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Flaps Availability

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us-michigan
Greetings- a couple of questions:

1) Do flaps have to be designated in the model in order to work or can I simply indicate parameters in the aircraft.cfg even if the model does not have flap objects?

2) Non-modelling question: Can flaps be adjusted with a resolution of 0-16383 (FSUIPC) or do I have to convert to the resolution of the number of designated detents?

Appreciate all comments. Thanks.

- Mark
 
To answer the first part: no. You just need the flaps section in the config in order for them to work - anything on the model is just displaying that information.

As for the second: theoretically. The SDK documentation mentions the flaps percentage (left and right, for both leading and trailing edge) as a settable A:Var value. But to the best of my knowledge, the sim itself will only recognise the actual detent positions specified in the aircraft.cfg. I might be wrong with that, however.
 
To be clear, a very definite aspect of "working" in a simulator, is that what works is visible. Parameters in the aircraft.cfg will affect flight parameters in relation to flaps, regardless if they are modelled. If the model contains the relevant animations that are properly linked, those will be rendered.
 
Thank you for your responses; much in line for what I was thinking and I was looking for confirmation. This is for a paraglider model for which I created a LUA script for to read retractable wire potentiometers (left and right brake toggles), converted to a series of incremental detents, and wrote to FS via ipc.writeSW(0x0BFC, flaps_pos). Problem I'm having is the effect in flight is not noticeable in the paraglider model dynamics (even after changing the scalars way up). I confirmed my script is ok by using it on the Cessna 172 and visually viewing the flaps and seeing other dynamic changes (i.e. speed decreasing). I guess now I'll concentrate on the aircraft.cfg parameters to see if I can get it to work.
 
Wing flex is supported, if modeled, although I think you would have a tough time assigning that to a flaps function. On the other hand, the flaperlons of the F-18 work perfectly, so there is some "flexibility."
 
Just had an aha moment :). There are parameters in the .air file for flaps that I need to change in order to get the flaps to respond. Should have known better....

To your point, it would be nice to have the flaps modelled. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
As long as the data for flaps is included in the flight model (.air and aircraft.cfg files) the model will behave in accord with that data. The visual model could look like a hayrick or a coral reef but FS will neither know nor care.
 
Thanks for clearing that one up. In case anyone else wonders what a hayrick is, hayrick in the background, flaps in the foreground.

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