LNM and Microsoft FS2020

[JDiPierro 0]

I'm not getting any logbook entries in MFS2020. Everything seems to be connected well: I can see my plane on the map and the flight trail.. but nothing ends up in the log book at the end of my flights?

[albar965 1,038]

9 minutes ago, JDiPierro said:

I'm not getting any logbook entries in MFS2020. Everything seems to be connected well: I can see my plane on the map and the flight trail.. but nothing ends up in the log book at the end of my flights?

Because the are no MSFS airports in the scenery library for the simulator. Try "scenery library " -> "Navigraph" and select "Use Navigraph for all features" if this fixes it.

[DazzaJay 1]

I'm feeling all kinds of stupid here.

How do i get LittleNavMap to connect to MSFS? 
When i first ran it it said it couldnt detect a running simulator, even though i was running FS2020.

Checking the options i can only find settings for xplane.

 

So, How do i connect this thing to FS2020? I've used it before with FSX and it ran fine, but nothing, it just wont detect FS2020.

[Indy14 0]

On 9/6/2020 at 8:28 AM, albar965 said:

Absolutely. But without taking the detour via MSFS. Lemme xplain:

The navdata format in MSFS (BGL files) is limited (speaking friendly, cough). No upper altitude limit for airways and no one-way airways. No VORTAC (all VORDME) and no TACAN (all are DME). Several issues with approaches and probably more which I forgot.

I'll not spend any time to fix or workaround these issues when reading the MSFS navdata. You can already get the latest navdata for LNM from Navigraph. If you also sync the navdata in MSFS with Navigraph data in the future you'll be able to create plans in LNM which perfectly match in MSFS, i.e. no missing waypoints.

So future is: Sync both LNM and MSFS to the latest navdata and use only the airports from the MSFS scenery library. Just as done with FSX/P3D and fsAerodata or with X-Plane.

@gordongreig Can you attach or send me the flight plan? I'm working on this right now. MSFS seems to have issues when loading plans. I have a plan created in MSFS with procedures and all which are also stored in the PLN file. Procedures do not show up when loading again in MSFS. So, it can't digest its own plans. If possible send a bug report to Asobo if you run into issues like this.

@sauviat Did you lower the number of updates per second in Navconnect (i.e. higher number ms)? This might help. Sorry, if I make recommendations twice. Too much going on now.🤯

Alex

 

 

 

 

 

How do you "Sync both LNM and MSFS to the latest navdata"?

[touchdown84 34]

35 minutes ago, Indy14 said:

How do you "Sync both LNM and MSFS to the latest navdata"?

Navigraph claims it will support updating MSFS navdata in the future.
Otherwise hope that MS/Asobo will get better integrating navdata with there advertised Navblue partnership, but I highly doubt it as there are so many inconsistencies already (long gone NDBs still in the sim, airports missing and navaids/navpoints around those airports not included as well).

[albar965 1,038]

13 hours ago, DazzaJay said:

So, How do i connect this thing to FS2020? I've used it before with FSX and it ran fine, but nothing, it just wont detect FS2020.

Install FSX SP2 SimConnect: https://www.littlenavmap.org/downloads/SimConnect/
This requirement will be gone with the next version. I'll simply deliver LNM with the right version of SimConnect.dll

5 hours ago, touchdown84 said:

Navigraph claims it will support updating MSFS navdata in the future.
Otherwise hope that MS/Asobo will get better integrating navdata with there advertised Navblue partnership, but I highly doubt it as there are so many inconsistencies already (long gone NDBs still in the sim, airports missing and navaids/navpoints around those airports not included as well).

Thanks. This confirms my own observations so far. Not even talking about missing TACAN, VORTAC and airway attributes which can result in invalid routes. Calculate one in MSFS and load it into LNM. You'll quite often get red warning messages about violating one-way airway directions or altitude restrictions.
Looks all like FSX to me. 😞

Alex

[albar965 1,038]

On 9/6/2020 at 11:54 PM, gordongreig said:

Yes, both definitely exist - it is the Bembridge to Wick tutorial

Othe relevant behaviour I've noticed.

I can load up a flight plan created in LNM (created without a procedure). When I load that into MSFS, that works fine - If I then try to add the procedure in MSFS it will sometimes rewrite the whole route. I think this is if the transition is is expecting doesn't exist in the flight plan.

