Simviation Forums

I know that there are many expirienced designers here so I hope to solve this problem with your help

I downloaded many new aircraft for fs9 and noticed that maybe only couple of them has their own finished panel.I even downloaded panels for several aircraft but none of them is completely functional!I mean that in most cases aircraft has no cockpit side view and virtual cockpit,also panels of most aircraft is just "aliased" to Boeing 737_400 cockpit in panel.cfg.
So in most cases I just replaced panels of aircraft,deleting their textures and panel.cfg or linking their panel.cfg with existing aircraft panels(in most cases it's Boeing 737_400 panel)

But the PROBLEM is if I even completely replace panel directory of aircraft with panel directory of Boeing 737 400,aircraft still hasn't cockpit side and virtual cockpit views,yet Boeing has all the views!I tried to check aircraft.cfg and .air files of aircraft but didn't found any values for that.

Now,I understand that maybe virtual cockpit must be modeled and compiled in aircraft

You're right about the VC view.  Its part of the *.mdl structure, and cannot be added or deleted from any aircraft without the source files the model was created with.

The side-views option is simple, however.  Go into the panel folder of the aircaft the panel is aliased to and copy all the side-view bitmaps into the folder of the aircaft you want to have them in.  That should work.  If it doesn't, try just copying the entire panel folder and pasting it in the new aircaft's folder.

If you read closely my post you should see such words:

"But the PROBLEM is if I even completely replace panel directory of aircraft with panel directory of Boeing 737 400,aircraft still hasn't cockpit side and virtual cockpit views,yet Boeing has all the views!"

It means I just replace panel folder of aircraft with Boing's one together with ALL textures and .cfg file but it doesnt work!Logiccaly I should see my aircraft from outside but inside it's like I am flying Boeing.But it doesnt works!!!I still see the front panel only

Ah!  Sorry, my mind is slipping . . .

The default 737 has NO interior views.  The views you see when you look "left" or "right" are views of the DVC itself.

But you could possibly do something about this.

First you need a screenshot image taker, such as Irfanview or FSScreen.  After you have that, you can take screenshots of the interior and edit them like so.

Start a flight on a clear, beautiful day with NO clouds.  Take the 737 up to about 50000 using slew and then pause the program and turn off slew.  If you look out the windows, you should see nothing but a blank blue.  THIS IS IMPORTANT.  Get the aircraft to a place where all you see is clear blue sky and then take screenshots of the views you normally find.  (front-left, left, rear-left, etc.)  After you have all the views (should be 7 of them) exit FS.

If you don't already have a good paint program such as PaintShop Pro or Photoshop, I would go out and get one.  They are essential for working with FS textures and panels.  If all you have is MS paint, I think you can do this, still.

Open each view you created and select the blue using the color-specific selector tool (Magic Wand, or something similar) and then delete it.  Replace the color with a flat black (0,0,0) and then save as left_forward, etc.  Do this for all the views.

Now go take a good look at the panel configuration for the default Learjet.  This will give you a good idea of how views like you are talking about work.  Now just apply the methods used in that panel to your own.

This may take some time, so don't get discouraged if it doesn't work right off the bat.  Try messing with it some, and eventually you'll get something that works.

Good luck . . .

I doubted about that fact that side views of Boeing are 2d textures,so I tried panels of another aircraft having surely 2d images as side views(in panel folder there are bmps of side views and in panel.cfg there are apropriate parameters-but nothing-it doesnt work in other aircraft I still have front view only and left and right ones are empty...

I'm stumpped!

Ah-h-h,my mistake,my mistake-It was a little tricky to replace textures-because in panel folder there were two textures thet are the same but with different file names and one of them with name "main.bmp" was not actually used in aircraft-a little mix up made by author of panel-now it's all o.k.Thanx

Glad you fixed it Sterk. I would just point out that the FS9 default B737_400 has a full DVC & therefore no 2d side views in the panel. I believe all the FS9 defaults are the same. If you want side views it would be no good using one of these panels by aliasing (or pasting the complete panel itself) in a 3rd party aircraft without a DVC.