jwk737

Hi, fsxspy has it's own forum now, maybe that is a better place. But if fsxspy doesn't work for you, you can always use the flight1's 30 days refund  policy.

hth

Johan

Yes, it is available for a while already. Please visit www.fsxspy.com for more info, order info and downloads. Currently the forum is floaded with fake registrations, so please send me a pm also, so i can manually approve it.

Cheers,

Johan

Yes, it is pretty much optimized and stable now. I will do some last testing with the web dcu version and update the manual. Two more weeks maybe. You can pm me if you want an early notice.

Cheers,

Johan

Just as a side note, using the laptop on ac or batteries can make a big difference ...

HTH,

Johan

If you don't want to patch any config file, you could try to do the following (although you may want to make sure you have set the wideview option in fsx.cfg to true).

Start the sim, load the plane and undock the panels you need. If they are too wide the mouse will start flickering. Just ignore that and resize the panels to a width less than one screen. Save the situation, restart the sim and load the flight; you should be all set.

HTH,

Johan

> Then I remembered I use DX10, so swapped back to DX9 and it worked fine.

> Any chance of DX10 compatability?

Thanks for filling me in on that. It's very specific for DX9 right now but DX10 shouldn't be a problem either, I will look into it when I finished the manual.

> Could you confirm that this is correct, and clarify whether this feature will be available on the multi-channel payware version.

Input source cropping will be implemented in the payware version like it was in 0.5 albeit slightly different but more flexible,

Regards,

Johan

Hi Lucs, port #8737 is used for the webserver, port #8738 is used for internal communication between the console, fsx and the viewers. The full url should indeed be http://<fsxmachine>:8737 where <fsxmachine> is either your fsx computer name or it's ip address (so e.g. http://pc-johan:8737 or http://192.168.1.14:8737)

Other people commented as well on the lack of a decent manual, it is top priority right now and I hope to finish it in the next few days.

The free version is a complete functional remote/web DCU, which coincides with a limited (mostly being single channel) evaluation version of the multi channel FSXSpy Pro package. I think 5 fps is enough for a DCU; you probably can't type any faster and the screen won't be updated with new info 5 times per second either. But I agree, it's sub-optimal. The pro version obviously doesn't has this limitation, but even then I think 5 fps is enough for a DCU. The PFD, ND and Eicas might need more, but there is no such thing as a free ride and since the cpu is the most limiting factor in fsx, one has to compromise between fps on the outside views and on the remote instruments.

Then the 50% fps drop which is unexpected and unacceptable. It has been extentively tested on i5/2.2Ghz and i7/3.4-4.7Ghz with resp. a GTX560 and a HD6870 where an average frame drop has been noted of 5 to 8% with 8 (!) instruments from the NGX. Your milage will vary but I would like to hear if more people are suffering from frame loss more than 10% and with what configuration

Thanks and Regards,

Johan

Hello Lucas,

Could you add a little bit of info on this please?

Console:
- Do the panels (recorders) show up in the recorders pane, assuming you do have undocked panels?
- When you select a recorder, does it show up in the preview pane, check "Live"?
- Does your fps drop already at this stage?

Please you do a ctrl-C (copy) in the log pane and ctrl-V (paste) it in a pm so I have a look at it.

NB: the "always on top" option in the console also makes the console transparent, which is very usefull for alligning and experimenting but is a real fps killer (everything has to drawn twice). Please switch is off

Web client:

- What do you see when pointing your browser to localhost:8737 from the fsx machine?
- What do you see when pointing your browser to <fsxmachine>:8737 from another machine (fsxmachine is either the name or an ipaddress)

Viewers:

On vhhx, in the NGX, fps drops from 34 to 31 on my machine, which is to be expected. Just the existence of extra panels takes extra time to compose, even though they maybe hidden and thus not presented.

Thanks and Regards,
Johan

Yes sure. It's based on the same beta that is out now for the free version.So both versions will benefit from each other in that regard. I hope to find a suitable forum too though, were people can help each other much quicker and often from a more practical view then the author.

Johan

FSXSpy is a server thats streams the content of fsx instrument panels to remote clients and relays mouseclicks back to fsx. FSXSpy is completely redesigned and now has a build-in web server so any client pc with a browser can connect.
For both the web and the standalone client, image frames are refreshed with a mjpeg stream of 5 fps, mouse clicks are passed on to fsx, and the CDU "itself" doesn't have to be visible on the fsx machine.
The free version is for single channel use, multiple channels are enabled in the cockpit pro version that will become available soon. More info and the download for the free version can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/jwk737/home/fsxspy103

Since it's mostly about freeware I hope this message isn't inappriopriate; please remove it if i is.

