Tiny black dot in X-Plane cockpit

[David Carman]

I love this plane, it's my go-to light GA a/c in x-plane, the only downside is I can't read the altimeter setting on the altimeter, but other than that it's wonderful. Anyone know if there's an easy way to read that gauge? Maybe I'll just swap in the default altimeter in the panel myself...

[Keith Smith]

Add a digital altimeter setting. That's what I did on the Pipers in the PE tech demos on YouTube.

[Brian Ratledge]

Digital altimeter setting a k a Kollsman Window. That little tidbit was brought to you by Wayne Conrad. He taught me well.

[Keith Smith]

Yes it is, I just thought more ppl would know the other name

[Daddy O]

One way to determine if it is dirt or a renderring issue is to change your point of view in plane maker. I have had POV issues with all sorts of things. One time I couldn;t figure out what the heck I was looking at until I realized it was a refuelling drogue from the inside.

But Xplanes does add dirt, bugs, and I really love the bird guts. That is the coolest feature right there. Nothing like trying to land with busted windows, guts everywhere, engine out.... Too bad you can't hit the deer.

[Keith Smith]

There's a simpler way to check. You can push the 'q' or 'e' key to pan the view 45deg left/right in the 2d cockpit. Or, swap to an outside view. The dirt should move/disappear.

Agreed, the bird strikes are interesting. This one resulted in a double flame out in the pattern at PSP.

[Alex Stjepanovic]

As I said in the original post, it's only there in left-through-right views inside the cockpit.

[Daddy O]

So it could be Xplanes trying to render the surface of the aircraft as seen from the inside. In plane builder there really are no windows. Windows are just part of the paint scheme. You set a viewpoint in relation to the referance datum, but you never define a place that should be a window. So Xp sometimes renders outer surfaces in cockpit view, and does so in very bizarre ways sometimes. I have also had cockpit objects cause wierd cockpit renderings, some so bad I had to completely delete the cockpit object (they do not always play well with my multi-pc setup.)

Like I said, adjust your POV, maybe raise it up or down a foot and see if the dot still appears or moves, or move your POV outside of the cockpit. Just be sure to remember the original setting so you can put it back right.

You can do some really crazy stuff with Plane Builder. One time I built a flying brick. It flew, but it flew like a brick.

[Daddy O]

I am thinking this is a modelling issue, I got the same black dot (a little higher on the view screen) in a plane I downloaded from x-plane.org the other day. I was too busy to try moving my POV to see it it went away, but I had to give a laugh when I saw it there. Xplane is a crazy piese of software.

[Steven Winslow]

By the way, for those aircraft with altimeters that are difficult to read, you can get a nifty little plugin called VisualAltimeter that displays the altimeter setting so you can see it. You can find it here:

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app ... wfile=2458