Gauges

[Hagar]

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?

FS Panel Studio can read XML gauges. Try it on the panel of any FSX default aircraft.

I suspect you mean Robert Richardson's DH Hornet & Vampire. These are both 'True FSX' models with no conventional 2D panels. The VC gauges of both appear to be defined in the MDL files.

It should be possible to create 2D panels for both aircraft with FSPS using suitable RAF-style gauges. You would also have to create the background BMPs from drawings or photos of the real panels.

[LoftyCyborg]

Thanks for the reply!

I'm on my smartphone at the moment, so I'll check that name when I get back to my PC and can open the files, but I can agree they do not have 2D panels. That creator name looks familiar, so we are probably talking about the same planes.  (Edit - Yes, they are by Robert Richardson in 2010).

I never fly other than VC. The only reason I sometimes use 2D panels is during pre-flight when I can't find something in the VC (for example, the GPS/Nav switch) or sometimes to access autopilot or radio settings before departing. So creating a 2D panel would not solve the problem for me. If the VC of the Hornet is defined within its model files then my next question is - can I edit those? Is there a utility or program available which I could use to make the changes?

In the description of the Hornet, he mentions adding "reflective glass" on the gauges. Although perhaps that makes for nice realism, I'll bet it is the cause of my problem. I have noticed that on the rare ocassion when the lighting happens to be "just right" I can read them much more easily. If that is the cause, I'd like to "undo" that feature if possible. Perhaps doing so would only involve minor changes to the code in the model files. I have edited configuration files several times, so I am certainly willing to try if I can learn how a model file can be modified.

I don't recall a mention of reflective glass on the gauges of the Vampire. That's why I am inclined to think the above. Perhaps I could even compare the code between both planes to look for differences.

[Hagar]

I never fly other than VC. The only reason I sometimes use 2D panels is during pre-flight when I can't find something in the VC (for example, the GPS/Nav switch) or sometimes to access autopilot or radio settings before departing. So creating a 2D panel would not solve the problem for me. If the VC of the Hornet is defined within its model files then my next question is - can I edit those? Is there a utility or program available which I could use to make the changes?

The short answer is no. Not without the original source files & the software used to create the aircraft - plus of course the knowledge that goes with it.

In the description of the Hornet, he mentions adding "reflective glass" on the gauges. Although perhaps that makes for nice realism, I'll bet it is the cause of my problem. I have noticed that on the rare ocassion when the lighting happens to be "just right" I can read them much more easily. If that is the cause, I'd like to "undo" that feature if possible. Perhaps doing so would only involve minor changes to the code in the model files. I have edited configuration files several times, so I am certainly willing to try if I can learn how a model file can be modified.

I know of no way to edit the model. It's possible there is a reflective glass texture which could be modified.

Edit: Both aircraft use a texture named Vampire_gauges_dds. Basically the same texture with a different Alpha channel. I replaced the Hornet texture with the Vampire one but it didn't seem to make much difference on my system. You might like to try it. Please back up the original texture first.

[LoftyCyborg]

Thanks for looking into this for me. Since, as you say, the tools and knowledge to use them would likely require significant effort on my part, yet your test results yielded little change, I don't see value in pursuing it further. I did more research on the subject, this time including model files and their makeup, and ran across what I believe may be the reasons the Hornet gauges are so blurry.

The first thing I read was on this forum where members were discussing panel creation and the resolution settings coded into the VC section of the panel configuration files in the , and how increasing those numbers can produce higher clarity gauge imagery. However, those numbers do not appear in the Hornet panel.cfg at all. I tried adding them but no change in result.

The next thing I read was discussing the source imagery for gauges, and how crucial it is to have high resolution pictures of the correct initial size, becuase the MDL file creation process compresses and resizes them to fit the panel area being built. I am guessing that for whatever reason, he did not have access to good photos of the Hornet gauges, and so the end result magnifies the lack of initial clarity. I found other subsequent variations the same author released of the Hornet, and in all cases the same fuzzy gauges were used. So it might simply have been the best he had to work with. What puzzles me in the end is why the gauges he put in the Vampire, which are so similar, are so clear. I think I would have been trying to utilze those that are the same in both planes, and tried to create from scratch any that were different, with the same clarity. But that's just me I guess.

Add to all this the fact that designers generally don't like modifications being made to their creation, and I ended up looking for a suitable replacement for the Hornet last night. So far I haven't found anything with twin engines and that kind of performance short of jet aircraft, which also happens to look as nice and fly as smoothly as his Hornet does.

I initially fell in love with the P51 offered in FSX Acceleration simply because it is crazy-powerful and smooth as butter, even at high altitudes. So I went looking for a plane with 2 of those lovely Merlin engines, and that was how I learned of the Hornet. If you can suggest any other twin engine planes (I like how they sound) with similar features of smooth flight control, nice graphics, and cruising speeds apporaching 500 knots I would like to check them out. The Hornet is one fine plane, by me, and will be hard to replace. So I'll keep it even though I can't read the compass at all when in flight. (GPS or the HUD display, which I am sure it didn't have, work in place of the compass).

Thanks!

[Hagar]

You might like to contact the author of the Hornet. It's possible he can update the VC. Please remember it's freeware.

[LoftyCyborg]

Thanks. I had that thought at one point, but like you mentioned it is freeware, so he may not want to re-visit the project. I'll see if I can find a way to contact him. Can't hurt to ask nicely, right?

I don't recall if I mentioned it here, but one clarity issue I sometimes get is caused by my using a triple display setup for FSX. Spanning 3840 x 1024 sometimes exacerbates when part of the aircraft isn't clear at the start, especially small gauges.

I have the same issue with the FSXA EH101 panel, in that they are so small in the VC I can't read them when zoomed out to get decent visibility of the scenery. For that I modified the panel.cfg so a window of the 2D Main Panel is the size I want and positioned over the VC panel's rendition of those tiny gauges. But the 101 has a lot of blank area on its VC panel, so I am not covering anything crucial when doing that. The VC panel in the Hornet doesn't really have the room to do that, and it also has no 2D panels to work with anyway.

Thanks for the help!