Outside view without virtual cockpit

[Keith A Holt]

My collection of Skalarki hardware has reached a point now where I can start to think about flying without a virtual cockpit.  I have just about everything I need with the exception of the overhead for which I plan to use the 2D overhead panel, ideally on a touchscreen display.  My goal has been to fly without requiring a mouse or keyboard and I’m almost there.

Is it possible to remove the inside cockpit from the main view such that all I see presented is what is outside the window?  JeeHell FMGS and Pro-Sim do this, but I want to keep using FSLabs.  Is there a way to make this work?

 

[Luis Hernández]

I think it's not officially supported, but have you tried either using a 2D view or editing model.cfg and commenting out the "Interior=" line?

[Keith A Holt]

Thanks!  I will be giving that a try this weekend.

 

[Khan Haroun]

click on open bracket [  enter, you will have outside view only. right click then you drag the window to your desired screen.

[Khan Haroun]

you don't have to edit anything. very simple windows operation

[stephen speak]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:36 PM, Khan Haroun said:

click on open bracket [  enter, you will have outside view only. right click then you drag the window to your desired screen.

no good for a 3 screen set up..only does the front view apparently

[Vincent Twisker]

On 4/10/2024 at 4:46 AM, Keith A Holt said:

Is it possible to remove the inside cockpit from the main view such that all I see presented is what is outside the window?  JeeHell FMGS and Pro-Sim do this, but I want to keep using FSLabs.  Is there a way to make this work?

Have a read through this 5 year old post. Enjoy.

[Keith A Holt]

On 4/14/2024 at 5:03 PM, Vincent Twisker said:

Have a read through this 5 year old post. Enjoy.

To follow up with a rather late reply, thank you so much for pointing me to this.  It works!

I don’t understand why FSL doesn’t just make this a standard option available in the settings UI, perhaps with the HWInterface.  Everyone who has Skalarki hardware would probably find this solution preferable to Pro-Sim and JeeHell.  Neither of those solutions provides something as basic as a loadsheet with ZFWCG for example, which leaves me scratching my head how to solve.  FSL has a complete solution.

 

[Keith A Holt]

With MSFS 2024, what is the new procedure for this?   MSFS has a “home cockpit” setting, but apparently has no effect.

[Vincent Twisker]

On 7/4/2025 at 2:44 AM, Keith A Holt said:

With MSFS 2024, what is the new procedure for this?   MSFS has a “home cockpit” setting, but apparently has no effect.

Indeed it is rather disappointing that in 2025 there is still no option in MSFS2020 to remove the virtual cockpit from the outside view displays. On top of that, setting up a 3 monitor outside view without the view group options as are available in P3D, is not very realistic.

[Keith A Holt]

4 hours ago, Vincent Twisker said:

Indeed it is rather disappointing that in 2025 there is still no option in MSFS2020 to remove the virtual cockpit from the outside view displays. On top of that, setting up a 3 monitor outside view without the view group options as are available in P3D, is not very realistic.

MSFS 2024 has the option to remove the virtual cockpit, but FSLabs doesn’t support it.

As far as multiple monitor support, this and several other things are still better in P3D.

[Lefteris Kalamaras]

20 hours ago, Keith A Holt said:

MSFS 2024 has the option to remove the virtual cockpit, but FSLabs doesn’t support it.

As far as multiple monitor support, this and several other things are still better in P3D.

Hi Keith,

which option would that be? show me a pic? I'll see what we can do...

[Keith A Holt]

7 hours ago, Lefteris Kalamaras said:

Hi Keith,

which option would that be? show me a pic? I'll see what we can do...

You can find the option here in Camera settings "Home Cockpit Mode."

I couldn't capture the fly over help text, but it says "Enable Home Cockpit Mode.  This places the camera in the center of the cockpit and disables the virtual cockpit from rendering."

 

[Vincent Twisker]

10 hours ago, Keith A Holt said:

This places the camera in the center of the cockpit and disables the virtual cockpit from rendering.

