19. Camera Views¶
You can change your camera view by pressing the function keys F1
through F12 . Keys F3 through F12 each cycle
through multiple views, e.g., key F5 has 9 camera views attached to
it. All combined, there are over 75 specialized camera views
(cameras) available via the function keys.
For panorama (pano) sites, camera keys are F1 through F4.
For 3D flying sites, the camera keys are F1 through F12.
19.1. Basic Camera Terminology¶
- Camera View Keys
As mentioned above, cameras are assigned to the function keys. All but two of the function keys have multiple cameras assigned to each key. Repeated key presses cycles through the cameras on the key. There are over 75 specialized camera views (cameras) available via the function keys.
- Camera Keyboard Controls
Camera keyboard controls, such as
A,Z, etc are summarized in Key Commands and explained here.- Pano Cameras and 3D Flying Site Cameras
“Pano” flying sites use a 360-deg panoramic photograph taken from a single eye point (spot) at single moment in time (more or less). Thus, a Pano field is viewed only from the single eye point where the photography was taken from a camera on a tripod, i.e., your view is from that point.
“3D” flying sites are virtual worlds where you can move around – like in a video game. With a 3D site, cameras can be placed anywhere or move with the aircraft (a.k.a. FPV). For example, you can walk around the airplane (use the arrow keys), use a “chase plane” camera view (e.g., press
F6andB/Nto move closer/further from the aircraft), or use any of the “3D ONLY” camera views (keysF5throughF12, see Keymap). With a 3D flying site, you can also change the Sun/Sky by selecting a skyscape at startup.
- Lagged Camera
A camera view that lags the aircraft motion. If the aircraft moves on the screen, say to the right, the view catches up only a moment later. A lagged camera is the most cinematic. It simulates what might be seen through the fluid movement of a handheld camcorder.
- Perfect Camera
A camera view that perfectly tracks and centers the aircraft on the screen. Pylon racing pilots tend to prefer this kind of view because it simulates their perfect eye “lock” on their airplane during a race.
- Manual Zoom, Autozoom, and Default Field of View (FOV)
All cameras have manual zoom available. Autozoom is a feature of some but not all cameras. For cameras with autozoom capability, the camera view automatically zooms-in on distant aircraft. There are two main autozoom types: standard autozoom (“1”) and higher autozoom (“2”), which automatically zooms more with distance.
For most cameras, the default field of view is 30 deg, which is approximately what you see in real life. Video games and other simulators often use an unrealistically wide field of view (more then 30 deg) to compensate for how small a screen is compared with real life. The 30 deg field of view used in SeligSIM attempts to emulate the natural view that you might experience at a real flying field. Nevertheless, if you prefer a wide field of view, you can use
Xto zoom out (see next).A natural view is one without autozoom. If a given camera in the simulator uses autozoom, you can disable it by pressing
Ato toggle from autozoom to manual zoom. In manual zoom, then pressDto set the field of view to the default setting for the given camera selection (most often 30 deg FOV). Then you can pressZto zoom in,Xto zoom out,Dto reset the FOV, or pressAagain to toggle back to autozoom if available. Holding downZ/Xwill keep zooming in/out.If a camera in SeligSIM does not have autozoom, pressing
Adoes nothing.
- Shifted-Elevation Views
“Elevation” here refers to the elevation angle of your view (i.e., look-up angle) . A shifted-elevation camera view tries to keep both the aircraft and ground in view while not changing zoom. The image below shows three cameras in SeligSIM. The first, Shifted-1, is the most shifted. The aircraft is near the top of the view window to keep the ground in view. The next two, Shifted-2 and Shifted-2, have progressively less shift. The zoom level is the same for all three. Technically speaking, a shifted camera view aims the camera lower than a perfectly aimed camera, i.e., the aircraft appears higher on-screen as you fly higher. While the view is shifted, the zoom level is not changed based on the elevation angle of the camera. Consequently, the perception of distance to the aircraft is not distorted by auto-zooming in/out depending on the elevation angle of the aircraft. Thus, shifted-elevation view cameras do not have autozoom capability. With the zoom level fixed, it is possible to fly over, look up, and not see the ground until the aircraft is at a lower elevation angle.
Shifted elevation views showing airplane and ground.
From left to right: Shifted-1 (most shifted),
Shifted-2, and Shifted-3 (least shifted).¶
Note
In this User Manual, the terms camera, view, and camera view are interchangeable.
