How can I decide if the aircraft loaded is a helicopter?

[kaha]

Maybe I missed something in the documentation?

Karl

[John Dowson]

You could try the ATC TYPE offset 0x3160,

[kaha]

Thank you, I'll try that.

[kaha]

Unfortunately this doesn't work out. It depends if the ATC Type in the aircraft.cfg file has been set correctly.

Just 3 examples:

AH's Cessna 170: "C170BT"

Miltech's Chinook: "$$:Helicopter"

Microsoft's Bell 47J: "Bell"

 

[John Dowson]

Then you need to look into the SDK to see if this information is available anywhere.

The aircraft type, as known by applications via the simconnect interface/API, is determined by the SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE stricture when received, which has the following values:

Quote

SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_USER	Specifies the user's aircraft.
SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_ALL	Specifies all AI controlled objects.
SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_AIRCRAFT	Specifies all aircraft.
SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_HELICOPTER	Specifies all helicopters.
SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_BOAT	Specifies all AI controlled boats.
SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_GROUND	Specifies all AI controlled ground vehicles.

So for all other aircraft/objects (e.g. AI traffic) the type is known, but for the aircraft/object you are flying/controlling it is always SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_USER, and it is expected that the the user knows its type. This is obviously not optimal for third party software that need to determine the type, but I do not know how to determine the type by other means.

I will take a look at the SDK in the next few days to see if this information is available via other means and let you know, otherwise I can raise a bug/request to see if this can be added.

John

 

[kaha]

Thank you, John!

Karl

[John Dowson]

Just an update - I haven't seen anything in the SDK that can reliably be used to determine if the user object is a helicopter.
I also asked on the Asobo SDK forums a few weeks ago and have yet to receive a response. So it looks like this is not possible.

Maybe you could check to see if one of the helicopter-specific simvars is being used (i.e. non-zero) - see https://docs.flightsimulator.com/flighting/html/Programming_Tools/SimVars/Helicopter_Variables.htm.

Also not reliable though, for example they would all be 0 when cold and dark.

I will let you know if I ever receive a response on this question in the Asobo forums.

Cheers,

John