Need help on getting rid cockpit views on both sides in 2D

[Tom Tsui 2]

Hi,I have a few Saitek Flight Instrument Panels installed. Therefore, I want to enjoy full screen scenery without showing any cockpit of the airplane at all (See 2D Front.jpg or the one without any panel below). I modified Camera.cfg to allow panning of views in 2D mode as in virtual cockpit. However, when I pan the view to either sides, the cockpit appears (2D Left.jpg or 2D Right.jpg -- the two with panels).1)Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the cockpit view on both sides as I do for the Front in 2D?2)Is there a short-cut to directly open up the 2D cockpit without showing any panels at all (instead of pressing W)?Tom

[Ramasurinen 0]

Hi Tom. There are a couple of ways I know of to do this. The sort of view you're asking for was in the original release of FSX, but it was broken either in SP1 or SP2 and unfortunately never repaired. There are probably other ways to go about it with various camera addons around, but I don't have any of those, so can't say.The first way is to create a new VC camera that sits out in front of the airplane, or above it, so that you have an unobstructed view forward and to the sides, though if you look behind you you'll see the cockpit model, and it won't exactly be pretty from the wrong side of the glass, hehe. Not sure if that matters to you.The other way of doing this is a little more complex, and that is to temporarily remove the virtual cockpit model from the model.cfg file for that aircraft. In the case of the Cessna 172 you showed, you would find that file here:(your FSX folder)\SimObjects\Airplanes\C172\model\model.cfgThe model.cfg file is just a text file which you can open in notepad or wordpad. Make a backup copy before changing anything in it of course.The file looks like this inside:[models]normal=Cessna172SPinterior=cessna172sp_interiorIf you remove or comment out the third line in the file, the interior= part, so it looks like the example below, then the plane's VC model will not be loaded and you'll have a full unobstructed view from the standard VC camera in any direction:[models]normal=Cessna172SP//interior=cessna172sp_interiorMake that change, save the file, and run FSX. If you want to change it back, just close FSX, uncomment that line in the file, save it, and reload the sim. This method will only work on true FSX aircraft of course, those with separate external and internal models.Hope that helps.Cheers,-Mike

[Tom Tsui 2]

Dear Mike,You are amazing. I've been googling for an answer for many months. I tried your second method of disabling the interior of VC. It works great.However, disabling the interior of VC completely does pose some inconvenience when need to access the panels. Do you know how to move the camera location of 2D cockpit? Then I don't have the create a new camera but also able to get ride of the interior of cockpit.Thanks again.Tom

[Ramasurinen 0]

Yup, you can add this to your C172's aircraft.cfg file. It's in the C172's main folder, one folder above where the models are stored.The aircraft.cfg is a text file like model.cfg. Just open and scroll down to the camera definition entries and add this one after the last one (there should be 3 already in there)...[CameraDefinition.004]Title = "Full Forward View"Guid = {195EAB58-9E4A-4E2A-A34C-A8D9D948F078}Origin = Virtual CockpitMomentumEffect = YesSnapPbhAdjust = SwivelSnapPbhReturn = FalsePanPbhAdjust = SwivelPanPbhReturn = FalseTrack = NoneShowAxis = FALSEAllowZoom = TRUEInitialZoom = 1.0SmoothZoomTime = 2.0ZoomPanScalar = 1.0ShowWeather = YesXyzAdjust = TRUEShowLensFlare=FALSECategory = CockpitPitchPanRate=20HeadingPanRate=60InitialXyz=0, 0, 3InitialPbh=0, 0, 0That will put a camera about 3 feet out in front of the windscreen, in front of the left seat. The second to last line, InitialXyz=, controls how far forward or aft, left or right, and up and down the camera is positioned relative to the default pilot eyepoint position. You'll have to reload the plane after each change to see any effect. To get to that camera view just press the A key or shift-A, which will cycle through the available cockpit cameras when you're in the VC.You might be able to change the values globally by messing with the default cameras stored in Cameras.cfg (next to your fsx.cfg file) but I don't recommend it. Each plane has different eyepoint and datum positions due to size and cockpit locations etc, and there would be no "one size fits all" solution. I'd just add cameras to the planes you fly most often and tune their positions as needed.-Mike

[Tom Tsui 2]

Great, Mike.Actually, I just figured out to add the InitialXyz line in camera.cfg. But as you said, the result is not good for all aircrafts.I'll go with your suggestion to add specific value of Xyz to each aircraft I want to change.Thank you very much.Tom