FSX season

[Paul-Henri 0]

Hello,

 

I'd like to change season in FSX using simConnect (or FSUIPC), but I can't find documentation about this.

Maybe it is not possible.... Can someone help ?

 

Thanks !

Paul-Henri

[ZG862 1]

Hi Paul-Henri,

 

The season is held (amongst other places) in the .flt file. One way to change it is to use the Windows API's WritePrivateProfileString() function to write to the "Season=" entry in the "DateTimeSeason" section before you load the flight. I have yet to try to change season once the simulation is loaded and don't know if this is even possible (I suspect not but am happy to be corrected).

 

If you take a look in the variables section of the SDK documentation (located in the SDK folder of wherever you've installed the SDK and named "sdk overview.html") there are likely to be reference to date/time/season settings.

 

Cheers,

 

Z

[Paul-Henri 0]

Hi Z !

 

Thank you for your answer ! Changing the "Season" parameter in the file is something I can do, but of course, it would be better to change it dynamically without relaoding the flight.... I will look at the documentation you mentionned to check if it is possible directly through the SDK.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul-Henri

[ZG862 1]

Hi Paul-Henri.

 

Can I ask what you are trying to achieve? It sounds a bit like you want to be flying along then have the surface textures change instantly - which seems a little odd. Do you have something a little more cunning in mind?

 

Also, I've never tried setting the date just before the season cut off and seeing what happens as the day changes. I suspect that FSX loads the season textures as the flight initialises and then sticks with what has been loaded, which may mean that dynamically changing in-flight is not possible. Like I said though, I've never tried it but would be interested to know the results. If it can change from day to night textures dynamically then perhaps this is the same?

 

Cheers,

 

Z

PS/ You can certainly load a new flight programmatically if that is your issue. Ask if you need more details as I'm doing this a lot at the moment.

[Paul-Henri 0]

Hi Z,

 

I think you are right. Probably FSX loads the season's corresponding texture at the beginning of the flight.

When I dynamically change the hour (to change from day to night), FSX reloads textures... Never did the test with a date just before the season cut (may be interresting !).

 

The reason why I wanted to dynamically change the season is that the luminosity/brightness of the sceneries varies according to the selected season, and on the simulator (Aibus A320) we have build, we find that brightness is not very good. I though it could be from the selected season. But as you explained, this information is not based upon the current PC date, but is present in the flight file. So that changing dynamically the season is no more a requirement. As you suggested, I will just patch the flight file to be sure that the season is summer to have a better brightness.

 

Many thanks for your help !

 

Cheers,

 

Paul-Henri

[ZG862 1]

You're welcome, Paul-Henri.

Sounds like a very interesting project you have.

 

It seems to me that as soon as one starts to experiment with non-trivial hardware, the integrated model found in FSX's architecture starts to break down a bit. In my prototype, I want the aircraft to always be where I left it (unless I explicitly choose differently from an instructor station) with systems updated to reflect such things as reduction in battery charge etc. This has necessitated playing around with the FLT files in the way I suggest above which seems to work well. My client application initialises separately from FSX, makes whatever changes I require to the file then copies it across the network to the FSX machine and after establishing a SimConnect connection (well, 3 connections actually) loads it. From what I could find out, most elements of the flight file can be changed dynamically using SimConnect functions but it just seems simpler to me to do the bulk of the work in the file. The bit I haven't yet figured out how to do is establish the simulator state programmatically, which doesn't matter so much at the moment but will become important to achieving fault tolerance.

 

Anyway, best of luck with your project. Look forward to hearing how it progresses.

 

Z

[Paul-Henri 0]

Hi Z,

 

I understand what you want to do, and I suppose that modifying the flight file is the "simplest" way to do that !

Regarding our project, this is unfortunately an endless project: there is always something to improve !!

You can find some pictures of the simulator here (not always up to date): http://www.ajbretagne.aero/album-photo-simulateur-a320/nggallery/simulateur/essais

 

Thank you for your help !

Cheers,

Paul-Henri