Simviation Forum - Basic "Glass Cockpit" concept (repost)

Oct 23^rd, 2003 at 12:18am

JBaymore Offline
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This is a starting point for moving prior postings from the "Homebrew Cockpits Survey" thread. Messages will likely get out of the original sequence.

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Reply #1 - Oct 24^th, 2003 at 6:32pm

JBaymore Offline
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Will,

Because of the homebrew cockpit idea..... I decided to pick up a full FSUIPC licence as well as a licence for WideFS (total about $35).... which allows you to run multiple PC's to hook up instrument gauges on discrete screens as what they call a "glass cockpit". That led me to want to write the code to create some of my own custom instruments for those stand alone PC's (those "gauges" operate as stand alone programs accessing current inflight FS data via WideFS and FSUIPC). So I also downloaded the FSUIPC SDK.

THAT was a real find and an interesting read!!!!!!!! BTW..... you can download that SDK for free from the Dowson site and check it out.

Anyway..... going back to our prior discussions about inflight emergencies... from reading the FSUIPC SDK, I gathered that there appears to be some ways using FSUIPC to both read and also WRITE TO data coming from FS2004. So my visual effects file that I am developing using the "I" (smoke) key should be able to be triggered from a VERY short background VB program that is reading variables of choice (what causes the scenario) from the FSUIPC data stream and then start the scenario happening by writing the "I" keppress.

So this emergeency file might get more elaborate. But take more time to do also Angry

.

So.... I'm just starting to plan the layout of my "cockpit" simulator. I think it will be a generic "large jet"....... two or four engine. Not a specific attempt to copy a specific plane. The temptation is there to make a "fighter" cockpit....... but I don't really fly those often at all. Wink

Likely I will just model the left seat side up to about centerline just to the right of the center console...... going to the full width takes lots of space plus about double the controls (and double the eventual $$$$). Plus to be realistic you'd have to "link" the flight controls.... tough to do.

Right now my favorite plane to fly is the BAe 146-200..... and that might end up being the basic model that I work off of for the layout. I have a lot of data already on it.....and use the great model by Jon Murchison.

So..... I'll keep you posted on the effects stuff.

best,

..................john

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Reply #2 - Oct 24^th, 2003 at 6:33pm

JBaymore Offline
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Will,

Forgot to add something on the "glass cockpit" thing using FSUIPC and WideFS......

The extra computers "driving" the monitors that simulate the aircraft gauges don't have to be much of a machine at all. They don't need a mouse, keyboard, sound, and so on. Just a monitor, a basic VGA display card, and something like a PII or PIII running about 200-300 Mhz.

Around here such machines are thrown out. So the three or four extra computers that this might take to set up the cockpit that SOUNDS like an absurd expense...... will cost me little to nothing. I already have two of the four that I expect that I will need fopr what I am planning hanging out in my closet collecting dust Wink

.

I'll think of it as cleaning out the attic Grin

.

best,

............john

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Reply #3 - Oct 24^th, 2003 at 6:35pm

JBaymore Offline
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Will,

I will keep you posted on both the special effects stuff...... and on the homebrew cockpit developments.

Hey... check out the fighter cockpit that this guy built...... it is at his http://members.tripod.com/fcsimulator/ address. Pretty realistic looking....plus a hydraulic canopy. Wink

He's using the "glass cockpit" idea for some of his gauges in that one.

Just got the FSUIPC and WideFS licences installed and running on the home network correctly, and downloaded some freeware instrumentation stand alone gauge programs (sort of like those from Project Magenta ....but not payware).

They work GREAT so far! This "glass" idea makes some things pretty simple.

So now in testing here, on a separate monitor on another (cheap) 300 Mhz PII PC, I can see any one of a number of complex guages running there. And that gauge shown there meshes precisely in real time with the gauges in the default aircraft showing in FS2004. Appears to be absolutely NO hit on framerates at all.

Just flew most of an instrument approach using ONLY the instruments shown on the OTHER PC screens (not looking at the FS2004 screen at all)........... and it worked great. And that gauge is LARGE.... no more squinting at the regular screen when this is all set up. On the FS2004 screen, the attitude indicator gauge might be 1 1/2" tall...... on the other monitor it is something like 9" tall.

So from the ease of this setup so far with the network and data exchange program...... I can see this happening for real. It will be FAR easier in some aspects than I though initially. And thanks for the keyboard hack idea. I was thinking along those lines already..... but your suggestion helped to keep me on track with it.

best,

.....................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #4 - Oct 24^th, 2003 at 6:39pm

JBaymore Offline
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Will + all,

More on the general "software hunt" for the simulated homebrew cockpit:

I found a freeware program on the Project Magenta (payware) site that is called PMsound. Like the other PM stuff, it is set up to run as a stand alone program running minimized on one of the networked computers on the system using FSUIPC and WideFS. It adds various sounds relating to what is happening in the simulator....based on the data stream that fsuipc is accessing. I found that it could be run at the same time as the other freeware flight instrumentation gauges are running.

The thing that will make this setup kinda' unique is that the sound is now being generated on a different machine from the "stock" stereo FS2004 sounds. So you can "locate" the source of that new sound differently in the cockpit environment.

One of the sound sets is "callouts" by the copilot. So if you output the soundcard playing that sound to a speaker in the cockpit located over toward the right seat side...... the sound will come from over there. It will sound more like the copilot talking.

Then you can run a different version of the PMsound program on one of the other computers driving the "glass cockpit" gauges (since you'll likely use at least two additional machines). Because you can select which sound files get played in the PMsound setup...... you can then have another speaker coming from another location in the cockpit...... like say from the panel somewhere for the alert horn sounds.

If you are running a third machine for another flight instrument gauge you could then add a third directional sound location for something like the gound avoidance sounds that PMsound does.

This simple audio stuff will certainly increase the realism effects another notch.

This gets more interesting to me all the time Wink

. And so far not a lot of expense........ "junk" computers running this extra stuff.

best,

................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #5 - Oct 25^th, 2003 at 12:05pm

JBaymore Offline
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Link to FreeFD Glass Cockpit Gauges Software

Here is the main website address for the FreeFD cockpit gauges that allow you to set up a "glass cockpit" using a LAN setup with multiple PC's.

http://freefd.homelinux.com/freefd/

This is one of a number of sources of main glass cockpit gauges. I like the general feel of the stuff along with the "forum".

best,

.....................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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