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brettt777
April 1st, 2009, 19:23
I saw on another website the other day how to make some of the older sims work with XP, so I dusted off my Janes F/A-18 and gave it a try. Low and behold, I got it to work. So as I was reaquainting myself with the controls, I was reminded of what an awesome avionics package this sim has and I was wondering if somehow it could be done in an FS sim like FSX. I mean, this sim is ten years old but it has an awesome HUD with several modes and tracking info, and the radar has AA, AG, mapping and even a funtional terrain avoidance function. I am sure most of you guys know this and yes I know, that sim is a competely different format. But if they did it ten years ago, surely we could do it with FSX now...?
crashaz
April 1st, 2009, 21:04
We have the talent in the FS community. The big issue is whether the SDK allows such practices. If it was easy it would have been found before in my mind. However in the past some have tripped over something and found something amazing.
brettt777
April 2nd, 2009, 08:38
We have the talent in the FS community. The big issue is whether the SDK allows such practices. If it was easy it would have been found before in my mind. However in the past some have tripped over something and found something amazing.

So the SDK determines what functionality can be implemented in the flight model and avionics?
Kiwikat
April 2nd, 2009, 08:46
So the SDK determines what functionality can be implemented in the flight model and avionics?

"Yes"
MCDesigns
April 2nd, 2009, 08:55
So the SDK determines what functionality can be implemented in the flight model and avionics?

Exactly. the features you bring up in Janes are probably key features for that sim and programmed as such, whereas, they are not in FSX and as such probably not defined in the SDK, same as combat and such. Some features implemented in addons are often times things that had to have a workaround from the SDK in order to implement them.
n4gix
April 2nd, 2009, 09:42
So the SDK determines what functionality can be implemented in the flight model and avionics?

Well, "determines" isn't really an accurate word choice; better said, the SDK defines and describes what can be implemented....

...it's not as though editing the SDK's text will result in changes in the sim's behavior now... :whistle:

However, that said, not everything the sim can do is described/defined in the SDK either!

One example of this is that -until I told the nice folks at ACES- they had absolutely no idea that the capability of having gauges backlighted in the VC using emissive lightmaps was possible! Presumably that's why they asked me to author a White Paper for them to publish on the FSX/ESP Developers website.

Most of the items you've asked about have either already been done, are in the process of being done, or are under investigation by some of the brightest developers. :ernae:
brettt777
April 2nd, 2009, 13:30
Most of the items you've asked about have either already been done, are in the process of being done, or are under investigation by some of the brightest developers. :ernae:

No kidding? So we may see some of these neat features and functions yet...?