panel cfg gets overwritten, but that isn't what I was talking about.

I was perhaps replacing some gauges in a non recommenned way by simply selecting the gauge I wanted to try and dragged and dropped it into the vacant space in the bmp. Doing it that way the old gauge entry remained in the panel cfg as well as adding the new gauge. It is all part of the learning curve.

[Fr. Bill]

The "learning curve" can be significantly flattened by reading the truly excellent Help document that accompanies FSPS. 

[LoftyCyborg]

I wonder if I might join in here and ask if it is possible (or perhaps "not too difficult" would be a better choice of words) to create an FS Panel Studio BMP style gauge panel to replace one that is currently all XML?

I have found one of my all time favorite planes to be the DeHavilland Hornet. Great plane! But its gauge panel is pretty much non-readable from any kind of distance. They are all fuzzy.

(The only exception is in dusk or night viewing, where its cool blue backlighting is VERY nice - but I prefer to fly in the daylight.)

The DeHavilland Vampire I downloaded along with it has a very similar cockpit and gauge panel (except with gauges for a jet) and they are "crystal clear" to read. But.......both planes use XML gauges, and I have no clue how to work with those. FS Panel Studio can't even view them (I have tried - I get just a blank black background).

I read the FS Panel manual and even researched online, only to find a statement to the effect that "very little information has been released by Microsoft on XML gauge creation". So if I can't edit the Hornet, I was wondering if I could simply create my own panel in place of the one it has, using FS Panel Studio?

Or is there a similar tool which can edit XML panels?