So a couple days ago I reported a bug where one of the camera views was bugged, and it looked like this:
I actually don't know much about how to build third party planes in MSFS, but I saw that GotGravel had made some tweaks to the cameras and it looked as simple as just digging into cameras.cfg and making some tweaks, so I dug into a text editor, fiddled around with the MSFS dev tools and figured out how to configure the camera settings and landed on some changes that I want to go over here as a potential proposal, however I need to explain a bit of context first.
TL;DR: I'd like to propose some changes/fixes to the default cameras, but they do deviate from GotGravel's mods, so to know why, read on. You can also download them here.
As a TrackIR user, none of the Spitfire's camera angles feel quite right for general flying (I've never had this issue with the built in planes), so I decided go on a bit of a deeper dive into how cameras work in the Spitfire and default MSFS planes in general to see if I can both fix it for myself, and perhaps provide a potential solution the developers might consider.
Some initial exploration and testing, I figured out that in all the default
planes, the camera angle I tend to use for default TrackIR flying is actually
internally named LandingPilot. The view tends to sit at one end of all the
views as you toggle through them. When you start a new flight, you load into
the Pilot view, and if you press the mapping for Next Pilot Position you go
into LandingPilot mode. There is no Next Pilot Position after
LandingPilot, you can only go to Previous Pilot Position to return to
Pilot view, but then you can keep navigating through Previous Pilot Positions like ClosePilot, Instrument Panel, etc.
Here are what Pilot, LandingPilot, and ClosePilot all look like in the
TBM930. Basically all the other built in planes in MSFS tend to follow these
general themes:
Pilot view in the TBM930:
LandingPilot view in the TBM930:
ClosePilot View in the TBM930:
By default Pilot position tends to be a bit more wide angle and pushed back -
it seems like a good design compromise for most people who do not have TrackIR.
It makes sure most instruments are on full display while also giving good
frontal and peripheral visibility. The Spitfire's Pilot position is very
similar in this regard.
LandingPilot tends to be a little bit raised up, a bit closer to the
instrument panel with a shallower FOV (referred to as ZOOM in the configuration
files). The intention should be pretty obvious - it helps give a more natural
camera angle for landing (not as wide angle as Pilot), a bit closer in to get
good visuals on the core instruments and improve external visibility (for
landing). It appears that currently the Spitfire hasn't really configured this
view properly as seen above in the first screenshot in this post - it sorta
moves out of the cockpit entirely.
ClosePilot appears to be a camera angle designed for interacting more easily
with cockpit controls, while still maintaining some, albeit worse, external
visibility. It tends to be a bit lower and closer to the instrument panel.
With the way the Spitfire's camera's are configured, Pilot seems pretty solid
as the general catch-all view, LandingPilot was not really configured or
bugged, and ClosePilot appears a bit in no mans land - it seems to favor
visibility moreso than the default ClosePilot views, but also hides some of
the core instruments because it's so close. It doesn't work well for TrackIR
either since it feels a bit too claustrophobic, and the bars for the canopy
tend to block a lot of your view as well:
Given all that context, my proposal is basically the following - leave Pilot
as it is, setup LandingPilot to be more like other default plane's
LandingPilot, and tweak ClosePilot to bring it more inline with the default
planes. I do think there is value in all the planes in the sim, even third
party ones, following a similar system. For one, it helps people's muscle
memory of how things should work and two I think it's also an opportunity
to improve the TrackIR experience, since LandingPilot can become this more
natural view, like in other planes.
Pilot View:
LandingPilot View:
ClosePilot View:
I do realize this deviates a bit from what GotGravel has proposed, with a landing view that is somewhat external to the aircraft, and I can see the value in his proposal, it would just be a very unique setting relative to the other planes in the game, perhaps there's a way to add a view like that, but from another stored camera angle instead of the class of default views that are configured for nearly every aircraft?
Anyways, love the plane, just wanted to offer some feedback, feel free to take it or not, I can always fall back on my own camera configuration if it's a direction you guys decide not to take.
you can check out these camera fixes here. The numbers I got here were from a pretty short tweaking session, they could probably use a bit more refinment, and are meant more for example than for the final values that should be used
Another thing I noticed as I was working on this - it appeared a lot of the default views were not quite centered properly, so in my attached cameras.cfg I tried to eyeball center them, but I imagine you guys could fix it more properly based on real data/numbers from the model.
What tipped me off was mostly how the gunsight aligned with the nose (I had TrackIR disabled when I noticed this, so it wasn't like I was getting rused by head movement):
Before (uncentered):
After (centered-ish):
