OK, I have been putting quite a bit of time in to xp 10 to see if it will work for me. Most of the time spent so far has been playing with graphics to ensure I get ok performance with eyefinity and I think it will be ok in that respect. The next part that is important to me ( maybe I am spoilt..) is the switches/instruments. I am a bit of a pit builder and in the past I have made all sorts of pits with extra displays and real switches etc. A while ago I owned about 9/10 go flight modules which I used in FSX and one of my pits but as I started to fly more time in other sims they were not paying for themselves as I could only use them in FSX. So at one point I made an ipad app that replaced those and it worked ok. Boy, I still remember a lot of hours in solidworks modelling the panels so I could render them for the app! Then later on I found an application called helios and started to use it on a 23" touch screen. As much as I like the feel of real switches etc I feel you just cannot beat the versatility of having lots of different cockpits available on a touchscreen. In the picture with helios I can control every switch and radio. I can bring up hidden panels from the sides so that I have access to every part of the cockpit there. I tune radios by putting my finger on the dial and drawing little circles. I believe xplane does similar on their ipad app. I know that xplane has an ipad efis app but I am not interested in that. I reckon the touchscreen is the way forward for me and it works on my other sims, a10, black shark, falcon, fsx. From what I have read it doesnt seem I can add another panel (window) and drag it to my touchscreen as I can in fsx. Am I right or wrong? I can't go back to clicking panels in VC again..Thanks,Jason

Can't answer your question but I have to say that is a SICK setup!!!!My wife thinks I'm crazy with just my Saitek X52!?

Sweet!!!!

That is one awesome setup Jason. I love how you have left the film on the bases of those LG tv's, LOL. Looks too new! Can I just ask did you design the software that goes on the touch screen? Or is that part of the Helios program or A10. I'm very curious about this for my next simpit. If I had that setup I wouldn't leave the house!Rhydian

Oooops just answered my own question, should have googled it first :-) Just came across the SCSimulations website. Time to some research, I think.

Hi Rhydian, leaving the plastic on was me being too lazy. I think I have had them for near 6 months and it's still there :) The software on helios is a profile that I downloaded from their website. A number of people have uploaded various profiles they have made. Right now helios only supports a10, blackshark and falcon. By support I mean it can interface and show working replica gauges, control and show radios, frequencies and other instruments in with back and forwards communications - I.e. update the radio in game and the frequency will update correctly in helios. It can be used for other games, for instance you could just go in to photoshop and make some buttons (or choose from the many in helios's panel builder) then arrange them on screen and tell helios what keyboard commands you want it to send. These can be straight keyboard presses or macros or you can associate a button with a more complex lua script. Just at them moment I am having a look around to see how xplane can export aircraft information so that I could get gauges working on helios as well. I did a video the other day to play around with my new phone. You can see helios on my setup with this profile here, just skip to around 2:50http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4ecRV89rY0Thanks,Jason

Thanks for the reply Jason. This is definitely something I need to look into. I built my simpit using Simkits gauges (see my sig), they are OK, very expensive but I don't feel that they are as fluid as I would have liked. A couple of fellas on the mycockpit.org website have recommended using project magenta which is something I have been looking into. But I have been thinking of making something that uses an iPad running Aerosofts radiostack alongside a project magenta GAIFR panel instead as well as conventional toggles and push button using a keyboard mapper. But your Helios idea is something I have never seen before and it looks well worth looking into. What's the refresh rate like on the gauges that SCsimulations provide? Are they pretty smooth? I like how you can upload and download panels from their website, that a clever idea. I'm surprised they haven't tapped the market for civilian sims as well. Great video as well. Thanks Rhydian

The gauges are very smooth, as good as in game so I am very happy there. I think the work required to get in to the civ market was a bit of a killer, time wise and effort. Helios is now free but they accept donations. From my experience with developing against FSX there are a few problems. The FSX SDK is a bit limited, not all functionality is available. I would think that scsimulations would need to use the functioanlity of fsuipc but then they need to enter an arrangement to do that. I think with all the work to get the other sims going it was too hard and time consuming. I think xplane offers a better structure to extract the aircraft data so who knows, one day. I have spoken to the developer on different things and he is looking to create an sdk for it so that you or I or anyone else could do the integration work to add different sims like xplane.

