Locked spot view + compass

[suden111]

Is it possible to get or add a compass in locked spot view when you're in free flight without having to go back to the virtual cockpit to see where you're heading. I kind of like the locked spot view for a long trip. Thank you

[mrzippy]

There is a download in the library that will give you what you are looking for. I'll take a look and leave a filename. This was in the forum a few months ago because a few others do the same as you.

 

This file can be used on any aircraft. If you want it only for a specific aircraft, I think it can be done by adding a line in the panel.cfg to keep a popped up compass showing in all of the different views.

 

FSX - FSX Panels FSX Basic Information Gauge

[ Download | View ]

Name: infoga_dcbv1.zip

Size: 53,680 Date: 02-29-2012 Downloads: 401

 

FSX Basic Information Gauge. InfoGauge is a simple digital altitude, indicated airspeed, and heading display. It was prompted by a forum member that wanted a bigger text display than what Shift+Z provides by default. By Don Bodenstedt.

[ScatterbrainKid]

Is it possible to get or add a compass in locked spot view when you're in free flight without having to go back to the virtual cockpit to see where you're heading. I kind of like the locked spot view for a long trip. Thank you

 

As you seem to be a newcomer I'm just wondering if you know you can get a Heading/Altitude/Speed display readout in the top left of the screen by hitting Shift Z.

Hit it several times to cycle through the data presented. The only drawback is that it might be small and difficult to see depending on what size your monitor screen is and what screen reso you're using, I like 1360 x 768.

[mrzippy]

Like ScatterbrainKid says, Shift+Z will also give the info and if you really want an actual compass in "Locked Spot View"...here it is!

 

[suden111]

Thank you for the replies guys. Like you said, I'm new a newbie. I've installed FSX steam Edition only a few weeks ago. I've tried Shift+Z and all I have is information about lat & long, alt, fuel, etc... in the upper corner, no gauge or little panel displayed like in your pic above

[mrzippy]

Thank you for the replies guys. Like you said, I'm new a newbie. I've installed FSX steam Edition only a few weeks ago. I've tried Shift+Z and all I have is information about lat & long, alt, fuel, etc... in the upper corner, no gauge or little panel displayed like in your pic above

 

The one Gauge I showed is a download you have to do and install into your aircraft if you want that. The screenshot of the King Air (in locked spot view) with the compass in the upper right corner was a slight modification to the panel.cfg file.

 

These are not default or stock things.

 

In my FSX.cfg I have these 3 different sets of things that show using Shift+Z

 

[TextInfo.1]

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

AirSpeed=1,5

WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

 

[TextInfo.2]

FrameRate=1,1

AverageFrameRate=1,2

LockedFrameRate=1,3

GForce=1,4

FuelPercentage=1,5

 

 

[TextInfo.3]

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

AirSpeed=1,5

WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

FrameRate=2,1

LockedFrameRate=2,2

GForce=2,3

FuelPercentage=2,4

[il88pp]

In most planes there is a compass already. Shift+5 or shift+6 usually is the key combination that pops it up.

 

The indication on it is reversed in a way. Something to stay aware of.

 

Btw, the run and stars (and the shadows on the plane) are also a great way of seeing where you are going.

 

Or pop up the main panel (shift+1) while in outside view. Then shrink the panel by dragging it's highest point and the edges so you can see your plane as well.

Helpful when more control is needed.

[suden111]

I just tried the Beech King Air 350 with the shift+7 key and that's exactly what I'd like to see. Most of the time I fly the Cessna Skyhawk 172 (In the past, I had hundreds of hours flying that plane). Is there a way to transfer that compass, by modifying the aircraft file, into the Cessna? You guys know a lot more than me about that stuff.

[ScatterbrainKid]

I'm a PC dummy, I only know how to do the Infogauge thing that Zippy mentioned in the second post. Here's how it looks on my monitor, giving a big readout of Alt/Speed/Heading at the top, and you can change the colours.

