Post by Dutch Owen on Oct 14, 2011 8:40:01 GMT -5
As FSCaptain users we generally tend to take our sim flying pretty seriously and want it to be as authentic as possible. That's why we fly with FSCaptain, and usually we fly in detailed and realistically modeled airplanes with comprehensive systems implemented way beyond the default ones, and sometimes way beyond what MSFS was designed to support.
Often, when trouble raises its ugly head, we suspect incompatibility with our complex airplanes. But after investigation, the culprit is almost always some misconfiguration of something, usually Windows security settings. That's because FSCaptain is carefully designed to avoid compatibility issues.
FSCaptain was designed from the ground up with the philosophy that it will always "play by the rules" of the Flight Simulator environment. This means that FSCaptain does not ever try to access the guts of any airplane directly, only through the regular FS interfaces (and its own interface -- more below.) The idea is to maximize compatibility and minimize trouble.
From the perspective of the gauge designer, internally FS provides a wealth of information about the aircraft in the form of standard signals and data, and allows the manipulation of much of this data through standard event triggers. In 95 percent of cases, FSCaptain only uses these standard signals and controls common to all FS airplanes. In the other 5 percent where some data or effect is really needed but the standard gauge facilities won't cut it (such as the ability to change payloads and fuel) FSCaptain uses either FSUIPC (for FS9) or SimConnect (for FSX). The FCOM never tries to be tricky and poke around in FS memory. Everything it does is through standard and certified safe mechanisms that apply to all aircraft. It really doesn't know what airplane it is attached to, it just sees the standard signals data and reacts the same for any airplane. It's a mathematical model.
But there are issues. They usually involve data missing or invalid because the airplane designers chose to not use the standard MSFS system but invent their own, so as to avoid the limitations of the MSFS engine for greater realism.
This often takes the form of missing smoking or seatbelt signals, or confused or missing lights signals. An example is the landing lights signal. There is a "landing lights" switch defined in the MSFS world, and FSCaptain looks for the setting of this switch to determine if the Captain (you) has turned on the lights or not according to company policy. In most cases, add-on aircraft will flip this internal signal on or off and FSCaptain reads it. But they are not required to do that -- they could have their own internal landing lights switch, not seen by MSFS and thus not seen by FSCaptain. If this is the case you will turn on the landing lights (damn it, you can see them!) but FSCaptain dings you for a penalty for not turning on the lights anyway. In this situation, there are clues. Your FO will remind you to turn on the lights. If you think they are on, but he is saying to turn them on, this is a clue. The other test is to use the keyboard signal CTRL-L which will flip the internal MSFS landing lights switch. If this doesn't change your visual landing lights in your airplane, the designer is not using standard signals for landing lights -- and probably some other things.
If MSFS contained robust and authentic simulations of aircraft systems designers would be happy to avoid the expensive process of writing their own, but it does not. The systems in FS9 seem based on what would be typically seem in a light GA airplane, with potentially jet engines tacked on to the side. Passenger signs are not simulated. Pressurization is not simulated. Hydraulic and Pneumatic systems are simplistic or missing, and the list goes on. FSX is an improvement here. It includes many more systems such as smoking and belt signs, an APU, pressurization, and more.
Nonetheless, many designers have opted to not use these standard systems. It's painfully ironic that the more realistic and complete the aircraft systems implementation is, the less likely FSCaptain is able to access its data through the standard interfaces!
FSCaptain has a solution to this problem in the FSCaptain Interface, a set of standard XML variables and rules that allow data to be passed to and from an airplane in a safe standard way, outside the MSFS system.
Thus far, these aircraft have full FSCaptain interfaces available:
* PMDG 737NGX
* Leonardo SH "Maddog" MD-80
* Captain Sim 727 for FSX
* Sky Simulations DC-9 for FSX
* "Tinmouse" freeware 737-200 for FS9 or FSX
It's been a year so I thought I'd update this post a little bit. Everything said above is still true but we've made considerable progress and we'll be making more in the future.
Many more aircraft now have interfaces. The complete list is in the README_Interfaces.txt file in the FCOMPNL folder in your Gauges folder. Support for the NGX has been moved directly into the system and more popular airplanes will be incorporated in the next releases.
