External cockpit gauges

[Guest coenc]

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?

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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 ?

[Guest coenc]

>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?

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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 ?

[Guest coenc]

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?

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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.

[Guest coenc]

fckng brilliant idea!!!

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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

[Guest coenc]

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?

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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) ......

[Guest coenc]

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

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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 ?

[Guest coenc]

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)

[Guest PoRrEkE]

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 ..

[rickalty 0]

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