virtual cockpit texture problems

A306capt9 · 7 Oct 2020

Hey, everyone!! I just wanted to give an update that I was able to fix the CTD with the gauges that was happening with the plane i'm working with, just by including 90% of the gauges into one 2048 x 2048 bitmap with the "$" prefix in an effort to condense the gauges in the panel.cfg file. However, my cockpit textures are blurry, in the wrong place, my 3d autopilot knobs won't show & the panel will not illuminate when i press a switch in FSX. I followed how to do the $ textures from how Microsoft did it with their default 737 in FSX. how can i fix this? It looks like this in 3ds max 2019 & my textures are blurry after aligning the "$"switches with the panel texture ( they were clearer when I set them up with the "$" bitmap split into six pieces but I condensed it into one to avoid a CTD) :

in FSX, it looks like this:

& here are my panel textures and"$"gauge textures for the panel & textures folder:

What am I missing?

Thank You!!

Gauges are clearer in 3ds max but not visible in FSX (I adjusted the resolution in Max to make them less blurry)

n4gix · 8 Oct 2020

You could try using a 4096x4096 bitmap, but I'm not sure that would make things clear enough.

tgibson · 8 Oct 2020

Your textures are blurry because your images are WAY too small - they should fill most of that bitmap - you should have very little black area.

If the instruments are in the wrong place (and these are 2D gauges) then edit the first two numbers in the gauge's line in the panel.cfg file to move them.

To light up my VC I used the tutorial from Bill Leaming, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be available anymore for FSX. That said, I used the FS2004 version and it works OK for me in FSX:

FS2002/2004 VC Lighting Tutorial

VC Gauge Backlighting - A Tutorial Using Emissive Texture Lightmapping I've perfected a technique which I feel provides the absolute best gauge backlighting in the VC that is currently possible, and is fully compliant with Microsoft's SDK...

www.fsdeveloper.com

A306capt9 · 9 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
Your textures are blurry because your images are WAY too small - they should fill most of that bitmap - you should have very little black area.

If the instruments are in the wrong place (and these are 2D gauges) then edit the first two numbers in the gauge's line in the panel.cfg file to move them.

To light up my VC I used the tutorial from Bill Leaming, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be available anymore for FSX. That said, I used the FS2004 version and it works OK for me in FSX:

FS2002/2004 VC Lighting Tutorial

VC Gauge Backlighting - A Tutorial Using Emissive Texture Lightmapping I've perfected a technique which I feel provides the absolute best gauge backlighting in the VC that is currently possible, and is fully compliant with Microsoft's SDK...

www.fsdeveloper.com

Thank you!! I also noticed, that when i put the “$” gauges texture, the buttons disappear, but when i take it out, the buttons are there. Could the bmp being small be the cause of this or is there something else that I’m missing?

tgibson · 9 Oct 2020

What buttons?

A306capt9 · 9 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
What buttons?

The 3d polygons for the circular knobs & rectangular switches that I created for the autopilot (they disappear when i put the “$” textures onto it & overhead ones / all switches & pfd’s do not turn on like in the 2d panel of the plane I’m working on

tgibson · 10 Oct 2020

It sounds like your gauge polygons are placed in front of your knobs. Place them behind the knobs.

Also, if you are *not* using an actual texture on the gauge polygons (i.e. placing textures in the panel folder alongside the panel.cfg file) then make sure the gauge polygon $ textures are made transparent before compiling.

A306capt9 · 11 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
It sounds like your gauge polygons are placed in front of your knobs. Place them behind the knobs.

Also, if you are *not* using an actual texture on the gauge polygons (i.e. placing textures in the panel folder alongside the panel.cfg file) then make sure the gauge polygon $ textures are made transparent before compiling.

I am using 1 vc texture and another panel_c texture in the aircraft folder. how do i make sure that it is transparent and put them behind my knobs? I tried placing them behind or in front & they do not show

tgibson · 11 Oct 2020

I don't know how you are making your model. In ModelConverterX it's Set Default Transparent in the Material Editor. I believe 3DMax has a similar setting in its Material Editor, if you have the FSX gamepack installed.