Detection of these potential issues is no longer guesswork, since we've added the Interface and Signals pages to the FCOM/FDCU devices. These pages are accessible from the Information page in offline or online mode. There you can see the status of the FS signals and how they relate to FSCaptain, and you can manipulate the signals to see the effect on your airplane environment.
Dutch
Often, when trouble raises its ugly head, we suspect incompatibility with our complex airplanes. But after investigation, the culprit is almost always some misconfiguration of something, usually Windows security settings. That's because FSCaptain is carefully designed to avoid compatibility issues.
FSCaptain was designed from the ground up with the philosophy that it will always "play by the rules" of the Flight Simulator environment. This means that FSCaptain does not ever try to access the guts of any airplane directly, only through the regular FS interfaces (and its own interface -- more below.) The idea is to maximize compatibility and minimize trouble.
From the perspective of the gauge designer, internally FS provides a wealth of information about the aircraft in the form of standard signals and data, and allows the manipulation of much of this data through standard event triggers. In 95 percent of cases, FSCaptain only uses these standard signals and controls common to all FS airplanes. In the other 5 percent where some data or effect is really needed but the standard gauge facilities won't cut it (such as the ability to change payloads and fuel) FSCaptain uses either FSUIPC (for FS9) or SimConnect (for FSX). The FCOM never tries to be tricky and poke around in FS memory. Everything it does is through standard and certified safe mechanisms that apply to all aircraft. It really doesn't know what airplane it is attached to, it just sees the standard signals data and reacts the same for any airplane. It's a mathematical model.
But there are issues. They usually involve data missing or invalid because the airplane designers chose to not use the standard MSFS system but invent their own, so as to avoid the limitations of the MSFS engine for greater realism.
This often takes the form of missing smoking or seatbelt signals, or confused or missing lights signals. An example is the landing lights signal. There is a "landing lights" switch defined in the MSFS world, and FSCaptain looks for the setting of this switch to determine if the Captain (you) has turned on the lights or not according to company policy. In most cases, add-on aircraft will flip this internal signal on or off and FSCaptain reads it. But they are not required to do that -- they could have their own internal landing lights switch, not seen by MSFS and thus not seen by FSCaptain. If this is the case you will turn on the landing lights (damn it, you can see them!) but FSCaptain dings you for a penalty for not turning on the lights anyway. In this situation, there are clues. Your FO will remind you to turn on the lights. If you think they are on, but he is saying to turn them on, this is a clue. The other test is to use the keyboard signal CTRL-L which will flip the internal MSFS landing lights switch. If this doesn't change your visual landing lights in your airplane, the designer is not using standard signals for landing lights -- and probably some other things.
If MSFS contained robust and authentic simulations of aircraft systems designers would be happy to avoid the expensive process of writing their own, but it does not. The systems in FS9 seem based on what would be typically seem in a light GA airplane, with potentially jet engines tacked on to the side. Passenger signs are not simulated. Pressurization is not simulated. Hydraulic and Pneumatic systems are simplistic or missing, and the list goes on. FSX is an improvement here. It includes many more systems such as smoking and belt signs, an APU, pressurization, and more.
Nonetheless, many designers have opted to not use these standard systems. It's painfully ironic that the more realistic and complete the aircraft systems implementation is, the less likely FSCaptain is able to access its data through the standard interfaces!
FSCaptain has a solution to this problem in the FSCaptain Interface, a set of standard XML variables and rules that allow data to be passed to and from an airplane in a safe standard way, outside the MSFS system.
Thus far, these aircraft have full FSCaptain interfaces available:
* PMDG 737NGX
* Leonardo SH "Maddog" MD-80
* Captain Sim 727 for FSX
* Sky Simulations DC-9 for FSX
* "Tinmouse" freeware 737-200 for FS9 or FSX
It's been a year so I thought I'd update this post a little bit. Everything said above is still true but we've made considerable progress and we'll be making more in the future.
Many more aircraft now have interfaces. The complete list is in the README_Interfaces.txt file in the FCOMPNL folder in your Gauges folder. Support for the NGX has been moved directly into the system and more popular airplanes will be incorporated in the next releases.
Detection of these potential issues is no longer guesswork, since we've added the Interface and Signals pages to the FCOM/FDCU devices. These pages are accessible from the Information page in offline or online mode. There you can see the status of the FS signals and how they relate to FSCaptain, and you can manipulate the signals to see the effect on your airplane environment.
Dutch
