Is there a diagram or flowchart somewhere that shows the relationship of the camera modes to each other? Some seem to be a subset of others (need to go to A before can go to X – can’t get to X directly). I envision it as being a top-down flowchart. It would include the following “modes/views” and their relationships to each other:
Cockpit
Drone
External
Fixed
Showcase
Instrument
Slew
Let’s assume I’m flying along in Cockpit view, and I want to jump to the underside view of the landing gear as I come in for a landing. What’s the quickest/easiest way to get there, while still keeping my hands on my flight controllers and flying the plane?
In that multiple windows/views are not available, we can’t see both at the same time, so jumping around views is required, and we only have two hands, and split seconds to do it. Hence the need for an understanding and memorization of the hierarchy/organization.
Here’s how I do it. To make it easy as possible I use voice commands so I don’t have to take my hands off the controls and I can switch around quickly. Do you know the app VoiceAttack? That’s what I use for many things. Here’s my VoiceAttack profile for the camera.
Basically I move the camera to a view I want to save and then say the command “camera save position 1”. To jump to that position I say “camera position 1”. You can see I save 8 positions. I could have more but 8 seems to do it for me.
So my method is all manual but once I save a position for an aircraft it’s always remembered any time I’m in that aircraft. I don’t use the preset values given in all those options you listed. I use them to manuever the camera to some place I want to remember and then “save” it for easy recall later.
I’ve mapped all my camera views to various buttons and control the Drone (and all other cameras) from the joystick. I too, get a kick out of watching the landing gear retract from under the aircraft.
What I have always found a little odd about the external views, when starting out in the cockpit, is this:
‘End’ toggles the external spot view on or off
‘Insert’ toggles the drone cam on or off
After pressing ‘Insert’ to get drone view, ‘End’ then toggles the fixed external views for the aircraft. Why? I never understood this.
Once in external fixed views, ‘A’ cycles those views as in FSX, e.g. wingtip, landing gear.
To get back to the cockpit, you have to reverse your steps - ‘End’ to now return to drone view, then ‘Insert’ to get back to the cockpit.
The first few times I got End/Insert mixed up (sometimes easy to forget which of the two external views you’re in), I was very confused about how to get back to the cockpit view. It’s second nature now, but I wonder if it was an accidental design choice?
Using the camera pop-up window can help get you back on track or understand which view you’re switching to, but sometimes it only makes things more confusing or illogical. Beyond brief uses of external views I am flying with TrackIR so I seldom use any other cockpit views.
Your comments confirm what I have found to be the case. Views are “nested”. That’s why I thought a relationship chart would be helpful for learning. The whole issue of camera views is way more confusing/convoluted/complex than it needs to be. It seems to be Band-Aids on top of Band-Aids. I would like just a half-dozen different views that are user programmable and assignable to buttons.
What I am trying to do is make some cinematic videos. Trying to fly and “direct” views at the same time is beyond my 79 years! I’ve tried both “replay” add-ons and they just add more complexity. What I really want is multiple windows to see two views at the same time, but apparently that functionality won’t be restored to MSFS for some time to come.
