Multi Monitor Set Up - Pop up windows won't work

[Mike r]

Hello.  I am having issues accessing any pop up windows associated with the TBM.  If I click on the air frame manager, or maintenance manager, etc it does not bring up the pop up window to allow me to make changes.  If I change to single monitor it works fine.  Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[Goran_M]

I'm guessing you're in full screen mode.

This may be an X-Plane limitation.  Change to windowed mode, and it should be fine.

[Mike r]

Thank you.  I tried to change to windowed mode, and the option is not available with multiple monitors.  If I turn off all but one monitor, then the windowed mode becomes available.  Any suggestions on how to get to windowed mode with multiple monitors?

 

Had the below exchange with @skiselkov but have been unable to connect with him since.

 

[antonioe]

Guys: I was having problems getting the pop-up windows (Payload Manager, etc.) to show, and here's how I solved it - permanently.

I have a rather ambitious setup, with three 65" LG Oled monitors driven by a single GTX 2080 Super for the outside view (65 deg offsets), plus two smaller (26" and 22") touch-sensitives driven by a GTX 1650 for Air Manager.  Though the LG's are 3840x2160 native (or 4096x2160, depending on who you ask...) I run them at 1920x1080 to get a respectable 40+ fps with textures at max (I found that is my personal key graphic parameter).  Try that at higher reses and you run out of graphic memory (!)  I have the C-172 and the C-T210M running like a charm (two charms...) with the Brunner yoke and rudder making the experience un-freakin' belivable (I fly a P46T in real life).

Then I installed the TBM900 and, like you, could not get ANY of the pop-up windows to show: the left-hand hiding selection buttons did (e.g. I could get  the GPU) but not Payload Manager etc.  After a lot, and I mean A LOT of trial and error, this is what worked for me:

1. In Windows, disable ALL THE DISPLAYS EXCEPT ONE (I chose to remain with a single 65" LG).  Start the sim (11.50 with Vulkan enabled - what a difference in fps!), go to graphics preferences, and select "display default" as the resolution of the one and only X-Plane display.  DO NOT SELECT THE ACTUAL RESOLUTION (in my case 1920x1080 - I'm not sure if this is necessary, but "display default" sure works for me).

2. On that single-display, cleanly-defined resolution setup, check that you can open all the TBM pop-up windows, and that they all FIT NICELY WITHIN THE DISPLAY.  If not, shut down and restart X-plane (I even shut down and restarted the computer several times during the process, to make sure I had "fresh" set-up data each time).

3. Gradually re-enable the other displays in Windows and the respective screens in X-Plane (maybe you can do all of that in one step, but by doing it one screen at a time, I got the whole thing to work).  Check that the pop-ups are still there and are the right size.  Done!

I think what happened is that when I first fired the TBM900 with my existing configuration, where I had been experimenting with higher resolutions (ran out of Graphic VRAM) I must have left a hornet's nest of X-Plane and Vulkan settings that confused the TBM when it first started, and sent the pop-up windows to never-never graphics land.

Anyway, so far so good.  A couple more notes on using the TBM900: I very highly recommend Ch. Cole's mixture.lua FlyWithLua script.  Works like a charm and is actually very realistic, especially in combination with a home-made (3D printed) throttle "gate" on my GoFlight throttle quadrant.

Now, if I could just find the correct commands to clear the master warning/caution indicators... the "tbm900/lights/cas/master_caut" dataref mentioned in the DataRefs+Commands.txt file that came with the airplane (and companion _warn) seem to work OK, but the COMMAND  "sim/annunciator/clear_master_warning" (notice it's a "sim/" command, not a "tbm900/" command) doesn't do squat.  So I cannot clear the masters from Air Manager.  Ideas, anyone?

 

Antonio

[jfjoubert]

1 hour ago, antonioe said:

Now, if I could just find the correct commands to clear the master warning/caution indicators... the "tbm900/lights/cas/master_caut" dataref mentioned in the DataRefs+Commands.txt file that came with the airplane (and companion _warn) seem to work OK, but the COMMAND  "sim/annunciator/clear_master_warning" (notice it's a "sim/" command, not a "tbm900/" command) doesn't do squat.  So I cannot clear the masters from Air Manager.  Ideas, anyone?

Hi Antonio,

For some reason the default commands to reset master caution and warning do not work when invoked from scripts. You have to execute the command with the command_begin and command_end methods, but you also need to add a tiny delay between the 2 calls for this to work. For most scripting tools this is not so straightforward.

So I have created a workaround which is a FlyWithLua script that will add 2 custom commands which will use the command_begin and command_end methods on the standard reset master caution and warning commands, with a 0.1 second delay (non-blocking) between the calls.

Now you should be able to point Air Manager to "tbm900/custom/clear_master_warning" and "tbm900/custom/clear_master_caution".

Hope this helps...

Jean

TBM900_clear_master_annunciators.lua

[antonioe]

Merci bien, Jean - je l'essaierai tout de suite!

Antonio

P.S. En passant... merci de me renseigner sur les commandes usager que je ne connaissais pas ...  évidemment je n'ai pas bien lu le manuel d'utilisation du FlyWithLua.  Excuse-moi de mon affreux francais, pas d'occasion de le practique ici aux EEUU. 

Edited May 9, 2020 by antonioe

[jfjoubert]

Hi Antonio,

No problem... as a matter of fact I don't understand a word of French.  My name might be French but that's about it.  

 

[612AB]

Hi, I stumbled upon another solution to the Hot Start TBM Master / Caution clearing problem. In Air Manager, there's a optional argument for the xpl_command function called "value". It can be set to "BEGIN", "ONCE", and "END".

Since the problem seems to be linked to the CAS system not recognizing a single command from a script, the "BEGIN" option calls the command continuously until you end it.

In Air Manager, I created a button and the function will "BEGIN" when pressed and "END" on release and it has been working for me. I hope that's helpful to someone in the future!