Sorry, you are losing me. I don't know how to place gauge polygon textures into the aircraft folder - that is usually for the aircraft.cfg file and other folders.

A306capt9 · 11 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
I don't know how you are making your model. In ModelConverterX it's Set Default Transparent in the Material Editor. I believe 3DMax has a similar setting in its Material Editor, if you have the FSX gamepack installed.

Sorry, you are losing me. I don't know how to place gauge polygon textures into the aircraft folder - that is usually for the aircraft.cfg file and other folders.

I just discovered that a part of the gauge poly (the _c texture) goes to the vc texture in the texture folder, but the flat 2d part goes to the “$” texture, is that what you mean?

A306capt9 · 12 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
I don't know how you are making your model. In ModelConverterX it's Set Default Transparent in the Material Editor. I believe 3DMax has a similar setting in its Material Editor, if you have the FSX gamepack installed.

Sorry, you are losing me. I don't know how to place gauge polygon textures into the aircraft folder - that is usually for the aircraft.cfg file and other folders.

I just corrected the Gauge polys in the plane . Now the issue is the gauges not showing when i press the button/ it not being clickable in the VC. I messaged you & sent you the plane in the PM for you to evaluate the vc to figure out how to make them appear.

tgibson · 12 Oct 2020

I don't have 3DMax so I cannot evaluate it.

What do you mean the gauges are not showing? What is showing?

If you mean you cannot click them, did you try removing any scale from the buttons and knobs? The if there is any scaling (it can happen without you knowing about it) the mouse rectangles will not appear.

FSX - FSX: VC Mouse Clickspots INOP? - SOLUTION!!!

During the course of investigating WHY the Liberty XL2's Autopilot clickspots were INOP in the VC, I found the precise CAUSE of the problem: Any gauge poly that has been touched by the Uniform Scale Tool, and has NOT had "Reset Scale" applied will cause the gauge mouse points to FAIL in the...

www.fsdeveloper.com

A306capt9 · 12 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
I don't have 3DMax so I cannot evaluate it.

What do you mean the gauges are not showing? What is showing?

If you mean you cannot click them, did you try removing any scale from the buttons and knobs? The if there is any scaling (it can happen without you knowing about it) the mouse rectangles will not appear.

FSX - FSX: VC Mouse Clickspots INOP? - SOLUTION!!!

During the course of investigating WHY the Liberty XL2's Autopilot clickspots were INOP in the VC, I found the precise CAUSE of the problem: Any gauge poly that has been touched by the Uniform Scale Tool, and has NOT had "Reset Scale" applied will cause the gauge mouse points to FAIL in the...

www.fsdeveloper.com

I mean that the gauges are in the panel.CFG file , but they all show up as black spots (as if i deleted the texture) . The switches are showing & the gauge polys show black. FS “reads” them but they don’t turn on, & I am unable to click them in the vc. & I did not know if it had scaling or not as i was adjusting the edges of the gauge polys.

A306capt9 · 13 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
I don't have 3DMax so I cannot evaluate it.

What do you mean the gauges are not showing? What is showing?

If you mean you cannot click them, did you try removing any scale from the buttons and knobs? The if there is any scaling (it can happen without you knowing about it) the mouse rectangles will not appear.

FSX - FSX: VC Mouse Clickspots INOP? - SOLUTION!!!

During the course of investigating WHY the Liberty XL2's Autopilot clickspots were INOP in the VC, I found the precise CAUSE of the problem: Any gauge poly that has been touched by the Uniform Scale Tool, and has NOT had "Reset Scale" applied will cause the gauge mouse points to FAIL in the...

www.fsdeveloper.com

This is how the gauges display. Tried clicking on the main battery & it doesn't start:

It works on FSX's default learjet (2D panel) but not on my G-IV. On the Learjet it turns on (2D panel)w when I click on the main battery, but I'm trying to get the panel to do that in the VC (without the 2D panel).

My $ texture looks black (no background) in FSPanel Studio, but normal when I open the bitmap when looking at it:

tgibson · 13 Oct 2020

Post the VC section(s) of your panel.cfg file.

A306capt9 · 13 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
Post the VC section(s) of your panel.cfg file.

