Here's a detailed explanation of the relationship between ChasePlane and MSFS's built-in camera system. These can be important to help you better diagnose any issues or conflict between control assignments.
Complete Override
ChasePlane is a complete override of the default camera system. This means CP uses its own camera controls and its own math for the camera position. None of the existing camera controls configured in MSFS will work when ChasePlane is active. There are multiple reasons for this complete override; here are a few of them:
- Despite our requests over the years, there is no native Camera API in the sim. We had to create our own ways to move the camera where we want it to be. This means blocking and overriding the ways cameras are positioned and moved in the sim.
- We cannot access the events generated by the control assignments you already have in the sim for interacting with the camera. Therefore, we cannot known when you are trying to move the camera in a given direction or when you try to zoom the camera in our out. We had to create our own control system.
- There is a way to read Controller/Joystick Axis data directly through the sim. However, this data is not pure and is altered in many ways that are out of our and the user's control. We therefore decided to use our own control input system in an external exe (the Bridge) for maximum control.
- 3rd Party Developers have no way to add custom assignments to the existing list of Assignments in the sim's Control Settings. Features like Cinematics, Binoculars, Tower view, etc. require the ability to add custom control assignments. An external control system allows us to do that.
- There are a lot of unintuitive and bugged features in the default camera system. Creating our own blank slate allows us to do much more than building on top of a broken foundation.
Control Assignments
Given the potential for conflict between the default camera system and the ChasePlane system, we recommend that all of your camera assignments in MSFS be removed (with the exception of Drone mode related controls).
To make your life easier, ChasePlane will offer to remove all of those for you during the initial install process. This is optional but highly recommended.
When choosing to do so, assignments from the sim will be extracted and moved to this location: \AppData\Local\Programs\Parallel 42\ChasePlane\V2\Backup
If you selected "No" but changed your mind later, you can be asked again after fully uninstalling and re-installing ChasePlane. Your CP settings, groups and views will be unaffected.
Restoring removed Control Assignments
All control assignments removed by the ChasePlane Manager app during the install process will be restored into your sim when uninstalling ChasePlane from the same app (ChasePlane Manager). You can find the Manager at those locations:
- By downloading the file linked to your ChasePlane order in your //42 account.
- In the Start Menu of Windows. (ChasePlane for MSFS20XX)
- In the "p42-util-chaseplane" folder located in your Community folder. (ChasePlane for MSFS20XX)
Enabling/Disabling ChasePlane
If you are using a mod that requires the default camera (custom walkaround, pop-out manager, etc.), you have the option to quickly enable/disable ChasePlane. Here are the multiple ways to do so:
- Click-hold the ChasePlane icon at the top of the ChasePlane window.
- Menu -> Preferences -> Maintenance -> Enable/Disable ChasePlane.
- You can assign a key to Enable/Disable ChasePlane (Toggle) in ChasePlane's Control Assignments.
Note that if the default sim assignments have been removed to prevent conflicts with ChasePlane, the camera cannot be controlled once ChasePlane is disabled. We do not recommend using ChasePlane temporarily alongside the default camera system.