How to Run a EXE in Flight Sim Without pausing or Minimizing

[andrew4792]

Hey,

This is my first post on this Forums so please bear with me. I am currently working on a program in Visual Basic called charter, it pretty much allows you to run a charter company and stuff. Its pretty much done except for the fact that it either pauses or minimizes flight simulator. In vb, how would I fix this?

Any Help Appreciated!

Thanks

Andrew Polyak

[Pete Dowson]

Its pretty much done except for the fact that it either pauses or minimizes flight simulator. In vb, how would I fix this?

First, the only thing you can't stop: if FS loses the focus you will lose the FS sound. You cannot transfer focus (keyboard and mouse input) to a separate process without the original program losing focus, and if FS doesn't have focus it stops the sound.

The pausing on loss of focus is an option in FS which you can turn off. I don't remember which menu it is in, you'll need to look through them.

You shouldn't be able to minimize FS except deliberately, unless of course you are running it in full screen mode. In full screen mode nothing else can use the screen --- by definition. If you want to share the screen between FS and your program you will have to run FS in Windowed mode.

Regards

Pete

[andrew4792]

Hey,

Thanks for the quick responce, but please let me elaborate on my issue. If you have ever heard of FS Passengers you know that when you click start a flight in the menu it opens up the dialog inside flight simulator. When I try to do this, it minimises flight simulator.

Also, in FS Passengers and Squakbox you see a continuos dialog that you can veiw in flight simulator. How do I make one of those, for whenever I try it always looses focus and goes to the back.

Thanks Again!

Andrew Polyak

[Pete Dowson]

Thanks for the quick responce, but please let me elaborate on my issue. If you have ever heard of FS Passengers you know that when you click start a flight in the menu it opens up the dialog inside flight simulator. When I try to do this, it minimises flight simulator.

Are you running FS in Windowed or full screen mode?

Isn't FSPassengers a module of FS, part of FS, not a separate EXE?

Also, in FS Passengers and Squakbox you see a continuos dialog that you can veiw in flight simulator. How do I make one of those, for whenever I try it always looses focus and goes to the back.

I think you have to write an FS module. Have you checked what the programs you are talking about consist of?

Regards

Pete

[andrew4792]

Hello again,

How do you make an FS Module?

Thanks,

Andrew Polyak

[Pete Dowson]

How do you make an FS Module?

Well, I did it by disassembling and hacking into FS modules, to see what made them tick. At that time (back in FS98 days) it took me many many hours. A good, but expensive, disassembler is IDA, and you might want to consider Soft-Ice as a debugger, which is what I invested in back then. However I think the latter is very very expensive these days, and in fact the latest Microsoft visual Studio debuggers are quite good if you get the Pro editions.

Alternatively, if you learn how to do FS C/C++ gauges, from the older FS SDKs, you will find that the DLLs are not really so different. C compiled GAU files are DLLs too, just renamed.

There is a "blank DLL" which helps -- i.e. one which does nothing but gives you a starting framework. I'm not sure where that might be found now. But someone may chip in. Else go look at the FS programmers forum, on Avsim I think.

Regards

Pete

[andrew4792]

Hey,

VFR Simulations would just like to thank you for your help

Thanks Again,

Andrew Polyak and the VFR Simulations Team