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Spitfire gauges illumination


Charlie-1

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Im not sure if I'm imagining it, but I'm sure I've seen the gauges with internal or backlighting before and not just flood lighting?

 

If so, can anyone help with how to turn it on please?

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Many WW2 aircraft instruments had needles and major markings painted with radium which is luminescent - whether the Mk.IX Spitfire in particular had these I cannot confirm, however, a few years ago an RCAF veteran visited a museum near me where they have a restored Mk.XVI which was a type he had flown; he asked if he could sit in the cockpit but was gently rebuffed as there was apparently a risk of radiation exposure. Make of that what you will.

 

But I can tell you with certainty is that they were not internally lit in reality and nor in DCS.

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It was seeing the DCS tutorial for taxi & takeoff that reminded me. I've attached a screenshot from the video which can be seen here.

Capture2.thumb.JPG.ac4e2c45233779b022a184bbee379615.JPG

Capture.thumb.JPG.5d7cd3a05f0bac1690b88e4846ddcddb.JPG

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It's not just you, in Early Access the gauges were illuminated by backlight and think they flipped on with cockpit power. There is no keyboard callback for it. I'm not sure when it was removed or the accuracy relative to the historical model. In current real world flying warbirds it's really easy to add an LED to the instrument panel along with a GPS or radio stack. I don't know if the specimens in museums had back light or not.

 

 

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I've made a higher contrast set of gauges here, http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3302602/ which look more like the ones originally released. Not sure how to back light them yet, or even if its possible to introduce new light sources into the model.

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Thank you, finally I can read the gauges at a glance without switching the lights on... :)

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Thank you, finally I can read the gauges at a glance without switching the lights on... :)

 

No worries... It looks like the cockpit hasn't been updated for deferred shading yet..Everything, including the gauges look much better in 1.58. Hopefully it will get some official attention soon

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Many WW2 aircraft instruments had needles and major markings painted with radium which is luminescent - whether the Mk.IX Spitfire in particular had these I cannot confirm, however, a few years ago an RCAF veteran visited a museum near me where they have a restored Mk.XVI which was a type he had flown; he asked if he could sit in the cockpit but was gently rebuffed as there was apparently a risk of radiation exposure. Make of that what you will.

 

But I can tell you with certainty is that they were not internally lit in reality and nor in DCS.

 

+1

The stock lights are fine. I'll take the realism on this one.

I bound my left and RH dash light increase and decrease to my left and right up and down of the two black hats on the tm joystick on a layer. It works slick and easy.

I also have them turn to most times with other functions.

I throw 6 decrease 32 millisecond pulses to each one when I disconnect my imaginary battery power to ensure they are all the way off.

 

They let me inside the ropes but all I they would let me do was reach up and try to snap a shot of the inside through the scratched up original canopy. ALL I got was a reflection of the flash. I would have had to jump through a lot of hoops with the curator to see more.

The odd restorer has looked it over.

 

It makes me mad that I didn't pay more attention when I sat in it as a teen.

I hated the moment at the time actually. There really is sort of no floor and the only place for your feet is on the pedals. It was a very eerie feeling in a dark cold hanger. Sitting low in a solid metal seat. It was beat to death but it flew there and it has remained original as it was ever since.

I liked the Mustang much more in those days. The cockpit of that was a beautiful thing.

My heart is in a full wing Spitfire these days.

 

Many predatory birds fly over my shack and all I see is C wing Spitfires .

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+1

The stock lights are fine. I'll take the realism on this one.

I bound my left and RH dash light increase and decrease to my left and right up and down of the two black hats on the tm joystick on a layer. It works slick and easy.

I also have them turn to most times with other functions.

I throw 6 decrease 32 millisecond pulses to each one when I disconnect my imaginary battery power to ensure they are all the way off.

 

They let me inside the ropes but all I they would let me do was reach up and try to snap a shot of the inside through the scratched up original canopy. ALL I got was a reflection of the flash. I would have had to jump through a lot of hoops with the curator to see more.

The odd restorer has looked it over.

 

It makes me mad that I didn't pay more attention when I sat in it as a teen.

I hated the moment at the time actually. There really is sort of no floor and the only place for your feet is on the pedals. It was a very eerie feeling in a dark cold hanger. Sitting low in a solid metal seat. It was beat to death but it flew there and it has remained original as it was ever since.

I liked the Mustang much more in those days. The cockpit of that was a beautiful thing.

My heart is in a full wing Spitfire these days.

 

Many predatory birds fly over my shack and all I see is C wing Spitfires .

 

I know what you mean about originality, but it's hard to tell what's real or not when I look down in the Spitfire's cockpit and it's just glowing light green... I see no shadows at all.. The current cockpit doesent look real compared compared to the AV-8B for instance and especially in VR.

I'll have the opportunity of sitting in a MkV in two weeks time, so I'll see what's what then. :-)

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I know what you mean about originality, but it's hard to tell what's real or not when I look down in the Spitfire's cockpit and it's just glowing light green... I see no shadows at all.. The current cockpit doesent look real compared compared to the AV-8B for instance and especially in VR.

