VC Panel Lights FS9

[stu]

I am unable to see my instruments while flying at night in VC mode.  Can this be corrected?  
Thanks,
Stu

[ShaneG_old]

Try pressing 'L' on the keyboard, this turns on all the lights.
If that don't work, try adjusting the brightness on your monitor, sounds goofy but it does help!

[stu]

Thanks.  I've been there and done that.  The lighting outside the aircraft seems to be fine..i.e., runways, highways, buildings, etc.  I should have said that the panel lights in vc are very, very dim.  On the ground where the outside lighting is brighter, I cannot read my instruments.  Once in the air, if it very dark around the craft, I can barely see the instruments, but really cannot fly by them.  
Is there something in the config file I can change.  It occurs with all aircraft, so if it is a config problem, it must be in the main cfg file as opposed to the individual craft cfg files.
Stu

[ShaneG_old]

Well, I've looked through both aircraft, and panel .cfgs for several aircraft and can't tell how that can be done, I belive it is probably a parameter in the light effect itself. I will tinker with it some and see what I can come up with so hope is not lost yet. In the mean time have you tried any addon light fx? Not sure if that will help, but it's worth a try. If you fly mainly in VC mode, then the brightness trick is your best bet for now. I will check back after I tweak around a little.

[stu]

I looked into the C182 panel .cfg file.  The very bottom entry is:
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=223,80,88
Luminous=240,86,92

Could the luminous=numbers have anything to do with vc panel brightness?
Thanks
Stu :-/

[ShaneG_old]

LOL! I was getting ready to post that myself! I belive it does. But I'm not quite sure how yet, gonna be a matter of experimentation.

[stu]

Is the "240" the key.  Does it need to be increased?  But, if that's the case, that would fix just that craft, and the problem is universal with all vc's with night flying capability craft.
Stu

[ShaneG_old]

I belive all 3 numbers have a different color associated with them, so the key is finding out what the number=color code is, and unfortunately it will probably be different for each aircraft, which means you would have to edit each one seperately.

Also, you could ask about this in the panel design section.(I should have suggested this earlier  :-[, but it might take longer for a reply there) Those guys are wizards at this stuff. I just enjoy tweaking and moding my cfgs to learn how they work and get what I'm after. This is a fun one though, I will get this figured out eventually, but they probably know of a utility that can do this quicker than modding the cfg by hand.

[stu]

Thanks Shane.  I really appreciate your help.  I think I am going to pursue this a little further in the morning when my forgetter is not as active.  Again thanks.
Stu
PS:  This is the first time I've been on the forum.  It's greeeaaat!

[Jaypee Dippel]

I'm not sure about VC but in the [color] section LUMINOUS= refers to instrument backlighting on the 2D panel. The three numbers are a color code, red, green and blue. so you can customize your instruments with colored backlighting. However not all gauges are backlit. NIGHT= is the brightness or tint of the cockpit lighting, Again this is the 2D panel, not sure what it does for the VC. I don't know what DAY= does but 255,255,255 is white or full brightness. I hope this offers some help.
Here's some of my Colored backlighting I've created.
                                                               VALUES:RED,GREEN,BLUE

 //LIGHT RED *CONCORDE
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,55
Luminous=255,98,98

 //DARK RED   *DC-7
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,25
Luminous=255,45,45

 //RED ORANGE  *BEECH BONANZA
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,25
Luminous=255,50,2

 //ICE BLUE   *DH-91 ALBATROSS
[Color]  
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,55
Luminous=2,159,255

 //GREEN   *B-52
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,55
Luminous=102,255,102

 //MEDIUM GREEN  *B-307 STRATOLINER
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=50,50,50
Luminous=0,220,115

 //MINT GREEN   *NOT TESTED
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=40,40,40
Luminous=50,255,195

 //LIME GREEN   *BEECHCRAFT STARSHIP
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=40,80,160
Luminous=120,255,60