Modding Tip
A plethora of parameters and tables define the characteristics of each camera. These parameters can be edited by users (though no documentation is given here). If edits are made to any of the installation Cameras.txt files, be sure to make a copy of your file edits because future updates may overwrite any customizations that you make.
19.2. Primary and Secondary Views¶
F1 , F2
The Primary Camera view is the Pilot View used at the startup of a flight
session, and the view is tied to the F1 function key. On
installation of the sim, a lagged camera view with autozoom
is used for this F1 key. Specifically, it is named the
Lagged/Autozoom-1 camera.
The Secondary Camera view is activated by pressing F2 . On
installation of the sim, the camera assigned to the secondary view
is lagged and shifted, i.e., it is a lagged/shifted view. Specifically,
it is named the Lagged/Shifted-1 camera.
Selecting the F1 and F2 cameras is done using the menu below
described in
Options | General.
You can select your F1 view and F2 view from a list of
10 available cameras. The names and characteristics are listed in the
table below.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
|
Lagged with standard autozoom (30) |
|
Lagged with higher autozoom (30) |
|
Perfect with standard autozoom (30) |
|
Perfect with higher autozoom (30) |
|
Lagged with higher shift (30) |
|
Lagged with medium shift (30) |
|
Lagged with lower shift (30) |
|
Perfect with higher shift (30) |
|
Perfect with medium shift (30) |
|
Perfect with lower shift (30) |
19.3. Pilot Views¶
F3
Pilot Views are assigned to the F3 key. Thus, while F1 and
F2 are keys assigned to a single camera, you can select any of the
available views by cycling through all of them on the F3 key with
repeated presses (see table below).
During a Flight Session, the camera name at the beginning of the list will be displayed in the message area in green text with an asterisk, and the following names will be white text. Each time the list is completely cycled, the first camera in the list will again be displayed in green.
Tip
You can always see the current camera name by pressing ; .
Included with the name is the specific function key used for that
camera (except for F8 onboard camera views).
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
|
Lagged with standard autozoom (30) |
|
Lagged with higher autozoom (30) |
|
Perfect with standard autozoom (30) |
|
Perfect with higher autozoom (30) |
|
Lagged with higher shift (30) |
|
Lagged with medium shift (30) |
|
Lagged with lower shift (30) |
|
Perfect with higher shift (30) |
|
Perfect with medium shift (30) |
|
Perfect with lower shift (30) |
19.4. Field Views¶
F4
Pressing F4 cycles through Field Views, shown in the list below
for Pano and 3D flying sites. After the basic list, field specific
cameras for 3D sites are added at the startup of a Flight Session. For
instance, the Frasca Airport 3D flying site includes 15 field specific
cameras, which are spread around the grounds of the airport.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
Pano |
|
|
Lagged with higher shift (30) |
|
Lagged with medium shift (30) |
|
Lagged with lower shift (30) |
|
Perfect with higher shift (30) |
|
Perfect with medium shift (30) |
|
Perfect with lower shift (30) |
|
Mouseable view, auto-pan (50) |
|
Mouseable view (50) |
|
Fixed direction to West (50) |
3D |
|
|
Lagged, offset position from pilot (50) |
|
Lagged, fixed position from 50 ft high (30) |
|
Lagged, fixed position from 100 ft high (30) |
|
Fixed direction to North (50) |
Field specific cameras added (if any) |
Example: Frasca Airport loop |
19.5. Leashed Views (3D)¶
F5
Pressing F5 cycles through Leashed Views, shown in the list below
for 3D flying sites. The first three camera views simulate following
the aircraft on a stretchy leash, but a leash that more than anything tries to stay at the
elevation of the aircraft while trying to get closer to the aircraft.
The leashes get progressively shorter going from the first to third
cameras. For the fourth ( Leashed: Vertical Lag 4 (3D/F5) ), the
leash is similar to the third except the leash lags more in the vertical
direction. This camera simulates more closely the effect of being on an
actual leash (albeit, a stretchy leash). With this camera, as the
aircraft climbs and dives, the view shows more of the sky and ground,
respectively.
The next four cameras follow the aircraft on a lagged leash, except the camera height is set, i.e., it does not follow the aircraft height. The MSL elevation (height) cameras moves smoothly. The AGL elevation cameras perfectly track the undulations along the ground beneath the camera.
The last camera ( Leashed: 3D Lag (3D/F5) ) is, at first, unusual
and anyone prone to motion sickness or vertigo should take a pass on
trying this view. This particular camera rolls with the airplanes, but
the camera roll has lag. So in a sense it is like an FPV camera on a
lagged gimbal that is mainly focused on fixing the camera attitude to
that of the airframe. Use the B key to move in close to the
aircraft to gain a better understanding of the camera/view dynamics.
