events in FSUIPC C# possible ?

[mroschk]

Hello,

 

just  question if Events are possible with C#.Net FSUIPC Client?

Like in the Windows programming .... as example onButtonPress()...for Offsets.

So, if an Offset Change, i want that a procedure is autmatic called and the Offset chage can be handled.

 

Matthias

[Paul Henty]

No, I haven't built in any events for offset value changes.

I've often thought about it because it's more in line with the normal way of .NET programming, but I can't see a good way of doing it. 

e.g. Would you want to subscribe to each offset's updated event separately? Or maybe one event that gets called every time any offset changes. If it's one event, should it be called once for each offset that has changed, or just once with an array of all offsets that have changed?

Would you want to still control the Process() calls yourself or have the DLL do this automatically given a polling interval? If you're using multiple groups then you may need to specify different time intervals between the automatic Process() calls for each group separately.

FSUIPC doesn't work by events, so the DLL will need to Process() and then detect changes in the Offset values.

It can be done, but the more I think about it the more complicated it gets.

If you have any ideas on how it should work from your point of view, or answers to the questions raised then I'll have another think about it.

Paul

[mroschk]

Hello,

 

thanks for the Answer.
I understand..it is not working with FSUIPC at the Moment.

But it Sounds very good that you think about including it.

I see two way's here:
1. A Special class which the user can add Offsets to Monitor. This class provides the eventhandler like in c#:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.eventhandler(v=vs.110).aspx

2. I dont know if it is possible, but it is the best way i think.
If it is possible use the FSX or P3D to Trigger the update of an Offset. Then the user can just look at it and just do it like in a c# Event like:

private Offset<int> airspeed = new Offset<int>(0x02BC);
airspeedonChange()....

That second way would be great!

Matthias

[Paul Henty]

>> If it is possible use the FSX or P3D to Trigger the update of an Offset.

No it's impossible. The only way it can work is the DLL detecting changed values after a Process() call.

Here is a mock-up of something that I could implement fairly easily: Note that you still need to handle the Process() calls yourself.

        private Offset<int> airspeed = new Offset<int>(0x02BC);

        public Form4()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.airspeed.ValueChanged += airspeed_ValueChanged;
        }

        private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            FSUIPCConnection.Process();
        }

        private void airspeed_ValueChanged(object sender, OffsetEventArgs<int> e)
        {
            this.lblAirspeed.Text = "Airspeed: " + e.Offset.Value.ToString();
        }

Would that be any good?

Paul

[mroschk]

Hello,

 

i know this example from the SDK.

But i think a Timer for such a Operation is not a really good and .Net conform Solution.

I am very sensitive with timers in any .Net program.

Matthias

[Paul Henty]

Quote

i know this example from the SDK.

No, you can't do this at the moment. There is no ValueChanged at the moment. It was something I was proposing to add.

Quote

But i think a Timer for such a Operation is not a really good and .Net conform Solution.

I am very sensitive with timers in any .Net program.

I agree, but FSUIPC doesn't work on an event model. The only way is to use timers to poll the data. Either you use a timer in your application or I have to use a timer in my DLL. There's no escaping timers. If I do it in the DLL the timer would need to run on a different thread than your UI thread which means extra complexity getting the value data onto the main UI thread.

As I said I've thought about it before but always came to the same conclusions:

1. Doing it properly (background thread timer in the DLL) is complicated.

2. Doing it the easy way (as show in my last post) doesn't really give you much improvement over the current way,

Unfortunately FSUIPC is a 'procedural' style interface, not an object oriented one. It's that way because it was invented 20 years ago. The DLL does its best to give ,NET programmers a more familiar '.NET' way of programming (way better than the original C SDK ports to C#) but there's only so much that is possible because of how FSUIPC works.

Paul

[mroschk]

Hello,

no question, FSUIPC + SDK is amazing...and with the .Net functionality it is nice.

But, as you wrote, it is started 20 years ago. Have you maybe plans to develop a new Object oriented dll?

[Paul Henty]

Pete Dowson is the author of FSUIPC, I just wrote the .NET interface.

The only way I can think of creating a fully event-driven .NET interface is to switch to using SimConnect. However, it's a lot of work and I'm not really very interested in doing that in the near future. There is already a .NET client DLL for SimConnect written by Microsoft so .NET programmers already have something that works. Unfortunately it's quite cumbersome and poorly documented. There may be a need for another DLL that makes SimConnect much easier but I don't have the time at the moment.

Paul

 

[mroschk]

Hello,

too bad that you did not have the time to create such  fine app like FSUIPC for Simconnect.

I never tried to do something in Simconnect,but maybe i will try.

Thanks

Matthias

[mroschk]

... i forgot...the Problems with Simconnect starts if you want to manage omething via Networked PC's.

There is the amazing Wideclient Software for Fsuipc, but if simconnect did not work you have Trouble !

[Ahmet Mehmetbeyoğlu]

Hi Paul,

I am using your client to communicate with the sim. Simconnect seemed to be more complicated and it lacks support and documentation for mortals like us. I am not a programmer so I do not understand much of the available official documentation So I go for the fsuipc client dll. But I do also think that events will be nice as using timers and threads uses to much sources. I am not a programmer so maybe I am doing things wrong. What I do is I try to manage timer intervals when the comm is idle and from a point of time it gets more complicated then not having events.

[Paul Henty]

Yes, lots of timers can get difficult to manage. Unfortunately this is how it has to be done. FSUIPC was designed for C, C++, not for .NET.

Although the DLL can make FSUIPC look more like a .NET class library, it can't change the way FSUIPC works fundamentally.

As I discuss in this thread, I've thought about adding events but I don't believe it's practical.

Paul

[Ahmet Mehmetbeyoğlu]

I want to thank you for your time and efforts.