Flight Simulator 2004's era is now well established, with people already dreaming about what the next iteration of this granddaddy flightsim of all time is going to be like. So is an almost never-ending story of a particular carry-over flaw which has constantly bothered many of us flight simmers around the world in the past few years. What I am referring to are the reverser unlocked indicator lights which have failed to work since the early days of FS98. At least the gauges are there, but if you expected them to work or show any sign of life if prompted, you had constantly been disappointed. Make no mistake, it's not that the issue has not been addressed on FlightSim.Com or elsewhere throughout the years. It has. It often has. And while some eager guys in the community kept trying to find out workarounds, we were all the more surprised to see each new version of FS to have the same issue all over again. Gosh, there must have been a spell cast over it because otherwise I simply cannot figure out how this fault could pass the beta departments all these years. I guess they never used reverse thrust during their tests. However, I don't really mean to complain about it today (I have surpassed the critical point since long ago and some things have given me an inkling of how complex problems can be), and so I never really gave up hope that one day it might be possible to basically cure the problem to my full satisfaction. My major gripe was my doubts whether I would genuinely do away with the issue before MS did it themselves. Well, to cut a long story short, I am happy to announce today that I have got to grips with the nagging problem lately. Before we go into some details of the solution, let's take a quick peek back into the history of how and when the spell began.

For those among us flightsimmers who still remember the Stone Age of flightsimming it is quite clear that Flight Simulator 98 (above left) did by no means mark the beginning of the long history of MSFS, but it was undoubtedly a major step forward if not to say a milestone in programmed flight simulation at that time. No wonder that the customers, who were more and more pleased about the benefits of this rapid progress, slowly but inevitably began to express their anger when they detected bugs and glitches which many of them traced back to seemingly sloppy programming. 'Drat! There's always something wrong' was a common phrase in those dear dead days beyond recall. Such issues certainly do not add to the feeling of realism.

One of the first or at least most obvious flaws in the '98 edition was the fact that MS seemed to have forgotten the enunciator gauges that, among other functions, were responsible for the proper display of the reverser unlocked indicator (warning) lights. The little spaces where the orange indicators were expected to shine up remained dead-black-and-blank, as described in full details in a former article here on FlightSim.Com. In fact, like in all later iterations, the gauges were there but did not do anything.

Heck, I have often said I would be ready to pay double the price for FS if things were smoothed out then.

Yet with MS offering a more open platform in FS it did not last for long until Andreas Jaros of FPDA created a gauge which has helped out a lot throughout the years. Considering the technical changes Flight Simulator has undergone in the past few years it sounds almost incredible that this fab little gauge does still work in FS2004! This isn't to say that from the way it looked like it hasn't come out of fashion by now, so, about a year ago, I made a first attempt to improve and replace its old bitmap and was happy enough to see that it worked. It was a partial success though, and this convinced me that the issue had to be overhauled from the ground up, but I didn't think it should be too hard to fix and it would indeed be nice to see it gone.

Last February was a good month in terms of indulging into simming again, and so it gave me ample time to sit back for a while. I began to develop new xml gauges which are completely built from scratch now. As you can see from the 737 panel (above) at day-time the result was stunning. Enlarge the shot if you like, but you are not going to see any difference to the default LOW OIL PRESSURE and START VALV OPN indicator lights. The new xml technology makes all the difference: without it people like me would never have been able to cure the beasty glitch as it is very tricky and almost impossible to hack the original .gau-format multi-gauges, also called cluster gauges. The screen shot of the Boeing panel taken at night-time reveals that the annunciator warning lights on the right, all by default, are slightly darker than the newly implemented reverser gauges. This is due to the fact that MS let their orange indicator fonts (bitmaps) mistakingly adapt to the night coloring characteristics of the overall panel. The flag should have been set to BRIGHT instead, i.e. to permanent daylight colors. This, however, would then have required a more complex design for these gauges, and who knows maybe there is even more missing in the coding. Well, it won't be too long until FS2006 hits the shelves and our hopes are flying high, and once again most flightsimmers are bursting at the seams to see what MS has in store for us this time. We all hope that we will be in for quite a treat then.

