Default FSX gauges/panels look terrible on second monitor

[DomDulley]

Hi all,


I've been playing around with FS Panel Studio and doing some manual panel.cfg editing, trying to create a custom panel of gauges that I can display on my second monitor.


I'm planning on creating a 'mask' (hardboard with holes cut out for each instrument) to place over these in my home cockpit.


I can get the FSX default gauges to display in a panel but they look terrible on my second monitor, pixellated and blocky.


My main display is 3 monitors running as a single display of 5760x1080, and the instrument monitor is running at 1680x1050.


My custom panel (and the default FSX 2D panels) look fine on the main display, but pretty grim when I drag them to the lower res monitor and resize them.


Questions:


1) Is there anything I can do (I'm guessing in panel.cfg?) to get them to look okay at a particular resolution?


2) If not, if I purchase RealityXP gauges and add them to my custom panel, will they look better at the lower res? I have the demo but that's an exe that doesn't let me place the gauges in a panel.cfg file to test them. The gauges produced by running the exe look fine.


Thanks,


Dom

[Simaviator13]

Hello Dan,

I use panel studio to make custom fullscreen panels that are displayed on 2 19 inch monitors(check my vids, link at bottom of post). I have found that the default gauges are just low quality. And I avoid them as much as possible. In my case I try to use gauges from other sources, such as similiar aircraft, either payware or freeware there is defiantly no shortage of good gauges out there. Just be sure to move gauges that are stored in the aircraft folder over to your main gauges folder otherwise Panel Studio will not let you choose them. What im saying is if you have an aircraft that has a gauges folder (simobjects\airplanes\example\gauges) move the contents of that gauges folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\gauges or your equivalent path.

If you dont have an extensive library, search avsim or flightsim.com for panels to download, copy the gauges from the panel into your gauge folder, and now you can use them in Panel Studio.

Hope this points you in the right direction,

Simaviator13

[Kennair]

Hi Dom,

As Simaviator13 says the stock FS gauges are pretty grim but they are designed mainly for low frame impact on most systems. As suggested you are best to source custom gauges from payware manufacturers. Of course you must own these in your livery to be able to use them in your custom panels and remember you aren't allowed to distribute your panels. That being said, I highly recommend gauges from Flight1 products. I usually make my own custom panels to suit my monitors for each aircraft I own and fly for greater realism. I also use the RealityXP guages and they are fantastic. If you want the best quality with low impact then purchase the Flightline T and N gauges, these will fill out any GA aircraft you own.

As for the quality of the gauges on your second monitor, double check that this monitor resolution is correctly set in FSX. Each monitor should be at the same resolution as set in Windows, you can go lower (but why would you want to) but certainly don't try higher, the result will be less than ideal. Also make sure that its set to 32bit not 16bit in FSX. This should render the best resolution and quality. Other sources of problems will be due to the video card or system overall. Remember the more windows you undock and drag to monitors will significantly impact on your frame rates.

Hope that helps,

Ken.