There is a slack-length feature to each leashed camera. If your view is within the slack distance for the camera, then the camera will not move any closer. For the first four cameras, the slack length is 10 ft. For the Long Leash camera, it is 500 ft. For the remainder, it is 100 ft.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
Lagged leash, lag view (50) |
|
Change: Less leash lag (50) |
|
Change: Less leash lag (50) |
|
Change: More vertical lag (50) |
|
Lag leash @ elevation 50 ft MSL, lagged view (30) |
|
Lag leash @ elevation 100 ft MSL, lagged view (30) |
|
Lag long leash @ elevation 6 ft AGL, lagged view (30) |
|
Lag leash @ elevation 50 ft AGL, lagged view (30) |
|
Vertigo resistance training (50) |
19.6. Chase and Mouseable Chase Views (3D)¶
F6 , F7
Pressing F6 cycles through the chase-aligned cameras. That is to
say, the cameras follow (chase) the aircraft and are aligned in various
ways. The first group are Track-Aligned and point in the same
direction of the aircraft path, i.e., flight track. The next camera is
Heading-Aligned and points in the same direction as the airplane,
i.e., it is aligned directly with the centerline of the airframe. The
Down-North-Aligned camera looks down on the aircraft and the view is
oriented with North pointing up on the screen (press C to see the
magnetic compass). The Air-Aligned cameras look in the direction of
the incoming flow (the “apparent wind”). If you choose turbulent wind,
avoid an air-aligned chase camera view because it will faithfully and
nauseatingly follow the turbulence. The last camera in the group,
North-Aligned looks north. In all of these cases, the view direction
is from behind the airplane and looks through the center of the airframe
(the datum point to be more precise). However, you can use the
B and N trolley keys to move in and out.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
10 ft behind (50) |
|
25 ft behind (50) |
|
50 ft behind (50) |
|
75 ft behind (50) |
|
10 ft behind (50) |
|
200 ft above (50) |
|
20 ft behind (50) |
|
40 ft behind (50) |
|
25 ft behind (50) |
These next F7 camera views move around your aircraft, while still pointing at
it, when you move the mouse around. These views are useful
it you want to inspect something on the aircraft. Use the
B and N trolley keys to move in and out.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
10 ft behind (50) |
|
25 ft behind (50) |
|
50 ft behind (50) |
|
75 ft behind (50) |
Note
Using a mouseable view (e.g., F7 camera above) while hand launching can
produce an interesting effect. The mouse will point the view around
at the same time that it points the airplane around for launching.
Recommendation: Do not start a hand launch with an F7 camera or
any other mouseable camera.
19.7. Onboard Views (3D)¶
F8
The assortment of Onboard Views via the F8 key are unique to each
aircraft. A sample is shown in the table below for the Sundowner pylon
racer. These onboard cameras are effectively FPV cameras that are
“fixed” to (or relative to) the aircraft. These include nose views, cockpit views,
wing views, bird’s eye view, etc. The move in/out keys B / N will move the view to/from the datum, which is usually
close to the aircraft center of gravity. The number and assortment of
F8 cameras varies from aircraft to aircraft.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D (Sample list) |
|
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (90) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (90) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (90) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (90) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (75) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (75) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (95) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (75) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (75) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (75) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (75) |
|
Fixed direction at location indicated (60) |
19.8. Padlock and Reverse Padlock Views (3D)¶
F9 , F10
Press F9 for Padlock Views. These camera views aim at your
aircraft, but also try to keep another aircraft (e.g., recorded aircraft)
in view. Press PageUp or PageDn to padlock the camera view to
other aircraft. If you’re Aerotowing, you
can also padlock to the middle of the towline. If you are Pylon Racing, you can also padlock to the upcoming pylon. Fly with a
recorded airplane to see how padlock works. If there is no recorded
airplane, padlock will lock onto the center point of the field (center
point of the graphics model of the field).
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
10 ft lng offset, 2 ft vert offset (32) |
|
25 ft lng offset, 2 ft vert offset (32) |
|
50 ft lng offset, 2 ft vert offset (32) |
|
10/5/2 ft lng/lat/vert offset (32) |
|
Approx cockpit offset (32) |
Press F10 for Reverse Padlock Views, which looks at
your aircraft but from the point of view of other aircraft [be that
a recorded aircraft or the second pilot (Pilot 2) aircraft].