I'll have the opportunity of sitting in a MkV in two weeks time, so I'll see what's what then. :-)

 

Good points for sure. I am always a week or so behind the beta and so I never really know if things are issues anymore. Is the sun through everything still a thing?

I am super envious of you getting to sit in an MKV. Enjoy!

Regardless of gauges, the subtle engine sounds remind you of a lot of things.

 

It's kind of like what the motorcycle dealer said to me when I commented on the lack of a tachometer. "Just listen to her and she'll tell you what she needs".

He was right. No need. The spitfire engine sounds do tell you a lot in DCS as well.

 

I watched a video yesterday of a Spitfire with the guage mod. It did look rather nice.

Whatever it was is what it should be in my opinion.

I too hope for more but not at the expense of realism.

I hope you get to the bottom of it.

Bring a little flashlight to introduce light into the glowing needles to see if they hold light on their own. That is the big question I think.

Please let us know how it goes.

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  • 2 months later...

Most of all, spitfire needs textures adjusted for the new rendering engine, with better contrast and brighter text.

 

The aircraft did not have backlit instruments. What we had in beta was I think an attempt to simulate radioactive paint the glows at night, but it looked awkward in daylight, even in 1.5.

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  • 4 months later...

Spitfire Cabin Lights

 

I searched and couldn't find anything about this potential issue...

 

 

I just recently purchased the Spitfire IX module and although I found the Cabin Lamp knobs at the bottom of the dashboard behind the joystick, I was wondering if there were key bindings that might allow for easier control while flying rather than moving the stick to access the knobs or removing the stick. I found the LH lamp and RH lamp Increase/Decrease Brightness keys listed but when I press them, they just turn the knobs from off to on and the lamp just flashes because they don't illuminate in the full On position, they have to be reduced a little for them to activate. Either the keys won't allow them to turn incrementally or I am doing something wrong!

 

 

Can anyone help me out with this situation?

TIA

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This post seems to suggest they brighten incrementally with each button push

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3692439&postcount=8

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This post seems to suggest they brighten incrementally with each button push

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3692439&postcount=8

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply. I tried again and it goes from off to on so quickly I didn't notice but if you very quickly tap the key combination, the lamp do sort of incrementally adjust. It happens so fast that I really only got at most 2 positions between the off and on, not a gradual illumination or extinguish of the light.

 

 

I tried to map each to sliders that I had available but it didn't work. It does work if mapped to 2 hat switches but I don't have that many available just for lamps!

 

 

I would really request/suggest a slower response to the key presses to get a more gradual brightness of the lamps.

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I use the mouse to adjust them.

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I use the mouse to adjust them.

 

 

 

Yes that works on the ground at the start of the mission but it's hard to do that while flying because they are behind the stick. I have just re-assigned them to individual keys which makes it a little easier to tap them quickly during flight. The two key default combination made it very difficult...

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Yes that works on the ground at the start of the mission but it's hard to do that while flying because they are behind the stick. I have just re-assigned them to individual keys which makes it a little easier to tap them quickly during flight. The two key default combination made it very difficult...

 

I just move my head to the left and right of the stick to make it work OK when flying.

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I just move my head to the left and right of the stick to make it work OK when flying.

 

 

That's what I do too. I should bind them to specific keys though; but I've gotten by 2 years now without, so I guess I'll just carry on with the less-efficient method :)

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None of this is on topic IMO. You guys are talking about cockpit illumination, not gauge illumination. That is completely wrong in the DCS Spit. Those things should be glowing like Chernobyl at night. They aren't and no amount of floodlighting is going to work - that is designed so you can find a switch in a dark cockpit or read a map - not see what airspeed you are going at or whether you are inverted. See here for a comparison: -

Start at about 13:00

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None of this is on topic IMO. You guys are talking about cockpit illumination, not gauge illumination. That is completely wrong in the DCS Spit. Those things should be glowing like Chernobyl at night. They aren't and no amount of floodlighting is going to work - that is designed so you can find a switch in a dark cockpit or read a map - not see what airspeed you are going at or whether you are inverted. See here for a comparison: -

Start at about 13:00

 

Agreed, but until we get better gauge lighting, it's the best workaround we've got.

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I have also just noticed that all white text is either heavily bump/normal mapped so it appears sunken in when illumination hits it from the side - creating an unpleasant effect. I wonder if this is deliberate, or related to the bug that causes red markings to appear as if having a bump or normal map.

 

To be fair, the spit cockpit is the worst lit of the lot - light leaks into it from any external source, and the guage illumination is probably the least annoying, considering that it is a day fighter. Remember that the guages are NOT lit - they have glowing paint applied. That effect should not be seen during daylight unless the dial is in deep shadow. The main problem with the spit dial paintwork seems to be that it has copied a 70 year old example that no longer appears white, nor glows.

 

 

{EDIT} At least the light leaking into the cockpit seems to be fixed in the latest Beta. So Come on ED - make the gauges glow in the dark like all the other pits already, alright!


Edited by mkiii
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