Looking for a freeware aircraft for a test.

[blanston12]

I am trying to do a freeware aircraft where the gauges are built into the aircraft model rather than being in external cab or gau files, does such a thing exist?

 

[DaveWG]

All of mine have built in gauges for the VC. Any cab or gau files are either for the 2d panels, or for non essential "features" such as smoke effects, and are not actually needed to operate the aircraft.

 

[Milton Shupe]

I am trying to do a freeware aircraft where the gauges are built into the aircraft model rather than being in external cab or gau files, does such a thing exist?

LDR (Larry Green AKA Tako_Kichi), DD26, and Firekitten did a Grumman Mallard with a VC made up of totally modeled gauges. Also a Navion.

Both can be found here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links_search.php?action=show&userid=49184&sort=d

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Yup, my gauges are all modelled and animated just like any other moving part in a 3D model. Coding them takes a little expertise as quite often stock code does not exist and custom code has to be generated in order to make them functional in the sim. The code is stored in the modeldef.xml file and applied to the moving parts during the model compile process. The textures for the gauge faces, needles, lamps, etc. are stored in the common texture folder like any other common DDS file.

Bear in mind that 3D gauges are part of the VC and CANNOT BE CHANGED by the end user, unlike 2D panel gauges which can so no running Panel Studio on them to swap things out. What you have is what you have and the end user has to live with it. Some people love 3D gauges (me for one) but others (like one of my main testers) hate them as they prefer to have the ability to swap things around on a 2D panel.

 

[Dev One]

I seem to remember doing a halfway house on a couple of models where the static parts were modelled & the needles were .xml gauges. Trouble was the bezels mostly looked 'notched', i.e. not smooth circular objects.
Keith

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Not to drag the thread off topic but I always found that 32 segments in a circle was a minimum for gauge bezels/faces in order to look perfectly circular. Anything less than that and things started to look 'faceted' to me.