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
10/3/2 ft lng/lat/vert offset (32) |
|
25/3/2 ft lng/lat/vert offset (32) |
|
50/3/2 ft lng/lat/vert offset (32) |
19.9. FlyBy Views (3D)¶
F11
Press F11 for FlyBy Views. These cameras are actually
Jump cameras. When an aircraft flies beyond a certain distance from
the viewer on the ground, the camera position will jump to a new fixed
position to be closer to the aircraft. There are two types. The first,
Jump Behind, puts the new camera position behind the aircraft. The
second, Jump Ahead, puts the new camera position ahead of the
aircraft, which then can do a fly-by of that position. The initial
camera placement will be placed at the center of the field (center
point of the graphics model of the field).
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
Jumps 300 ft behind/follows (30) |
|
Jumps 190 ft ahead/leads (30) |
|
Jumps 300 ft behind/follows, (30) |
|
Jumps 190 ft ahead/leads (30) |
19.10. Miscellaneous Views (3D)¶
F12
Press F12 for the Miscellaneous Views. The first camera allows
you to use your mouse to point the view around, while forcing you to
keep the airplane always in the field of view. In fact, if the airplane
flies toward the any edge of the field of view, the camera will
automatically pan (autopan) to keep the aircraft in view, though at
the edge of the field of view. Once the aircraft is off of an edge, the
camera direction does not change, unless you use the mouse to change it.
The second camera gives you total control over the direction of view.
Use the mouse to aim the view, which may or may not include the
aircraft. The third camera is a fixed direction (West) view of the 3D
world.
While this is the “3D only” table, these cameras are included in the F4 key for pano fields,
see the
Field Views section above.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
3D |
|
|
Mouseable view, auto-pan (50) |
|
Mouseable view (50) |
|
Fixed direction to West (50) |
19.11. Remembers Your Last Camera¶
As you switch between cameras (e.g., whether for the aircraft you are flying or recorded aircraft you have loaded), switching camera views from one function key to another during a Flight Session will always take you back to the last selected camera on the function key. SeligSIM remembers your last camera for each function key for each aircraft in the Flight Session.
19.12. Inset Window Widget¶
To see the Inset Window widget (“picture-within-picture”) while flying:
Press
I.With the mouse, drag the Inset Window wherever you like.
To change the camera view, click on the window dropdown.
When you want to hide the Inset Window again, press
I, or click on its red X.Keyboard controls do not affect the Inset Window.
|
Description (Default FOV deg) |
Pano |
|
|
Binoculars with autozoom, default view |
|
Lagged with standard autozoom (30) |
|
Lagged with higher shift (30) |
|
Lagged with medium shift (30) |
|
Lagged with lower shift (30) |
|
Mouseable view, auto-pan (50) |
|
Mouseable view, mouse aligned (50) |
|
View to North (50) |
|
View to South (50) |
|
View to East (50) |
|
View to West (50) |
3D |
|
|
Binoculars with autozoom, default view |
|
15 ft behind (50) |
|
Lagged with standard autozoom (30) |
|
Lagged with shifted elevation (30) |
|
Lagged leash with lagged view (30) |
|
Airplane camera view to North (50) |
|
Airplane camera view to South (50) |
|
Airplane camera view to East (50) |
|
Airplane camera view to West (50) |
|
Top down view from 50 ft (60) |
Inset Window I¶
19.13. Cameras with Multiple Aircraft¶
If you are flying with recordings (or a two pilot setup), you can cycle
the Tab key to move your view sequentially to other aircraft. Once
on another aircraft, the first view will be the default F1 view for
that aircraft. Now, any other camera keys you press will change your
view of the recorded aircraft. For instance, try F5 to follow
behind the recorded aircraft, or try F9 to padlock on to the other
aircraft in the view, e.g., the aircraft you are actually flying. In
other words, padlock camera F9 , when tabbed to the recorded aircraft
making it the active view, will show your recorded aircraft in the
foreground and the aircraft you’re flying in the background as being the
padlocked aircraft.
A Comment about Autozoom
Autozoom causes the camera to zoom in and out depending on the distance between you and the airplane, e.g., more distance, more zoom. For a set distance, say, 300 ft, what is the amount of zoom, i.e., the FOV? It depends on what has been programmed into the simulator. Different simulators will use different amounts of zoom for a set distance because there is not one single way to do it. The result is that “autozoom” between different simulators could look very different. One simulator might apply more zoom (higher zoom) than another. In SeligSIM, there are two autozooms that you can test to find your preference: autozoom-1 and autozoom-2. These are apply to the
F1key and discussed below.