Simviation Forums

HEY Tipster,Hows that B-52 panel coming along?We BUFF drivers really need something better

Heya Phil,

I'm sorry about the delay. I don't know how much you've seen of the odd snippetts that have crept into other threads, so here's the position:

I was about half way through when I came up with an idea for manipulating internal views in a different way than is normally seen. Briefly, if you've ever seen the cockpit screen changes in Fly!, I wanted something like that.

It took me the best part of 4 weeks but I finally cracked the necessaries to get it working properly.

The good news in this respect is that I now have well over 4 times the surface area that I'd normally have to place gauges on (no pop-up windows in the way you normally see them).

The bad news is that my bitmap became redundant meaning I had to start from scratch. Getting the bitmaps right is a lot of work for me. I'm not a graphic artist and it's painstaking work as a result. The other unfortunate consequence of the new views engine (for me, not you) is that I've now got 9 different bitmaps on the go for this panel where I previously had one.

It would be better described as a full blown cockpit rather than just a panel.

I am working on it though and when it's finished, I'm hoping you'll find it's been worth the wait.

Hi John, I can' wait to see how you're working out this new technique. I know with aircrafts like the LAGO F-16 package, they have like 8 bitmaps for the entire cockpit also, but they have it mapped to the SHIFT 1-9 keys

Well I'd describe it as evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Apart from the view change icons appearing with mouse over movement rather than being fixed icons, the core of it lies in providing more fixed views of unusual angles than anything else. It's actually possible to travel the entire interior of the aircraft using this method which effectively provides a kind of 2D version of the Virtual cockpit. However the amount of work involved in producing the bitmaps, not to mention the file size, makes this prohibitive.

As far as the B52 goes, it has allowed me to do one view where you are facing the inside of the pilot's exit door and open it with a lever by the door enabling you you to look out of the aircraft from the inside. Small things but it's fun.

Work progresses.

Tipster;

I feel your pain!
I had 6 different Main Bitmaps, in various states when I built my C-5 panel. So I put all of them in a separate folder, and ended up combining areas from 3 of them to complete a final "Main" bitmap. I even re-constituted some parts of those original 6 to begin a basis for a AN-225 panel, that I haven't done anything else with, yet.

So keep all the scraps and bits and pieces around. You never know what parts you might need for future projects.

I rest assured the job is in good hands-carry on sir,Ill wait