After a long past month of interfacing the overhead which I will also make a video of soon I needed a little diversion and decided to try a GA plane in the big cockpit with the wrap visuals. It was awesome! Below is a little video I took with the BN2 Islander (one of my favorite little twins). I need some help from a panel file expert out there because I want to edit some of the virtual cockpit side window stuff out. You will see better what I mean once you watch the video. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Scott
Video of BN2 Islander in the 737 cockpit shell. Orbx PNW scenery in Seattle Washington area.
http://youtu.be/0rT4XjBPzUM (http://youtu.be/0rT4XjBPzUM)
Hey Scott, thought that was cool. Sorry it took so long to respond. Now, let's all be honest here- we can see you starting a nice GA project soon because it's just too irresistable!
Scott, your scenery is outstanding! I see a GA in your future!
Sure Scott, could you send me a copy of your panel.cfg file and the aircraft.cfg and I will do it using my BN2. Addy is whbandb[AT]yahoo.co.uk - I think that the answer is in the aircraft.cfg. Charlie.
Awesome. Thanks Charlie. I will try to get it this weekend. How is the comet?!
Scott
Thanks Scott, yup, the Comet goes from strength to strength - Mike is re-doing the Engineer's panel - strewth!! We will keep you updated on that one, as it is huge, with many fuel tanks [up to the FSX maximum of 9 if I remember] and supporting gauges and transfer eyes.
You probably tried this, but I was going to move your VC eye-point forward of the panel but the danger is a black box - not with this one luckily, see pic below which is not the solution but a demo. Is it just the panel side view you want rid of? Charlie.
Hi Scott,
Haven't had a chance yet to look at this for you, but with the PMDG737NG, I pulled things out like you're describing. If not the panel.cfg or aircraft.cfg, you will have to edit parts of the scenery>global>texture>file or just the texture folder>file. Or, you might have to work with more than just one of these folders
First, you want to edit the simobjects>airplanes>panel.cfg to remove the references to the [Window Titles]. You can remove all of the Windowxx= and this will remove any of the interior cockpit panels. Usually, you just keep views; however, if you want to have the interior sidewalls of the cockpit, then you would leave certain window titles, and then you would edit the file(s) in the main texture or scenery>global>texture folders. What you would be editing is basically the same as when someone does a livery (in a sense).
Second, if you have to edit the aircraft (in the manner of like an livery edit) it will usually be a .bmp file or a different file, and you will need a photo editor (haven't done this type of editing in a long time, so cannot remember the file types right off hand). Thus, you would be removing parts of the file. Just go and took a look at an aircraft that has it's parts all laid out flat in the .bmp file. It is there that FSX uses this to wrap it around the model in 3D. Believe or not, this is the same for any 3D editing where it gets wrapped; there is name for this type of editing, but just cannot think of it at the moment.
Anyway, you will have to determine what you want to keep and what to remove based on your prefrences and views seen on your projectors. In all reality, an aircraft could be edited to remove the entire outside body or maybe just the engines would be hanging in empty space; especially, since you or others with a home cockpit would not be outside of the aircraft anyhow, but if wanted to look out the side window and see the front of the engines. Oddly enough, I watched a youtube video of two real pilots in a B737-800 and they were shooting video from inside the cockpit, and when they turned to look out the side windows, they could see the engines and outer wing tips. Yet, I have not seen this done in a home cockpit; maybe, that would be something for some of us too work on.
Finally, as for the Cessna project that had the prop and wings showing, they just edited the .bmp to shift where these items would appear when projected. In other words, if you were to look from outside their aircraft, you'd only see the two wings and a prop that's spinning; the rest of the aircraft is removed. I know this because I had asked the owner of that project a long time ago and he explained it all too me via emails.
Will try to look into this; although, Charlie is on the ball and he might have it done before too long...
BSD
Scott, I totally agree with BSD and, because I have all the textures [bmp rather than dds], if you whizz over the 2 cfg files, I will do it for you. I was just going to get rid of the VC panel complete to leave you with the wing, engine and cockpit interior based on my 3 views. As BSD says you can do it yourself and we can advise, you will certainly learn from the experience! Thanks BSD, good answer. Charlie.
Thanks guys
Actually wanted to do this for the Flight1 C172 and 182s also. In those cases either removing everything out of the side view or just leaving the wing underside and strut. I see that it seems these use .dds files and am guessing there is some program to convert these to .bmp to edit then back to .dds? Anyway, here are my aircraft and panel config files from all 3 aircraft.
Thank you again for the help and insight.
Scott