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FSX View Control

Dietmar

Dietmar

Resource contributor
Messages
198
Country
germany
I was wondering if it would be possible to develop a gauge which controls the pilots view according to the pitch angle/AoA ( in a certain range ) of the aircraft in order to have always best forward view mainly during landing. I currently adjust the view with the keyin VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_UP or VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN . This moves the seat of the pilot into a position up or down for the best view through the cockpit window. This I want auto controlled by a gauge for a 2D panel.
Any good ideas ?

Dietmar
 
Can't you issue these commands from a 2D gauge and then trigger them accoring to gear position?
 
Thanks Bjoern for your reply.
What I want has nothing to do with the gear position or function. If you assign the VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_UP and the VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN function to a button on your stick or to a key on your board and use it, you will see that your view through the cockpit will move up or down. It is the same effect as if the pilot moves his seat up/down in order to have better front outside view through his cockpit window.
Sure, I can trigger the function e.g (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN) at a certain AoA value and my view moves accordingly. However, I do not know when to stop it because I have no VAR which tells me in what position my "Seat" is in order to stop it.
Hope I was able to explain it better what I am looking for.

Dietmar
 
Would something like this work? (Pseudocode.)

Code: 
(A:AoA...) 7 >
if{
(A:AoA...) (L:AoA past,...) - 1 >
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN)
(A:AoA...) (>L:AoA past,...) }
(A:AoA...) (L:AoA past,...) - -1 <
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_UP)
(A:AoA...) (>L:AoA past,...) }
}

This should theoretically move the view angle up or down for every degree of AoA change if the AoA is greater than 7 degrees.
 
And then during testing you could change the 1 degree to something else, if necessary.
 
Bjoern,
I converted your code to my FSX format. Looks like this:

Code: 
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA,degrees)  7  >
if{ (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees)    (L:AoA past,enum) - 1 >
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN)  (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees)  (>L:AoA past,enum) }
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees)  (L:AoA past,enum) - - 1 <
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_UP)   (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees)    (>L:AoA past,enum)  }

Is it correct ? The view starts moving up if the AoA value is 7 >. So far so good. The trouble is it does not stop. If the AoA moves further up to 8 or stays at 7 +
the view move does not stop. I think it can be done only with a one OFF trigger at a certain time period. So the PAN moves during this time only, and stops if the time is over.
I tested with this code and it worked OK during my landing approach. Here the code:

Code: 
 (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees)  6  >  

if{   (G:Var1)   ++     (>G:Var1)  }            (*increment count.=One tick id 60 ms *)
(G:Var1)  2  >                                                                
if{  0 (>G:Var1)   1  (>G:Var2)   }                                  
(G:Var2)   1  ==                                                                 
if{  (G:Var3)  ++   (>G:Var3,enum)  }                          
(G:Var3)  6  >                                                               
if{  0 (>G:Var2)    }                                                          
(G:Var2)  1  ==  
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN)  }
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees)  6  <    (A:SIM ON GROUND,bool)  1 ==   ||  (* trigger even to reset all LVARs to 0 and view reset*)
if{  0 (>G:Var1)  0 (>G:Var2)   0 (>G:Var3)  (>K:VIEW_RESET)  }

GVAR3 value controls the time for the pan down. May be not very elegant solution, however I got the pan move under control.
I need to test with other criteria like airspeed/vertical speed etc. for a proper pan move if in-flight condition and low speed etc.

Thanks a lot for your comments and ideas.

Dietmar
 
There was an excess space in the "-1" and the closing bracket for the AoA condition was missing.
To avoid flooding, you may put the entire code into a timer to evaluate it every few seconds.

Code: 
(P:ABSOLUTE TIME, seconds) (L:View Adjust Start Time, seconds) - 3 &gt;
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA,degrees) 7 &gt; and
if{ (P:ABSOLUTE TIME, seconds) (>L:View Adjust Start Time, seconds)
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (L:AoA past,degrees) - 1 &gt; if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_DOWN) (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (>L:AoA past,degrees) }
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (L:AoA past,degrees) - -1 &lt; if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_UP) (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (>L:AoA past,degrees) } }
 
OK back on my PC today.
I tested with your proposed code and here my conversion to FSX XML. The code is in the Update element of the gauge:

(P:ABSOLUTE TIME, seconds) (L:View Adjust Start Time,seconds) - 3 >
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA,degrees) 7 >
if{ (P:ABSOLUTE TIME, seconds) (>L:View Adjust Start Time, seconds)
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (L:AoA past,degrees) - 1 >
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_Down) 1 (>L:PanDown,enum) 0 (>L:PanUP,enum) (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (>L:AoA past,degrees)
(A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (L:AoA past,degrees) - -1 <
if{ (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_UP) 0 (>L:PanDown,enum) 1 (>L:PanUP,enum) (A:INCIDENCE ALPHA, degrees) (>L:AoA past,degrees) }}

I did the code not in a "code insert function" for better reading. Is the syntax OK ?

I inserted two extra LVARs ( (L:PanDown,enum) , (L:PanUP,enum) ) to use it for a readout in order to check if the PAN command has been issued.
As soon as the AoA is 7 > the PAN DOWN LVAR goes to 1 and I assume the (>K:VIEW_ALWAYS_PAN_Down) command has been activated too.
However, the panel view does NOT move down. The view up is not triggered at all. There are two difficulties with this PAN commands. If they are to short, you don't see the move.
If they are to long you will see the earth or the heaven. A activation time of a full second is already to long. So, working with full seconds timer may be a problem in general.
I am not sure if it is possible to adjust it smoothly enough by < or > and seconds timer. My initial code with the GVARs worked fine at least for the landing approach. However, I will test/experiment with your proposed code also. So thanks for that.

Dietmar
 
Dietmar said:
I did the code not in a "code insert function" for better reading. Is the syntax OK
Click to expand...

Nein. (As you can see for yourself.)

You also forgot an "and" for the time and initial alpha conditions.

If they are to long you will see the earth or the heaven. A activation time of a full second is already to long. So, working with full seconds timer may be a problem in general.
I am not sure if it is possible to adjust it smoothly enough by < or > and seconds timer. My initial code with the GVARs worked fine at least for the landing approach. However, I will test/experiment with your proposed code also. So thanks for that.
Click to expand...

The timer interval can be adjusted down to 0.055555 seconds (18 Hz 1/18th second per update) since 2D gauges do not update more frequently.

And you're welcome!
 
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