S6, Different cockpit

[Guest fu3]

Folks,This is closer to the real thing... :-wavehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178789.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178790.jpgRegards,Jon Point

[agtim 0]

excellent work Jon !!:-wave Andre

[Roger Over 0]

Looks great! Well done...:-wave

[Guest fu3]

Thanks guys :-waveAt least everything WAS OK until I started on the GPS...I am now using the Trainer resfile as a base as the Stemme simply doesn't support ANY digital instruments! Mind you, the Trainer is now having problems with blended bitmaps (the bit covering the lower half of the HSI in the shots above).We still won't have a full GPS - it would be too small to read anyway. If all else fails, I'll ditch the extra view and the GPS and just put the rest of the instruments back on the panel.This always happens - 50% of development time is in the cockpit :-rollRegards,Jon Point

[agtim 0]

Hi Jon, yes 50% of the work - I can confirm this :-)Do you have tried to export the physics part of the trainer resources and import it into the Stemme ? May be then they will support digital intruments :-) or just crash :-(I am playing around too...:-waveAndre

[Guest fu3]

Andre,It doesn't seem to be a flight model issue - or at least no part that Planeunlimited can deal with (it also screws-up the gear doors on the P51...).I have not had any luck with direct importation into resfiles. I can do it using Resviewer and a script, but the index must go weird because, apart from CTDs, the files are no longer viewable in Resviewer (i.e. they are all hexfiles...).Last night, I spent the entire time trying to get to where Gideon left off with CPD and alas, no luck. I don't have VS6 and 2005 Express doesn't do MFC and won't edit resource files :-grr Quite obviously, I cannot compile what I cannot read...I also spent some time looking at the beechjet build script. Is is possible to reconstruct a resfile? I mean it should be but I forgot about Perl years ago. What I would like to do is analyse the 'other' files and fix some things:* Import the GPS, although it would be better to be able to use CPD - Gideon added the buttons etc, we just have no GPS screen.* Import fonts (apart from the Beechjet, all aircraft have one, built-in 10 pixel font which cannot be resized)* Allow the use of digital instruments in any aircraft.* Allow editing of the 'other' digital instruments.I guess that I import the GPS instruments into a resfile (if I get the indexing right...) but would it work? The digital readout instruments (HDG, TAS, G/S etc) certainly cannot be made to work in the Bravo or Stemme, although they work in everything else. There must be some file that we need to edit.I'm "all ears" if you have any ideas how we could proceed. Another pet hate is that the Beechjet only works properly with jet engines and that moving the GPS, HSI, EFIS around (in hexfiles) is a disaster. Being able to truly select, edit and replace these would be great. But why does it CTD all the time with prop engines, even with ALL of the instruments (apart from GPS, HSI and EFIS) removed?And if we can fix that, there is the problem of missing gear doors in Planeunlimited.Pity that I know NOTHING about writing code :-roll I was trying to convince Bruce H to look into it ;)Regards,Jon Point

[Roger Over 0]

Hi Folks,It would be nice to be able to help out with getting the GPS portability going, and maybe one day I will be able to have a look at it. Not just at the moment though. I do feel adequately guilty about not getting under way.I'm sure there are much more capable/qualified tinkerers out there who could give it a good push.I want to get LightGen finished off and at least one Oz scenery package out there before I take on any other projects.Gideon seems to have done most of the hard stuff, but coming up to speed would take me quite a while I fear.New and portable "glass" instruments have got to be developed methinks for FU to retain a leading edge feel. But there are other areas within FU which need lots of work.Jon, have you got a selection of "Oz-alike" trees that could be planted around a small private strip? CheersBruce H :-wave

[Guest fu3]

Bruce,I do actually. Not heaps, but a few. I did some nice gums for a boat club in Sanfran for Chris Low. I'll dig them and everything else out tonight ;)Regards,Jon Point

[agtim 0]

Hi Jon,Well this is not a short job but I will look at ResViewer code and planeunlimited during my AN-2 work.There are a lot of undocumented files in the plane .res file.I own VS-2005 and have imported/converted Gideon's project into it.It's working - still with MFC, I mostly use MFC for my projects.The built of the .res file is tricky but feasible. I have tried to put more AI plane descriptions in Models.res and it was working with Resviewer but not with FU3 because the AI description limit is hardcoded :-(. I hope to fix somes problems during the next weeks...currently I have to finish a payed C++ project first.I have to learn a lot :-) and hope to expand ResViewer with flight parameters.:-waveAndre

[Guest fu3]

Andre,I am really glad that you are interested in doing this work :-jumpyI would love to help out but to be truthful, I am not versed in VS at all. I have been going through tutorials and there is so much I don't know (actually, there is little I DO know...) that I can't really help with coding. Anything else, no problem! As to the Resfiles, I spent a lot of time analysing them for various reasons but have often come up against the problem of needing to alter file lengths. Why can we alter the filesize of bitmaps and wavefiles, but not hexfiles? I understand that the hexfiles are zipped and Resviewer unpacks them but why can't we alter their size?FU3 accesses the individual files according to file position, so it must be an index thing. Gideon mentions this in his support files. What I'd like to know is, if FU3 accesses by resource number, I assume that these resource numbers are hard-coded (there appear to be allowable ranges for them), so what are the possible permutations? In Flight3.exe itself, these permutations are again hard-coded for each aircraft type. The type is not that given in the resfile, but hard-coded for each type somewhere else.If only we had the source... I keep saying that but I have to admit that I wouldn't know what to do with it ;)Regards,Jon Point

[agtim 0]

There are lenght rules for the files in the .res file and each entry is registered in a table like the modelmip.tag.File number is just the sequence, the res ID is the important number.Res IDs are very common in C++ code and they are defined in the header files .h, that means hard coded, so you must used predifined res IDs and can't add new one.Inside flight3.exe there are event handler depending on selected res IDs. I don't think that specific planes are coded - its one plane depending on the resource values and parameters from the res file.Example:when I set retracting gear time to 0 then the second 3D model entry is no more used. In the original aircrafts it's then simply not there.The G key will then do nothing. and there must be more of such little switches :-):-waveAndre

[Guest fu3]

I understand the length rules but the individual files vary i.e. the name hexfile may be anywhere from 28 to 53 bytes, depending on aircraft but you cannot alter the length on a specific aircraft. This length must therefore be variable. Somehow ;)If the resource codes exist in FU3, then one hopes that they would be applicable to any aircraft. Meanwhile, its closer. The Trainer resfile seems to have (almost) no limit to what can be used in the cockpit. Before startup:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179023.jpgIn flight:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179024.jpgRelease may now be sooner than I thought :-jumpy I can always replace the GPS with a real one later if we can get CPD sorted ;)Regards,Jon Point

[Guest fu3]

And yes (whoops), I haven't put the radios back yet ;)Regards,Jon Point

[agtim 0]

looks very good :-)the trainer is may be the standard template of FU3 including all resource IDs even when unused.:-waveAndre

[Guest fu3]

Thanks ;)Well, not all (it's got no fonts...) but it accepts everything else!This is basically it now:F2 dayhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179219.jpgF2 nighthttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179222.jpgF3 dayhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179220.jpgF3 nighthttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179221.jpg:-waveRegards,Jon Point