FSUIPC Offset for Nozzle Position %

[vipre]

Hey all,

I'm currently writing an Engine Fuel Display for an F18 model using FSUIPC and I'm having trouble locating an offset to show the nozzle position percentage, is there one? The F18 model I have gets the data from "A:WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED", which I found out by digging through it's XML files, but I don't know much about writing XML guages in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Any insight would be appreciated, and if I'm unclear on what I want here is a screenshot to what I'm trying to accomplish (outlined in red).

http://shell2.lomag.net/~viper/EFDNozzle.jpg

[vipre]

Okay after re-looking at everything I figured out that when the water rudders go up and down, it controls the nozzle positions. Does anyone know the offset for getting the water rudder information? I've noticed in the Flight Simulator Guage SDK, it lists a few variables for water rudder information, but I'm having trouble locating these values in FSUIPC.

[Pete Dowson]

Okay after re-looking at everything I figured out that when the water rudders go up and down, it controls the nozzle positions. Does anyone know the offset for getting the water rudder information? I've noticed in the Flight Simulator Guage SDK, it lists a few variables for water rudder information, but I'm having trouble locating these values in FSUIPC.

They are probably not mapped into FSUIPC as no one has asked for them before. Can you be more precise over what you want and how I would possibly recognise it if I saw it?

Pete

[vipre]

Okay after re-looking at everything I figured out that when the water rudders go up and down, it controls the nozzle positions. Does anyone know the offset for getting the water rudder information? I've noticed in the Flight Simulator Guage SDK, it lists a few variables for water rudder information, but I'm having trouble locating these values in FSUIPC.

They are probably not mapped into FSUIPC as no one has asked for them before. Can you be more precise over what you want and how I would possibly recognise it if I saw it?

Pete

Basically if you're using an airplane with water rudders, there is a variable called "WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED" (or "WATER RIGHT RUDDER EXTENDED") in the FS2004 Guage SDK, which returns a percentage for the water rudder position.

So basically if I hit CTRL+W (default rudder control for me) the nozzles for the turbine engines on the F18 model I'm using will open and close according to the percentage it got from "WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED"

If this still isn't clear I can paste what the guage has in the XML document if you like.

Thanks!

[Pete Dowson]

Basically if you're using an airplane with water rudders, there is a variable called "WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED" (or "WATER RIGHT RUDDER EXTENDED") in the FS2004 Guage SDK, which returns a percentage for the water rudder position.

So basically if I hit CTRL+W (default rudder control for me) the nozzles for the turbine engines on the F18 model I'm using will open and close according to the percentage it got from "WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED"

Okay. There are three values:

WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED

WATER RIGHT RUDDER EXTENDED

WATER RUDDLE HANDLE POSITION

and one Control:

KEY_TOGGLE_WATER_RUDDER

The first three may be mapped in FSUIPC at 2A78 (double), 2A80 (doublke) and 2aA0 (possibly a 32-bit value). I'm not sure. I don't know if writing to them has any effect. Most likely you have to use the control "Toggle water Rudder", which is presumably assigned to your Ctrl-W.

As far as I can see these should be readable in gauges too -- there are token variables for them.

I'm rather confused by you saying "... will open and close according to the percentage it got from .." though. As far as I know position type values normally would reflect where the rudder / nozzle has got to, rather than apply a target angle as you seem to think. Of course I could well be wrong.

Try monitoring those offsets in FSUIPC (use the Monitor option on the Logging page), see what they do. Then try writing to them from FSInterrogate.

Regards,

Pete

[vipre]

The first three may be mapped in FSUIPC at 2A78 (double), 2A80 (doublke) and 2aA0 (possibly a 32-bit value). I'm not sure. I don't know if writing to them has any effect. Most likely you have to use the control "Toggle water Rudder", which is presumably assigned to your Ctrl-W.

...

Try monitoring those offsets in FSUIPC (use the Monitor option on the Logging page), see what they do. Then try writing to them from FSInterrogate.

I set these variables up in FSUIPC and FS-Interrogate as doubles and it just returned 0. I also looked in the hex viewer at these offsets, and never saw anything change, always 0's.

