How To...Add FS2000 GPS to FS98 Panels
By Art Burke
ith
the advent of faster, more powerful computers in the last few months,
more and more flightsim enthusiasts are discovering FS2000. Many, if
not most of these new users, bring lots of their FS98 aircraft with
them. In the midst of failing attitude indicators and dying batteries
lurks the dilemma of adding the default FS2000 GPS to older-style
panels.
A dedicated, persistent simmer can often accomplish this task with
the bare essential - Windows Notepad. However, most users will find
the addition of one more tool quite beneficial - CfgEdit.
CfgEdit is a WYSIWYG panel editor by Ed Struzyinski. It is freeware,
easy to use and has become invaluable among my personal list of
tools.
This panel is from an A-4F Skyhawk. There is a gauge missing next to
the turn coordinator, but we'll ignore that for the moment.
Everything else is what one would typically find (and need) on a
panel for use in FS98. FS2000, however, has a GPS gauge and, as yet,
there's no way to access it with this panel. So let's add the GPS and
a "switch" to turn it on and off.
There's not much extra room on the panel at the moment to add much,
so we'll have to make just a little bit of room. (We can't use that
space at the lower left. That's where the fuel gauge is supposed to
be.) However, at the upper right of the panel is a device used to
identify the Outer, Middle and Inner Marker. We can alter its
position just enough to give us a little breathing space.
Before you begin, make a backup copy of the panel.cfg of the plane
you intend to alter!
Here, I have started CfgEdit, opened the panel and highlighted the
"device" I refer to above. We can see this is the cessna_182.omi.gau.
The gauge properties show the "X" position as 549, the "Y" position
as 59 and the size as 56. Gauges placed on the panel are done so in a
coordinate system with the "X" representing the distance from the
left and the "Y" representing distance from the top. Further details
of the design/structure of panels and gauge placement are available
in the
Microsoft Panel SDK (Software Development Kit). Fortunately,
to utilize CfgEdit, only the basics are really necessary.
Here is a piece of the panel.cfg file for the A-4F Skyhawk. You can
see gauge16 has the same information we see highlighted above in
CfgEdit. What we're essentially going to do now is move the
cessna_182.omi down a little. If you understand the numbers, it's
relatively trivial to change the "Y" coordinate to something slightly
smaller than 59. Since we have our WYSIWYG editor, however, it's very
trivial to simply move the gauge to a convenient spot. We need to
take care, however, not to cover up parts of any other gauges.
Here, you can see I've moved the gauge down just a little, staying
clear of the gauges below. It's also been shifted just a hair to the
left, but not enough to make any difference. We'll leave it here and
take a peek at what's happened to our panel as a result.
We can see our OMI gauge has been moved down exactly where we want
it! Now we're ready to place our GPS toggle.
You can see above I've executed the "add gauge" menu and chosen the
KINGAIR.GAU. This particular gauge (like all the default FS2000
gauges) has the characteristic of having all the gauges for this
plane consolidated in one large file. We'll see shortly how
identifying the specific gauges is accomplished. On the right side of
our dialog box we can see there are 59 separate gauges in this one
folder. We need only one specific gauge at the moment. Here is the
selection:
The bitmap in the lower left is a real jumble, but that's only
because it's been magnified. Once it's on the panel it will look just
fine. By clicking OK to verify the selection, the gauge will be
placed temporarily in the middle of the panel. Then you can move it
wherever you want it on the panel. Obviously, we're going to put this
one just above the OMI gauge. Particularly since we went to the
trouble to move it in the first place!
Here I've placed the GPS toggle just above the OMI gauge and
selected it so we can see the gauge properties. Here's what our
panel.cfg file looks like:
You can see we now have a new, 20th gauge. It's our new GPS Display
Toggle! The hard part's over. Now we have the toggle. Next (and our
last step) we'll add the actual GPS itself. We won't need CfgEdit for
that. Notepad is all we'll need.
Let's start by looking (and copying) what was done in one of the
default FS2000 aircraft. Since it has the GPS gauge already, we'll
just "borrow" a little from it!
This is a part of the panel.cfg file from the King Air 350. I've
clipped the first couple of windows (the main panel and the radio
stack) just so our excerpt doesn't take up too much room.
Window02 is for the GPS. When we click on the toggle on the panel,
the contents of this window (i.e., the GPS instrument/gauge) will be
displayed. If you already have a Window02 in your panel, you will
need to renumber the window in both the [Window Titles] section and
the window itself. Now, when you click on your new panel toggle,
here's what you'll see:
Oops! There's gonna be a problem! When I started building this
example, I put the toggle just where we have it now. When I realized
there was a problem I left it there, on purpose. I'll show you how
easy this problem is to rectify.
Our problem is we've displayed the GPS, but, in the process, we've
accidentally hidden our "switch!" It's currently hiding behind the
GPS data. We could close the GPS window by pressing SHIFT+3 (on the
main keyboard NOT the numpad), but that tends to defeat our purpose.
The solution - start CfgEdit again, highlight the GPS toggle and just
move it somewhere where it will be convenient to use AND won't get
covered up in the process!
In the example below, I've moved the GPS toggle to the opposite side.
After a few minutes practice on your own, you will be able to do the
same thing! Once you're convinced the panel is okay, and you have the
gauge (the GPS toggle is technically a gauge) where you want it, you
can safely remove the backup copy you made before you started. Here's
our final result:
You can see the GPS toggle at the upper left side of the panel. The
GPS display is showing on the far right. Clicking on the GPS toggle
will close the display. Presto! Now you have the GPS on your
old-style panel.
Only one potential problem remains. You should be able to fix that on
your own, now that you've had some experience.
If you look at the default FS2000 panels, there's a small toggle
switch on the panel, typically labeled as "NAV/GPS" or something
similar. When the switch points towards the NAV side, the autopilot
functions are in a mode with which you should already be familiar.
You can view the GPS display, but the GPS will not currently
"control" your flight. To have the GPS control (i.e., link to the
autopilot) your flight you need to do the following:
- Establish a flight plan using the default FS2000 Flight Planner
- Initiate the flight plan and
- Flip the toggle switch from NAV to GPS
The details of how to use the flight planner and GPS are available in
the on-screen help of FS2000. Following the above examples you should
be able to add the necessary switch to your panel using Notepad
and/or CfgEdit.
Enjoy your own labor and don't forget to make that backup before your
start!
Art Burke
Aburkenc@aol.com
Download
CfgEdit
Read
a follow-up article with more information on adding GPS to your panels.
