Flaws in Instrument panel (shown in 9/24 update)

[Flying Pencil]

There are 2 realism issues in this otherwise fabulous cockpit image (looks like BF 110)



1. The illuminated red gear up indicator and gun selector should have a dimming ability, that is selectively reduce the brightness. Right now they are blindingly bright.
I think with the gear indicator, the lever under it controls the brightness (not positive).
Other lamps may be controlled by a central rheostat or switch.








2. Most of the instruments have Phosphorescence paint (not fluorescent) on the dials. By this time use of phosphorescence paint on gauges was common for many aircraft, some actually has self-glowing expensive radio active paints (still slightly radioactive today!)

Here is pictures of 2 fuel gauges I personally own (have a few more LW instruments ), and under a black-light (that is UV emitting lights), you can clearly see the phosphorescent paint which is fluorescing in this case. The paint on these are about 70 years old and have lost much of its phosphorescent ability.
Normally they should be more green, not the heavily UV influenced blue-green.


(PS, I now think these come from a Do-217 and He-177)

[Skoshi Tiger]

Guess we'll need the developers or find someone with the pilot notes to shed some light on this. (no pun intended!) If the control at the bottom of the pannel is the dimmer, do we turn it clockwise to dim or anti clockwise?

If it's Anti-clockwise to dim then it's in the bright (day) position otherwise it in the dim position. (I'm assuming the movement is limited to an arc at the bottom of the pannel.) Just like those germans not to label the control!


Cheers! It Sound like you've got a good collection!

[Rodolphe]

...



Me 110 G-4 with normal instrument panel lighting.
Note the greenish lighting of the "Kurskreisel" at lower left.
For night flights, this was still too bright.






The same panel under UV illumination.
At night, crew members were using UV light to avoid blindness cause by normal lighting
This led to a stronger luminescent radiation.





...

[bolox]

not an expert on luftwaffe cockpits - but i thought the lever under the gear indicator lights was an on/off switch for the gear indicator lights. cockpit lighting was controlled on rheostat(s) similar to this

similar arrangements apply to raf planes of the era.
afaik lighting was by 'normal' bulbs in torch like fittings around cockpit- not uv until later in the war(~42 for raf with change to green flouro markings on instruments)

in raf planes there was a 'screen' that could be pulled down for night use (spitfire) or knob (hurricane) to prevent blinding by gear lights. someone who can read german might find reference to similar system in pilots notes?
individual warning lights (raf) often had a flip cover with a filter for night use

instrument markings/needles were painted with a luminous 'paste' and 'glow' a soft greennish colour- (certainly not the bright flouro green in il2). again similar paste was used in raf. be interesting to see how 1c deal with this- i'm hoping to see no 'led backlight' effect when lights are switched on in daylight.

as to the 110 pic i think it's safe to assume it's still wip as it has no glass in the instruments yet. the left hand light below turn and slip indicator is still a blank texture if it's still at this stage i'd expect lighting balance to also be wip
to me one thing that does stand out is the different lighting in different parts of the pit and they seeming to come from different sources

[Flying Pencil]

Excellent detail guys!
w00t!

[bf-110]

Thought the cockpit lights were somewhat similar to car panel lights.
There were small lamps behind the indicators.

[Flying Pencil]

Originally Posted by Frantishek

1.
I think with the gear indicator, the lever under it controls the brightness (not positive).

I have confirmed the lever under the lights is for lamp function test, meaning you use it to make sure all 4 lamps work. Normally switch is spring loaded in OFF position, since you only need to test for a couple of seconds.

Your daily German class:
Fahrgestell = Landing gear, Undercarriage
Anzeige = indicator, display
Ein = as adverb "on", but in this case could mean "in" (internationally almost always RED)
Aus = as adverb "out" (as adjective = "off") (internationally almost always GREEN)

(google translate)

[kimosabi]

If I were a developer right now I'd just take note of these threads and correct it in a later patch instead.

[Flying Pencil]

Originally Posted by kimosabi

If I were a developer right now I'd just take note of these threads and correct it in a later patch instead.

Yes, I would too.
Unless they effect performance or game play, its for a patch.

Realism usually is low priority, even sims.
Realism is an unreachable goal, you start at a point, and work toward a better one.

[WTE_Galway]

As a slightly off-topic side note. I have a copy of a pilots account of flying Hurricanes at night during the BoB and he basically said the exhaust manifolds glowed red hot and you could not see anything below the nose at night.