Hi, I originally posted this in the wish list thread but was advised by a moderator to post it here instead.
This really bugs me in MSFS. That is, when viewing the aircraft in spot/external view the aircraft is always off centre! It doesn’t matter if you view it from the left or the right side and it seems to be a problem with most aircraft. This was a problem I first saw in FS98 mainly with 3rd party aircraft but was near eliminated over the years (they all were centred) but has reappeared in MSFS. I don’t know if it is more noticeable now because I am now using a wide screen monitor.
Has anyone got any clues as to how this can be fixed, or any possibility that MS can fix this in the future?
Example picture below.
Regards.
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I see-I would think this is by design but I would have to think of why.
In birding photography it is common to allow the bird to “look into” or “fly into” the photograph, i.e. have it off center with a bigger gap on the side where it is looking or flying. Likewise in aviation photography: having a bigger gap in front to suggest the aircraft flying into that space.
In other words, MSFS is following what is typically considered good practice in photography. Obviously not a cast in stone convention but just fairly typical. I would hardly consider the placement of the aircraft in the image a bug, rather a (justified) programming decision.
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Looks like the visual center is around the center of gravity? Looks as expected to me.
Tend to agree with the OP. When zooming in a little bit, invariably one end of the plane will be cut off. My brain is expecting a centered plane.
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Hi and many thanks for all of your replies. I agree with what was said above and that the centre of the view appears to be based on where the CofG is on the model, although the CofG is not necessarily where the centre of the aircraft is. I recall that this topic popped up a few years back on a FS forum and it was stated that the CofG is determined by the modeller of the aircraft and only the original modeller can change it. Anyway, it still doesn’t look right to me with the aircraft being off centre. The only aircraft in MSFS I can recall seeing it being centred is the Kuro 787-8.
I booted up P3Dv4 last night for the first time in a year for comparison views which I have pasted below. All the aircraft I have seem to be centred, with the exception of the Aerosoft A320 which has the same issue. (I did raise this as an issue with Aerosoft on one of their forums some time ago, the basic response I got back from them was ‘it is what it is’).
I just wish MS or modellers in future would fix this issue as it’s near impossible to get a side on full frame view of the aircraft. It was possible in P3D and FSX and previous versions, so why not MSFS?
Pictures below:
• (P3Dv4) Captain Sim 777-200LR
• (P3Dv4) QualityWings 757-200
• (P3Dv4) Aerosoft A320
• (MSFS) Kuro 787-8
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Hi and thanks for your reply. I understand the point you are raising when it comes to bird photography but i’m not that convinced when it comes to photos of aircraft. Airliners.net would most likely reject an uploaded photo of an aircraft for being off centred, and you only have to have a look at their most recent uploaded photos to see that the side on shots are allways centred.
As for MSFS, i’m also not convinced that your photography bird theory holds up, especially for when viewing the aircraft side on when it is stationary and parked at the gate. But many thanks anyway.
Please take my comments as a genuine considered debate, not because I want to be argumentative.
First off: I am probably the wrong person to be responding to this post as my perspective on MSFS views and screenshots are clearly very different from yours. And this is probably the main thrust of my thoughts on the matter: different people really have very different perspectives on this topic. To such an extent that I think from MS/Asobo’s perspective it is essentially impossible to definitively come up with a view and say “Verily, this is the right and only view possible from this angle.” This because I find it difficult to conceive that there could be any consensus on what is truly right and wrong. Right by what criteria/standards/norms/specifications?
Airliners.net is a very good resource. But recognise they are looking at aircraft photography from a very specific perspective. Is this the perspective that should be definitive for views in a broad based flight simulator? I am really not sure that is valid.
As for your suggestion that photographs that are not centered would be rejected by the site: I really do not know about that as I have not been following the site since many years. I only once submitted a couple of photographs to Airliners.net and those were somewhat historic photographs of the Concorde on a visit to Cape Town on a visit for “hot & high” trails. The photographs were taken in 1983, submitted in 2003. I have looked at recent photographs and it is not clear to me whether they would reject off-center images as I see quite a few like that. However: to test the possible rejection of images that are off-center, I re-signed up to the site again (my former logon credentials have long since disappeared int he mists of time…) and submitted a photograph that was not centered to see what would happen. This is the image in question:
We should know in a week or so whether it gets rejected for not being centered: I will report back FWIW.
To get back to my own take on aircraft photography: I have >5,000 MSFS 4K screenshots on my computer. I also do a lot of real life airshow photography and also have thousands of airshow photographs. In this collection, I would be hard pressed to find straight forward images 90° from the side with the aircraft filling the frame and fully centered. My MSFS screenshots are typically from different angles and wider, giving a view of the action of flight and including the view. Airshow photographs are framed and cropped as I consider suitable for the shot and varies widely. The following is probably as close as I get to a side-on, centered shot 
These are more “normal” for me:
I am not a slave to the photography “rule of thirds” but I do find images that are not totally centered more “interesting” FWIW.
But as I have said: to each is own. That is critical.
It might get rejected for “Car in frame” 
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Does that mean it will be dis-car-ded? 
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Hi and many thanks for your contribution, it’s good to have differing views and perspectives of MSFS. Good luck with the airliners.net photo upload but knowing a.net having uploaded photos myself, I often found that photos were rejected for reasons I hadn’t even considered!
Back to MSFS. Although I do understand the point you made about an aircraft flying into the space and therefore having a bigger gap in front of it, i’m not convinced that this was something done deliberatly by MS but rather a flaw in the developement of MSFS and I’ve never heard of any modeller who has stated that they did this deliberatly! The aircraft were in the centre in FSX and most other versions before that. As I have stated previously, when stationary at the gate and with all the ramp lice around the aircraft it is not possible to zoom in without chopping off the tail, it doesn’t look right.
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Thanks for the overview. Question regarding chopping off the tail when zooming: I do not normally use showcase cameras (use the drone to allow me full control to help me get the view I want) so I am unfamiliar with - actually, make that “ignorant of”! - the control of showcase cameras. Can you not pan or move the camera at the same time as moving?
