Hi all,I've been spreading my thoughts about programming external cockpit gauges. I've come up with a algoritm to display the hand(s) of a gauge. Using any background picture as the face of the dial, I think we don't need OpenGL anymore. Just a BMP or a JPEG will do just fine.This configurable gauge should be able to produce speedometer, altimeter, engineRPM, etc, etc... Details can be found on http://home.planet.nl/~coppo020/cockpit/de...loguegauges.htmWhat do you think, do you have any suggestions?

That is very interesting and somewhat exactly what I was looking for. This could work for my engine gauges so that I can take the bgrnd from Espens panel. All I need is a white needle or a white bar (up/down).But this won't work for virtual horizons etc right ?

>That is very interesting and somewhat exactly what I was>looking for. This could work for my engine gauges so that I>can take the bgrnd from Espens panel. All I need is a white>needle or a white bar (up/down).>>But this won't work for virtual horizons etc right ?You can have even PINK needles if you want, any comments are welcome.Anything that has a round clock-like interface can be made with this gauge. I could even spread my thoughts about a bar shape.Engine gauges are perfect for that matter.BTW: What is bgrnd?

lol*dutch*wat is bgrnd ? wat is postbode zonder o ? (facteur) .. maar zo zeggen ze 't niet in NL eh ;p*/dutch*bgrnd = background but only a few letters .. like thnx and such .. handy to type.ok then you could do clock-type .. possibly bar-type .. how about adding numbers shown on the gauges ?

you fckng blgns!!!! You mean bckgrnd!In my case, the numbers are on the bmp or jpg, just like in the attachment here.But I guess we can make it without a background picture, so that you can use your own bckgrnd. You'll only see a (white) hand......I guess you need multiple different gauges on 1 picture?

what I meant with numbers was not the ones going around in the cirkle. The ones I mean are like digital numbers right under the center point of the needle which show the value in digits which the needle points at in analogue way.

fckng brilliant idea!!!

now is the question ... can you do THAT ?

It just so happens that I'm not blgn, so I guess I should be able to pull this off. Not a word of code has been written, though.Neat idea about the digital numbers!!! That's surely going in.I WAS thinking about a single gauge that could be executed multiple times at the same time. You'd probably prefer one big panel with multiple gauges?

Think that's easy yeah .. unless each gauge has an ini file which it will read to determin where it should position itself on a display (top & left values) ......

remember screen positions in a .ini file. That's a Windows standard.Check!The ini-file (or command line parameters) will probably look like this[.ini]background="ADF.jpg"screenposition=640x480startdegrees=360stopdegrees=360showdigitalvalues=Y/N

now make it possible to chose font for the digitvalues ? and size ?and the final question .. you think it's possible to have a rose which rotates as well ? so say like a compas ?then you could do an ADF gauge as well ..and more than 1 needle ?

A moving rose would not be possible, that would require OpenGL.This idea is about a moving needle(s) centering on a background picture.I've just now succesfully connected to FDSConnect with VB, reading all parameter values from FS2004. (FDSConnect is freeware version of FSUIPC)

we all know fdsconnect ;)none the less i don't use it. simply because the project seams to be dead and if you get updates or answers to questions they are sooooo slow! I recently had an answer to a question I asked a few months back which obviously was no longer an issue cuz I had moved to fsuipc.I have no idea how gauges work in fs .. but I don't think they use OpenGL, do they ? I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to do something similar outside fs in an exe ..

coenc:"A moving rose would not be possible, that would require OpenGL."Sorry, not so. This...http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/86511.gifis my General Aviation external cockpit panel, and it's all in Visual Basic with no OpenGL, not even the compass rose.Richard