 //YELLOW  *HH-34 CHOCTOW
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=25,25,25
Luminous=255,255,119

//LIGHT YELLOW  *OLD LOOK, VICKERS VIKING
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=25,25,25
Luminous=248,236,154

//DARK YELLOW *AGED LOOK, B-25
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=173,0,0
Luminous=252,163,46

 //WHITE    *B377 STRATOCRUISER
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=25,25,25
Luminous=155,155,155

 //AQUA   *314 CLIPPER
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,55
Luminous=20,194,194

//DARK BLUE
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=0,25,55
Luminous=0,125,255

 //PURPLE   *CRI-CRI
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=25,0,55
Luminous=255,74,255

//ORANGE
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=25,25,0
Luminous=255,100,55

[Color] //FOR MIXED LUMINATING AND NON-LUMINATING INSTRUMENTS
Day=255,255,255
Night=40,80,160       //ICE BLUE CABIN LIGHTING
Luminous=125,157,223  //VERY LIGHT BLUE INST LUMINATION TO MATCH CABIN

//CABIN LUMINATION
Night=120,120,120 //BRIGHT
Night=80,80,80   //MEDIUM
Night=25,25,25   //BACKLIT ONLY
Night=40,80,160 //COOL ICE BLUE CABIN LIGHTING!

[ShaneG_old]

You are a saint for posting this! I belive this might just solve the problem here!

[stu]

Yup.  Looks like I'm gonna have a little fun for a while.
Thanks, guys. 8-)

[microlight]

Stu,

As indicated above, the [color] section in the panel.cfg affects the backlighting in the 2D panel. The VC is lit by a VC light entry in the aircraft.cfg [lights] section, like this, from the default 737 file:

[LIGHTS]        
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 3, -19.14, -47.24,  1.38, fx_navredm ,
light.1 = 3, -19.14,  47.24,  1.38, fx_navgrem ,
light.2 = 3, -64.32,   0.00,  4.92, fx_navwhih ,
light.3 = 2, -18.22, -47.08,  1.38, fx_strobeh ,
light.4 = 2, -18.22,  47.08,  1.38, fx_strobeh ,
light.5 = 2,  -2.65,   0.00, -4.60, fx_beaconb ,
light.6 = 1,   2.20,   0.00,  8.30, fx_beaconh ,
light.7 = 4,  44.41,   0.00,  3.50, fx_vclighth ,

The last entry defines where the VC light is located; in this case 44.41 feet forward of the reference datum and 3.5 feet above it, putting it into the cockpit location in the model.

If you have a VC entry like this but the VC is not illuminated (and it's obvious when it is!) then the location point may not be in the right place. The second entry, the longitudinal distance forward of the reference datum is usually the culprit; I've had to adjust several to get the VC illuminated. A good way of finding out if you're in the right ballpark is to look at the nose wheel contact point, which in the case of the 737 is just behind the cockpit, set in the default aircraft.cfg at 40 feet. Compare your figures and you'll get a feel for whether the distances are about right. You can then adjust the figures forward/backward (make a backup first) until your VC light appears.

[stu]

Thanks, Microlight.  This will probably keep me out of trouble for a while.  Problem is, I have no VC lights on any aircraft.  Could something have corrupted this in ALL craft?  I've looked in the main FS9 .cfg file, but have been unable to identify anything there that I could correct which would affect all craft.  So, I will take each aircraft separately and see what happens.  Last night I was flying my "Deke".  With the light switches all "on", I opened the window dropping down the switch panel (which were all "on"), and that little panel was lit, but not the main instrument panel, so you may be onto something.
Again, thanks.
Stu

[microlight]

If if you have VC light entries in your aircraft.cfg files but none are showing, there's a setting in FS that you can check. Look under settings/display/hardware and move the hardware-rendered lights slider to number 8, that's as far right as it will go (default is 4, I think). This should ensure that all your lights are rendered.