New member building a Cessna 172 Sim

[jimble]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new member here and starting with a Cessna 172 sim.

I've started with a new PC with a good graphic card, FSX and large screen plus two smaller ones for instruments.

I might need a bit of help later however.

Jim

[AK Mongo]

Welcome Jim,

There are lots of resources available if you need help. Just ask, sir. Look forward to your progress.

Reid

[Tom_G_2010]

Jim,

Welcome to the low and slow club! Looking forward to seeing posts about progress on your build. As Reid said, you'll find plenty of resources here and several of us doing similar builds so don't hesitate to ask questions and contribute ideas.

Tom G.

[No Longer Active]

Good luck with the project, there are some very experienced men and women on this forum, so feel free to fire away any questions.

Welcome aboard.....

Alex (Essex)

[jimble]

Welcome Jim,

There are lots of resources available if you need help. Just ask, sir. Look forward to your progress.

Reid

Hi Reid,

I appreciate your speedy reply and look forward to contributing as and when I can.

There is something that I am struggling with - Multiple screens. I have read and read up about this but nothing quite solves the issue.

Please let me know if this isn't the appropriate place or correct approach.

I have FSX Gold with service pack 2. I using windows 7 with a 1920 x 1080 as my main display with a 1600 x 900 and 1440 x 900 for other displays. I started with the standard C172 in 3D view on the main screen, then enabled the instrument panel, radio stack, gps then dragged them to the smaller screens. I got everything how I wanted it (for now) but cannot seem to save the setup.

After reloading FSX and my flight I couldn't see the instrument, radio stack, gps on one occasion I was see an intermittent hour glass.

I can see that other people having something similar but I couldn't follow anything to a solution.

I can see that there are many factors from o/s, number and size of screens, full screen or not, I also stretched the instrument panel oversize so that the instruments filled the screen.

Its very frustrating, is it possible to resolve this?


Thank you



Jim

[jimble]

Thanks Tom

[jimble]

Hi Reid, Alex and Tom,

Thank you for your replies and kind offers of help.

There is something that I have to fix before I can move on and is stopping me at present - multi screens.

Sorry if this is the wrong area or approach for this, I've read a lot of articles but they either do not match or do not fix the problem I am having.

All of my screens work fine in Windows 7 where I have my main screen 32" 1920 x 1080 then 20" 1600 x 900 and 19" 1440 x 900 in that order.

I start up FSX on the main screen in 3D cockpit, come out of fullscreen, then start up instrument panel, undock that and move it to the 1600 x 900, then same for the radio stack and gps on the 1440 x 900. I have stretched the instrument panel oversized so that the instruments fill the 1600 x 900 screen.

I can then have a good flight using the instruments. I save the config and the flight but when I reload FSX I loose the instruments, radio and GPS. I have redone this over and over following advice on the various articles but this have the same problem. The screens are all on the same graphics card. I have noticed that sometime I have a hourglass alternating with the mouse pointer but I appear to have that much power that the main screen just appears to continue as normal. I suspect the displays are there but not in view.

I have installed FSX to the defaults along with Service Pack 2, then re-installed again in c:\fsx\. I have JustFlight VFR Real Scenery loaded.

Has anyone else had this problem and managed to fix it?

Thanks


Jim

[Tom_G_2010]

I have had some challenges with this on my desktop pit but have not solved for them yet to my satisfaction. In my permanent sim pit I may be running the instrument panel on a separate pc using an add on instrument panel application so until I come to that point in my build I have been somewhat tolerant of it for the desk top.

[AK Mongo]

I am not as advanced with displays as you Jim. I am planning for just outside views as I hope eventually to have a steam gauge panel.


Reid

[jimble]

Hi Tom,

I had noticed that many people used a separate PC for extra views, perhaps this is the reason.

Thanks


Jim

[jimble]

Hi Reid,

I wouldn't say advanced, I was just hoping to plug an extra screen in and see it working.

With all of the technology in play it looked straightforward. Perhaps FSX was never tested with widescreens or something like that.

I'm going to try again with a pair of old 4:3 1024 x 768 monitors this weekend and see how the system behaves then.

I'm also going to look into hand editing the flight files or panel files perhaps the fix lies there.

I'm new to all of this so if anyone can just step in with a solution or pointers I would be very grateful.

Thanks


Jim

[jimble]

Hi Reid,

Not advanced really, I just assumed that I could plug in an extra screen and be up and running in a few minutes, never expected this problem.

Perhaps FSX was never used much with widescreen monitors before development stopped.

I'm going to try a pair of 4:3 / 1024 x 768 monitors I have at work this weekend and see how the system behaves.

After that I'm thinking about editing the flight or panel files and see if I can get to grips with them.

If anyone knows an answer however I would be very grateful for further help or even confirmation that this problem is widerspread.

Thanks


Jim

[jimble]

Hi everyone,

Here is the setup I had a couple of weeks ago, with the three screens. Once I had all of the instruments in place I thought that it was very good - only problem was I couldn't get it to save like that.

7287

So I've re-installed FSX from scratch and tried the two 1024 x 768 monitors below

7288

So basically I have the same problem. Following reading other posts however I can confirm that after a fresh FSX install, if I keep the displays out of full screen when I save, I can get back to that configuration when I reload the flight. I then have to switch to fullscreen and stretch the instruments again. If I do save in fullscreen, I end with just one screen working, have to turn off the instruments and faff around again. Any observation however, when I get the radio and GPS back they are half the size of previous load so this image is half of half.

I do suspect that most serious sim builders use separate PC's for the displays to get extra performance and have just avoided this issue. As I have plenty of power I wanted to get this simple setup working on a single PC.

I'm a bit stuck now - I can't get on with the instruments display until I can guarantee getting back to the same size images every time.

Can anyone help me out? Has anyone else had this problem, does anyone have a solution?

Thanks


Jim

[iwik]

Hi Jim,
Not sure exactly what your problem is but try this.
http://www.casawave.fr/upload/fsx/Panel_Position.zip

If u google Position.zip you may find out more.
Les

[jimble]

Hi Jim,
Not sure exactly what your problem is but try this.
http://www.casawave.fr/upload/fsx/Panel_Position.zip

If u google Position.zip you may find out more.
Les

Hi Les,

Sorry for the delay, I couldn't get onto the site.

I've given that a try and it's a big help. Perhaps more importantly it does confirm that there is a problem and that I've been searching for the wrong thing.

Its not a complete solution for me as what I really want is a sim I can just switch on and use but I hope that it will help me to understand how the various files work.

Thanks


Jim

[iwik]

Hi Jim,
I think if i understand what you are trying to achieve is not possible in FSX. The preferred mode for FSX is supposed to be
Windowed. People hide the menu so it looks like Full screen.
Have a look here and see if this helps.
FSX or P3D Borderless In Windowed Mode - Press Releases - Mutley's Hangar Forums (http://forum.mutleyshangar.com/index.php/topic/9008-fsx-or-p3d-borderless-in-windowed-mode/)

Les

[jimble]

Hi Les,

Thanks for the advice and sorry for the delay in replying.

That looks really interesting and I will give it a try.

Thanks


Jim