Here is the VC sections:

Code:

//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit01]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=2048,2048
visible=1
texture=$G550

gauge00=g550!G550 00 Overhead Panel,  9,0,1231,1477
gauge01=g550!G550 00 Autopilot,  73,1481,1237,200
gauge02=g550!G550 00 DU Update1,  1211,0,73,63
gauge03=g550!G550 00 DU Update2,  1216,72,60,60
gauge04=g550!G550 00 DU1 Synoptic,  1212,12,556,308
gauge05=g550!G550 00 DU2 Mouse Update,  1766,2,87,59
gauge06=g550!G550 00 DU2 Synoptic,  1219,299,552,356
gauge07=g550!G550 00 DU3 Synoptic,  1213,654,294,336
gauge08=g550!G550 00 Standby MFD,  1215,988,225,225
gauge09=g550!G550 00 Standby pfd,  1215,1228,244,217


//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit02]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=2048,2048
visible=1
texture=$G550_2

gauge00=g550!G550 00 Display Control Panel,  293,4,744,203
gauge01=g550!G550 00 Master Warning Lights,  1,51,216,152
gauge02=g550!G550 00 IRS Switches,  1194,1737,86,308

A306capt9 · 14 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
Post the VC section(s) of your panel.cfg file.

I added 2 missing gauges (the config and the update. It illuminates the 2d panel but not the 3D, how do i transfer it over to the 3d panel? I removed the scaling and reset xform. Gauges in the 3d vc are still black, and I cannot click any of the gauges in the vc/overhead ( I do not know if any keyframes will work (because there are no keyframes i can use for example the autothrottle or approach/ILS) or if I need to add an attach point as a clickspot so that it works):

tgibson · 14 Oct 2020

I don't know enough about what you are doing, sorry. You have gauges that illuminate the panel? I've never heard of that being used to illuminate a VC, but others would have to chime in on that. The only ways I know to illuminate a VC is to either use an effect in the aircraft.cfg file (fx_vclight.fx) or to use the tutorial I already posted. These only light up at night.

From your panel.cfg file it's clear you are not using any texture on your gauge polygons; they are just black. So those $ textures will indeed need to be transparent to allow the textured panel behind it to appear. That will not affect the display of the gauges, though.

I don't know why your gauges are not appearing on the gauge polygons. The only thing I can see is that you are missing from the default VC panel.cfg entries the line:

pixel_size=1024,1024

which is in the main header, like this:

[Vcockpit01]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=2048,2048
pixel_size=1024,1024
visible=1
texture=$G550

Hope this helps,

A306capt9 · 14 Oct 2020

tgibson said:
I don't know enough about what you are doing, sorry. You have gauges that illuminate the panel? I've never heard of that being used to illuminate a VC, but others would have to chime in on that. The only ways I know to illuminate a VC is to either use an effect in the aircraft.cfg file (fx_vclight.fx) or to use the tutorial I already posted. These only light up at night.

From your panel.cfg file it's clear you are not using any texture on your gauge polygons; they are just black. So those $ textures will indeed need to be transparent to allow the textured panel behind it to appear. That will not affect the display of the gauges, though.

I don't know why your gauges are not appearing on the gauge polygons. The only thing I can see is that you are missing from the default VC panel.cfg entries the line:

pixel_size=1024,1024

which is in the main header, like this:

[Vcockpit01]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=2048,2048
pixel_size=1024,1024
visible=1
texture=$G550

Hope this helps,

Ah, understandable. I will try that. I am trying to follow everything I need to do to get the virtual cockpit to display the gauges for the gauge polys to not be black. The gauges illuminate the 2d panel but not the 3d panel. I am unsure if I should apply a normal texture to the gauge polys for the panel to display in 3D. I clicked on "Set default transparent " In 3ds max for the $ panel, but not for the regular vc texture . Is that the right way to make it transparent?

tgibson · 14 Oct 2020

Yes, you do not make the regular VC texture transparent - leave it opaque.

I tried commenting out the pixel_size line on one of my panels and the gauges still appeared, so that is not your problem. But what it DID do is make the gauges very blurry, so that might be the source of your blurry gauges issue.