Tonka

Has anyone used the Gizmo gfx.FBO functions to render strings and primatives to a texture that is used by an object attached to an aircraft? I been trying to use gfx.newTexture to build a texture slot, with various combinations of using gfx.loadPNG, gfx.newPBO, and gfx.usePBO, but in the absence of a code example to study I haven't had much happen in the sim. (Other than making it go crazy when I wasn't releasing the FBO at the end of the function!) The object I'd like to dynamically texture is a HUD screen. Could anyone advise which drawing event would be best to use for this as well please? I need a phase that draws to a fixed surface, so OnDraw_Windows is not suitable. I have some strings and primatives being rendered to the Cockpit3D/-PANELS-/panel.png in the OnDraw_Gauges_3D() event without issue, but I'd like to dedicate a texture to a lua generated HUD screen, if possible. Any clues would be much appreciated. Cheers.

Just had a quick look, and the librain plugin i downloaded from https://github.com/skiselkov/librain/releases has the following in my log.txt: 2019-03-27 20:50:22 librain[plugin.c:590]: This is librain (v0.10) libacfutils-3babedf Loaded: X:\X-Plane 11 Beta/Resources/plugins/librain.plugin/win_x64/librain.plugin.xpl (skiselkov.librain) Therefore, the plugin sig to use with plugins.findPlugin is "skiselkov.librain" you could try changing the line: if plugins.findPlugin("librain.plugin.xpl") then to if plugins.findPlugin("skiselkov.librain") then And it might be worth implementing a 2 second timer in an OnFirstFrame() function, to delay the initialising of your link to librain. Hope you get it working, you can help me implement here then! :-D

No apology necessary Ben. Thanks for the continued development of Gizmo.

Has the API changed in the latest version? Gizmo is loading but init.lua doesn't appear to get called from my acf folder/scripts Cheers.

The AC3D plugin is long over due for an update, and while all of the new features for manipulators etc are in the code base, Laminar do not currently have the man power to devote to building releases for all 3 operating systems. It is my understanding that the code on github should build a mac plugin, but requires porting to Windows. Is anyone with the necessary skills able to take a look and see if this very useful plugin could be brought back in to development? Repo is here for anyone wanting to fork it - https://github.com/X-Plane/xptools Thanks!

Define stable. Doesn't sound like its stable at the moment...

It sounds like a Z Buffer thing You can specify a polygon offset in objects, and i think ground polygons to tell the GPU where to draw the ground textures in relationship to each other. See the Obj8 spec here. Can't find one for .pol atm.

Check the smart data for your disks. Might be worth swapping the SATA cables too, they fail more frequently than the disks themselves. Make an image of your OS drive when you're done with the fresh install, saves a lot of time when you hit errors, or fancy a refresh to clear out all the accumulated windows junk. Try Acronis, or Macrium, both make images and bootable recovery media, i think.

I'd like to create a dataref for the Magnetic Indicator showing when a pilot is breathing. I have some respiratory rate data, and as expected the breaths per minute increases with pilot stress. How can i code this? I'm thinking of something like a sin wave or triangular wave that changes frequency, but how can i specify the frequency? I have a sin wave pulsing from -1 to 1 with the elapsed time dataref, but i cant figure out how to alter the frequency reliably. How can i make a triangular wave go from 0 to 1 over exactly n seconds, and then repeat? Thanks for any tips!

Cockpit work is continuing nicely, hoping to post an update to my blog in the coming weeks. I might look in to DCS, but no plans to do anything with FSX. Thanks!

Oh, sorry, i didn't realise this was posted in the IXEG forum, still trying to get to grips with this funky layout! As above though, you can alter the lateral field of view within X-Plane to suit any monitor aspect ratio, so its more a case of matching your settings to your monitor, not the other way around. Hope that makes sense...

Which aeroplane? You can adjust the lateral field of view to alter the 'roundness' of things in the sim.

Its awesome, and it can do almost anything you can think of! Couldn't help myself! :-)

Keep it in the bank and earn some interest on it for a while longer yet Sir, but we'll get there eventually!

#workhasnotceased

Similar issue here with init being reported as not found. Also, i'm getting an error regarding IO.Open: Gizmo64: debug: Secured IO: ACCESS DENIED: io.open: You may NOT open files outside the X-Plane folder.But i am only trying to create and open a file inside my aircraft folder. GizmoLog and script with the IO function attached. GizmoLog.txt Logger1.1.zip

Thanks Ben, Warnings heeded!

I've written a replacement flight model script that sets control surface deflections linear to user (joystick) input. I'd like to slow down the speed that the control surfaces move at, preferably to a designated time to reach full deflection. This function is available in planemaker, but because I have overridden the control surfaces, any deflection I write to a control surface dref happens instantly, planemaker settings are ignored. As an example, I would like 25 degrees of elevator deflection to take 3 seconds to go from 0 to 25 degrees, instead of instantaneously. Any tips or examples greatly appreciated! ☺

Are there any promo videos of this in action? A time restricted demo would be really useful for a product like this. :-)

(cough) Just moved to a new city and started a 4 year degree course at university (cough) :-) Seriously though, I'm a bit busy with real life at the moment, but work on the jag is just above stationary. I have a few bits of cockpit that I could show images from, but I'm never happy posting messy images. Good news is that I have full access to XX145, the ex ETPS Jaguar T2, so I can get some great info and more accurate dimension data with a short drive. Scotch egg, in return for your continued interest, I'll send you something to play with in the near future. Email me at the address on my blog and I'll be in contact as soon as I can. Cheers!

Thanks Mr Egg, and i'm sure we'll see an Arctic Camo scheme soon! Thanks for your comments, its good to know that i am not the only one who is excited about this project!

Hehe, that reminds me of medical assesments of the past. Cough please! In other news: http://x-planejag.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/update.html :-)

Ah, the whispering death, can't wait to see your progress Sir! Don't be put off by the long journey, research, testing, building and rebuilding all takes lots of time. I'm sure there will be times when you wish you hadn't started, but just keep everything backed up, and put in what ever time you can, when you can. Cheers!

Hi TinCam, Thank you for your comments. Regarding the high detail and high framerate paradox, most people i think would be surprised at just how efficient X-Plane is at rendering polygons. There are directives built in to optimise a fast path through the GPU, in the form of ATTR commands. Keeping all geometry single sided, or all geometry double sided is one of the key things to do to keep GPU state switching to a minimum. I also find that merging multiple objects into one for the export, and snapping multiple co-located vertices together to reduce overall vertex count helps with both frame rate, and z buffer thrashing. Removing surfaces that cannot be seen, or do not need to be seen, is also important - consider the floor of a basic 4 sided house object with a roof, we are always looking at it from the outside, removing the floor surface may only be one polygon in one house, but consider the saving when you have 1000, or 100,000 house objects in view. It is texture size, and the VRAM they use that can affect framerate more. One key thing we can do here is to ensure that ALL alpha is kept to the same texture, even if that means breaking up the model into multiple objects. Lastly, when one considers the polygon use inside the cabin of a large airliner, e.g. the default 747, with people sat in toilets etc, the type of aircraft modelled can have some bearing on where one can afford to spend their polygon budget. The Jaguar has no cabin, so i used the budget on the landing gear instead. Also, keeping some modelling crude when it is not in direct view all the time is important. Although there is a lot of detail around my landing gear, a lot of it is done in a crude fashion when compared to the 3D cockpit, the number vertices in a cylindrical object, for example. Hope that helps! Keep your eyes peeled for a Jaguar update in the coming weeks. Work has been ongoing, and external livery work is progressing very nicely, while the cockpit is beginning to come together.