FSX-MS Razbam Metroliner Released

[David Bourne 1]

Looks great David...how are the sounds? Any conflict or does it work okay as is?

 

Will try to install shortly too.

I've not properly tested it for sounds yet, but certainly I can tell you that it's not affecting any of the existing sounds on the Metroliner.   In other words it's not stopping the DSD_XML that the standard aircraft uses, from working. 

[lzamm 143]

David, Purr, perhaps I wasn't clear but my first version did not include any sounds, one reason being so it would not upset Bjeorn's mod before I tested it.

 

Following Bjoern's suggestion, I have now produced a merged ini file so that the same instance of the dsdsound gauge can be used (this is neater than using two!).  The new version now has sounds and works well with or without Bjoern's mod.

 

To keep the installation simple, I have decided to move the cab file to the gauges folder; if you have installed my previous version, be sure to remove the cab file from the panel folders.

 

Files here.

[Purr 119]

Izamm, great--I successfully installed the earlier version but will try the new version later on today. Definitely is more readable as a gauge : )

 

Thanks for your work on this! 

 

(ps. since you are a gauge guru, any way you might be able to tweak a bit more functionality into the autopilot? : )

eg. ability to control vertical speed?

 

I know that most metros don't have an autopilot but the way Razbam did this one doesn't measure up to the rest of the aircraft, imho.

[David Bourne 1]

David, Purr, perhaps I wasn't clear but my first version did not include any sounds, one reason being so it would not upset Bjeorn's mod before I tested it.

That's fine Izamm, I never missed the sounds to be honest.    What you're planning with the merge sounds great though.    It's a great gauge; many thanks for your efforts.

[lzamm 143]

Hi Purr,

     Thanks for your kind words.  But I'm in no way a guru, I've just been playing about with these things in the evenings for my own enjoyment and this is the first time I've shared one of my "products".

 

Regarding the autopilot, the simplest way is to replace Razbam's monstrosity (which looks nothing like the KP140 they say it is) with the FSX Cessna default:

 

[Window02]
...

//gauge00     = Metro_IIIC!M3_KP_140,           0,0,653, 237,
gauge00     = Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP,           0,0,400,80

 

 You will not be able to turn off the autopilot (you have to use the Metro's yaw damper switch) or enter or exit altitude hold (you have to use the Metro's alt arm switch) but otherwise you will get all the functions you are used to.

 

On the other hand, the autopilot model used by FSX - and Razbam in this case - is flawed.  Changing the altitude setting should have absolutely no effect on the plane's behaviour whether it is being hand flown or under autopilot, all the alerter should do is (as its name implies) alert the pilot when close to the desired altitude and if armed, signal the autopilot to engage altitude hold when it gets there. The altitude selector should never command a climb or descent: you set it to the next altitude and then start the altitude change in a separate action, either using the yoke or by engaging VS on the autopilot.

 

It is in fact quite easy to fool the FSX autopilot into behaving in this way - I do it on all my Carenados - however Razbam have hard-coded the altitude alerter button to engage the altitude hold mode in one of their system files, which is why you can't change it from the autopilot and why I can't make it behave like it should.  Actually I can, but only because I've hacked the system file and removed the offending line of code.  Obviously I can't share that, but I have since thought of a couple of other ways of doing this and if there's interest in a realistic autopilot - with or without VS - I may give it a shot.

[David Bourne 1]

Won't making the following tweak to the aircraft.cfg stop the APs in FSX from automatically climbing/descending when Alt is changed ?

 

[autopilot]

default_vertical_speed=0

[lzamm 143]

Never tried that David, always went for the more complicated solution:)

 

Added by edit:  Sure does, and would have shortened my code by a couple of lines if I'd used it... though when modding other people's aircraft I prefer doing as much as possible in the gauge and not modifying the aircraft.cfg unless I really have to.

 

Doesn't help with the metro problem however, as engaging alt arm when far from the selected altitude causes the aircraft to level off and you lose pitch control - OK if you want to use VS I suppose but that's really not the point.

[David Bourne 1]

 

 

Doesn't help with the metro problem however, as engaging alt arm when far from the selected altitude causes the aircraft to level off and you lose pitch control - OK if you want to use VS I suppose but that's really not the point.

 

Yes, I noticed that too Izamm.   Very odd that Razbam have implemented this weird hybrid, botched autopilot.   It would have been better if they had implemented nothing at all, or just put a default unit in as a pop-up window.  :smile:

[lzamm 143]

Something like this perhaps?

 

Drop the CAB file into the gauges or panel folder and edit panel.cfg:

 

[Window02]
Background_color=0,0,0
window_pos  = 0.000, 0.000
size_mm     = 400,120
visible     = 0
ident       = MISC_POPUP_2
gauge00     = LZ_AP!KAP140,           0,0,400, 120
 

[David Bourne 1]

Great work (again) Izamm - thanks!

[Samaritano 304]

Thanks Bjoern and Izamm for these fantastic mods. Question for Izamm, you say that 

Arne Bartel's Traffic Radar module is needed for TCAS to work. I downloaded the package but

I'm a little confused as how to install and what to install. Any tips you may want to share?

 

Thanks

[lzamm 143]

Hi Samaritano,

        To install the traffic radar, put the TrafficRadar.dll (you will find it in the Modules folder of the downloaded zip file) into the Modules folder of your FSX installation, and edit the dll.xml file to include the following:

 

(previous entry)

</Launch.Addon>   

......

    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>Traffic Radar</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <Path>.\Modules\TrafficRadar.dll</Path>     
    </Launch.Addon>
.......

</SimBase.Document>

 

 

Don't include the dots, they're just there to show you where to put it, Also,in the <Path> line, don't forget the dot before the backslash.

[Samaritano 304]

Great. Thanks a lot.

[Bjoern 1,153]

Added by edit:  Sure does, and would have shortened my code by a couple of lines if I'd used it... though when modding other people's aircraft I prefer doing as much as possible in the gauge and not modifying the aircraft.cfg unless I really have to.

 

Hah! I'd have never gotten the APU to work that way!

 

Does your AP fix enable the VS selector?

[lzamm 143]

 

 

Does your AP fix enable the VS selector?

 

Depends on what you mean by that Bjoern.  The AP "fix" is really just a replacement for the one provided by Razbam, working the same way except with a bit more functionality and (imo) a nicer display.

 

The autopilot has VS buttons that work once alt arm is selected, whether on the autopilot itself or on the altitude selector. And setting the default vertical speed to zero in the aircraft.cfg as suggested by David does result in more realistic behaviour.