The last full-size shot of the 737 cockpit shows just another way of xml gauge designing: this time the orange letters are not part of a bitmap but are text-typed letters in a quartz font independently laid over the default grey source bitmap. However, the default bitmap is not needed, the xml gauge is stand-alone. It is so fascinating to see how many possibilities the xml programming language can provide even for non-specialists like me, since it was first introduced in FS2002. If you want to learn more about how to improve the FS2004 737 panel, you can do that right here. While I dived slightly deeper into xml gauge design, it suddenly dawned upon me that it would be a good idea to give the Lear 45 panel some reverser warning lights as well. You sure aren't surprised to hear there aren't any by default, are you? So I decided to implement them in the Lear EICAS as there is some open and unused space on its right side. The shots further down reveal more details especially as to the Lear45 panel modification, and the alert reader will have spotted that the Lear Rev Indicator Lights are displayed in two different colors. The reason for this lies in the fact that the Lear RWLs are programmed in a way that as soon as the N1 value surpasses 41%, the orange color of the font turns red to indicate that you are nearing max thrust reverse. With N1>45% an additional "MAX REV" warning is displayed. So, to engage reverse thrust can be great fun now again.

Just so you know, in order to demonstrate the new effects in the pics I have made as many lights active at the same time as possible, which is not realistic of course. For reasons I have already referred to I have also written new xml gauges for the Low Oil Pressure and Start Valv Opn indicator lights, but in the interest of not turning this into a book I will only hit on the details of how to install the Reverser Unlocked & A/T LIM indicator lights. More specific insight is given in the readme file enclosed in the package. By the way, there will be an installation routine (fs9ewl.exe) which is dead easy and goes flawless. We want to spend time flying and not fiddling, right?

By the way, the eagle-eyed reader will have noticed that I had already installed a digital radio altimeter in the topmost right corner of the EICAS display. This tiny but miraculous FS98 gauge (RA_DIG2.ZIP in the FlightSim.Com file library) has been tweaked by me so that the color of "RA" matches the blue color of the other fonts in the Lear EICAS.

Oooops! There are even more small glaring bugs or items that are sloppy, just another gauge that seems to be haunted for ever: the Autothrottle Limit Indicator Light is dang near dead, and as I have just stated about the missing reverser unlocked indicator lights, once again the gauge is there, but it does not do anything. Should I have missed anything? Nope. Everyone has this, but I guess the issue has not been addressed so far either. I tried to reanimate the gauge, but, admittedly, reanimating the gauge is perhaps not quite the right word for what I did to get it working again because on the one hand it is hardly possible to repair the default 737-400.gau cluster file which is responsible for the issue. On the other hand, the idea is that a gauge which does not work cannot do any harm, right? Moreover, I felt almost sure that a newly-designed extra gauge would solve the problem, and xml-coding might be the right platform to substitute this particular function of the default gauge. That's exactly what I did, and here we are with the coding:

The effect is that whenever you engage autothrottle via the A/T switch and then limit the speed in the auto-pilot section of the panel, the AT LIM indicator light will shine up. Also, as long as the TO/GA function is active, this warning light displays its orange font which will stay bright and will not adapt to night coloring characteristics, of course. It is amazing to see how you can create such effects, which at least I myself would not have been able to generate on the basis of C++ old format .gau gauges.

As it is the rule with never-ending stories, there is just another well-known display issue with the landing gear position lights and the flaps indicator lights of the default 737. Once again the only way out was to write new xml gauges to fix this bug. The dual shot on the right reveals what the lights look like at night by default and after fixing the issue.

All this looks a whole lot better now, right? ? That's all there is to it! If I can do it, so can you. Needless to say that there will be very detailed information in the package on how to install the gauges for the default Boeing 737-400 and the Lear 45. Installation of all gauges goes as easy as pie. This said and hoping you have your appetite whetted for these little improvements, I am happy to say that the new gauges are ready for download from the FlightSim.Com file library. They'll work like a charm. So get cracking and prepare for download.

Also, I figure it is due time to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the other designers who by their work have made this hobby so enjoyable for many simmers around the world. For me too! Keep up your excellent work, please. They all have largely added to the fun we have. On the other hand, I have seen so many mistakes, bugs or sloppy errors reoccurring lately that I thought I'd have to do something about that.

XML programming provides a more open platform for gauge design, far more open than the old gau-format gauges do. So, nowadays many simmers try to modify such gauges in a rash attempt, but you may be warned to be very cautious in doing so. That said, there's nothing to stop you doing it the way you prefer.

WARNING: Replacing PART OF the CODES IN THE XML GAUGES WITHOUT SUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE WILL MOST LIKELY result in the crash of FLIGHT SIMULATOR, to say the least.

Note: It shouldn't hurt your computer but if you imagine it has, we accept no liability. This goes for all modifications and for the gauges included in the downloadable archive.

Ulrich Klein
huki.klein@t-online.de

Download FS9EWL.ZIP for FS2004