Strange changes in AAO recently

[Kbootb 1]

I'm running version 2.51 b11

Since the latest SU 10 I've had the followinf issues.

1. I can't read LVARS until I have a plane loaded and in a flight.  It used to read these as soon as the sim was connected.  Does it still gather all LVARS? or just ones for that plane?

2. It no longer 'sees' many events when I ask it to watch events.  e.g. landing lights, taxi lights.  Others still work e.g. master battery and fuel pump.

I'm putting tutorial videos on YouTube and these differences are frustrating as I'm showing how to find out which events are being triggered.

[Lorby_SI 2,067]

34 minutes ago, Kbootb said:

I'm running version 2.51 b11

Since the latest SU 10 I've had the followinf issues.

1. I can't read LVARS until I have a plane loaded and in a flight.  It used to read these as soon as the sim was connected.  Does it still gather all LVARS? or just ones for that plane?

2. It no longer 'sees' many events when I ask it to watch events.  e.g. landing lights, taxi lights.  Others still work e.g. master battery and fuel pump.

I'm putting tutorial videos on YouTube and these differences are frustrating as I'm showing how to find out which events are being triggered.

1. I doubt that. It was always so that AAO can only read the LVars from the sim when you are sitting in the cockpit. This is the way it has been designed. I know of no other way, nor would it make sense. LVars can only be detected when they are "active", and there are some that can only be acquired when they have actually been used in the sim. AAO reads whatever the Gauges API of MSFS lets it read. All in all this doesn't matter all that much - you can always use any LVar you know about. AAO doesn't have to know about a variable to utilize it. You can also add any variable to the database manually in the scripting menu, should you wish to do that. Btw., when you save a flight, MSFS seems to export all active LVars to the flight file. And you can see all of them in MSFS developer mode.

2. More and more planes are no longer using the legacy simulator events. Addon aircraft of various makers only use the basics (you are lucky when the primary flight controls and maybe the radios can be operated with the legacy K: events) and do everything else with their own logic. The standard in MSFS are BVars, and those cannot be read or detected from the outside, nor can they be triggered directly. MSFS does not expose them over SimConnect.

There have been no changes whatsoever to the app that would warrant any "differences" in that regard, nor have any been reported. AAO does not choose what to watch, it just takes whatever is thrown it's way by the sim. Maybe you have another app running that interferes with AAO? For example, another SimConnect client may be "consuming" the K - Events, not passing them on to AAO.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Lorby_SI

[Lorby_SI 2,067]

37 minutes ago, Kbootb said:

as I'm showing how to find out which events are being triggered.

A few words about this... gathering LVars and tracking K-Events is only a small part of this messed-up story of external controls in MSFS.

1. As I wrote above, K: Events are rarely being used anymore. They have been replaced by Asobos BVars, which can neither be read nor triggered from the outside (see the chapter in the AAO manual about BVar mapping"). Finding out about BVars and how to use them requires quite a bit of effort. You either use the MSFS Developer mode -> Windows -> Behaviors or take a look into the behavior definition XML files. 
2. LVars on the other hand are not events at all, nor are they switches. They are just variables, like in any other programming language. Their purpose might be to move a switch, but it usually is a million other things. They are mostly used to control the animations of the switches, not the actual operation of the aircraft system. Yes, it works for some aircraft, but no, that is not the general rule.
3. And then there are the HVars, which Asobo initially used for their HTML gauges. They seem to be on the decline now. HVar can also not be seen from the outside, but there is a way to trigger them. Their names have to be found through other means, basically same as the BVars
4. Plus serveral other ways of operating things, like the ROTOR_BRAKE method that PMDG uses.
5. And finally there are switches that can't be moved at all from the outside. Latest example is the engine anti ice/inertial separator in the Analog KingAir. You can toggle the actual aircraft system, but the switch in the cockpit doesn't move (=the animation is not triggered), no matter what you do.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Lorby_SI

[Lorby_SI 2,067]

45 minutes ago, Kbootb said:

Does it still gather all LVARS?

That is actually a good question, I was wondering about the same thing. Initially, MSFS always held all possible LVars in memory all the time. But lately it seems to me that Asobo realized that this is a bad idea, and they cut back on that. Because why keep (tens of) thousands of LVars in memory when you only need a fraction of them for the running simulation.

TMBK the other MS sims always only revealed the LVars that were currently in use (but I could be wrong about that)

Edited October 14, 2022 by Lorby_SI