Alternate IFR training skin (Visor)

[Illi73]

Yesterday I created a skin (on request - see http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 20&t=46814 ) where the windows are blocked, so you can't look outside and have to rely on only the instruments.

Then I was thinking a bit more, and realized I could possibly bring this functionality in a little bit different way. Now this one may not be 'as pretty' as the one I created yesterday, but it's functional and the big advantage is that you can switch it ON and OFF on demand. So you can basically do your taxiing, taking off and landing with good or full view, while practicing instrument flying once in the air, effectively limiting or fully obscuring your visibility.

I created three different versions of this skin:
- One which is just the visor (flip the visor down to hide your view, also zoom in a bit to make the visor cover your view better) - this version isn't probably as useful for people with IRtracker.
- One version where a part of the window is blocked out, except the middle. You get a fairly good view of what's in front of you with the visor up, but if you put it down you don't see anything.
- The final version has the windows at only 10% transparency. This allows you to see some of what's ahead, depending on weather and time of the day, etc. The visor can once again be utilized to fully obscure what is directly ahead.

Some screenshots, and then the link and further explanation on the file.

Version 1: ONLY the visor (other windows are left as normal) :


Version 2: Left window blocked, front window partly blocked. Putting visor down obscures your visibility entirely:


Version 3: Windows reduced to 10% visibility. You can see, but not very well. You can lower the visor to further limit your view where necessary or desired:




These three versions are wrapped in a zip file and should be downloadable from here:
http://www.filedropper.com/visors

Instructions: The file name is 'c182_c4_t.dss'. I have added '__version#' behind the file names, to show you which is which. Take the version you wish to use, rename it back to 'c182_c4_t.dss' and then drop it into the skin folder of your choice (e.g. into \FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\A2A_C182\texture.2 ) NOTE, don't put it into the folder that's plainly named "texture", otherwise the visor/windows for ALL your cessna182s change!

[G-BJPS]

Nice work again Illi ! Nice well presented post too.
I like the Dark Horse Skin aswell!

John.

[Illi73]

Thank you, G-BJPS.

A bit more work went into that than you can see here... but I hope it was worth the effort. The Dark Horse skin isn't coming with this one, but of course you can use the 'outside skin' independently as well.

Thanks for the compliments and feedback.

[n421nj]

Pretty cool idea. I just press the A key then zoom in so all I see is the panel

[pilottj]

Thanks for your work Illi, This is very handy for us who like to fly with real weather. It might be foggy, but not always down to minimums.

Any chance you can do this for the Cherokee too?


Cheers
TJ

[Illi73]

Thanks for your work Illi, This is very handy for us who like to fly with real weather. It might be foggy, but not always down to minimums.

Any chance you can do this for the Cherokee too?


Cheers
TJ

Thank you for the comment, TJ, good to hear it's of use to someone.

I'm afraid this same solution can't be applied to the Cherokee (not unless the plane's 3D mesh files are edited, which I can't do). Its visor is too small - it cannot be rotated in such way that it would cover the lower area of the window.

An equivalent to the 'Dark Horse' skin I made would be possible, but then you'd have the window permanently blocked out.

[Eric.]

Not something I'd be interested in at all, but a suggestion for those who do like it: Can you do the same to the right visor? If so, you could bring both down and block out as much of the windscreen as desired.

[Illi73]

Not something I'd be interested in at all, but a suggestion for those who do like it: Can you do the same to the right visor? If so, you could bring both down and block out as much of the windscreen as desired.

Right now I don't remember if I did or didn't apply the same effect to the right visor. I may have. Either way it doesn't really help that much, since in between of the visors there's big enough a gap that even if you put both down at the most effective angles, it hardly blocks out your view. That doesn't really help and that's why there's these 'partly solid windows' versions.

The left visor happens to be the right size to, if you zoom in just a little, to give a real good make-shift window blocker... but it's not a 3D element I have (nor can) deform/enlarge in order to make it really effective.