A2A Skylane C182 and EZDock (vs 1.17) External Camera View P

[Stofvel]

I have checked out quite a few forums to see if I can resolve the EZDock External Camera View with the A2A C182. All other EZDock views are good including World Camera view, and I am aware that the A2A Walk Around Views are conflicting with the external EZDock view.

I am running FSX (SP2) with Windows 7 and all other aircraft I have, run fine with EZDock, including RealAir Legacies (1 & 2), Duke and Turbine Duke although I had to delete some Camera views in the respective aircraft.cfg files to get the EZDock World views to work. All aircraft from all FSX developers are running A-OK except the A2A.

I recently purchased both the A2A C182 Skylane and the A2A Piper Cherokee 180 and the problems are similar.
I attempted one solution for the C182 which was to move the EZDock Camera definition in the aircraft.cfg file to the top of the Camera Definitions list, identify this as CameraDefinition.0 and renumber the subsequent CameraDefinition.X files in sequence. Nothing was changed on CameraDefinition files 101,102...

The net result was that the C182 external view in EZDock was missing the front landing gear, but, as well, it was not the typical external view of the C182 aircraft, and indeed the walk-a-round view worked.

If anyone knows of a solution or a link to a proven solution, please let me know.

Much appreciated.

[speedy70]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Your problem and the solution are here.

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 32#p361534

Scroll down.This fix applies to the 182 and the 180

Cheers Chris

[Stofvel]

Thanks Chris for the quick response. I will check it out.

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Stofvel,

Sounds like you've already tried the solution in the FAQ thread that Chris linked to. To be honest, it's a while since I've tried that method and at the time I didn't really use the "EZCA aircraft cams" so I don't know exactly what issues remained.

However, more recently I experimented a bit with version 1.18.7 of EZdok trying to find a workable solution to the issues you describe. For a bit more info, please have a read of this thread: EZdok and the A2A walk-round: a solution? I think the 'fix' described within is a bit easier to make with v1.18.7 and the newer version of EZdok has the advantage that it's compatible with FSX-SE and P3D too, as well as including some bug fixes. I understand a standalone installer for v1.18.7 was released quite recently on the Flight1 site too.

Cheers,
Nick

[TreeTops]

Stovel, Follow Nick's advice. My solution worked on the older EZDok version before P3Dv3 came along.
The FAQ should be revised to suit the latest EZDok version.

[Stofvel]

Thanks TreeTops for getting back from my PM, per the help file from Chris and thanks Nick for your help and the link. I went back to the original aircraft.cfg file on the C182 and the link confirmed that was the appropriate thing to do.

I probably won't upgrade EZCA to 1.18X for FSX. Subsequent versions were designed for newer P3D variants and FSX SE, with minor adjustments for the original FSX - and I am leary, of making changes to EZDok with developer support being somewhat sporadic - been there.

All of my add-on aircraft run absolutely fine with the current EZdok version (1.17) with some modification to the aircraft.cfg files for the RealAir add-ons, only.

I did discover that doing the walk-around by hitting (Shift+8) and then using the (less-than operator) "<" works somewhat OK, also described in the link. I tested this on the C182 and the Cherokee.

EZDok adds much to the sim experience and I would find myself, I am sure, spending more time utilizing this than the walk-around for the A2As' - although I sure prefer all systems 100%.

If you come across a solution in your travels - please keep me in mind.

And thanks again, to both of you for getting back so quickly. It is appreciated.

Stofvel

[Nick - A2A]

Stofvel,

I can certainly sympathise with your reluctance to install the latest version of EZdok, especially as it was (or perhaps still is) a beta version. As you say, developer support has been a bit lacking and it could never be described as 'user-friendly' software!

However, I've been using v1.18.7 for several months now and with the tweaks describes in the linked post above, it seems to work pretty-much perfectly with the A2A walk-round views and the inbuilt EZCA external cams and world cam. (I still mostly just use it for virtual cockpit views though.)

I think it's the closest to a solution you'll find, unless either A2A or the EZdok developer change the way the pre-flight views are coded within the sim.

Cheers,
Nick

[Stofvel]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your input. I will check out implementation reports on-line for EZdok 1.18.7 with Windows 7 and FSX (SP2) from v 1.17. The reality is I have a large number of fairly unique airport and region files (EZDok World View I am most concerned about) that having to recreate would be incredibly time consuming.

For example I use Orbx Vector and Region (LC) files as well as airports, along with a few third party airport developers like LLH creations who developed the Courchevel Altiport Region (ski-area) in France. When I am flying with egg-beaters up the side of the mountain I have world cameras set strategically at various locations that capture this amazingly. I have completed a few videos of the Courchevel region which are on-line (not with helos - as yet).

The A2A walk-around in reverse order actually seems to work OK - I tested this out again today with the Cherokee 180 and it worked fine.

If you don't mind me asking a few questions:

What Win OS are you using, on what sim platform and version?

Did you migrate previously saved EZDok files from an older version to the newest version?

If so - was this a straight forward upgrade?

Any complications?

Thanks Nick for your help, I will keep you posted.

Brian

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Brian,

I made the move from v1.17 to v1.18 when I made the move from FSX Accel. to the Steam Edition of FSX. As such, I did a reformat and full reinstall of Windows 7 so I didn't exactly follow an upgrade path.

However, before doing this I saved my various virtual cockpit camera files and was able to use them in the new version okay. I didn't use the World cams or external aircraft cams with v1.17, so can't really be much help there I'm afraid, but I think much the same applies.

One thing to be aware of is that v1.18 edits the cameras.cfg and standard.xml files so if you're considering the move, it's wise to back these up beforehand. However, on the whole this seems preferable to v1.17 which edited every aircraft.cfg file.

I'm away from home with work for a few days, so can't really give you any more specific advice from memory on the migration process right now, but on the whole is was fairly 'complication' free once I'd figured out the workarounds for the A2A stuff.

Hope that helps a bit!
Nick

[Stofvel]

Indeed it helps. I will check out the EZDok site to see what legitimate success or horror stories regarding similar migration moves there are, with World Cams in particular.

Again thanks Nick for your help.

Brian