This is how I'd like to see aircraft behave in FS2 external views.

  • By modifying the "cockpit" cameras you can do similar cameras in the Aerofly FS 2... but its not perfect

    I'd love to see more usefull cameras, too. Here is my wish-list:

    1) I need a walk around mode so that I can do a walk-around check so that I can implement checking the control surfaces and what not... It would be sufficient, if it would be a free camera to fly through the cabin, use the passenger exits and so on. As long as I can still click on the clickspots I can make everything happen then :) (Go to the back, take out the towing bar and push the Cessna backwards into the parking spot...
    2) A wing-man camera would be awesome, like the one you showed us with the youtube link
    3) spotter camera at the end of the runway. - I want to see the wing flex when the 747 rotates :D
    4) simulated nearest airplane view - when in cruise show a very close up view of my aircraft in front of the amazing scenery

    I'd also suggest splitting off the actual flight-deck cameras from the passenger and gear cameras. Just have one category where I don't leave the flightdeck at all and another category for the passenger view (wing and engine views) and maybe stuff like stabilizer camera that you sometimes get for passenger entertainment.

    Cheers,
    Jan

  • Thanks Jan,

    Those camera types you mention would indeed be awesome.

    Do you know if there is a hot key or command line parameter to allow larger camera x/y/z movement and to display the camera coordinates and angles?

    or perhaps a tool that can help with defining views?

    With a lot of trial and error, I have defined some new external views for the 737. I call them "Glamour shots". I also created an internal passenger view looking out the window at the wing, but something to help with this process would be very helpful.

    I've made a couple of glamour shots for the 747 as well.

    These are all amazing in VR.

    (The desire to create additional external cameras could be overcome to some degree, if we could get the external zoom function back in VR, although an external "move camera" feature would probably be better (less distortion). Ultimately, one day we might then be able to save this camera to the aircraft .tmd file from within the sim.)

    Thanks again for the c172 mods. They are terrific.

  • The only tool that I have that gives some assistance is my tmEdit program. Though its not finished yet and I get only very few time to continue this project. I'm not happy with its current style of coding, I need a better solution for the internal code... What I aim to do is add a feature that lets you move the view with the 3D model loaded and then lets you either save or copy the current camera position and orientation so that you can paste it into the tmd file.

    You request for a "zoom" functionality is probably not a good idea.. You cannot zoom with your own eyes and if you do use binoculars you always lose a sense of depth, everything becomes flat sheets of paper with only little optical distance. Its like watching a 3D movie where they use a high focal lense from a helicopter or so, it kicks you right out of the immersion.
    I have no VR headset at the moment but I'd like to be able to set the zoom myself, too. Only I want it to be a very fine adjustable value that defaults to the average human depth perception. Things like distance between the eyes and other factors should be editable, I'd like to spend at least a day to set things like this perfectly...

    Cheers,
    Jan

  • Thanks Jan,

    The camera save function would be terrific.

    Regarding zoom, I take your point about binoculars etc. How about allowing camera movement (rather than zoom). We can already rotate around the aircraft. How about letting us move closer to it, and then move away? This could still be linked to the zoom keys, but behave differently when in VR mode.

  • I would just like to see a very subtly shakey cam, like the external view in IL-2 Battle for Moscow, that reflects the camera plane/camera operator not being laser-tethered in position relative to your plane.

    Nothing crazy-shakey, just the little bumps you see in real plane-to-plane aerial footage that make it feel much less "computery."