Installing new 3D panels

[drowekamp]

I'm a new user of Simviation and I've downloaded many aircraft from the site. I noticed that a number of the aircraft either don't have a panel installed or the only panel installed is a 2D panel. How do I add or install a 3D panel for these aircraft? I saw in other web forums that you simply replace the files in the "panel" folder with files for the panel you like, but that has not worked. I suspect that changes may be necessary in the aircraft.cfg file too. Any suggestions? I like the aircraft, but without a 3D panel, they're not really usable. Thanks for the help.

[Hagar]

Welcome to the forum. It depends on the aircraft. The 3D panel or virtual cockpit (VC) is part of the visual model. If the aircraft was created without a VC it's usually not possible to add one. The only exception is if it's a 'True FSX' model created specifically for FSX with the FSX SDK. Most of these will already have a VC.

[pete]

Just to add to what Hagar said above -- you can tell if a model is FSX native (created specifically for FSX) or FS2004 by looking at the .mdl file (open with notepad) inside the 'Model' folder.

FSX native will have this on the 1st line MDLXMDLH

FS2004 models will have this on the 1st line MDL8MDLH

You can add an interior model (VC) to an FSX native model if it doesn't already have one. You also have to make some other adjustments - add the VC textures and you may have to edit the [views] in the aircraft.cfg and 1 or 2 extras. Take a look at how it done in some other aircraft and you'll get the idea.