In the midst of another tiring 2D edit for widescreen

[ThrottleUp]

Hey gang just wanted to see what you lot thought of this.

Well..... Im in the middle of another very tiring (constant sim-reloads to check results) edit in FS Panel Studio (FSPS). I had two 21" CRTs in the past but I gave them away and replaced them with a pair of excellent Philips 20" widescreen LCDs. Im really happy with them but the widescreen came with problems.

Yup Im sure you know what Im on about. You jump in that nice A340-600 of yours and notice the attidue-display looks like a long brown & blue sausage. And so do the rest of the gauges in the 2D panel, all stretched out!
http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sauer/angry-smiley-001.gif
Unless I've missed the plot completely then the only way to fix this is to fiddle with the gauges in FSPS until they look right on the monitors.

Until the day comes when I decide to get a 24" screen. Or a 27". Or feed flight sim to a 37" LCD TV.

Load up all those panel.cfgs in FSPS and resize again??!!

So is this whats gonna make more of us go to the VC....varying monitor sizes as we upgrade/buy new PCs?! I love my detailed 2Ds and cant do without them but gosh tweaking them so they dont appear stretched is a mission and a half!

Ok Im back into FSPS. The EICAS is being stubborn :)

[loki]

Maybe an option for the ACES team would be to move to vector based 2D panels. With vector based images, it doesn't matter what size screen you use, they can scale without losing details or proportions. This would of course likely break compatibility with the current bitmap based panels.

[kiwikat]

Vector based 2D panels is an excellent idea! Everything would be nice and crisp at all resolutions and sizes. Hopefully someone from MS is watching this space :)

[ThrottleUp]

Vector-based! I admit I do not have much knowledge of this but it does sound like the answer to all our 2D problems. Ok Im off to research vector stuff :)

[Erick_Cantu]

The only problem with that is they tend to look cartoony. I'd rather keep my photoreal panels, thank you very much...

[loki]

Here's one write up on vector images.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

[loki]

That is entirely to do with the person putting them together. There are plenty of poor bitmaps out there too.

Here are some examples of what can be done with vector graphics.

http://www.creativebush.com/portfolio.php
http://www.wizard2.com/veh.htm
http://basangpanaginip.blogspot.com/2006/07/worlds-most-photorealistic-vector-art.html (Some pictures here may not be appropriate for little ones...)

[Erick_Cantu]

But that's the problem. There are far more people capable of producing a good photoreal panel, plus, as good as those vector images are, I can still tell they're vector images. I'd guess that the visual quality of the average panel would tank.

[ThrottleUp]

Well that was some very interesting reading guys thanks for that link. I guess we shall all jsut have to wait and see. In the meantime Im starting to find myself leaning towards VCs...specially when Im in turboprops and small pistons in the sim.

Ive decided that this is the last time Im gonna edit 2Ds to cater for panel-stretching!

[loki]

I'd guess that the visual quality of the average panel would tank.

Would it be any worse than people loading up a panel made for 1280x1024 or 1440x900 monitors on 1920x1200 or larger model? More and more people are moving up to higher resolution monitors and all of those older panels made when lower resolutions were more common aren't going to look so great either.

The other option, as ThrottleUP mentions, is to just drop 2D panels and stick to VCs.

[ThrottleUp]

As much as I like a good 2D panel I think that with us simmers buying these spanking new hi-res widescreen LCDs that more & more of us will transition to VCs. Paired up with a device like Track IR can you imagine how neat that would be on a ginormous 42" LCD TV being fed from your blistering Intel Nehalem-architecture multi-core CPU-equipped PC (with Sli or Crossfire of course!)....

Im not saying 2D is gone....plenty of us still use it (raises hand) but this stretching business is gettin old! When even my airplane-clueless gf says "Look..all the round clocks in your plane looks like eggs hee hee" then I know its bad :(

[william1953]

throttleup,

if you decide to stay with the VC i have to say you need to get track ir, it's a must have.

it should be manitory for all VC users. your experience will never be the same.

william

[ThrottleUp]

William...I never thought I would say this but I think Im on my way to leaving 2Ds behind. It wont happen overnight but I know its happening already - because I just got the Posky Embraer regional jets (ERJ 132, 140, 145, Legacy) and they all come with a great looking VC. I have two 20" LCDs (each 1680 X 1050) whihc I normally use in dual-view mode. This time I put it in horizontal-span mode so basically it formed one 3360 X 1050 display.

Then I fired up the Embraer 135 VC. No looking back. Im not even bothering with w 2D panel for these planes! :)

Saw a YouTube video on a track IR demo...wow! I'll defo check that out!

[pacallen]

I was exclusively a 2D user since I started simming but then I ran into the same problem as you when I moved up to a widescreen monitor.

I used to hate VCs when they first appeared (FS2002?). Then I got a 24" widescreen and was forced to either resize the 2D panel and stick a radio stack beside it (not a bad option either) or use the VC. Then I got Track IR (an absolute must have for the VC but you need a fairly large monitor to use it effectively IMO). Then I got a 42" 1080p (1920x1080) LCD TV that I have on a lazy susan so I can use it as a monitor when I'm on the computer and then turn it around to face the living room when I watch TV :P. FSing has never been the same.