Hi Keith, how do you adjust the viewpoint to either lefthand or righthand seat? I've been able to use the "camera in front of the cockpit methode", but I want to be able to have correct POVs from either LH of RH seat. Boy do I miss the viewgroup option from P3D where you could so easily store these POVs and switch between them.

[Fabian Schankin]

16 minutes ago, Vincent Twisker said:

Hi Keith, how do you adjust the viewpoint to either lefthand or righthand seat? I've been able to use the "camera in front of the cockpit methode", but I want to be able to have correct POVs from either LH of RH seat. Boy do I miss the viewgroup option from P3D where you could so easily store these POVs and switch between them.

You could use this method "in front of the airplan" and assign the CAPT view to i.e. ALT + 0 and FO to ALT + 1. Using this you are able to switch the view point by a press of a button. If those views are defined you can assign Joystick buttons as well, if desired.

[Vincent Twisker]

36 minutes ago, Fabian Schankin said:

You could use this method "in front of the airplan" and assign the CAPT view to i.e. ALT + 0 and FO to ALT + 1.

Thanks, I did actually download your camera.cfg and dropped it in the NEO folder succesfully activating it with ALT+0.

But which numbers do I have to correct to get LH and RH seat?

For example sitting in the LH seat lined up on the runway, my triple TV outside view requires a runway centerline showing vertically at about one fifth from the left edge of my center screen. Now when I select the default captain view, the POV is only correct if I sit in the middle of my center screen, basically the observer seat position.

And while we are at it, the "pitch angle" as well to lower the horizon.

[Fabian Schankin]

20 minutes ago, Vincent Twisker said:

Thanks, I did actually download your camera.cfg and dropped it in the NEO folder succesfully activating it with ALT+0.

Glad to hear it is working for you!

20 minutes ago, Vincent Twisker said:

But which numbers do I have to correct to get LH and RH seat? And while we are at it, the "pitch angle" as well to lower the horizon.

InitialZoom=0.200949                                             | zoom

InitialXyz= 0.450034, 0.009001, 0.91997              | x=L-R | y=FWD-AFT | z=UP-DOWN
InitialPbh= -0.36201, 0.001047, -0.408568           | p=pitch | b=bank | h=yaw (not sure about h)

 

If you want to get your own views, I suggest you use the Capt view (default), move your camera maximum FWD until you hit the windshield, adjust the position up or down, change the pitch angle and zoom level and hit CTRL+ALT+1, which saves the values in your camera.cfg You should see [CAMERADEFINITION.1]
Title="1" and enter this value: InitialXyz= 0.450034, 0.009001, 0.91997. Repeat the steps for the FO and use CTRL+ALT+2. 

[Vincent Twisker]

3 minutes ago, Fabian Schankin said:

Glad to hear it is working for you!

InitialZoom=0.200949                                             | zoom

InitialXyz= 0.450034, 0.009001, 0.91997              | x=L-R | y=FWD-AFT | z=UP-DOWN
InitialPbh= -0.36201, 0.001047, -0.408568           | p=pitch | b=bank | h=yaw (not sure about h)

 

If you want to get your own views, I suggest you use the Capt view (default), move your camera maximum FWD until you hit the windshield, adjust the position up or down, change the pitch angle and zoom level and hit CTRL+ALT+1, which saves the values in your camera.cfg You should see [CAMERADEFINITION.1]
Title="1" and enter this value: InitialXyz= 0.450034, 0.009001, 0.91997. Repeat the steps for the FO and use CTRL+ALT+2. 

Cheers that helps, I will experiment to try and get the views I need.

[Antonio Sessa]

Hi, in fsl installer there is the setting  "hardware cockpit with projectors"  ... how it works?

 

 

[stephen speak]

22 minutes ago, Antonio Sessa said:

Hi, in fsl installer there is the setting  "hardware cockpit with projectors"  ... how it works?

 

 

From what I can gather it only works with p3d ..I don’t know if it’s going to be implemented in msfs..I hope it will