XML and FS2004

[Guest Skymed]

Hi folksI built an XML HUD for helicopters that works well in FS'02, but friends who are testing the beta version of FS'04 are telling me the graphics are all huge, out of alignment and are, for want of a better word, "whacked".I suspect, from reading some posts in here, that it may be due to the 640VS1024 graphics statements inside the gauge, but have no idea how to fix it.Can Anyone help me (give me pointers) to get this thing to work in FS'04?The HUD can be DL'd from: http://www.thelz.com/Hudpage.htmlANY help will be greatly appreciated.Thanks a million in advanceSteve

[Guest Eugen]

Hi,I am not a beta tester but I had a look at your code, the only thing that I spotted is that a background image is missing. Have you tried add one, black 0.0.0 transparent ?BrgdsEugen

[Guest Skymed]

You are correct in that I don't use a background image at all. I will try one and see what it does to the layout.Steve

[Guest Skymed]

Well, I used a background image with RGB 0,0,0 and no joy. So I tried an RGB of 1,1,1 as well.1,1,1 (mask colours) leaves me a large black rectangle. 0,0,0 ( transparent) I can't see any gauges at all.Any pointers??Steve

[spokes2112 179]

Steve, No pointers yet... I just got my hand on COF and you're right.. 9 of 10 of my gauges for 2002 are all whacked out for 04.. Sizing of bitmaps, strings size and placement, and click spots are all FUBAR !! :-( Looks like there is no easy fix other than umm... Starting over ????Regards,RomanGREEN BAY PACKERS][/i :-ukliam :-beerchug

[Guest]

Guess I'm in luck then, most of my gauges seem to work "kind'of" ok. Strings, graphics, and clickspots are ok, but I have to "recode" (movecode :)) the following:1) All calls/checks to the failure system now have to be located just under the value tag, before any casing is checked. I used to have all these after the value checks.2) Parental tooltips will make child tooltip dissapear, i.e. Kohlsman knob "within" the main Altimeter tooltip/helpid's are now lost. So complex nested areas has to be rewritten as all parent areas. Oh, btw; most if not all default microsoft gauges suffer the same problem. I hope a patch will be released this time.Since "my way" seem to work for me, I suggest a following "quick"-fix for the problems described. Remove all use of dual graphics, and put the single set (1024) in the same directory as the xmlcode. If all your graphics and areas are defined with the (lacking) 640 graphics set, I think this might be asking for trouble, so all must be scaled back with a factor of 1.6 (I think this is locked, but not sure). If only one set of graphics is used, there seem to be no reason to use the imagesizes tag anymore, as shown on the new MS gauges.Hope this was of any use. It's recode time :)

[Guest Skymed]

Karl..So If I read you right, the images must now be sized correctly prior to using them inside the new XML format?

[Guest Skymed]

Hi RomanLong time no see !!!I hope you have been keeping out of mischeif :-)

[spokes2112 179]

Hi !! Yep staying out of mischief.. :-) What I donot understand is the 747 gauges are mainly the same as they were in 02 sans a few code changes for the easter egg.. All in all the same. 640 and 1024 folders and multiple sizing in the image tags.. MMMM Haven't looked into it much further... Currenly compiling a list of the new A: K: vars for 04.. Bunches of new ones and hopefully some of the old ones that didnt work will now... Fingers Xed Regards,RomanGREEN BAY PACKERS][/i :-ukliam :-beerchug

[Guest Skymed]

RomanI checked the Baron, and that seems the same too..........so maybe we is missing something obvious?Steve

[Guest Eugen]

Hi Guys,Try this,Copy from Fs2002 the panel.cfg file for your panel and see if it works. I found out that when I moved the whole panel folder from my fs2002 folder to fs2004 it worked but when just added an existing gauge to a fs2004 panel it didn't work. However what has said before the image tag must have a true size of the image in question.I don't know what is different between the panel.config but it seems like a workaroundBrgdsEugen

[Guest]

Hi Guys,Apparently the bmps have to be the correct size. FS2004 doesn't automatically resize to the values in the xml gauge. I wish M$ didn't remove this feature. So, you will have to go through resizing all of your bmps. What a pain!David