Collins MCP

[NM5K 1]

Have an issue with the Collins MCP. When I use it, I only see a rounded twonumeral display on the selections that use three numerals. Such as speed,heading, course. I don't have this issue with the older Honeywell MCP.It shows three numbers in the three number boxes.IE: say I show a course of 312 with the honeywell. If I use the Collins Ionly see 31. If I select a different course, I can see the single digit changesnormally on the map, but the selection numbers only show the rounded 31number, no matter if I select 312, 314, etc.. If I go to 320, it shows 32.I'm seeing the same thing on the heading, and I believe on the speed settingalso. Am I missing something here in the setup? I notice everyone else's seemsto show normally with three numerals. So the problem seems to be onlyon my end. Is there a number resolution setting I'm missing? I can't find oneso far.Or could it be that I'm not running a real high res for the sim? Maybe it's afont/resolution issue? Dunno.. The Honeywell seems perfectly normal, butI do notice that it's digits are slightly smaller.In theory, there should be no reason a font issue should cause this atthe res I'm using, as the two rounded numbers look normal, and there isroom for the third digit in the box.. Anyone else see this, or know somethingI'm doing wrong?It's not that big a deal, as I have no problems using the Honeywell MCP,but some newer plane configs I might conjure up would be more accurateto realism using the newer MCP to match. So I would like to be able to useit on some planes. In all the videos I've watched, I've never seen anyoneelse's act this way. They all show the normal three numbers. Just me so far,unless someone else see's it and hasn't said anything.

[Jude Bradley 659]

Does it occur in the VC too? What video card/drivers are being used?

[NM5K 1]

I only use the VC. I'm just using a low end onboard ATI right now. Not sure the driver.I'm gonna get a better card later, but I've never had any FSX issues with this one,and no other 737NGX issues other than this.So I don't really think that is the problem, being as I see no other quirks visually.The two numbers I do see, look totally normal. It's just that it's giving me a roundedoff two decimal number instead of the normal three.I'll fire up the sim in a bit, and take a screen shot of each MCP. Like I say, theHoneywell is working normally. The only difference I can see is the Honeywelluses a slightly smaller digit vs the Collins.Other than that, I haven't really had any problems. And I am using the 8/16hot fix. But I don't think that had anything to do with it, and I don't think it workednormally here, even with the original install. The hot fixes really haven't changedanything that I really notice, as I didn't have any real issues with the original release.

[badderjet 181]

Does it look like this...?

[NM5K 1]

Yep, that's it.. Seems I'm not totally alone.. And.. maybe it's possible thatmight lower resolution may not be the problem, if some of these other peopleare running higher res.I've seen problems like this when a panel was designed for a pretty high res,but the user is using a lower res. But.. that was usually only in cases where thespace for the fonts was real tight.In our case, there seems to be enough room available in the box.But.. I'm still kind of leaning to it being a font size vs box issue. But I can'tgo to any higher res than I am, being I'm on a smaller CRT right now.I've been running 1240xwhatever res.. And everything looks good nuffin general. The only cockpit issue I've noticed so far is this number dealwith only the Collins MCP. Like I say, the Honeywell works fine.And being I usually sim a Southwest jet, I just pretend I'm running anolder jet.. So overall it's no big deal as far as flying the plane.It's just that on a sim of a new jet, you need the Collins to be accurate.It's possible if I bumped to a new wide screen with a higher res, thisproblem "might" go away.. It seems to be a local issue, being as manyhave it show normally.BTW, I took two shots of the two MCP's in mine just now.

[NM5K 1]

Ya know.. The more I look at those two, the more I think it's a font size vs resissue.. It does appear that the room left for the third digit is kind of tight. You cansee that the digits are slightly larger on the Collins MCP.Soooo.. If this was the case, you would need to use a slightly smaller font, sayas with the Honeywell. If this is the culprit, that would cure the problem for theones seeing this.The other possible option would be to use a slightly wider "window" for thenumbers. But you don't want it spilling over out of the window.So if it were me, I'd probably go down to a slightly smaller number font. unlessit makes it look unrealistic. But I'm starting to think that is the problem.Note how the wider windows have no problems.

[badderjet 181]

Wow, that's not a font size issue. Do you notice it's simply the wrong font? What OS are you running? Check if you have the latest SPs.