I tried it a while back and found it tricky and fiddly to install, and you have to do it for every plane which is a chore, unless a newer version has made it easier.

It works best at high resolution like 1920 x 1080, as I find it begins to break up at lower resos such as 1360 x 768 which I use, so nowadays I make do with the default SHFT+Z datastrip instead.

(PS in case newcomers are wondering, that spiral 'spring' in the right background is a thermal, you can turn their graphic on and off ingame. If you fly into them in an FSX glider you go up like a rocket. The carrier is one of the default ones which cruise around in the game)-

 

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-mov-carr5_zps3ae4f9bd.jpg~original

[il88pp]

That's quite easy.

The cessna panel has only 6 popups. You just have to add the one from the Beech.

 

Each popup has it's own section. And starts with [Window00] or [Window01] for example.

 

Open your panel folder of the c172.

In it, find the panel.cfg file.

make a backup copy, inside the same folder.

name it: panel-0-orig_copy.cfg

 

now you can safely make edits to your panel.cfg file.

-------------------------------

Look at the top.

You will see:

// Panel Configuration file

// Cessna 172sp

// Copyright © 2001-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

[Window Titles]

Window00=Main Panel

Window01=Radio Stack

Window02=GPS

Window03=IFR Panel

Window04=Landing View

Window05=Mini Panel

 

 

And then comes the [Window00] section.

 

Below "Window05=Mini Panel" you will be adding a line in a little while.

---------

 

now scroll down the file, untill you find:

[Window05]

position=7

size_mm=631,100

child_3d=1

background_color=0,0,0

no_luminous=1

ident=MINIPANEL

 

gauge00=Cessna172!Airspeed, 0, 1

gauge01=Cessna!Turn_Indicator, 102, 0

gauge02=CessnaWAlpha!Attitude_Alpha, 207, 0

gauge03=Cessna!Heading_Indicator, 312, 0

gauge04=Cessna!Altimeter, 417, 0

gauge05=Cessna!Vertical_Speed, 531, 0

 

--You will be adding your compass, as [Window06], below this.

---For now, Just type enter there three times, to create some space.

 

******************

The Window06 section you need is in the panel.cfg file of the Beech king air 350.

Leave the file from the Cessna open for now.

Open the ..\SimObjects\Airplanes\Beech_King_Air_350\panel

folder, and open the panel.cfg file of the beech.

Scroll down the file until you find section with the compass. In this case it's:

[Window06]

Copy this whole section, including the one gauge.

Then paste the section in the Cessna file. Where you created the three lines extra space.

The numbering is (accidentally) already correct.

The last window in the cessna panel was [window05], this is already numbered as [window06].

Normally you have to make the numbering correct.

 

*********************************

Now back to the top of both panel.cfg files.

At the top of the Beech 350 file is a line:

window06=Compass

 

copy this line, and paste it at the top of the Cessna 172 panel. Below the lines:

[Window Titles]

Window00=Main Panel

Window01=Radio Stack

Window02=GPS

Window03=IFR Panel

Window04=Landing View

Window05=Mini Panel

 

 

********************

And you'r done. Save the Cessna panel.cfg file.

Go fly.:)

 

*********************************

Some info you may need later for another gauge:

In this case, the line for the gauge itself is:

gauge00=KingAir!Magnetic-Compass, 0, 0, 102, 103

 

Won't go into it too much, but one thing is that the gauge will be located in

(and loaded from) folder: KingAir.Cab

(KingAir is the part before the ! in the line.)

 

In this case that's fine. KingAir.cab is in the

..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Gauges folder. All planes can access files in that folder.

 

But sometimes a .cab file is in the panel folder.

If you want to use a gauge from that .Cab file in another plane's panel.cfg file, you have to copy the .Cab file to it's panel folder too. (Or you could copy the .Cab to the ..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Gauges folder.)

 

In this case copying the KingAir.Cab file is not needed.

