I've posted before about my idea (fixation?) on finding a way to use a couple of old P33 laptops I have as instrument panel screens for FS. Using WideView etc is no-go, as those programs put the cient machine into slew or pause, in which most of the instruments don't work. I thought that Project Magenta or FreeFS were the answer, but they are written using OpenGL, so the machine they run on needs to be pretty capable just to run them - a P33 with no 3D acceleration just won't cut it.Oh well, @#$%&* it, I'll just have to make my own app. So I did. Here's a screenshot of my home made client computer instrument panel. Running in 640x480 it fills the screen (this screenshot was clipped from a shot taken at 1024 x 768 though). Since it's strictly 2D, and written in Visual Basic, I can run it on any W9x machine, even with only a 2 or 4 MB video card.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/57659.jpgRichard

I meant to add that the area to the left of the flight instruments is deliberately blank - it's for the future addition of engine gauges.Richard

Pretty nice!You can also put radio frequencies there, so that if you build a panel for the thing, make it a bit wider on the left side, and put knobs there just left of the monitor screen so that the frequency "displays" have holes over the screen where the digits show up.Tuomas

That's a possibilty, Tuomas, I didn't bother though because I already have a hardware radio stack using FSLCD.Richard

Richard,Why not with Wideview make the Server with no views ,just instruments and the client your view.Just make sure you dont have a view showing.I know people have used the Matrox on the client for views and usedthe server for instruments only.Wideview 2k2 was not written forhaving instruments on the Clients.I am going to try this myself.RgdsLes

Because with WideView both machines have to be running FS. A P33 laptop with 16Mb of RAM just doesn't cut it, even with no outside views open. This way these old laptops can handle just instrument panels, they don't even have to have FS installed (Which would be hard anyway, they don't have a CD drive). I could even put three or four of them together all running different 'parts' of a glass cockpit, and make a full airliner cockpit all from old machines I could buy for less than $100 each on eBay if I didn't have them already - that's cheaper than buying just flat screens to run off a multiple head video card.Richard

>Because with WideView both machines have to be running FS. A>P33 laptop with 16Mb of RAM just doesn't cut it, even with no>outside views open. This way these old laptops can handle just>instrument panels, they don't even have to have FS installed>(Which would be hard anyway, they don't have a CD drive). >>I could even put three or four of them together all running>different 'parts' of a glass cockpit, and make a full airliner>cockpit all from old machines I could buy for less than $100>each on eBay if I didn't have them already - that's cheaper>than buying just flat screens to run off a multiple head video>card.>>RichardYou can also get the PCI videocards from the Pentiums and stick them to your fast main PC, enable them in Windows and move the gauge panels to those monitors. You need to run FS2004 in windowed mode though since the cards are not DirectX 9 compatible, but it still works very reasonably, you probably wont even lose FPS as long as there is only one main 3D view and the rest are just gauge windows.At least matrox cards work great in addition to a AGP 3d card.Tuomas

Great work Richard!So these are basically bitmaps with masking applied?What's the screen refresh like? Do you get much flickering. I find the VB form refresh is really slow and produces allot of flickering.-Leo

Very nice application you have done.Do you intend to share the program, I would love to have a copyJohan

This looks great! I have an old Toshiba P90 that I've wanted to do something like this with but didn't think it would work. If you decide to share your code I'd love to have a copy. Keep up the good work.Danny

May be a red herring, but I'm pretty damned sure there's a software program out there that allows data to be transmitted over the network without the need for FS running on the client platforms.... I've no idea what it is, but well worth checking.....

Richard...I think there are many more of us out there with the same need...I have 4 (FOUR) perfectly functioning P133 laptops with 64MB RAM and just beautiful DETACHABLE LCD screens! I have tried all manner of ways to use them as my PFD, ND, MFD and CDU screens in my 777...but they just cannot handle the processing (and Memory) load of Project Magenta. Certainly not able to run MSFS regardless of networking options! They don't take PCI or AGP cards...so no help there. Your solution looks quite interesting. Question is how we can build a low cpu-intensive 'copy' of the Project magenta PFD, ND, MFD that runs on these older machines?? Do you think it is possible to program these in using the same application you did yours in?I will also talk to the Project Magenta folks and see if they have a non-GL 'low end' solution for those of us who refuse to part with $4,000 machines!Great start...keep us in the loop.

Are you referring to WideFS?Also, there is FDSWideConnection available from www.flightdecksoftware.com/ which is free and does what you need...As per the documentation:----------------------------------------FDSWideConnection v1.1for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004By Michael De Feyter - Flight Deck Softwarehttp://www.flightdecksoftware.comIntroductionFDSWideConnection consist of a server module and a client tool. It allows external programs to access the MSFS (Microsoft Flight Simulator) variables, made available with the FDSConnection module, over a TCP/IP network. For external programs running on the same computer as the FDSWideConnectionClient tool, it looks exactly like as they were running on the main MSFS computer.----------------------------------------Does this help?Rahul SharmaNew Delhi, India

>>So these are basically bitmaps with masking applied?No, they're ActiveX controls.>>What's the screen refresh like? Do you get much flickering. I find >>the VB form refresh is really slow and produces allot of flickering.There doesn't seem to be any flicker, and the controls look to me just about as jumpy as the native MSFS gauges.Richard

>>Question is how we can build a low cpu-intensive 'copy' of the >>Project magenta PFD, ND, MFD that runs on these older machines?? Do >>you think it is possible to program these in using the same >>application you did yours in?Generally speaking, this app should be able to display anything that can be read from MSFS via FSUIPC.For 'gauge' type dislayes it's just a matter of getting the right look to the display. For 'multiple choice' type text displays it's even easier. Any sort of moving map type display is probably (Almost certainly :( )beyond my skills though.Richard