Technology, eh?

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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Mon May 11, 2015 11:55 am

toprob wrote:At one stage we were looking at some sort of 'head to head' setup, starting with a couple of WW2 fighter cockpits, so you could go head to head with your mates.

I still recall that scheme but then I was working full time, that is possibly more viable now I'm not really working, but to build the cockpits , my modelling skills mix with art and the engineering and design, course I have the information and data on what ever type there is and also contacts they maybe could be off help ... thing is you need the moneys or a backer.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby toprob » Mon May 11, 2015 12:08 pm

Ian Warren wrote:... thing is you need the moneys or a backer.


Damn right, at the time my ex-wife and I had just gone through the property settlement thing, she kept the house and bought me out, so I had a bit of money, just not a fortune.
Funny to think now that all of it went into Godzone, and now I'm closer to living under a bridge than living in my own place again...
Still excited by it all, though. Well, except the living-under-a-bridge thing.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Mon May 11, 2015 12:32 pm

You never know what might happen in the future, still a viable idea, maybe even best to have it mobile, I know a lot off people moving or changing shops simply in this area the increase off rent ... so much so it was not worth running a shop .
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby toprob » Fri Jul 03, 2015 10:47 pm

Just an update on this topic (just to clarify, as it isn't that obvious, the topic was running some aspects of the sim display on a networked tablet) I saw yet another post on the Orbx forum mentioning SimLauncherX. Took me a couple of days to find the time to read the manual (150 pages) and get it installed, but I've now got it working. Far too many features for one tool, so I'm coming to terms with it in small steps. But it does what I was looking for originally, displays a moving map on the tablet, and it can display an instrument panel.
And all for free, which is great for me, as I still haven't been able to afford either of the other programs I was looking at.
Apparently this grew from a launcher tool, hence the name, but it just does so much more now. And the developer is working on a G1000, which looks brilliant.
I will still get the other payware tools, just because they do less -- which should simplify the process a bit. But in the meantime, I've got a working networked display to keep me happy.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby omitchell » Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:04 pm

150 page manual?? bugger that, I'll wait for it to come out on DVD... :P
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:22 pm

omitchell wrote:150 page manual?? bugger that, I'll wait for it to come out on DVD... :P

I'm sure if you do get down to Christchurch .... 150 manual .. .. nothing here even researching your timetables for a MP , I word have surpassed nearly 3000 pages and still not finding your specific information but I tell you one thing ... to see written history and photos to match makes it a pleasure :)
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby omitchell » Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:24 am

I understood none of that :unsure:
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:27 am

omitchell wrote:I understood none of that :unsure:

Was in reference to find reading an only 150 page manual - its the books that make it better to flick back and forth were as a CD based manual is just not the same.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby emfrat » Sat Jul 04, 2015 10:15 am

Ian Warren wrote: its the books that make it better to flick back and forth were as a CD based manual is just not the same.

:clap: And if you want to cross-check several references, you can easily put a finger at each place - try doing that with a CD :o
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby toprob » Sat Jul 04, 2015 10:57 am

One thing I like is that the author starts the manual with this:

Although this user guide has become quite a long document, I believe that most of the functionality is self-explanatory.
If you are like me and started using the software without looking at this user guide, that’s perfectly fine, but some features, like e.g. the drag and drop features, the scenery.cfg editor or the timers in the radio stack, are somewhat hidden away, so that is where this user guide could be useful...


And, it turns out, he's right, in that I needed the manual initially to install the thing, and get the network connection working, but the actual operation has been just trial and error -- it took me a day or two to come to terms with the way the display worked, and sometimes I'd forget where to find things, but now it's a lot easier. As I said, this does a lot of different stuff, so fitting it all in a tablet display isn't easy, hence the complexity.

The thing I'm trying to deal with at the moment is how to work out a simple way to control it on a touch-screen. I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, and this offers plenty, but of course the tablet doesn't have a keyboard. But that's a common problem with a lot of tools, eventually they will be better optimised for touch, but at the moment this hasn't happened.

With the release of Windows 10, we will hopefully see more 'universal apps', which will know when it's on a desktop and when it's on a tablet. I guess that Maarten Boelens, the author, won't be in too much of a hurry to make this universal, as he gives it away for free, but it might happen -- he certainly doesn't seem afraid of hard work.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby toprob » Sat Jul 04, 2015 7:43 pm

A couple of photos of this in action, showing the map view, and the instrument panel, plus an actual screenshot of the panel from the tablet.

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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Sat Jul 04, 2015 8:14 pm

Looking at that, that could work with me , what happen with .. example a Vulcan bomber to give the feeling of being in such a lest visible sort off cockpit feeling ? .. or a type I like driving.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby toprob » Sun Jul 05, 2015 1:14 pm

Initially I had a simple goal in mind, just to find a way to remove the panel from the screen, and switch it to a movable map when I wanted. This was mainly to unclutter the screen, to get a good look at the scenery, but of course not everyone has this goal:) Which is why you need to just play with something like this, to see what it can and can't offer. At the moment I have a basic setup with the panel on the tablet, and a map on the other PC -- this only works when my flatmate isn't here, as she uses the other PC...

I could shift the other monitor so it sits beside the main sim monitor, at the moment I need to turn my head to see it.

But really the possibilities are endless, one discussion which I came across was the guy who was making an instrument panel with a monitor behind a sheet of ply with cutouts edged with jam jar lids.

Another possibility is to be able to simulate any of the individual panels in a complex aircraft -- I'd like to be able to put the B1900D FMS on the tablet, although this would be trickier than a simple panel.

Of course you can use SLX as a training tool, if you were training someone this is a simple way to change the weather on them (make it snow, for example) or cause a systems failure on a whim.

The thing which appeals to me is that this is a relatively cheap way to get some quite complex results which have been tricky and expensive in the past. Sure, you can buy a whole set of hardware instruments, and connect them all up, but if you are not made of money (hi, I'm Rob!) and you happen to have another machine, either a desktop or tablet, on the network, then you already have the hardware required.

Of course I'd love to have a 'real' cockpit one day, but that is still a long way away, maybe when I retire. In the meantime, I experiment with what I have.
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Sun Jul 05, 2015 2:10 pm

See how far Flight Sim has come, the box art in the shop in the time , Microsoft city's , New York and Paris and a few others , pleased I never brought those .. they really were a false advert back 1994/5 compared to we have got now, no wonder Microsoft did a walk, to build your own cockpit tho - yeah , you look at the many modules Oooo boy ... all you need now and will come out shortly (next few years) is a large cheaper HR bendy screen , rather have that, than those VR-goggles.

So many hardware options now , I still remember that day when I got my first pedal set and throttle and yoke , back then the only product was CH and to try them out ... the sensation was totally new, funny back then I was only on a 19" monitor and back when I brought it it had a whooping price tag on it when first released ... Technology, eh?
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Re: Technology, eh?

Postby Ian Warren » Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:07 pm

Now this install latest software, had the fast fiber already here but on the old plan No one tells you till questioned it .. just finished d/loading 1.8 GB in 4.5 minutes Ooo Crikey I could not believe it .. just happened I was here to watch it ... MAN! that was shite hot Technology, eh?

The Phantom arrived in seconds ... mind ya it was a bloody fast areoplane in the first place :D
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