How do I change the default camera/view settings in FSX (tail view looks too long)?

Re: Default camera/view settings in FSX (tail view looks too long)

Hi cthiggin,

What you’re seeing in the “tail”/spot view is usually just the camera being set too far back (or the zoom being too wide), so the fuselage looks stretched and the tail feels like it’s a mile away.

Here are the practical ways to fix it:

1) Quick fix: adjust the spot view zoom
In Spot view, try:

• Press + to zoom in
• Press - to zoom out

Zoom makes a huge difference in how “long” the airplane looks from outside.

2) Move the external camera closer/farther
While you’re in Spot view, you can also move the camera position itself:

• Use the numeric keypad camera controls (with NumLock on) to nudge the viewpoint
• If you’ve got a hat switch mapped, it can also be moving the external camera around depending on your assignments

(Exact keys can vary depending on whether your FSX camera assignments have been changed, so if your keypad isn’t doing anything, check your control assignments for the “View (pan)” / “View (reset)” entries.)

3) Make it stick: save it as the default flight
Once you have the zoom/view where you like it:

• Set up the view the way you want
• Go to the Flights menu and save the flight
• Tick the option to make it your default flight (wording varies slightly depending on FSX edition, but it’s there in the save dialog)

This is the simplest way to make your preferred zoom/view come up every time.

4) The “real” way: edit the camera definition
If you want to permanently change the spot/tail camera distance (instead of relying on zoom), you can do it by editing the camera configuration file. That’s where things like the initial distance/offset live. It works well, but I don’t want to point you at the wrong file/section without knowing which exact view you mean (Spot, Locked Spot, Tower, etc.) and which FSX variant you’re running.

A couple quick questions so I can point you to the exact setting without guessing:

• Which view specifically looks wrong: Spot, Locked Spot, or another external view?
• Are you on FSX boxed (Acceleration/SP2) or FSX:Steam Edition?
• Do you want it fixed for one aircraft, or globally for all aircraft?

Answer those and I’ll give you the exact file/section name and which value to tweak.