Simviation Forums

Is there some kind of program that you can use to edit or add/remove gauges and other items on a panel in Microsoft sims?

Add/Remove gauges:
Notepad,all done by editing panel.cfg,wich is simple text file.

Edit gauges:

Xml gauges-Notepad or any xml editor(millions of available freeware on web-I personally use "firstobject XML editor"-free,simple and powerfull)

.gau gauges-impossible to edit. 8-)

Would a gunsight be part of the panel or would it be considered a gauge? All I want to do is remove the gunsight. It's in the way and I don't know how to use it anyway.

Okay I see where the panel.cfg file refers to the main panel and the radio panel. I assume these are .bmp files somewhere like other aircraft panel.cfg files refer to. But I cannot find "main panel" or "radio panel" anywhere in the entire CFS2 directory. Where would they be?

I add gauges all the time to panels.  Post details of the panel you want the gunsight removed from so I can look at it.  It may be part of the panel bmp picture which is not able to be edited or removed.

Terry.

As an example-for the CFS2 default Wildcat:

2D cockpit-The iron ring is drawn in the panel .bmp(s) in the panel folder. Erase the sight from the .bmp(s) by painting it out with black (rgb 0,0,0).

The crosshairs are drawn from ...\CFS2\Texture\gunsight64.bmp.

3D cockpit-modeled, textures from within the ..\F4F4_Wildcat\Texture\ folder... gunsight_wildcat.bmp for the crosshairs...

That's about as much as I know about it..

[quote]I add gauges all the time to panels.

Okay I see where the panel.cfg file refers to the main panel and the radio panel. I assume these are .bmp files somewhere like other aircraft panel.cfg files refer to. But I cannot find "main panel" or "radio panel" anywhere in the entire CFS2 directory. Where would they be?

Make sure you're looking for the correct BMP. The background BMP for the main panel is usually defined under [Window00] like this:

[Window00]
file=panel_background_640.bmp
file_1024=panel_background_1024.bmp
size_mm=640
position=7
visible=1
ident=MAIN_PANEL

Note that the above is copied from the FS9 default C182. The BMP files are in the Panel folder alongside their corresponding Panel.cfg. Most 3rd party panels will only have one BMP for the main panel. The Radio_Stack pop-up window will not usually have a background BMP as it doesn't need one. I wouldn't have thought the gunsight you're looking for would have anything to do with this.

I figured out that this particular plane (L-39 in Combat Jet Trainer) has the cockpit bmp's embedded in the gauge (.gau) files.

That's a new one on me. Can you post a screenshot of this panel showing the gunsight you wish to remove?

I can still post a screenshot if you like, but last night I found a program that will open dll files and such, which apparently a .gau file is a renamed dll file. Anyway, I was able to extract the appropriate bmp's and edit them. Can't remember what the program was now (I'm at work) I will post it on here tonight. As for the embedded file thing, apparently most of them don't do it that way; I saw the panel bmp's you mentioned in the panel directory of most planes. But some do it this way for whatever reason.

okay i've been looking at the cfg file for the a10 warthog hosted here, the first 6 lines are from standard aircraft and those guages all work. the panel was built using http://www.fspanelstudio.com which is a drop and drag type builder. see below where the code changes...

gauge06=mooney_bravo!Clock,