The northern lights the rain effects needs a good update!

The gauges are very smooth, as good as in game so I am very happy there. I think the work required to get in to the civ market was a bit of a killer, time wise and effort. Helios is now free but they accept donations. From my experience with developing against FSX there are a few problems. The FSX SDK is a bit limited, not all functionality is available. I would think that scsimulations would need to use the functioanlity of fsuipc but then they need to enter an arrangement to do that. I think with all the work to get the other sims going it was too hard and time consuming. I think xplane offers a better structure to extract the aircraft data so who knows, one day. I have spoken to the developer on different things and he is looking to create an sdk for it so that you or I or anyone else could do the integration work to add different sims like xplane.

That's a shame. I suppose FSX is also a little different than something like DCS-A10 where you have just the one aircraft to simulate. I've seen some of the iPad apps that you can get for the DCS-A10 software, I think it's a fantastic idea. Must give it a try one day. The Helios SDK sounds promising though. The other problem is touch screen hardware. I hardly see screens on the market, and they tend to be at a premium. I see you have a HP model, was it a reasonable price? CheersRhydian

I paid around $320NZD, including our 15% tax which is just under $240 USD but usually its cheaper in the states anyway. A lot of people are using the HP or acer screens with helios. DCS is a really nice sim, even if you dont want to blow things up it's a nice jet to fly around with and learn the avionics. Yes, lots of addons for it. I was the first person to put the a10 cdu on an ipad but I lost interest when helios came out so I never finished the project and some others took up the slack and now sell a10 ipad apps. There is also other cool stuff like tars for multiplayer. I am not sure if there is similar for xplane/fsx. With tars it integrates teamspeak in to the game so you can only hear people on the same freqs on your radios. It also simulates distance, earth curvature, mountains in the way etc so it sounds very realistic. The versatility of the touch screen mounted where I have it is great. If I was to have only one real instrument as well it would probably be a radio as they are easier to tune with real knobs but the touchscreen is still good for them.

I paid around $320NZD, including our 15% tax which is just under $240 USD but usually its cheaper in the states anyway. A lot of people are using the HP or acer screens with helios. DCS is a really nice sim, even if you dont want to blow things up it's a nice jet to fly around with and learn the avionics. Yes, lots of addons for it. I was the first person to put the a10 cdu on an ipad but I lost interest when helios came out so I never finished the project and some others took up the slack and now sell a10 ipad apps. There is also other cool stuff like tars for multiplayer. I am not sure if there is similar for xplane/fsx. With tars it integrates teamspeak in to the game so you can only hear people on the same freqs on your radios. It also simulates distance, earth curvature, mountains in the way etc so it sounds very realistic. The versatility of the touch screen mounted where I have it is great. If I was to have only one real instrument as well it would probably be a radio as they are easier to tune with real knobs but the touchscreen is still good for them.

I'm from the UK, Wales to be precise, still gutted that we didn't get to meet you in the rugby world cup ;-( You deserved to win it though. :-) Unfortunately electronics of any kind is expensive here too (although nowhere near as expensive as NZ, we have friends in Auckland and I was stunned to see the prices of anything with a circuit board in your shops - I feel for you guys). I still find it strange that with the touch capabilities of Win7 and with Win8 looming and Microsoft practically using it as a main feature, I'm surprised that there is not more touchscreens available. I like the tactile feel of buttons etc so I am not sure how much I would miss them by using a touch screen. With your excellent setup I bet you don't miss them. I think I saw a 23" HP screen on the market for about £260, which isn't that bad, I'd pay more than that for a joystick controller and a ton of toggle switches so it works out quite cost effective.Rhydian

Hmm, yes, interesting but I am not sure of what you are trying to say ;)