[suden111]

WOW, amazingly well explained, I couldn't fail....thank you sooo much. One more thing, is there a quick way to reduce the size may be half?

[mrzippy]

WOW, amazingly well explained, I couldn't fail....thank you sooo much. One more thing, is there a quick way to reduce the size may be half?[ATTACH=CONFIG]185497[/ATTACH]

 

To reduce the size of the pop up compass:

 

gauge00=KingAir!Magnetic-Compass, 0, 0, 102, 103

 

The numbers in red are length and width. Try 51, 52.

[il88pp]

Didn't type quick enough... will post anyway.:rolleyes:

--------

 

 

Well done!:)

 

Changing the size of the popup is easy as well.

In the [Window06] section you add a line.

Below:

size_mm=102,103

you add:

windowsize_ratio=0.50

 

 

by making it 0.50 you make the popup show up smaller. You can vary the number to refine. 0.55 0.60 etc, until it looks ok to you. I think 0.50 may be a bit small.

 

If that line is not there, it is the same as if it was:

windowsize_ratio=1.00

you could also choose a number higher then 1.00 to make it bigger.

 

Done -- Save -- Go fly.:)

 

***********************

Below again a lot of info that's not needed now:

If you look at the [Window06] section, you see it starts out with:

size_mm=102,103

This is the size of the little panel the gauge is mounted on.

Width (102), Height (103)

||

then you see:

gauge00=KingAir!Magnetic-Compass, 0, 0, 102, 103

||

Notice, again 102,103.

These last two numbers are the size of the gauge itself.

In this example there is only one gauge, And it covers the whole popup panel.

||

Sometimes there is more then one gauge mounted on a popup. Like the main panel for example.

||

In the line:

gauge00=KingAir!Magnetic-Compass, 0, 0, 102, 103

The first two numbers are the position of the gauge on its popup panel.

In this case: 0, 0

Meaning the top left of the gauge will attach to the top left position (0,0,) of the panel.

The last two numbers, (103,103) are the size of the gauge itself.

Width and Height.

||

So you could also make the popup smaller by changing the numbers in both the "size_mm=" line AND the "gauge=" line

for example:

size_mm=102,50

and lower down:

gauge00=KingAir!Magnetic-Compass, 0, 0, 102, 50

 

You must change both. If you would change only the size of the gauge, you would see a smaller gauge on a black panel that has the original size...

 

 

As you see, adding the "windowsize_ratio=" line is a lot easyer.

 

***************************************************

And something else. I said you sometimes needed to copy a .cab file.

The gauges can sometimes be in a different type of file. A .dll file.

You find it the same way (part before ! in gauge line) and copying over works the same as with .cab files.

 

****************************

And there is another file you may sometimes need to copy.

Have a look at the cessna's [Window03] section.

That starts with:

[Window03]

file_1024=cessna_172_ifr_background.bmp

file_1024_night=cessna_172_ifr_background_night.bmp

 

This refers to files that are used as background images for that popup.

These Images are in the Cessna \panel folder.

If you would move the popup to another panel, you would have to move the images to the new panel folder as well.

If you forget, the gauges will just show on a black rectangular popup.

[il88pp]

I get exited. I forget the basics.

 

You can also change a panels size by dragging the edges of the popup while playing.

Hover move the mouse over the edge of the popup to where it changes to a sign.

Then click-hold and drag.

This you would need to do again each flight.

 

Happy flights, and Welcome to the forum!

il.

[suden111]

52,53 is perfect...I have a big computer screen. Well, you guys have been very helpful and I'd like to thank you very much once again. Have a great day and a great flight

[napamule2]

Here is how I like to fly in Locked Spot view. The GPS can be resized and moved with mouse. Best of both worlds? I HATE any/all compass (never used since FS2000 and never will use PERIOD!). All panels have GPS so why edit anything. Just use keys (Shift+X) and resize & reposition - DONE!

Chuck B