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TextInfo Gauge (Shift-Z replacement) updated info (Read 1501 times)

Oct 20^th, 2012 at 9:37pm

Pville211 Offline
Lieutenant Colonel

Posts: 5

A couple of days ago I uploaded an XML gauge script called TextInfo Gauge that is intended to be a replacement for the Shift-Z on-screen data display. It is a popup panel with a transparent background that displays only text and operational data. I'm not a programmer, but it works well with my aircraft so I thought I would share it with the FS community.

After posting it I resolved a couple of issues and wanted to provide updated information. Two issues with the original script are that it is not usable in full-screen mode (covers up the main window), and in a couple of aircraft the gauge runs, but doesn't display anything or locks up. I now have both issues resolved in my environment. Here are the changes I made:

TextInfoGauge.xml

- <Size X="100" Y="200" /> (at top of script; original is 240,640)

- <FormattedText X="100" Y"200" (original is 238,638)

- FontSize="8" (original is 16)

- Tabs="0L, 17L" (original is 0L,30L,48L)

Panel.cfg (in Panel folder of individual aircraft)

- In [Windowxx] settings I added a line: Sizeable=0

- size_mm=100, 200 (original is 240,640)

As noted in the instructions, the display size for each aircraft is controlled in the panel.cfg file via the windowsize_ratio=x setting. If you don't see the data display then try a larger setting.

Question: Does anyone know how to display text that does not look washed out against bright backgrounds (like clouds)? The text looks great at night or when the background behind the text is dark, but in the daytime it's not great.

I've tried various fonts types, colors, sizes, weights and bolding, without success. I appreciate any suggestions because I'm out of ideas.

Thanks!

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Reply #1 - Nov 18^th, 2012 at 9:08am

Pville211 Offline
Lieutenant Colonel

Posts: 5

A steady stream of people have been viewing my original post, so I wanted to provide some closure to my question about text clarity when a transparent text background is displayed on a bright simulator background.

The text uses a tiny bit of black shading around the edges of the letters and in the small spaces within some letters (e.g. the open space in "e", the hooked tail of "g", etc.). This effect is not apparent when the text has a transparent background on a dark simulator background. Against a bright background, such as a cloud, the effect is very apparent and makes the text look rough.

I uploaded TextInfo Gauge 2.0 last night. In addition to various other improvements it now uses a black background that eliminates the text clarity issue.

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Reply #2 - Dec 27^th, 2012 at 12:37am

Spirit_66 Offline
2nd Lieutenant
I Love Simviation.
Chiang Mai/Thailand

Gender:
Posts: 1

Hi,
downloaded your very nice xml-gauge because I want to get rid of the hard to read shift+z text.
I hope you don't mind that I played a little bit around with it and still learned a lot of things about xml-gauge programing.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any information if it's possible to get the FPS into the gauge.
Do you have any idea about this?
Thanks a lot
Spirit

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Reply #3 - Jan 5^th, 2013 at 1:43am

Pville211 Offline
Lieutenant Colonel

Posts: 5

Sorry, I don't think it's possible to get FPS as a data readout. I wanted to include it, but could not find a simulation variable for it. I suspect they included it in the Shift-Z output because Shift-Z is a debugging tool.

As regards messing around with the TextInfo Gauge script code, I'm hoping that people do exactly that. I am not a programmer and not an advanced FSX user. I wanted an improved Shift-Z capability, so I cobbled it together after many hours of sifting through forums and looking at the scripts for existing gauges. It will be interesting to see what other people do to improve my little scripting project.

FSX XML reference information falls into two categories: general concepts and advanced techniques. Finding basic, functional how-do-I-do-it info is difficult. There are a few resources, but they focus on just a few things and typically skip one or two steps that they assume people will know. There does not appear to be an A-Z step-by-step reference.

TextInfo Gauge includes a variety of basic functions, such as using variables, color coding and percentage calculations. I wrote the user doc with an eye towards helping other beginner XML scripters.

The two best resources I found were:

FSX SDK - it may already be installed on your PC (Start > All Programs > MS Games > MS FSX > MS FSX SDK) or do an online search for 'MSDN Creating XML Gauges'.

FSDeveloper.com - The message threads in FSDeveloper include many examples of script code.

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