Screenshots and Affects of Changing Wide View Aspect

[kmanning]

Hi all,
I thought I would post these screenshots to show the affects of changing the Wide View Aspect in case some of you wanted to see the screenshots. I tried to separate my sreenshots and put text in between them but I'm not sure how to do that so I'll just have to list them by number. In the first screenshot below, I'm sitting in the 2D cockpit of the PMDG 737NGX and Wide View Aspect=False, and this is by default in FSX.CFG. The view looks as though I'm looking down even though I'm looking out the window and should see the opposite end of the runway.

In the second screenshot, Wide View Aspect=True. Now, the view is correct but notice how far away the objects look. The zoom factor is 1.00, yet the FOV is a lot wider than normal. The distortion I've been talking about is notiable when you taxi the airplane down the runway and just make zig-zags. The outside image seems to stretch out while it compreses in the middle. I hope I said that correctly.

In the third sreenshot, Wide View Aspect=False. Now I'm back to where I was in the first screenshot. The reason you're now able to see the other end of the runway is because I modifed the direct view in the panel.cfg file. Notice that the FOV is a little more realistic but at this setting, you don't have a good sense of speed, or speed ques, I think some call it. You'll noticed in the second and third screenshots that I have red arrows depicting the antenna and the control tower. In the second screenshot, the left red arrow is the control tower and the right red arrow is the antenna. In the third screenshot, the red arrow is depicting the antenna but the control tower is out of the FOV.

Ken.

[probinson12]

Hey thanks Ken i never really noticed this until now,

[Mark Hurst]

Hi all,
The view looks as though I'm looking down even though I'm looking out the window and should see the opposite end of the runway.

Yes, it is clear that the view direction is set wrongly. It is centred at a point on the runway, just between the numbers and where the runway centreline begins. It should be looking where you want to go.

[fxsttcb]

Take a peek at the panel.cfg

[VIEWS]
VIEW_FORWARD_DIR=1.000, 0.000, 0.000

Where 1.000 is the angle of the dangle, negative is up...Don

[torkermax]

Thought that was addressed in the later versions of the NGX. Sp's.

[kmanning]

Hey guys,
I guess I should make clear that my complaint was in the second screenshot where the objects look too far away, not the first one. Let me explain more about the panel.cfg since this was posted. For those of you that purchased the PMDG 737NGX, you'll notice there are 5 panel files in the panel folder of the 737-800NGX, but only one is named "panel.cfg." Two of the panel files affect how it's displayed on your screen, one being a panel view for the 4:3 monitors and a panel view for the widescreen monitors. The 2 panel files are "panel_4_3.cfg" and "panel_wide.cfg." The other two files are panel_VC_high.cfg and panel_VC_low.cfg. The Default "panel.cfg" file is for the widescreen monitors. So, for those of you that have a 4:3 monitor, you would first delete the "panel.cfg" and copy the "panel_4_3.cfg" and rename it to "panel.cfg." So as far as the first screenshot, the reason this view is not correct is because Wide View Aspect=False. Since the default panel file is for the widescreen monitors, you must set to Wide View Aspect=True. That's explained in the Readme text in the Panel Folder.

Ken.

[fxsttcb]

...you would first delete the "panel.cfg" and copy the "panel_4_3.cfg" and rename it to "panel.cfg."

It's easier to just open the panel_X_XX.cfg you want to use, and "Save As" -> panel.cfg...Don

[Mark Hurst]

as far as the first screenshot, the reason this view is not correct is because Wide View Aspect=False

No. Once again, it is wrong because the view direction is wrong. As you have noticed, zooming out reveals the end of the runway but makes everything looks far away (because that's what zooming out does). Pictures 1 and 2 ought to be interchangeable by merely zooming in and out. If you follow the link I posted in the other thread, you will find that for a 16:9 monitor your zoom setting needs to be 0.56x, which you can achieve without setting WideViewAspect to True. No other zoom setting is correct. You only need WideViewAspect if you switch to an aspect ratio that needs you to zoom out beyond 0.3x.

You have noted that one of your views has a more realistic FOV but doesn't have the right motion cues. This is a contradiction: if the FOV is correct it means the rendered 3D view has the correct (simulated) focal length and that everything in it is related to eveything else in the correct proportions. Hence speeds are also in correct proportion. If you think it looks wrong, this is likely to be because your intuition about the view from a 737 flight deck is wrong. There may be other contributory reasons, such as FSX textures being sparser than the real world, but I am speculating.

[kmanning]

No. Once again, it is wrong because the view direction is wrong. As you have noticed, zooming out reveals the end of the runway but makes everything looks far away (because that's what zooming out does). Pictures 1 and 2 ought to be interchangeable by merely zooming in and out. If you follow the link I posted in the other thread, you will find that for a 16:9 monitor your zoom setting needs to be 0.56x, which you can achieve without setting WideViewAspect to True. No other zoom setting is correct. You only need WideViewAspect if you switch to an aspect ratio that needs you to zoom out beyond 0.3x.

You have noted that one of your views has a more realistic FOV but doesn't have the right motion cues. This is a contradiction: if the FOV is correct it means the rendered 3D view has the correct (simulated) focal length and that everything in it is related to eveything else in the correct proportions. Hence speeds are also in correct proportion. If you think it looks wrong, this is likely to be because your intuition about the view from a 737 flight deck is wrong. There may be other contributory reasons, such as FSX textures being sparser than the real world, but I am speculating.

Hi Mark,
I think we both agree that when Wide View Aspect=True, it affects the zoom. When I set the Wide View Aspect=True, that's when I noticed that everything was zoomed out, and that was the distortion I was refering to. Now here's what threw me off. When I checked the zoom factor at the upper right corner, it says x1.00. But based on how far the objects looked, it should have been a lot less. As a test, I used the default panel view in the PMDG 737NGX panel folder, which is for the widescreen monitors. That is the first screenshot above where the angle of view is wrong and my zoom factor is x1.00. I zoomed it out so that it looked exactly the same as the second screenshot and I was able to see the other end of the runway. After zooming out, the zoom factor was x0.30. This tells me that when Wide View Aspect=True, it zooms out everything at approximately x0.30 but I didn't think of it in that way.

Where I said that Wide View Aspect=False had a more realistic FOV but didn't have the correct sense of speed, I had my zoom set at x1.00. But since you said that for widescreen monitors, one should set the zoom at x0.56 for the zoom to be correct. This would explain the sense of speed not being correct.

Ken.

[Mark Hurst]

here's what threw me off. When I checked the zoom factor at the upper right corner, it says x1.00. But based on how far the objects looked, it should have been a lot less.

I have now realised that when WideViewAspect=True, the correct zoom factor is 1.0x regardless of your monitor's aspect ratio. The equivalent zoom factor for WideViewAspect=False is simply 1/(aspect ratio) (i.e. H/W). Hence,

4:3 monitor, zoom=0.75 (3/4)
16:9 monitor, zoom=0.56 (9/16)
16:10 monitor, zoom=0.63 (10/16)
4:1 monitor, zoom=0.25 (1/4). Not achievable with WVA=False, so set it True and zoom=1.0.

But I am now struggling to see any good reason why I would ever need to set WideViewAspect=False!