Viewing instruments on remote computer

[Michael Moe 495]

love the ideer but cant seem to connect on remote PC . Maybe it is because i have a router(D-link) on top of a stofa router.

 

Why i have this is because you cant setup a homegroup on the Stofa router.

 

Tried port forwarding 8328 but nothing seems to work.

 

Simconnect and Active sky is working great on the remote PC 

[777simmer 117]

I appriciate very much how many fellow simmers with programming skills are trying to improve FSX! (examples are DX10, 1/2Vsync, windows aero fix, etc)

 

So please take my question not as critisism but as a question.

 

I too do not understand yet how this software can help me.

 

What I try to do with all my aircraft is fly VC on my main display and use a second display for my flight instruments and engine instruments.

This way when I pan around in the VC to find switches, or pan to look outside the left/right window, I can still continue my desired flight path (continue a base turn to the runway for example).

 

Many of the aircraft I fly do not have a separate window for flight instruments.

Like my Captsim B727 all instruments are in the VC. Thats it. No 2D panels, nothing.

 

Can this new software copy the flight instruments and engine instruments over to my second display nontheless, or not?

 

Thanks.

[FSX Spy User 0]

Hi Johan, thankyou for sharing this, it's brilliant!  I was on the verge of writing something like this myself, so glad I found this first.

 

I'm using this to build a dedicated cockpit computer for an F/A-18.  I have lots of channels for the various cockpit displays, including external views for rear view monitors (the horizontal flip ability is required here, thanks for including it).

 

I'm currently experimenting with functionality, will soon look at performance tuning.  In particular I'm wanting to run some of the displays using channels of 600x600 pixels at 30Hz+, what do you think are my chances?

 

These high-rate displays are simple black and green, I'm wondering if the transmitted imagery is 24/32-bit full-colour and if so, would performance be increased by offering the option of 8-bit transmission, perhaps by the selection of a single colour channel?  This might also help with HUD extraction, if for example only the pure green parts of an image could be captured?

 

Also would it be possible to add a button to re-position the channel windows without re-starting the server?  FSX seems to like to mess these up when switching saved flights.

 

And a question, if I may.  Does the program capture the whole screen at once then pick out the channels, or does it capture each window separately or individually?

[popovichyr 0]

Where I can download the latest version?Thank.

[jwk737 1]

As it happened, last weekend I updated the front page of FSXSpy website to reflect the latest 1.0.3 release that is currently in beta. I must have deleted the download links while doing so, fortunately I could recover them with a few mouse clicks.

 

The 1.0.3 release will be available very shortly and contains:

 

- highly improved capture engine, using direct3d instead of gdi allowing

- panels can stay invisibile after setup

- mouse clicks send back to fsx

- http (web) server build-in.

 

Yes, that's a complete web DCU. The single channel version will still be freeware, the multichannel cockpit edition will probably become available as payware and contains much more features and goodies. The latter being specially suited for home cockpit builders.

 

Right now you can only download the 0.5 version, 1.0.3 is in beta but should not take more that 1 or 2 weeks from now.

 

Read all about it at https://sites.google.com/site/jwk737/home/fsx-spy

 

Cheers,

Johan

[jwk737 1]

I'm currently experimenting with functionality, will soon look at performance tuning. In particular I'm wanting to run some of the displays using channels of 600x600 pixels at 30Hz+, what do you think are my chances?

 

That is definitely going to impact your frame rate. I think you´d better hold your breath until the 1.0.3 release. Then you can hide the panels regaining fps almost as not displaying them at all.

 

 

 

These high-rate displays are simple black and green, I'm wondering if the transmitted imagery is 24/32-bit full-colour and if so, would performance be increased by offering the option of 8-bit transmission, perhaps by the selection of a single colour channel? This might also help with HUD extraction, if for example only the pure green parts of an image could be captured?

 

I am experimenting with rle and other more graphically suitable encoders. Right now 0.5 is just jpeg and 1.0.3 is motion jpg.

 

 

Also would it be possible to add a button to re-position the channel windows without re-starting the server? FSX seems to like to mess these up when switching saved flights.

 

Doesn´t flipping the `bounds´ checkbox takes care of that?

 

 

 

And a question, if I may. Does the program capture the whole screen at once then pick out the channels, or does it capture each window separately or individually?

 

Sure, only complete windows (that's why they must be undocked) are captioned. The selection in the server sets the parts that will be transmitted.

 

HTH

Johan

[popovichyr 0]

How much will it cost about pro version?

[FSX Spy User 0]

Hi Johan, sorry to bombard you with questions:

 

 

 

Doesn´t flipping the `bounds´ checkbox takes care of that?

 

It does, at least when the FSX Spy server is started.  But if I later change the FSX flight then it appears that FSX can mess up the window positions?  I'm using the Panel Position utility to correct this when it happens but it would be easier to do everything from one application.

