Irritating auto resizing of panel.

[stephan]

Man,wouldnt you know it. After working the last 3 years getting my FS9 to look just about the way I want it too,my game crashed HARD.
It was my fault.
I was wanting to try a few other add ons to try and improve the ground mesh,and decided to delete the files from the one installed at the time.
Guess I was too over confident and didnt pay attention to what all I was deleting,and the sim just dies.
SO...I had to do a reinstall. Luckily,I had a back up of the important files,...aircraft,the add on scenery ,..the add ons that are located in the main folder of FS9.
After doing a reinstall,I replaced those files .(The files I used were back ups I have used a couple times in the past so they are good.)
I started the FS9 up,and everything looked great,UNTIL I decided to fly one of my other AC.
I made 2 panels that I use for most of my AC. One is for 4 engine jets and one is for 2 engine jets.
The problem is this.
When I start the game,the panel wont let me use the mouse to click on the buttons.
I found out it is because the HUD is on a black screen (which is transparent in the sim ). If I move the HUD off to the side,I can click its display button,and continue flying.
IF I delete the HUD in a panel editor program,the NEXT window does the same thing.It prevents me from clicking on the panel buttons and has to be turned off.
NOW...no matter what I do,or how I edit the panel,it ends up distorted in HUGE proportions , or blocks the buttons.
And the rub here is,this panel has worked for me for several years and thru a couple crashes and reinstalls of the game. NOTHING was changed in the panel design.
SO...I am thinking it is in a cfg or a cfg problem.
I know this all may sound vague and long winded. It is hard to describe in enough detail without all this data.
WHAT cfg is associated with how the panel is displayed? (OH...BTW...ALL the other panels show up just fine...but every ac that uses my 2 engine panel demonstrates the same problem.
I have been putting this panel together bit by bit for about 3 years and dont want to trash it now.

[tbus]

I know it's kinda simple ..... but have you simply tried to recopy it into FS2004? I have found that sometimes things don't get transferred very well the first time. Hope it helps.

[Dave T]

Stephan my fs9 used to change resolution for no apparent reason, you could change it in game but it sometimes wouldn't change the resolution in the main cfg. Have a look in Flight Simulator 2004 FAQs at the top of this page for the location of fs9.cfg as I'm not sure which version of windows you are using and it is also hidden by default.

[stephan]

Thanks gents. When I reinstalled my FS9, I did take the backed up aircraft folders (which were saved on a separate drive for just such an emergency) and copied them back to my sim. Every ac that used that particular panel shares the same problem. A little bit ago,I got tired of trying different possible methods of eliminating this problem,even by rearranging the windows in the panel,as they are drawn in certain order and also xmls are never drawn over by gau gauges,and still no solution. The FS9 cfg file I also backed up was also reinstalled as my normal procedure and that didnt help either. I still have no idea why this happened. I have had my FS9 to crash for other unknown reasons,and,upon reinstalling my backed up files,never had this to happen before. So,tho I have had to drop the 2 offending windows,they werent that big of a sacrifice when compared to the huge irritation it was causing me.The windows were a HUD window and a window that showed the airport names and a line or two of associated data of the next approaching AP in the flight path. I WOULD like to know why this happened,and why only to that particular panel,but again,...by eliminating those 2 windows,I rid myself of the problem AND the hastle. // BTW... I have Windows XP with sp2 & 3.

[tbus]

BTW... I have Windows XP with sp2 & 3.

Proves you're a very good man, Stephan!

[stephan]

Hahahaha...Thanks Tbus,..
I'm a grouchy ol' man. But I mean well,LOL
I dont like to be told what I HAVE to do when I KNOW I DONT have to do it. A year or so ago,Microsoft started sending me messages stating that I needed to update to Windows 7 or something like that because they would no longer support Windows XP.
I Am of the opinion of...If It Aint Broke,DONT FIX IT!!
I was completely in love with Windows 98SE. I knew that version like the back of my hand. There was nothing that that version could do that I couldnt use or tweek and if I crashed it,i could have my system back up within an hour and a half.
Then Windows ME came along. Problems arose.Microsoft started throwing updates around.Still more problems. Finally,when tyey seem to have gotten the bugs out,they go to XP. And problems started all over. Download SP2,...download SP3 and it seems like everytime they get the bugs out,they try and get us to buy their highly overpriced newest windows edition,complete with the "new and improved bugs expansion pack" . I decided to stay with XP and MS can kiss my gluteus maximus. The same goes for FSX. Sure...it's a beautiful game.The detail is fabulous (imagine that...a man using words like fabulous,LOL) . But as anyone who owns anything less than a computer with the power that rivals anything the government or space agency has,one cany run that game without putting up with bad frame rates and loss of available detail. So I stay with the ever faithful,easy to run FS9. There are PLENTY of add ons out there and just as many FS9 enthusiasts as well. Even to this day,I am finding BEAUTIFUL (there's another one of those slightly less yhan manly words,hahaha) add ons for FS9. No...me and FS9 are mates,bud. When I die,I want buried with my Saitek flight stick in hand and my FS9 disks in case,at my side, // http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSra6ML4wI0

[garymbuska]

Stephen
From what I read it sounds like your problem is with the aircraft itself. This could have something to do with the Aircraft cfg file of the aircraft involved or it could very well be the textures that the aircraft use But I think this would be a rare problem and not completly sure if the texture would cause a screen to chane resolutions on you .
Now this may sound strange but try using the panel of a problem aircraft on a plane that does not currently have this problem.
If the problem pops up on that aircraft than you have found your problem. There is something in the panel cfg file that is causing the issue.
If the problem does not show up than the problem is in the aircraft itself and could be with the aircraft cfg file.
Hope you find the answer.

[stephan]

I have the panel in a couple of my favorite ac. Before my sim crashed,the panel performed flawlessly. THEN,after I reinstalled my FS9 and replaced some of the files with files I backed up before the crash JUST in case. Now,the panel jumped from the actual 1024x768 to the next step larger. It shows as such on the panel cfg as well,so SOME HOW,the dimensions changed automatically . The other panel problem I have is windows that show WAY,WAY too large,and no matter what I do within reason,they remain large.To solve the problem,I deleted the window from the panel cfg. At any rate,I gave up. With deleting the offending windows,and rebuilding completely the panels,I no longer have this issue.Sometimes searching for the solution to a problem is more work and trouble than just giving in and rebuilding from the ground up.