Have fun!
Johan
 

Hi, thanks. Some interesting suggestions, I'll keep them in mind.

Also it appears that the FSX Spy server window and client channel window can appear at different positions between runs? Assuming that's not something to do with my system it would be great if they could remember their screen positions too.

 

The viewers do, no need for the server I guess. You do have to explicitly save the viewers layout with the button in the channel guide, maybe that is it?

Will the next version offer jpeg / motion jpeg as options?

 

Configurable. An image like e.g. a cdu requires and other encoding that e.g. a graphical pfd.

Regarding the client, it appears to me the window positioning isn't quite as convenient as on the server.

 

Positioning is simply dragging with the mouse. Resize is mousewheel with shift and/or control et al. But I see your point. Maybe we need an advanced config editor or the like.

Relating capturing, that has completely changed in v1.0.3. It hooks itself inside the directx render engine and tees the surfaces on request even before being rendered on the screen. The v0.5 way was experimental, not optimized gdi and is now obsolete. Please hangon until 1.0.3, you'l be surprised .

Gr,

Johan

I'm currently experimenting with functionality, will soon look at performance tuning. In particular I'm wanting to run some of the displays using channels of 600x600 pixels at 30Hz+, what do you think are my chances?

That is definitely going to impact your frame rate. I think you´d better hold your breath until the 1.0.3 release. Then you can hide the panels regaining fps almost as not displaying them at all.

These high-rate displays are simple black and green, I'm wondering if the transmitted imagery is 24/32-bit full-colour and if so, would performance be increased by offering the option of 8-bit transmission, perhaps by the selection of a single colour channel? This might also help with HUD extraction, if for example only the pure green parts of an image could be captured?

I am experimenting with rle and other more graphically suitable encoders. Right now 0.5 is just jpeg and 1.0.3 is motion jpg.

Also would it be possible to add a button to re-position the channel windows without re-starting the server? FSX seems to like to mess these up when switching saved flights.

Doesn´t flipping the `bounds´ checkbox takes care of that?

And a question, if I may. Does the program capture the whole screen at once then pick out the channels, or does it capture each window separately or individually?

Sure, only complete windows (that's why they must be undocked) are captioned. The selection in the server sets the parts that will be transmitted.

HTH

Johan

As it happened, last weekend I updated the front page of FSXSpy website to reflect the latest 1.0.3 release that is currently in beta. I must have deleted the download links while doing so, fortunately I could recover them with a few mouse clicks.

The 1.0.3 release will be available very shortly and contains:

- highly improved capture engine, using direct3d instead of gdi allowing

- panels can stay invisibile after setup

- mouse clicks send back to fsx

- http (web) server build-in.

Yes, that's a complete web DCU. The single channel version will still be freeware, the multichannel cockpit edition will probably become available as payware and contains much more features and goodies. The latter being specially suited for home cockpit builders.

Right now you can only download the 0.5 version, 1.0.3 is in beta but should not take more that 1 or 2 weeks from now.

Read all about it at https://sites.google.com/site/jwk737/home/fsx-spy

Cheers,

Johan

The first 2 items at: http://www.google.com/search?q=fsxspy

But in case google sends you somewhere else:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/365861-viewing-instruments-on-remote-computer/

Hth,

Johan

Hi,

There is this phrase from Ryan echoing in my mind:

"We're looking into doing this - no guarantees as always, but it is on the list. And we're not going to charge you $500 for it either."

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/370844-777747-v2-on-a-remote-pc/?hl=charge#entry2346043

I hope that the shared codebase for the NGX-T7-?? still makes this feasible considering the larger userbase for the combined products. Personally I wouldn't hesitate for a moment buying it if this feature would be available for the ngx even if it were priced $500.

Until now I am using FsxSpy but that takes an extra screen (besides the 3 1690x1050 for the outside views) and that drops my framerate by about 25%. Not that I need much more than the average 25 that's left on my system, but I could turn up the sliders for more realism.

Btw: the above mentioned forum topic figures of 120/11,228 is 167/12,256 at the time of this writing. So that is a 40% increase for the cockpit builders versus 9% increase for the vc pilots, speaking of an emurging market .

