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The Staff of SOH
I may well be wrong, but, aside from the weight, and size, considerations, was that copper, a very good electrical conductor, was in VERY short supply during WWII. Mostly used for bullets, and cartridge casings. Given Britains materiel shortages, it's no real surprize they tended to try to prefer other ways than electrics for various systems. Some things, yes, thee were just no other ways than electrics, but for many there were alternatives.In WW 2 electrics were primarily for radios, radars and bomb dropping equipment, especially in British aircraft.
I may well be wrong, but, aside from the weight, and size, considerations, was that copper, a very good electrical conductor, was in VERY short supply during WWII. Mostly used for bullets, and cartridge casings. Given Britains materiel shortages, it's no real surprize they tended to try to prefer other ways than electrics for various systems. Some things, yes, thee were just no other ways than electrics, but for many there were alternatives.
Also, lets face it, electrics, let alone electronics, were in their infancy. Couple that with British consveratism, and electrics were just not very popular. Although they took to Radar like a fish to water, so I may well be wrong on that...
Just my 2 COPPER PENNIES worth
Pat☺
I actually modified the Plane Design Lanc config in respect of the panel lighting. The change was pretty simple - you need the following iine in the [lights] section of the aircraft.cfg file (if you want to try this, DO back up the original cfg file first !) :FWIW Not sure if you can see this but mid section top just below the glare shield you will see two black cylindrical objects angled left and right - they are the cockpit panel lights. If you look at the Mosquito you will see similar lights but the Mossie has a few more and to the left fuselage cockpit side as well to illuminate the engine control levers etc that were placed there. The Plane Design Lanc has these modelled into the VC but not as far as lights are concerned - I have no idea how you get that beam effect into FSX screens and judging by the drama that Visser had with the C-47 project I would say it is a problem because of the way light is run by texture files. Anyway that is all. Good luck with it all.
It's a while since I did it, but I think that's the only change needed. I think that generates a source of red light somewhere near the FE position. I can see that I tried to generate several source of light to emanate from the actual cockpit lighting positions without much success. The main problem I found was in generating enough light in the cockpit to see the instruments without lighting up the exterior of the a/c as well !Interesting like that mod for the Lanc, will give it a go. Thanks.
It's a while since I did it, but I think that's the only change needed. I think that generates a source of red light somewhere near the FE position. I can see that I tried to generate several source of light to emanate from the actual cockpit lighting positions without much success. The main problem I found was in generating enough light in the cockpit to see the instruments without lighting up the exterior of the a/c as well !
Glad it worked for you. It does indeed bleed through internally, but my overriding consideration was to avoid the cockpit lighting up from the outside.That worked a treat., thanks a lot. A mandatory mod on all my Plane Design Lancasters along with Ross McLennan's amazing variety of mods for different bombing operations and engine types not to mention paint jobs, scenery, missions etc. Illuminates the cockpit well but the nature of the PD Lancaster (it actually has a fully modelled interior) is that it does bleed a little light into the fuselage and gunner positions but hardly noticeable, but I like the effect.
Hmmm. I don't see fx_vclight_red.fx in my effects folder, else I'm sure I would have used it ! Is it base FSX, or does it come with some addon ? I do see a fx_vclight_whi.fx, which I guess you could convert pretty easily to a red version, though I don't think I knew enough about fx files to do that when I made my light mod.Wouldn't a fx_vclight_red.fx work as well or better? Just add it to the [lights] section, as shown. Make the coordinates just aft of the panel it's self, and you can change the brightness of it with the [Color] section in the Panel.cfg. I do something like this all time, simply because I happen to prefer green cockpit night lighting vs red. It's a personal preference, realistic or not.
Pat☺