[NM5K 1]

Looks like the same font I see on everyone else's. How would I notice it's simply the wrongfont? Looks fine to me, but I don't know how it looks on the real deal.I'm using XP 32 bit, but I don't see how that would be an issue. The font should be part of that gauge.It could well be a font size issue at the res I'm running. I've seen cases where the font resizingdoes not scale exactly the same compared to the rest of the panel or gauge. If the windowthat the numbers are in is just barely wide enough to hold the three numbers with a favorable res,any differences in scaling could cause it to not have enough room when in a lower res.I've seen it happen many times. I've done many panels myself and have seen this problembefore.If they slightly reduced the size of the font, the problem would go away.If they slightly widened the window, the problem would go away. The best solutionwould be to use the one that provides the most accurate looking number on the MCP.They are using a bigger font on the Collins vs the Honeywell. Whether that is the casein real life, I'm not sure.

[VIPERGTSR01 22]

Looks like the same font I see on everyone else's. How would I notice it's simply the wrongfont?

Not even close, the proper font is the digital squared off font made up of 7 bars when all on make a square looking 8. this stylehttp://curezone.com/upload/Blogs/Zoebess/tn-digital_numbers.jpg(but not 100% exact)

[novacane 0]

Looks like the same font I see on everyone else's. How would I notice it's simply the wrongfont? Looks fine to me, but I don't know how it looks on the real deal.I'm using XP 32 bit, but I don't see how that would be an issue.The font should be part of that gauge.It could well be a font size issue at the res I'm running. I've seen cases where the font resizingdoes not scale exactly the same compared to the rest of the panel or gauge. If the windowthat the numbers are in is just barely wide enough to hold the three numbers with a favorable res,any differences in scaling could cause it to not have enough room when in a lower res.I've seen it happen many times. I've done many panels myself and have seen this problembefore.If they slightly reduced the size of the font, the problem would go away.If they slightly widened the window, the problem would go away. The best solutionwould be to use the one that provides the most accurate looking number on the MCP.They are using a bigger font on the Collins vs the Honeywell. Whether that is the casein real life, I'm not sure.

That is defiantly not the font that is supposed to be there. Here is what it should look like:

[NM5K 1]

Not even close, the proper font is the digital squared off font made up of 7 bars when all on make a square looking 8. this style http://curezone.com/...tal_numbers.jpg (but not 100% exact)

Is that the font you see on your Collins MCP with the 737NGX?I looked at one of Nick's HD videos, and I think his font does look slightlydifferent. More squarish and computerish looking.. But now I have towonder why I would see a different font. I thought the fonts were generallypart of the gauge, and not using OS fonts per say. But maybe I'm wrong inthis case. If it is using an OS font, maybe the font by that name in XP isslightly different than the ones used in other OS's. Don't see why it would be,but I've seen weirder things happen.yep, novacane, mine is definitely different.. Weird.. :/I bet the font I'm seeing on the Honeywell is not right either.. It's notthe "puter" looking font.. But being smaller, it's able to fit in the windowand work. Hummm.. I'm not sure what I would do about upgrading fonts.. :/

[novacane 0]

Submit a ticket. This might be out of the scope of the forums since I believe the fonts are embedded and it's probably windows that is falling back to a common typeface.

[NM5K 1]

I checked in the PDMG folders, and they do include their own fonts for a few things..Now, to me, the closest default FSX font would probably be the quartz font. It hasthat squarish puter look to it. If anything, the ones I'm showing look kind of like MS gothic,but hard to say for sure without comparing them all. I'm pretty sure FSX would use thefonts in the FSX folder, rather than the OS fonts in windows. I checked the panel config,and didn't see anything, so I assume the font is called for in the mcp gauge. And theonly logical explanation I can think of is for some reason my font by that name isdifferent or missing, or it's calling up another font. But that wouldn't really make sensebeing as most seem to be seeing the correct font. So I'd have to believe that my fontby that name is different. Pretty strange.. Like I say, now that I see it's not the right font,I don't think the one I'm seeing on the Honeywell is the right one either.

[badderjet 181]

Fonts are never embedded. Gauges using the SDK string as well as GDI+ gauges reference external standard TTFs and I'm not aware of any way how to embed a font in a gauge. What you see though is definately not what should be there, and it seems to be a fallback indeed, most likely Arial. Whereas it's supposed to be quartz. Seriously, check your OS SPs. The issue has been there before for other people.

[novacane 0]

Fonts are never embedded. Gauges using the SDK string as well as GDI+ gauges reference external standard TTFs and I'm not aware of any way how to embed a font in a gauge. What you see though is definately not what should be there, and it seems to be a fallback indeed, most likely Arial. Whereas it's supposed to be quartz. Seriously, check your OS SPs. The issue has been there before for other people.

Sure you can, they are DLL's, you can embed pretty much anything as a resource inside a DLL and use it as a stream to work with it. But ya, make sure you are running SP1 for Win7 or SP3 for winXP (whichever you have).