I've also noticed that, certainly for arrival procedures, MSFS does save and reload those from itself - so I do see it consuming its own save files accurately

I will do some more structured testing and report back for you

I did some testing with new MSFS export and I think it is working now. You can find the two tutorial plans here: https://www.littlenavmap.org/downloads/Flight Plans/

MSFS seems to add transitions automatically on loading. You can see this in MSFS Tutorial IFR Bembridge (EGHJ) to Wick (EGPC).pln. But this will work only if the last waypoint before an approach matches to an IAF in a transition.

Alex

[bahnzo 47]

23 minutes ago, albar965 said:

I did some testing with new MSFS export and I think it is working now. You can find the two tutorial plans here: https://www.littlenavmap.org/downloads/Flight Plans/

MSFS seems to add transitions automatically on loading. You can see this in MSFS Tutorial IFR Bembridge (EGHJ) to Wick (EGPC).pln. But this will work only if the last waypoint before an approach matches to an IAF in a transition.

Alex

I noticed last night an IFR plan I created with LNM and then loaded into MSFS had an Arrival loaded in the G1000 for me. I missed this in MSFS before I went into the plane and it caused all sorts of issues as I couldn't add an Approach w/o the Arrival being loaded as well. 

Guessing this is a MSFS issue (add it to the pile) and pilots should beware? Or did I do something wrong with LNM? I don't do many IFR flights in a G36 so maybe it's something I need to learn. 

[albar965 1,038]

Just now, bahnzo said:

Guessing this is a MSFS issue (add it to the pile) and pilots should beware? Or did I do something wrong with LNM? I don't do many IFR flights in a G36 so maybe it's something I need to learn. 

Don't spend too much time with this now. The next LNM beta might solve some of the issues. I also found procedures popping up from nowhere.

Alex

[DazzaJay 1]

4 hours ago, albar965 said:

Install FSX SP2 SimConnect: https://www.littlenavmap.org/downloads/SimConnect/
This requirement will be gone with the next version. I'll simply deliver LNM with the right version of SimConnect.dll

Ah! Thanks! So I was being a moron! I didn't realise that version would work.
You've fixed my issue! Thanks again.

[touchdown84 34]

23 hours ago, albar965 said:

Thanks. This confirms my own observations so far. Not even talking about missing TACAN, VORTAC and airway attributes which can result in invalid routes. Calculate one in MSFS and load it into LNM. You'll quite often get red warning messages about violating one-way airway directions or altitude restrictions.
Looks all like FSX to me. 😞

Navigraph just released the beta of their MSFS updater, it even adds missing airports like EDDS in (only the runways and navdata though).

[albar965 1,038]

25 minutes ago, touchdown84 said:

Navigraph just released the beta of their MSFS updater, it even adds missing airports like EDDS in (only the runways and navdata though).

Thanks for the hint. Will have a look at it.

[benibaz 1]

I have Little nav map which runs with MSFS,when I load a flight plan in the sim(MSFS2020)it follows the plan I set in LNM for FSX!don't know how it works though,but it functions!

Edited September 10, 2020 by benibaz

[sonicviz 7]

Hi, 

Great app, thanks! 

Testing it with MSFS now, and doesn't seem to have any problems apart from the scenery db you're working on. 

Q:

How can I lock the zoom level so it doesn't auto zoom when my position changes. Say my use case is doing a landing challenge, but I want to zoom out LNM on my 2nd monitor to hold the initial a/c position and track all the way to land. But LNM keeps zooming in on me, and I can't see an obvious option to leave zoom at manual.

Ditto for position. When you go back to the menu in LNM it seems to reset the maps position whereas I'd like to keep it where I last was. Use case is for exploring the locale a bit more for flight planning. Even using the back arrow it stays for a while then ping pongs back to some random location, probably because the coords sent by MSFS when back in the menu are literally off the charts. Maybe you could use that bogus position as an indicator they the user is no longer in flight but in a MSFS menu state, so ignore map changes? 

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by sonicviz

[albar965 1,038]

Hi @sonicviz ,

have a look at the options dialog on page "Simulator Aircraft". There are a few ways to customize the zooming and centering stuff. See also here in the manual:
https://www.littlenavmap.org/manuals/littlenavmap/release/2.4/en/OPTIONS.html#simulator-aircraft-icon-simulator-aircraft

The default is to keep both the aircraft and next flight plan waypoint on the screen. It falls back to simply centering the aircraft with the current zoom if there is no flight plan.

There is also a timeout which allows you to quickly look at an airport or whatever on the map without having to disable and re-enable aircraft centering. As long as you scroll or zoom around in the map it stops following the aircraft. If you leave the map alone it jumps back to centering using whatever mode is selected (aircraft or aircraft plus next waypoint).

Or simply disable any centering/zooming in "Map" -> "Center Aircraft".

Alex