PMDG 777 Offsets

[DaddyBooks]

Hello Pete...

 

Posting this in anticipation of your return.  I am hopeful you were away for holiday and trust you had a wonderful and restful time.

 

I have a 737 flight deck that was greatly enriched by your courtesy of mapping the PMDG 737NGX data structure to a series of offsets in FSUIPC.  I have interfaced the associated controls as well by making the associated event calls both directly from the FSUIPC interface and in a few bits of LUA I have developed for certain use cases.

 

PMDG have now made a SDK available for their wonderful 777 aircraft which I have now chosen to purchase given they now support Prepar3D.  I can fully appreciate that you are not in the business of mapping every aircraft product into FSUIPC or you would never have time for a holiday.  However, can you provide any guidance on what mechanism(s), if any, may be available for me to effect a similar type of offset mapping for the read-only values given the similarity of the interface between the 777 and the 737?

 

Again, I am not asking you to support this but curious if there is a mechanism to accomplish something similar from FSUIPC given I have the .h file.  I have done development early in my career but am not all that experienced at C variants or SimConnect but can dust off my Visual Studio and have a go if that's the only way to get to my desired end-state.

 

The 777 data area definition has the same ID (0x4E477831) as the NGX data area definition that you interfaced some time ago so this may be as simple as me creating a different data map using the existing offset range (6420-64FF) allocated for the NGX using the 777 header file to identify the structure.  I've not yet spent enough time to ascertain whether or not the structures are of different sizes but believe they must be given the significant differences between the aircraft.  Should the 777 be a smaller data structure, I hypothesize that it must work since they both map to the same control ID but I'm afraid I am still trying to understand the internals and interfacing.  If, instead, the data block is larger, I speculate that anything beyond the allocated address space would not be available.

 

It's worthwhile to note that I am hopeful that the NGX SDK may be extended in the future as there are a few annunciators and the electrical values that were, for some reason, not included in the first round so we may need to have a go at something for NGX at some point in the future.

 

In summary, I'm willing to try to sort it myself but could use a bit of guidance.  Apologies in advance if I missed something foundational in your documentation.

 

The control events are quite straight forward so I have that sorted.

 

Anyhow, trust you are warm wherever you are and thanks in advance for any thoughts you can lend on this topic.

 

Warmest Regards...

 

...Robert (aka DaddyBooks)

[Pete Dowson]

I could have a look at mapping the 777 offsets, assuming PMDG have implemented a similar mechanism, but i don't really want to purchase the 777. 

 

I wonder if PMDG can be persuaded to let me just have the SDK portion. I'd then need someone with the 777 to test the results of course.

 

Pete

[DaddyBooks]

I would be happy to purchase you the required software for both FSX and P3D so you would own the SDK.  You've done such a service for a hobby I truly love that it would be my honor.

 

I will also be happy to act as a tester for both the 737 and the 777 on both FSX and P3D.  The NGX on P3D is not yet released but I will be purchasing it once it is available to the market.

 

Please send me a PM to discuss if interested.  In parallel, I will open a support case with PMDG to see how to accomplish that appropriately within their EULA.  I will also ask if they will simply allow you the SDK as you suggested.  I recall from reading their EULA that they are very precise in how the SDK may be used.  It appears they granted permission for this with the NGX and aligned with the exclusions and disclaimers you included so I'm trusting support for the 777 will not be an issue.

 

I'm also looking at your SDK but it seems a bit daunting.  I still may dig in as an intellectual exercise just for fun and so I can add C to my list of languages I have dabbled in.

 

...Robert

[Pete Dowson]

I would be happy to purchase you the required software for both FSX and P3D so you would own the SDK.  You've done such a service for a hobby I truly love that it would be my honor.

 

I will also be happy to act as a tester for both the 737 and the 777 on both FSX and P3D.  The NGX on P3D is not yet released but I will be purchasing it once it is available to the market.

 

Please send me a PM to discuss if interested.  In parallel, I will open a support case with PMDG to see how to accomplish that appropriately within their EULA.  I will also ask if they will simply allow you the SDK as you suggested.  I recall from reading their EULA that they are very precise in how the SDK may be used.  It appears they granted permission for this with the NGX and aligned with the exclusions and disclaimers you included so I'm trusting support for the 777 will not be an issue.

 

I'm also looking at your SDK but it seems a bit daunting.  I still may dig in as an intellectual exercise just for fun and so I can add C to my list of languages I have dabbled in.

 

...Robert

 

No, don't do that, though the offer is very generous, it would be a waste as I'd not use it except for this one purpose.

 

I will also be happy to act as a tester for both the 737 and the 777 on both FSX and P3D.  The NGX on P3D is not yet released but I will be purchasing it once it is available to the market.

 

Thanks. I'll be asking you to test the 777 data mapping if I do it, if it is possible.

 

Hopefully the P3D version of the NGX won't change the way their data is mapped.

 

In parallel, I will open a support case with PMDG to see how to accomplish that appropriately within their EULA.  I will also ask if they will simply allow you the SDK as you suggested. 

 

That would be best. Previously they did actually supply the 737NGX whole, but that was so long ago I've lost contacts. And I've not even reinstalled the NGX since I changed PCs.

 

Pete

[DaddyBooks]

I made the request of them in a formal support ticket.

 

Let's see how they respond.  The mechanism for the 777 and the 737 is exactly the same now that I have had the opportunity to look at the .h files and sample code in detail.  In fact, they use the same ID although the structures are different layouts and a different size data block.

 

The interfacing mechanism appears to be consistent between both FSX and Prepar3D although I am looking at the NGX on FSX and 777 on Prepar3D so I need to see the product on both platforms to be sure it's the same.

 

I would provide you the .h personally today but am afraid it would violate their EULA.  I've asked if they will allow me.  Let's see how they respond although, to be fair, I am but one customer and not someone they would know.

 

Thanks...

 

...Robert

[maurotn]

Hi, are there any news about mapping the PMDG 737NGX data structure to a series of offsets in FSUIPC?

 

I'm very interested about it.

 

Thank you.

[Pete Dowson]

Where have you been these last three years? That was done a soon as the original PMDG 737NGX SDK came out supporting exported data, in FSUIPC version 4.84, July 2012. And the data was extended for the more recent SP1d NGX enhancements -- included in FSUIPC nearly a month ago.

 

You must have an extremely old, completely unsupportable, install of FSUIPC. Please do try to keep up to date! :sad:

 

Pete

[maurotn]

I'm really sorry Pete, it has been an error. 

Yes, I know that there is the mapping of 737 on FSUIPC. 

I would have like to have news about 777 PMDG offset mapping.

 

Thank you.

[Pete Dowson]

 

I'm really sorry Pete, it has been an error. 

Yes, I know that there is the mapping of 737 on FSUIPC. 

I would have like to have news about 777 PMDG offset mapping.

 

There is no mapping for the 777 yet. I do not ant to buy and install the 777 as I have no use for it, so I am waiting to see the SDK if and when it is available.

 

Pete