FSX/FSX-SE Aircraft and Panel Design Forum - How To

I just noticed that in FSX, any material that includes a bump map will have no duffuse map when viewed at nignt. The diffuse map is actually there if you look reeeeal close, but it's extremely faint...subtle details like rivets and seems completely disappear. Try exporting the same material without the bump map and the diffuse map displays just fine. Has anyone found a way around this...other than eliminating the bump map?-Mick

Hello panel designersMy friend Glenn Ciopeland has gone back to work and has very little time at the moment.He allows me to alter his descentometer.zip to the extend that it will show ETE and ETA to destination. His gauge will, after typing an ICAO, show the name and distance of the airport. I took a look at his macros that I have added to this post for convenience.Since GPS code is a little too complicated for me I thought to ask your help.I would like to be able to display the following 2 after the destination has been set!GPS ETE Estimated time enroute to destinationGPS ETA Estimated time of arrival at destinationI suppose they are A:vars. Are these the correct vars to…

From the DX9 SDK, DInput Tut 1: Using the keyboard: [font color="blue"]//[/font] [font color="green"]HINSTANCE g_hinst;[/font] [font color="blue"]//[/font] [font color="green"]initialized earlier[/font][font color="black"]HRESULT hr; LPDIRECTINPUT8 g_lpDI; hr = DirectInput8Create(g_hinst, DIRECTINPUT_VERSION, IID_IDirectInput8, (void**)&g_lpDI, NULL); if FAILED(hr) { [/font] [font color="blue"]//[/font] [font color="green"]DirectInput not available; take appropriate action [/font][font color="black"]}[/font] How to adapt that very first initialization code for use in gauges? Why should I have initialized g_hinst earlier? I am always getting errors with DirectI…

Hi,When using AP ATT HOLD, it switches On and Off and On and..etc.What do you have to do to make it work?Changes in the acft.cfg?Default bank and pitch etc.?Never used it, but can be usefull in autoland flare:INC PITCH to say 4 degrees and ATT HOLD.Jan"Beatus ille qui procul negotiis..."

Guys, I need to add a popup (bigger) EADI to my panel for my eyes. It should be based on the same stock EADI just bigger. Can anyone pls advise me how to do that? I used to have a few transparent gauges "open" and "close" -type, that I put on the eadi and on the popup panel, now they dont work in FSX. It didn't take me more than 10 mins with FS Panel Studio. Now I need some way to pop it up in FSX.Thanks.

If you want to easily statically compile simple fixed buffer sounds (meaning none streaming), then I've zipped up my old sound system which can easily be used in VS 2005. It was adapted from the DirectX samples a couple of years ago, but as I'm now using XACT for sound I no longer use it.With it, you can play one-shot, or looping sounds with a function call, or stop them with another.I would attach it here, but they are still using the out dated .zip format, and it is in an .rar.If you would like a copy of it, feel free to contact me, and I'll email it to you.Patrick

Hello, folks!I have installed Rob's Graoundhandling tool on my 747 panel. However, the button is overlapped by the main panel. In order for the button to be visible, I have to move it up somewhere over the windshield.Anyone knows how I could fix this?Thanks for any hint!Silvestre

Has anyone successfully created self-illuminating objects and gauges for FSX?I made a copy of the R-22's low-fuel annunciator, and replaced the graphics (on and off versions of the light) with my own. There's code in the XML that looks like it's telling the lit version to self-illuminate (I think it says "Bright = Yes, or something to that effect). But the light stays dark, even when the "on" version of the bitmap is displaying.The other thing I tried to do was make an object that should always be self-illuminated - day or night. I gave it an FSX texture, which has a copy of the diffuse texture in the Self-Illuminated slot. It looks great at night, dawn, and dusk, but in …

Hi All,Sorry if this a total groan 'not that question again' but I'm keen to design my first 3D model for FSX. Which 3D software is recommended and where should I be looking for tips?I could probably do the basic model and textures for the outside, is it usually easy to get people colaborating on flight dynamics and cockpits?Like I say, sorry if it is the same old question again but I'm totally new to this and would appreciate a bit of help.Thanks,Gemma

I am using the following code. The looping sound turns on just fine. But it won't shut off when the variable Alarm_pos is set to 0.switch(service_id){case PANEL_SERVICE_PRE_UPDATE:MGaugeSound = GetModuleHandle("GaugeSound");if (MGaugeSound == NULL) {MGaugeSound = LoadLibrary("GaugeSound");}GaugePlaySound = (TGaugePlaySound)GetProcAddress(MGaugeSound,"GaugePlaySound");GaugeStopSound = (TGaugeStopSound)GetProcAddress(MGaugeSound,"GaugeStopSound");TerminateSounds = (TTerminateSounds)GetProcAddress(MGaugeSound,"TerminateSounds"); if(Alarm_pos == 1) (GaugePlaySound)("SoundAlarm.wav","alarm",1); else (GaugeStopSound)("alarm");break;}Any help would be appreciated.Rob

Hi,I need some help displaying Morse Code for a VOR, you can already see it displayed on the world map, when you click on a VOR it shows up like ".. - .. .-" etc. I want to be able to display it on a panel, any help would be much appreciated.ThanksMatt

If when you actuate the starter and hold it you get say 62% RPM (which is the idle RPM interestingly, so I'm thinking maybe this is releated), what do you change to lower the max RPM generated by the starter with engine type 3?