I'm rather confused by you saying "... will open and close according to the percentage it got from .." though. As far as I know position type values normally would reflect where the rudder / nozzle has got to, rather than apply a target angle as you seem to think. Of course I could well be wrong.

Well basically the model I'm using will check if the n2 rpm is greater than 80, then toggle the water rudders (aka CTRL+W), and then toggle them if they go less than 80. The nozzle guage will read the variable "WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED" as a percentage and display the percentage on the guage for the nozzle percent.

Do you know of anything else I should be looking at? Or something I could have possibly done wrong in checking these values?

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it!

Mike

[Pete Dowson]

I set these variables up in FSUIPC and FS-Interrogate as doubles and it just returned 0. I also looked in the hex viewer at these offsets, and never saw anything change, always 0's.

I assume this was for an aircraft with such a nozzle?

I can try to look for them here, but I need to know which aircraft to load, preferably one of the default ones please.

Regards,

Pete

[vipre]

I set these variables up in FSUIPC and FS-Interrogate as doubles and it just returned 0. I also looked in the hex viewer at these offsets, and never saw anything change, always 0's.

I assume this was for an aircraft with such a nozzle?

I can try to look for them here, but I need to know which aircraft to load, preferably one of the default ones please.

Regards,

Pete

Well the main issue with that is that we're using some random F18 model someone here found for FS. The person who made the model, used the water rudders to control the nozzles as a little hack. So basically I have an F18 with water rudders that are represented by jet nozzles, and the virtual Engine Fuel Display (which is what I'm duplicating using OpenGL and FSUIPC) guage gets the nozzle percentage value according to the water rudder.

Their guage XML file shows "%((A:WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED, percent) abs)%!5.1f!" to display the nozzle percentage on it's virtual EFD. I'm just trying to get that same variable via FSUIPC, so I can do the same on my external EFD.

Thanks again

Mike

[Pete Dowson]

[

Their guage XML file shows "%((A:WATER LEFT RUDDER EXTENDED, percent) abs)%!5.1f!" to display the nozzle percentage on it's virtual EFD. I'm just trying to get that same variable via FSUIPC, so I can do the same on my external EFD.

I'm reading that myself here, but it is always zero for, for example, the Cessna Amphibian. The "handle position" changes from 0 to 1 or back (its a BOOLean) when I toggle the water rudder, but the values you want never change from 0.

I suspect it needs an aircraft model with this part enabled. I can't test or develop anything without such an aircraft.

Pete

[vipre]

I'm reading that myself here, but it is always zero for, for example, the Cessna Amphibian. The "handle position" changes from 0 to 1 or back (its a BOOLean) when I toggle the water rudder, but the values you want never change from 0.

I suspect it needs an aircraft model with this part enabled. I can't test or develop anything without such an aircraft.

Pete

I've located the model at: http://www.simviation.com/fs2004military19.htm

It's called "FS2004 Boeing F/A 18E Super Hornet" (the fifth one down) if you want to download it (I can understand if you don't, it's about 40 megs).

I modified the Cessna C208 Amphibian so it would show the EFD guage from the F18 model, when I toggle the water rudders and I can see the percent value changing within Flight Simulator. If you want I can make something simple that just displays the percent value on the C208 for you to test with rather than testing with that F18 model.

[Pete Dowson]

I modified the Cessna C208 Amphibian so it would show the EFD guage from the F18 model, when I toggle the water rudders and I can see the percent value changing within Flight Simulator. If you want I can make something simple that just displays the percent value on the C208 for you to test with rather than testing with that F18 model.

Yes please. ZIP and email to petedowson@btconnect.com.

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Okay, received your ZIP, thanks. That helped a lot. I've now managed to map them correctly (for read only) to offsets 2A78 and 2A80, as doubles, with the BOOL handle flag in 2A88.

I'll send you an interim update here tomorrow or the day after. I'm in the middle of some other small alterations too (substring matching for aircraft names in the [Keys, [buttons, [Axes and [joystickCalibrations sections).

Regards,

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Try the attached interim test version of FSUIPC, 3.651.

Pete

FSUIPC3651test.Zip

[vipre]

Works perfectly! Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it!