 

I'll see if I can replicate this, if so I'll tell you the precise sequence of actions to make it happen.  I'm running in windowed mode if that helps.

 

Also it appears that the FSX Spy server window and client channel window can appear at different positions between runs?  Assuming that's not something to do with my system it would be great if they could remember their screen positions too.

 

 

 

I am experimenting with rle and other more graphically suitable encoders. Right now 0.5 is just jpeg and 1.0.3 is motion jpg.

 

RLE would probably work very well for the black / green screens I mentioned.

 

Will the next version offer jpeg / motion jpeg as options?  I ask because I'm not sure how my system will handle motion jpeg, it would be good to maintain backward compatibility with the current version.

 

 

 

Sure, only complete windows (that's why they must be undocked) are captioned. The selection in the server sets the parts that will be transmitted.

 

My question is really this; are you capturing the whole screen once per cycle and then taking the undocked window images from this single sample (subject to their configured rates), or are you capturing the undocked windows individually via multiple captures per cycle?  I ask out of interest really, it would seem to me that one sample of the whole screen per cycle would be the most efficient but I haven't written my own capture program so it may not work quite as I expect?

 

What are your thoughts on capturing multiple channels from the same window?

 

Regarding the client, it appears to me the window positioning isn't quite as convenient as on the server.  I really like the server's numeric inputs for window adjustment, if this could be replicated on the client end I would be very pleased.  Especially if the windows could be adjusted like this with their borders hidden, I'm finding precise window positioning on the client to be difficult.  I really like how the server part does these things!

 

Finally might it be possible to overlay (as an option) the actual frame rate being achieved by any client window?  That would help greatly with performance tuning.

 

Thankyou!

Oh, one more thing:

 

On my system I'm using an FSX Spy server and client on the same machine.  Are there / could there be any optimisations available in this situation, e.g. not doing any sort of compression / decompression, rather just blit the image more-or-less direct?

 

Thanks.

[saskarider 13]

I use 2 monitors in extended desktop setting and slide the instruments I want over to the second monitor.

[jwk737 1]

Hi, thanks. Some interesting suggestions, I'll keep them in mind.

Also it appears that the FSX Spy server window and client channel window can appear at different positions between runs? Assuming that's not something to do with my system it would be great if they could remember their screen positions too.

 

The viewers do, no need for the server I guess. You do have to explicitly save the viewers layout with the button in the channel guide, maybe that is it?

Will the next version offer jpeg / motion jpeg as options?

 

Configurable. An image like e.g. a cdu requires and other encoding that e.g. a graphical pfd.

Regarding the client, it appears to me the window positioning isn't quite as convenient as on the server.

 

Positioning is simply dragging with the mouse. Resize is mousewheel with shift and/or control et al. But I see your point. Maybe we need an advanced config editor or the like.

 

Relating capturing, that has completely changed in v1.0.3. It hooks itself inside the directx render engine and tees the surfaces on request even before being rendered on the screen. The v0.5 way was experimental, not optimized gdi and is now obsolete. Please hangon until 1.0.3, you'l be surprised .

 

Gr,

Johan

[_LN_ 0]

Starting to look very interesting, Johan, bedankt!

[Lucas777 0]

Interesting.

So it´s a payware, do you offer full support over the software?

[jwk737 1]

Yes sure. It's based on the same beta that is out now for the free version.So both versions will benefit from each other in that regard. I hope to find a suitable forum too though, were people can help each other much quicker and often from a more practical view then the author.

 

Johan

[Lucas777 0]

Hi Johan, I tested the new version and found 2 main issues.

 

- I have a fully functional LAN but there is no way to connect from clients, either using the viewer or a web browser.

- When I add a recorder (ND) my FPS go from 30 to 15.

 

Regards.

[jwk737 1]

Hello Lucas,

Could you add a little bit of info on this please?

Console:
- Do the panels (recorders) show up in the recorders pane, assuming you do have undocked panels?
- When you select a recorder, does it show up in the preview pane, check "Live"?
- Does your fps drop already at this stage?

Please you do a ctrl-C (copy) in the log pane and ctrl-V (paste) it in a pm so I have a look at it.

NB: the "always on top" option in the console also makes the console transparent, which is very usefull for alligning and experimenting but is a real fps killer (everything has to drawn twice). Please switch is off

Web client:

- What do you see when pointing your browser to localhost:8737 from the fsx machine?
- What do you see when pointing your browser to <fsxmachine>:8737 from another machine (fsxmachine is either the name or an ipaddress)

Viewers:

On vhhx, in the NGX, fps drops from 34 to 31 on my machine, which is to be expected. Just the existence of extra panels takes extra time to compose, even though they maybe hidden and thus not presented.

Thanks and Regards,
Johan