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From X-Plane Wiki

Please review our Panel and Cockpit Terminology before continuing.

3-D Panels are an advanced feature of X-Plane 9; you probably do not need to use this feature.

If you are not making a 3-d cockpit object you do not need to use this feature at all!

History and Problem

In X-Plane 7 and 8, the 2-d panel (the panel used to draw the main forward view in "w" mode) is also used to form the panel texture for the purpose of texturing a 3-d cockpit object.

(Back in X-Plane 7 and 8, the 2-d panel was simply called "the panel" because it was the only panel that you could add instruments to.)

There are two fundamental problems with using the 2-d panel as a panel texture for a 3-d cockpit object:

1. The perspective that instruments are drawn in the 2-d panel may not be appropriate for the 3-d panel. For example, the overhead panel may be drawn with perspective foreshortening in the 2-d panel to make a "photo-realistic" look; if applied directly to a real 3-d overhead panel in the 3-d cockpit, this will look strange.
2. X-Plane 9 allows very large cockpits (with potentially quite a bit of "empty space", like space below the yoke). Besides meaning there are more likely to be highly foreshortened views within that panel, it also means that the video memory requirements for the panel texture will be very large. This is particularly wasteful when you consider that a lot of the panel texture will never be used (e.g. the windows).

The solution: 3-d Panels

X-Plane 9 solves this problem by offering two panels: the 2-d panel (which is used for the 2-d forward "w" view) and the 3-d panel, which is used to build the panel texture.

• If no 3-d panel is provided, the 2-d panel is used for the panel texture like in X-Plane 8, providing backward compatibility.

• The 3-d and 2-d panels do not have to be the same size! We recommend a 1024x1024 3-d panel and a much larger 2-d panel.

• The 3-d and 2-d panels do not have to be the same layout; you don't need to put "windows" in your 3-d panel; simply stuff it with the instruments you need to build your 3-d cockpit. Think of it like a normal texture, which you would pack carefully with elements to save VRAM.

• You can use different custom instrument bitmaps for the 2-d and 3-d panels.

How to set up a 3-d panel

To specify a 3-d panel, make a folder called "cockpit_3d" in your aircraft folder. This folder works the same way as the normal "cockpit" folder (in that it lets you replace the default instrument textures. But...this folder is only used for the 3-d panel.

If an instrument is customized in the cockpit folder but not the cockpit_3d folder, the 3-d cockpit will use the "cockpit" folder. In other words, the search paths are:

2-d panel

1. <aircraft>/cockpit/
2. Resources/bitmaps/cockpit/

3-d panel

1. <aircraft>/cockpit_3d/
2. <aircraft>/cockpit/
3. Resources/bitmaps/cockpit/

X-Plane decides that you have a 3-d cockpit based on whether there is a custom panel background in the cockpit_3d/-PANELS-/ folder. So you must provide a custom panel background for your 3-d cockpit to use this feature!

One final warning: X-Plane 9 supports two naming conventions for panel backgrounds:

1. The "new" convention is a panel name like "Panel_Airliner" that matches the panel type in PlaneMaker's view screen.
2. The "old" convention is the panel name "panel.png".

While both the new and old naming conventions work in the cockpit/ folder, only the new convention works in the cockpit_3d folder. So if your airplane still has panel.png, be sure to upgrade to the new naming convention before starting a 3-d panel.

The official names for panels are the same as in Resources/bitmaps/cockpit/-PANELS-/ and are:

• Panel_General.png
• Panel_Airliner.png
• Panel_Fighter.png
• Panel_Glider.png
• Panel_Helo.png
• Panel_Autogyro.png
• Panel_General_IFR.png
• Panel_Autogyro_Twin.png
• Panel_Fighter_IFR.png