Addons via IPC

[StefanE]

Hello

I am new to this forum and i want to express my deep respect to the contributions by its members and of course the work of Dr. Schweiger and all other developers for creating this simulation free of charge.

In recent years I was a fan of Microsofts Flight Simulator from its early beginnings to FSX. It was not so much flying airplanes but the FSim was always a proving ground for my programming skills. Of course FSUIPC played the decisive role. I have developed many add-ons (nothing commercial) e.g. Cockpit addons, Flight recorders, Tools supporting Scenery Design etc. Most of these tools were running on a second PC using a TCP/IP-Interface.

Now I found out, that there is a Module OrbIPC which comes with the Virtual Mission Control (vMC) program from Syntech. Although FSUIPC is far superior to OrbIPC I think you can develop quite a lot of additional functions using the somewhat limited OrbIPC capabilities.

I would like to find out if it is worthwile to apply this technique to Orbiter. I have looked into various forums, and my impression is, that none of those projects using this technique got very far. I may be wrong, but then someone will tell me I think. I do not intend to develop Addons which run inside orbiter, because my knowledge of C++ ist very limited to say the least. My favourite programming language is Delphi and with the TCP/IP interface it doesn’t matter which language you use.

As a first quick shot I programmed a little panel which reliefs me of pressing buttons to keep engines burning. You may type in a target value for e.g. the apoapsis of your ship, turn it into the right direction and start the engine with a mouse click. When the apoapsis is approaching the pre-programmed target value, the engine is stopped automatically. Not much of a hype but a nice little tool with a huge potential for further development. You may add sound files to hear the click of switches, you may have the target value flashing when approaching engine cutoff and so on.

Let me know if there ist interest in doing something in this direction and I would be happy to look into it. If it is feasible, we will do it. What I would like to avoid however is getting into conflict with other development efforts. If I can help in other areas I would be glad to do so, but be reminded: C++ is definitely not the language i will use.

Kind regards from Germany
StefanE

 

[Charlie]

I actually did something very much like this, unfortunately in a computer mishap I lost the code I developed.

However here is the basic approach.

I used the C++ SDK to create a very simple plugin that just captured the data and passed it to a Delphi DLL. The Delphi DLL had an Indy HTTP component and the data was sent to another program. Basically this means that once you get the data you can do whatever you want with it in the Delphi DLL. The main issue is that while you could also receive data you have to pass it back into the C++ proxy dll, and you can't directly work with the C++ objects in the Delphi DLL.

With a bit of time I could probably detail the main SDK functions that I used and the method I sent the data to the Delphi DLL.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

You might want to check in with Reverend (also a forum member here) about his OUIPC. I think he's trying to accomplish what you are. Perhaps you can combine resources!

 

[yagni01]

I am currently working on an addon that uses sockets to communicate with Orbiter (it uses the same approach as OUIPC). I'm doing alpha testing on it in my copious (that's sarcasm) free time, so it may be a couple more months before its released. In addition to the OrbiterAPI, it has some bonus features for Doug Beachy's XR- series.

Nothing wrong with competition; choice is good! So feel free to write your own if you have the need and don't want to wait or if you have a 'better mousetrap'.