Here is an idea on how pmdg could still make this possible with probably a minimal effort.
And that is that the pmgd-sdk just exposes the handles of the (off-screen) surfaces, or textures or however it is designed, so a third party could make an opensource server/client tool like FSXSpy that bitblt's the frames over the network. I would be the first one to implement it and considering the number of downloads it would make a lot more than just 120 people really happy.

Regards,
Johan
 

That is using the dotnet frame work, like visual studio does

You could take a look at https://sites.google...me/pmdg-connect It contains a few complete vs2010 projects including the pmdg example.

If you just want to wire your cockpit to the pmdg you should consider a 100% managed approach, it will make live a lot easier and maintainable.

Right now I only have sioc with a script with just the var definitions for the io which in C# I read, manipulate and send directly to the pmdg, all interrupt based, no line of c++ or extra sioc-script required.

I could refactor this part and submit a new project if you (or someone else) are interested.

HTH

Johan

Sorry it took so long, thought I had an email trigger on this topic?

Gerard contacted me by email, i think i should repeat my reply here.

Your outside view screens are high res (and so are pretty cheap beamers nowadays) and your mip panels probably aren't, so the 400x400 pixels will be larger anyways.

The transmitted pixels are 1:1so it's better to set the size of the instruments to their native or half size, you can find these in panel configs, bitmaps or whatever. This avoids aliasing, and a zoom of 2 will be anti aliased, so I doubt that you will notice the difference.

HTH

Johan

Not yet. If you have a mip (main instruments panel, say the cockpits "dashboard") and you have a monitor (or 2,3 or 4) to display instruments in the mip, you can use the wasted screen space covered by the mip as a "parking area" so the panels are out of site.

The extra 4 monitors do however have an impact on your fps of the outside view on another monitor set of 3,5,.. So it is better to have just one extra screen where you park all the panels or perhaps create one panel with all the wanted gauges, haven't tried that. Now fsx only has to render the reasonably scaled panels on one extra screen, fsx spy distributes from there.

HTH,

Johan

Hi All,

It took a while but version 0.5 is ready. The main new feature is the "FSX Spy - Channel Guide", a sort of control center to select channels for viewing, and an overview and status of the seperate viewers. This Guide also takes care of viewers persistency.

The seconds main new feature is the server now having the possibility to pixel precise (or automatically on startup) resize and position the panels, auto undock (maybe hide?) will be for a next release.

Some smaller items:

- server: better handling of restarts, border/inside move/zoom for fine tuning selection

- viewer: rotate/flip

You can find it here: https://sites.google...37/home/fsx-spy please uninstall any previous version first.

Have fun!

When you say v0.4 above allows for 'obscured or missing windows', does this mean I can now drag the undocked windows off the edge of my main screen and they'll still display correctly on the client?

 

No, I meant that closed or anyhow missing windows will show a pause screen and go live again as soon as the window reappears on the server.

An extra monitor just for all the undocked instruments is indeed a very practial approach.

Regards,

Johan Knol

Hi All,

Version 0.4 is now ready for download on https://sites.google...37/home/fsx-spy

This is a major improvement in stability. It is now supposed to be resistant against all kinds of violent attacks like network drops, server restart, obscured or missing windows, plane reload, flight load etc. If you still encounter problems, please let me know.

Next items (still):

Multi viewer persistency

Auto startup

Manual

Have fun!

Johan

Hi Rictus,

In general wcf doesn't really like ip adresses, therefore I always use hostnames. I don't know why smb would be needed for wcf connections, maybe for a wins something or what ever goes with it. Most likely a nameresolve issue then. Anyway, it works and that is what it is made for.

I'll mention this topic in the manual.

Thanks for sharing,

Johan

... The visuals will most likely be on another computer via Wideview. ...

Do you (or anyone else) have experience with WideVieW and the NGX, does it look natural? I have a 3x1 eyefinity setup right now, but I miss the 3d-surround view feeling. The demo installs but I don't get menus etc, but that's for another forum.

thanks,

Johan

After flying around now with a finally complete dcu, I noticed a couple of practical anomalies as well :). Mainly that if the server and client lost contact between each other or when the window is recreated (e.g. after a plane reload, flight load or whatever) you have to restart them both. I'll fix that in the next version along with some things mentioned above and other.

Gr,

Johan