Thank you for the questions.
I’m using fs2024 version 1.7.27.0 , the GPS is the PMS50 according the the startup screen.
The release is 1.1.0, Jan 23 2025.
I have used both streamed and installed versions, also uninstalled serveral times.
I’m not sure what you mean with TDS GTNXi patch so help is appreciated.
regards
Albert
I mean that every seems to be there
i’ve crossed this dev off my list for future purchases. 2020 BN2T was great. 2024 is the exact opposite. imho.
I decided to revisit this plane after reading some of these recent posts. I flew it a lot in 2020, but this was my first time in 2024. I do wish the interior textures were better. (I feel this way with the Twin Pioneer, piston islanders, and Sherpas as well.) But I can’t help but enjoy these planes! The flight characteristics and functionalities all feel right to me. I took this screenshot over Cyprus! I also like being able to choose your loadout. I love the look of the side camera.
One thing I did notice was that the engines seemed to get quieter when I used higher power. I don’t remember that happening in 2020. Not sure if this is a bug or the weather conditions of my flight. I’ll have to experiment more.
I’m not sure if its texturing or lighting, but it just doesn’t look alive compared to the real one. The sim one looks flat or dull by comparison. It’s probably some property of the texturing.
The BN2T is one of my favorite aircraft because it features a unique avionics suite that you don’t really find in other aircraft.
Unfortunately, I just can’t bring myself to like the bright blue, flat-looking panel texture. I have seen some photos of the real aircraft that you posted, but the in-game panel doesn’t really resemble those either.
When you load the BN2T in the simulator, it honestly looks as if the panel has been painted with a single bright blue color in Microsoft Paint. I’m not sure if it’s a shader issue or something else, but there is virtually no sense of gloss, depth, or material texture. It feels completely flat.
I hope you won’t be offended that I’m bringing this up. This is simply something I genuinely wish for.
So I would like to make a request. I would be extremely grateful if you could either add an alternative panel color option such as black or a much darker gray/black or perhaps create a mod that provides those color choices.
I think it would look fantastic if the instrument panel had a finish similar to the black leather texture on the upper part of the panel shown in the screenshot I uploaded.
Thank you for considering it.
I feel like you’re perhaps not being descriptive enough, and that is causing miscommunication.
Clearly, the panel is physically a flat surface. That’s all there is in that regard.
But perhaps you’re looking for a more egg shell “finish” as they say in the paint world, which is not glossy, but has a bit of a sheen as opposed to a flat “finish”. Is that what you’re trying to say? IOW, you’d be happier if the finish of the panel had a bit more reflectivity, and wasn’t a totally flat finish?
This is something anyone can change by creating a livery and adjusting the Blue and green channels of the panel in the comp texture for the panel.
If that’s the case, then this would be pretty much a “you thing”, as the author, who worked up his liveries based on his own experience working with the real planes, chose the finish he saw with his eyes. I’m sure you could find somebody to create some new cockpit liveries for you.
It might also make you happier if you also changed the bump map of the panel texture to add a bit of “speckling” that you might see using a roller to paint a wall with a thicker paint, as opposed to what the manufacturer likely did using a sprayer to get a completely flat surface, if that is in fact what the author saw in the real plane.
I’ve never sat in a BN2T cockpit, so I have no idea what it looks like for real.
To me, it almost feels as if there isn’t any bump map at all like someone simply used the paint bucket tool to fill the panel with a single solid color.
But maybe I’m just being overly sensitive to the panel’s color and texture.
After all, there doesn’t seem to be a single panel texture mod for it on Flightsim.to, so I guess most people are perfectly happy with it.
No, the textures definitely stand out. I really enjoy this product, but the only other aircraft in my hangar with a cockpit of this visual fidelity are freeware aircraft.
I’m not trying to say you’re wrong in how you feel in any way. I don’t think you’re being “overly sensitive”. I was just trying to help you communicate what you meant. He heard you say it’s flat. Well, the panel is flat. You needed to get into more detail about what you meant, and you just said it:
You never mentioned you meant color and texture, texture being the operative word. You just kept saying it’s too flat. The panel is flat. What else is @NightMercury358 supposed to think with a term like that?
I see it happen all the time, people complain about something to Asobo, in text, and don’t describe exactly what they mean, or they don’t say every… single… step… it takes to replicate a bug. So Asobo tries to understand what they say, they end up not being able to replicate the problem, and they bin it for lack of any followup information.
And, yes, the problem is pretty easily fixed with a livery. There’s lots of planes out there where people redid the textures to change stuff like this to their own liking. There’s plenty of freeware bump maps out there that could be copied into the panel area, and GIMP is really easy to use to change comp textures once you get the hang of it. Now, getting a comp texture right is an art, but, it’s pretty easy with some experimentation.
In his defense it’s okay to critique something even though you might not have the right knowledge or expertise to put it into words. That’s just as valid as any other.
To my point @xhan20000 raised an issue I picked up on the dev’s other aircraft but it very much applies here as well:
Appreciate it might come off as nit picky but I am a fan of these addons and own pretty much all of them. That said, texturing seems to be an area for improvement - it’s okay but it could be great. So I hope @NightMercury358 takes it in that spirit.
TL-DR on my original comment: things that may be the same colour and/or texture will rarely actually be flat like that. Unless you maybe photograph them with a flash. In reality light affects materials differently in different parts. In other words properly developed AO is really important. Fenix is a masterclass of that - the cockpit is all one material and one colour, but there’s so much richness and variation to how it’s presented that it looks real.
This is I think a similar thing to what we see with other devs. They all have weaker areas. Black box aircraft just tend to not be great on the cockpit rendering. Not trying to bash this particular dev but simply pointing out that with tiny dev teams who in some cases are sole individuals it’s hard to master all areas without some external help and for whatever reason that may not be a choice.
Personally it doesn’t bother me as most of the time I hide the virtual cockpit anyhow and fly using my own cockpit. Each to their own though.
Or perhaps some property of the FS2024 Lighting ?
From pictures I’ve seen of real Islander cockpit panels, a lot of the gauges seem to mounted to a separate metal plate that is then screwed to the panel, for example the ten engine gauges are (in the pictures I’ve seen) mounted on a separate plate, I assume there’s a big hole on the panel giving owners the option of mounting different gauge configurations. It’s the same with some of the other gauges like the artificial horizon, etc. I think implementing something like this would a) make it more realistic and b) break up the panel so it doesn’t look so flat.
If this were the case we would see many more complaints about this happening in every aircraft - I mean, or at least one other aircraft.
Maybe, but I’m not a developer so have no real idea. I do know that I don’t have any other planes that have that “matte” look to them though. I do remember past conversations about the 2020 piston version , which has the same look, where some users claimed they looked too clean, and had requested a more dirty or “lived in look”.
I suppose another way to put it would be you could pick a colour, draw a box in MS Paint, and fill that box with colour. That would have a similar, uniform look, with no surface detail.
But the inside of the plane could be some textured fabric, and although it might match the colour exactly, it would have none of the textured nuance of the real life surface being emulated. None of the little nicks, scratches or other blemishes that a 30 year old plane might have picked up over the years.