Hi,I'm looking for a formula that converts mach to ias within FS. I know it's possible since the FS autothrottle converts when you switch between IAS and Mach hold.None of the formulas I've tried thus far offer correct results. Basically I'm looking to convert back and forth between IAS and Mach.

Ok, so I have the FSX SDK and I have my semi-broken FS9 aircraft that needs to be tweaked for FSX.I really do appreciate the effort that went into the FSX SDK. It's very obvious that the author went to a lot of trouble to make sure that in FSX we wouldn't face the same lack of information issues that we faced in FS9.Unfortunately, it's also pretty clear that by the time he got to the textures section he'd been eating, sleeping and breathing techno-speak for at least six months. I started to contemplate shooting myself somewhere between Chrome / Non-Chrome reflections and Fresnel Ramps. Fortunately, I have friends who care but then I had to deal with them trying to convinc…

Hi all Need one CLR button to do usual single click command and also hold down for 2 seconds to do another Master CLR. Single click 0 (>L:MsgWarn,number)0 (>L:APT_ICAO_enter,bool)0 (>L:Delete,bool)0 (>L:DirTO_cont,bool) 0 (>L:DirTO,bool) 0 (>L:SetValue, number)0 (>L:InputError, number)@DigitErase@InvokeICAOInputMode((@c:FacilityICAO), ' ', 31) I have the click code for the delay (thanks Tom) (M:Event) 'LeftSingle' scmp 0 == if{ (L:Var1,seconds) 0 == if{ @Time (>L:Var1,seconds) 0 (>L:Clear,bool) }els{ (L:Var1,seconds) 2 + @Time < if{ 1 (>L:Clear,bool) } }} How do I combine the two click commands.

I know that you can set up keystrokes to switch from one camera category to another. But is there a way to specify keystrokes to cycle cameras WITHIN a category? For instance, why not have keystrokes to allow the user to cycle to different views in the VC during the startup procces...main panel, overhead, center console, etc.You can, of course, use the A key to toggle within a category, but it's pretty annoying to cycle between 6 views just to get to the one you want. The other problem with cycling is that you keep getting the 2D cockpit as part of the cycle - and as the card switches to 2D mode there's an annoying pause. Which brings me to my second question: Is there an…

I was unable to get animated windshield wipers working in a virtual cockpit, using an FSX-updated version of that code of Bill's that's on the Frreflight design site. So instead, I'm trying to make a simpler version - just a 2-way toggle switch that can turn the wipers on and off. The animation would consist of the wipers rotating in one direction, then back to the starting position - and continue looping. Does XML provide a way to make an animation loop?

HiMy knowladge in XML is low. Can anyone help me ?I want to make an XML gauge that will play sound and LOOP in when the engines goes down. I want to make an APU system that will be automaticly ON after the engine is off. Can anyone help me with code ?Thank's Max

Can anybody let me know how to make a gauge with a reflexive glass. I think I have to make a bitmap to use in the MAKE_STATIC macrowith draw flags like IMAGE_USE_ALPHA. But my problem is that I don't konw how to make a bitmap with alpha channel using Photoshop.Any help or tutorial would be welcome.ThanksJean-Pierre

ok I have tons of planes for FSX now however one thing that bugs me is most of the stuff does not have working landing lights. Now I know where the code in the CFG file is to place the light but how do I add the light that gets displayed onto the ground so I can see the ground at night ?

Hi NGI'm not a panel designer, but an installer developer. So my question is simple. Is it possible to install the 747 panel AND virtual cockpit to the 737? (FSX standard airplanes). And what has to be done to install them? I saw, that there are now two models. The interior and the normal. Is the interior for the VC?I tryed to copy the interior model and the panel folder to a POSKY airplane. But then the whole airplane doesn't show up anymore... so I'm a bit confused now.thanks a lot for some informationMR - Rudolf Meier

I am sorry to post this here, but I found no way to paste images in the Feelthere Forum, and I believe some of their developers may poll this forum from time to time...I bought the Wilco Airbus, and am enjoying it quite a lot. It has it's problems, most solved by the recently released patch, but there is a strange problem with managed descents (after TOD). The aircraft sometimes pitches down hugely, achieves vertical speeds bellow -6000FPM, etc...Using AFSD to find out what their 1506 tables are doing for it (BTW: you could easily tweak the 1506 table for lower MACH entries in order to get proper iddle thrust while taxiing without having to set such high N1 values because…

The default CRJ panel looks very close to what the real Q400 panel looks like. My feeble editing attempts have removed the CRJ reference speeds from copies of the main .bmp's, but alas, I don't seem to have the ability to delete certain files from the CRJ_700.cab (files relating to autothrottle and yaw damper, which the real Q400 does not have, or at least the Dreamwings model does not support).Is anyone working on a Q400 panel for FSX? Does anyone have the skills that I lack to perhaps make an adaptation of the default CRJ-700 panel? Would anybody be interested in advancing what I have tried to do so far?

Never mind.... found the problem.