CAMERAS

Microsoft Flight Simulator has a very versatile camera system that you can use to create views from inside the cockpit of the aircraft as well as views outside the aircraft. There is also a dynamic camera system that can be used to create Real Time Cinematics (RTC's), which are used to generate moving camera events and animation.

There are a few ways that cameras can be set up in-game once Developer Mode has been activated (see here for more information on Developer Mode), but they can also be set up by editing or creating the cameras.cfg file, which is what we'll cover in this section of the documentation.

NOTE: If you'd like more information on the *.cfg format, please see here.

If you wish to find out how to set up cameras in DevMode then you should see the following section:

• The Developer Mode Camera

 

In general all cameras are attached to an aircraft and fall into two main categories: Internal cameras and External cameras. However, both categories of camera have the exact same set of parameters to be set, but the values you supply them with will define what they do and how they operate. Also note that these cameras are almost always accessible to the user through direct input (like pressing a key/button to view instruments or look to the side), or through the main game options (where the user can define the default starting camera or cockpit camera).

 

To find out more about the cameras.cfg file format please see the following pages:

• Camera Definition Properties
• Camera Definition Examples

 

 

RTC (Real Time Cinematics)

RTC's are Real Time Cinematics that you can define to create animated camera movements that are not strictly tied to a specific aircraft. In general they are used in one of the following four situations:

• In the hangar
• During the intro or the outro of any mission or free flight.
• For any "Wow" effect, e.g: a close-up of an instrument (see the tutorial Creating A Simple RTC)
• To show any POI

 

In general, RTC's are tied to animation information from a glTF file, and you would create the animation within an external tool like 3DS Max. To find out more about creating and using RTC's please see the following pages:

• Using RTC's
• RTC Definition Properties
• RTC Definition Examples

 

It is worth noting that there is an overlap between RTCs and regular cameras, in that you can create a simple RTC without the need to use external tools to create the animation. This simpler system uses one or more of the cameras already defined in the cameras.cfg file and stitches them together to create a basic RTC event. You can find out how to do this from the following page:

• Creating A Simple RTC