• There seems to be an up tick in Political commentary in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site we know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religiours commentary out of the fourms.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politicion will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment amoung members. It is a poison to the community. We apprciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Tu-134 Panel

Jafo

Jafo

SOH-CM-2024
As with all things internet search...it started as looking for pics of an AN-22 cockpit....then I got side-tracked by a link to a 2004 Tupolev Tu-136 that had no VC and the usual GAUs that normally put me off doing anything with.
The model was good...the panel was the usual small/compromised one...so I went looking again...this time for 136 panel photos.
Instead...I ended up with a link to the 'same' plane....slightly different version [different nose]...but this time with a VC and no 2D panel.
Looked like a chance to kill 2 birds with the one panel....;)

The usual 'screen cap' of the VC ...and a realisation quite a few gauges weren't going to work...not without the GAUs... but I stuck with it.... and now there's only 1 or 2 to get functioning 'properly'...

Here's the result - almost finished ....then to translate back to the VC [this is the 2D]. Gotta add the glass etc too yet...

Tu-134 40.jpg
 
Look nice. Another source of Russian gauges is the Alphasim MiG-23 and/or MiG-25. They had xml based gauges that will even work in 64-bit sim.
You can get both (I think) in the freeware section of the Virtavia.com website.
:ernaehrung004:
 
Yep, got those. I have several Russian aircraft to hunt through for xml that suits .... and in that screenie there are only 3 gauges that aren't doing what they are supposed to....mostly thanks to Lvars in GAUs ...so I'm 'fighting' to not have them cheating...like a cabin pressure gauge that just counts altitude in KMs - makes it move...but I still need to work out what it is intending to display properly...;)
Usually I use my limited skillz to write my own...adapting from existing ones that are NQR...;)
 
Fuel gauge selector switch turned on the AB - and only to one engine. Heaven knows why.
I got it to select tanks and show contents ...sort of what it's supposed to do...;)

Cabin pressure gauge is sort of convincing...so just one more to wrangle...;)
 
Pretty happy with the various gauges....except for that lump on top of the panel...the autopilot...where every clickable wants to turn on the AB...I think someone was being lazy...

Experimenting with a whacky way of doing the 'overhead'....since I took the panel from the VC I'm going to try likewise with the overhead...
VERY early days...as I have to redraw every switch, etc in '3D' ...;)

overhead.jpg
 
The overhead panel has all sorts of fun with protected toggles, etc ...and oodles of them...so it's going to take quite some time....only about a third of the way through...;)
 
As with every new panel I do...I keep finding out new stuff...
The 2D panel runs at a refresh rate from anywhere from100fps to 140... but when I was about 90% done with the 2D overhead full screen panel it suddenly dropped to around 10 to 12 fps ...pretty bloody awful.
I thought I had a dodgey gauge...by now there were about 80 loaded...each with unique bitmaps...total about 200 files.
It turned out to be one of my 'draw order' lines ...to stop one gauge conflicting with the drawing of another... and by then I had about 50 listed.
Turns out you can get the sim seriously upset if a gauge is in more than one draw order listing...which is understandable, I guess...
"Hey, coder....make up your bleeding mind!!!!!"
Anyway...back to 100+ fps ...;)
 
Took a while...but I have 'all' the toggles and lights functioning...it took 232 individual bitmaps and xml gauges to do it...but much more rewarding than a more 'normal' 2D popup.
Next step is to translate all the 2D stuff to the VC version...and get the VC gauges functioning....there's still windows in it...so you can see what you'll run into....

134 overhead.jpg
 
This has turned into a bit of a saga. Seems the workings of the model are about as complicated as it gets....particularly if you don't read Russian. I still haven't got my head around firing up the plane as it is...and getting the VC to actually work fully. There's a switch/sequence somewhere I'm missing... so what I plan to do is keep everything 'original' with gaus etc, and add the 2D as an independent extra with gauges that work in spite of missing the start sequence...using the normal quick-start. That way even idiots like me can fly it....and the visuals will be effectively identical anyway - looking around uses the VC views...while forward is my static 2D taken from the forward VC view...;)
 
Now that I know how to switch out multi-layered panels...I thought I better add this one....can't get much more real than a photo...;)

Nav view.jpg
 
The 134 I'm doing is an FS2004 model...and the more extensive versions don't have a VC...and only a fairly predictable 2D. If I can make 2D options sufficiently immersive the lack of VC might be ignored. Here's a 'jump seat' view ...it's a photo...so is about as real as it gets...I'm going to see what happens if I animate the Yokes and start adding gauges....nothing better to do as we're still in lockdown...;)
Jumpseat view.jpg

...and here it is with animated Yokes....

Image20.jpg
 
Last edited:
Took a bit...and 4 layers...but now there's glass, Yokes and gauges....;)

Jumpseat view2.jpg

Probably should sew up the pilot's seat while I'm at it...;)
 
One 'trick' you get away with on a 2D panel view when it comes to Yokes is you don't represent them going forward and back other than maybe raising/lowering... but in the jumpseat view it was a bit 'strange' going up and down so I had to rotate the pedestal instead...and do that for both of them. With the 134 there's mainly 2 different vers...A and B with panel difference being the glass nose Nav access...so I had to do both.
They're all done...so perhaps next is to compile and upload....even added sounds so there's Russian crew conversations going on....all from the VC version.

Needless to say, while hunting for pics....I discovered there's a 104, a 124, and a 154 that could benefit from an extensive 2D widescreen...so I'll start with the 104...;)

Early days...
Tu-104 Panel.jpg

Here's the A ver...with the glass nose...

Image80.jpg

....and the B ver without....
Image79.jpg
 
There I was delving into a Tu-104 panel.... and there was this odd triple gauge oil/temp that wasn't like the normal ones.....
I couldn't find one...so I had to draw it from scratch. 5 hours later it's the one in the yellow circle.
Sometimes it takes quite a while....

gauge.jpg
 
Once you're doing a 104 you logically progress to the 124 as well. I did a 114 years ago...and am now bound to revisit...but in the meantime...mostly happy with the various 134s ....and the 104 ....so here's an early 124. I organize my gauges by trial and error...may be slow...but it kills time during lockdown....
Again with a compilation of photos...and still have to eliminate the yoke and leave the animated one....

Tu-124.jpg
 
Yep....got to the 114 [so it's almost a set]....like I said...I'd fiddled with it back in 2013 ...so dragged it screaming into the next decade with some new tricks. It's got a VC which I need to do new gauges for as well ....but here's one of the paints I did back then.... cut Eng 1 as I'm messing with 8 exhaust pipes....;)

Tu-114.jpg
 
Pretty happy with the 2D panel for the 114 ....got the VC to be 'close' without getting too OTT...;)

Tu-114 panel.jpg
 
:encouragement::encouragement:

Thanks Jafo!

With the advent of MSFS, it seems FSX has become the new FS2004. It has become pretty slow and quiet on this forum.

Tommy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top