Give back to your community: share your knowledge!

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

"Enthused AVSIM Janitor"Hey, that's my job!Good post Elrond!

[Guest]

Hi All,The brilliance in this community has never ceased to amaze me over the many years I've been lucky enough to be a part. Collectively, this community knows more about Real Flight, Simulated Flight, MS Flight Sim in particular and the Hardware and Tweaks required to keep it humming smoothly than any other place in the world - virtual or "real" (okay, my AVSIM bias might be showing through a tad ;-)). No one man or woman can possibly tap in to every bit of knowledge that continues to be provided within this forum's virtual walls. Or can they?AVSIM has graciously provided the opportunity for every one of us to freely give back to the community in a very unique and lasting way:Help your community by doing your part to build the library!I highly encourage each and every one of you to donate your unique knowledge and experience to the Tips and Tricks library when it comes to the procedures, hardware, tweaks and hints that keep Flight Sim running smoothly - and *us* running Flight Sim smartly. With this resource, we have the opportunity to store - and easily access! - the collective knowledge that has always been so freely given here. With this resource, we finally have the opportunity to organized and easily search this important community provided knowledge base, instead of continually loosing it to the archives of the general forum(s).Please, take a moment of your day to click the [link:forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=177|MS Flight Simulator Tips and Tricks] link that will always be at the top of this forum. Add as much of your knowledge to the library as you are able, and continually encourage your fellow community members to do the same every time you see a valuable piece of Flight Sim related information. Once the ball gets rolling, every one of us will have a resource directly at our fingertips that will become invaluable to our use of Flight Simulator - and our systems that should run it well.Thank you sincerely for your valued participation,Elrond ---[link:forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=177]MS Flight Simulator Tips and TricksEnthused AVSIM Janitor

[Guest]

I knew that sounded too familiar when I wrote it. :-) Well I guess the above proves that imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery. I'll come up with my own "poorer" moniker in future signatures... :-lolThanks,ElrondMS Flight Simulator Tips and TricksEnthused AVSIM Ex-Janitor (I was almost fired!)

[Guest]

Okay, is this any better? :-lolElrond---MS Flight Simulator Tips and TricksEnthused AVSIM Peon - with minor Bucket and Mop duties (they only let me roam near the AVSIM toilets!)

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

:-lolWorks for me.. :-lol

[PeterR 9]

Elrond,Hunting for stuff can be quite time consuming so gathering everything into one place is a great idea. I did a bit of a "stream of consciousness core dump". If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add to it.Everyone,Join in and add tips that you've used or run across. Be sure to read the pinned topic about keywords before you post.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums ModeratorRenegade/Seawolf Design Group (RSDG)[table border=2 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1][tr][td][table border=0 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0][tr][td bgcolor=#540000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align="center" bgcolor=#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us! * [link:bfu.avsim.net|Web Site] * [link:www.cafepress.com/bfu,bfu2,bfu3,bfu4|BFU Store] * [link:bfu.avsim.net/join.htm]Join!][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table

[Guest JonP01]

Hi Elrond,It's great to see you finally have become one of the admin with a moderated forum. I think I speak on behalf of a lot of people that you deserve it. I am glad you are including the version number as one of the keywords. I expect that at any given time, at least two versions of the sim are going to be supported in the "knowledge base. Needless to say as each new version appears, many previous tips and tricks will slide into irrelevance and many new tips will only be appropriate for the most current version.

[Guest]

Thanks for the "stream" Peter - there were some gold mines in there and I learned some great tricks. I look forward to anything else you might have rattling around up there :-).Take care,Elrond---MS Flight Simulator Tips and TricksEnthused AVSIM Peon - with minor Bucket and Mop duties (they only let me roam near the AVSIM toilets!)

[Guest]

Hi Jon,Well, I'm not sure I deserve much more than a kick in the pants, but I more than appreciate the sentiment regardless! :-)I went ahead and edited the existing posts that pertained specifically to 2002 to add that keyword... In the end, you and Peter are right: it'll cause a lot less headaches for people at some point in the future. I hope everyone posting their tips will add the version as well if it does indeed pertain to one specific version.Thanks for kind words,Elrond---MS Flight Simulator Tips and TricksEnthused AVSIM Peon - with minor Bucket and Mop duties (they only let me roam near the AVSIM toilets!)

[Guest]

Hello Elrond,I can not expres how enthousiastic I am that this forum is going to "lift-off". Why might that be ?In the past I wanted to create my own FS-addons (like FS_Modules, FSUIPC.DLL interface programs with Visual Basic or C++).But there is no place on the Internet (not even at the Microsoft "insiders?" or MSDN website) where I could not find a decent tutorial that could teach me in very SIMPLE and ELEMENTAIRY steps "the black art of FS (module / add-on) programming". This felt like running against an invisible silent wall...Yes you are right... I hear you think..You do have the MSFS "SDK's"?? (whatever name you want to give this docs) but after reading them.. I do not have the idea to have enough "FS inside knowledge" to go on to create a FS-module for example. A decent SDK mostly provides a "framework" that starting developer can modify to their own needs. For example:Where is the "MSFS Kernel Graphic" that shows how all modules interact together under the hood, so every add-on developer can understand how it works from the inside out???Add-on Programming Guru's like Adam Szofran(FS6IPC.DLL) and Peter Dowson (FSUIPC.DLL) produced their beautifull works of programming art as a methode to interface with MSFS..But where is the MICROSOFT (100% complete!) documentation of the Flightsimulator API ???? I think the MSFS "sdk's" are barebones material, just enough to keep the MSFS add-on industry going until the next MSFS release..And then they keep on praying that there have not been many internal changes to MSFS...:-( )What do I hope?That this forum will attract add-on developers (from commercial and freeware add-on developmentteams) to encourage them..to share their programming skills, knowledge about "how do I programm a FS module"with simple examples Or even better (but I guess that will still be a dream)Deliver the Open and fully documented Source Code of the product with it (like in the Linux world)Finally a question:Is there going to be an extra "hangar" on AVSIM where all the tips & tricks are going to be "organised", displayed into a website form?Keep up the good Work to share your knowledge with the rest of the (FS)communityRonald VermeijThe Netherlands

[PeterR 9]

Actually, Ronald's post got me to thinking that it'd be great to have a Tips and Tricks subforum in each of the development forums. That would make it a lot easier to find info about how to code this or edit that, what a certain XML parameter is for, as well as to post useful code/macro snippets for panels, scenery, models, etc.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums ModeratorRenegade/Seawolf Design Group (RSDG)

[Guest]

I must have missed your post earlier, so forgive my not replying sooner. You're right Ronald... A resource like the Tips and Tricks forum would be absolutely wonderful. I do agree with Peter however, in that each dev forum (or one dev forum per sim?) should have its own specific Tips and Tricks sub-forum. The amount of knowledge that has been provided in the FS and Fly! dev forums to date by end users is simply staggering. Consolidating all of that into an easily searchable sub-forum would be of tremendous value. Not only for those just beginning to learn (very hard to do with many technical discussions so long past), but for those that want to build upon existing knowledge like yourself.An excellent idea Ronald. Maybe you can convince Tom of its merits and discuss the idea with the dev forum members?Take care,Elrond---MS Flight Simulator Tips and TricksEnthused AVSIM Peon - with minor Bucket and Mop duties (they only let me roam near the AVSIM toilets!)