My last post was because I couldn't see anything you wrote in your previous one but now that it has appeared my post looks a bit dumb.. It wont let me edit it either. OK, no worries. (I think that is a NZ and Welsh saying) Some things are expensive but they have had their good times, perhaps not as good as in the states but electronics have seemed a lot more affordable lately. Yes, the world cup was a nail biter for us, we would have been labeled the biggest chokers of all if we let it slip again and to france of all countries. I empathised with you guys having a red card at the beginning of the match. I have a couple of welsh friends and I heard what they were saying, welsh accent and all in my head at the time, they were not with me :) If you saw more of my video you would have seen I made mention of the extender on my warthog. I made one for myself and showed it on a forum, someone asked if I would sell them one and now I have made over 60 of them which paid for the monitors, warthog and a computer upgrade. The hobby paying for itself was a first for me :) Anyway, back to the thread, watch this space. I am talking more to the helios developer and if all goes well I will try to put together an interface with helios so that it can be used with xplane. While I am still deciding if xplane is for me, my enthusiasm to try new things usually lasts long enough to get something like this up and running, besides I need it to be working or I am not happy. I spent some time making a FSX ipad app and I my start with using the controls I made for it. They were from a 737 but they are usable in pretty much anything, here is the autopilot I did a while back. I also made the other common panels, comms , nav, adf etc. I think you have to click on it to see it bigger.

My last post was because I couldn't see anything you wrote in your previous one but now that it has appeared my post looks a bit dumb.. It wont let me edit it either. OK, no worries. (I think that is a NZ and Welsh saying) Some things are expensive but they have had their good times, perhaps not as good as in the states but electronics have seemed a lot more affordable lately. Yes, the world cup was a nail biter for us, we would have been labeled the biggest chokers of all if we let it slip again and to france of all countries. I empathised with you guys having a red card at the beginning of the match. I have a couple of welsh friends and I heard what they were saying, welsh accent and all in my head at the time, they were not with me :) If you saw more of my video you would have seen I made mention of the extender on my warthog. I made one for myself and showed it on a forum, someone asked if I would sell them one and now I have made over 60 of them which paid for the monitors, warthog and a computer upgrade. The hobby paying for itself was a first for me :) Anyway, back to the thread, watch this space. I am talking more to the helios developer and if all goes well I will try to put together an interface with helios so that it can be used with xplane. While I am still deciding if xplane is for me, my enthusiasm to try new things usually lasts long enough to get something like this up and running, besides I need it to be working or I am not happy. I spent some time making a FSX ipad app and I my start with using the controls I made for it. They were from a 737 but they are usable in pretty much anything, here is the autopilot I did a while back. I also made the other common panels, comms , nav, adf etc. I think you have to click on it to see it bigger.

Hi Jason,Yes, on behalf of Wales can i please say thank you for beating the French by one point (not that I have anything against them of course), but since they knocked us out of the competition by the same margin, the final score was all the sweeter....or should I say, SWEET AS! That's something I heard a lot in NZ, I use over here now too.I think I remember you posting about your 737 panel a while back. Is it still in development? It looks fantastic by the way. I definitely think you would have a market for something like that if it could integrate with the PMDG 737 as their SDK will be released shortly. As well as the IXEG 737 Classic ( http://ixeg.net/gallery ) which has blown me away with their systems modelling and attention to detail. These two companies (and many others) are making flight simulation as a whole, very exciting. I like that people (like yourself) are trying to find new and innovative ideas to interact with the simulator also, it reminds me why love it so much.You mentioned hiding your bezels on the video, have you seen the video below? It's a gentleman named Bob who runs RCSimulations in Bristol in the UK. Nice guy always trying to push the boundary, fair play to him. I would have never thought of using Windows 7's portrait option along with eyefinity, I think it works out to be rather expensive though. I saw an eyefinity setup with 6 screens the other day and I am trying to convince the wife that we need it in our study. It isn't going to well, but i am still working on it. It looks like a similar system to yours, without the touch screen. I think he uses project magenta and simCat5 which is an interface over CAT5 which i think is rather novel. Worth a watch.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlNG2GTHehk&feature=player_embedded#!CheersRhyd