PSX User Interface

[sirraj]

Has Hardy talked about the PSX the user interface at all? Will PSX work like PS1 where you can use the mouse or keyboard? I almost always found the keyboard controls to be the fastest and easiest way to control PS1.

Thanks,

Sirraj

[Holger Wende]

Good question Sirraj,

Recently I was also wondering, whether it is technically feasable to press one of the PSX yoke keys such that an external program running on annother computer could capture the key press event to somehow control voice SW as used in VATSIm or IVAO.
Sending all key events over the network is probably planned already, but making an external voice software "think" a key was pressed "in its scope" is probably more difficult.
Just a thought.

Holger

[Hardy Heinlin]

Good morning,

keyboard shortcuts and mouse are available in PSX (incl. mouse wheel if desired). PS1's yellow box system, however, is not implemented in PSX for obvious reasons (while PS1 covered an area of only 640x480, PSX covers several square meters in real-size; traversing the yellow box from the seatbelts switch up to the maintenance panels would take ages).

I'm planing some preferences features that allow the user to assign certain keys to any flight deck switch.

...

Every switch is easily accessible by addons via TCP/IP. Every action is directly networked from the PSX server to the PSX clients. Addons can participate in that network and act as if they were a PSX instance, i.e. addons simply read or write text lines from/to the PSX network.

The format of the text lines will be documented. Some consist of a single digit only, e.g. 0 or 1 for a simple push button, others may get longer and contain several bits, e.g. a text line for a DRIVE DISC switch contains information about the four light bulbs, i.e. if a bulb is blown, or if the light contact is closed by the MD&T test or by the system, and if the plastic cover is open or closed or wired or unwired, and if the actual switch is pushed or not. The format is standardized for the entire flight deck.

The network has been running since last March. It's rock solid so far.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Will]

How do users (pilots?) navigate around a screen that large?

[Hardy Heinlin]

With preset layouts which come in 9-packs (numpad keys) or by panning and zooming around with the mouse.

[Will]

So it's shrinkable to fit on one monitor, but areas are zoomable by choice?  Is the out-of-cockpit view included, or are you turfing that to the "world simulator" community?

[Hardy Heinlin]

The flight deck windows are part of the flight deck, hence can be treated like any other part of the deck.

The main computer screen can be devided in up to four sub screens. The screen dividers can be dragged with the mouse. Each sub screen can pan and zoom any part of the deck.

The settings are stored in layout 9-pack files. Each 9-pack file stores nine presets, i.e. if you have on each layout four sub screens, you have 36 sub screens stored in the file. Each layout is assigned to a key on the numpad, so you have all layouts ready at your finger tips. The user can assign window titles to each of the nine layouts.

So there's basically a mix of interfaces available: layout presets selectable by the numpad keys – and the mouse which can change any layout anytime.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[J D ADAM]

Hi Hardy,
              Do I understand you correctly that with the multiple screens etc, on my present cockpit set  up, I can drag different panels onto a network, thus displaying panels separately.

Cheers
Derek

P.S. Remember that I, as an older member of the forum am getting closer to my use by date, and any delay in PSX is absolutely unacceptable!!!!!
Don't let me go to my grave wondering!

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hi Derek,

whenever I have a coffee break I think of you and quickly resume the work!!

You can network as many computers as you want and run on each of them an instance of PSX. Everything is in sync except for the layouts. Each computer may have a different layout, i.e. may display a different part of the flight deck. Your choice.


Good night,

|-|ardy

[Phil Bunch]

I think a 3x3 matrix of 30-inch (.75 meter),  1900x1200 pixel (or more) screens should work OK.  At least it would be a start.  And that's just for the instrument panels.  The scenery generator should have its own projectors, like the ones Matt uses in his full-motion sim.

The way LCD screens are going down in price seems to be exponential, so within 1-2 years they should be almost free.

PCs are headed the same way, so it would be relatively inexpensive to acquire a half-dozen PCs to drive the things, too.

I seem to recall that Matt uses 17 PCs for his full-motion rig.  Nobody will ever catch up to him!

[John Golin]

PC wise, there are a lot of MiniITX PCs you can get now.  It will be interesting to see how PSX runs on these, but because they are so cheap, small and low powered they are a great solution.

You could fit many miniITX PCs in the space historically used by a tower PC.

[John Golin]

I seem to recall that Matt uses 17 PCs for his full-motion rig.  Nobody will ever catch up to him!

Oh god I'm having flashbacks...  The thing is its not just the number of machines but the hardware dependancies such as the ISA cards, the EPIC etc etc... even thnigs like finding serial mice, AT keyboards, dealing with Windows 98 etc at 3:00am .... We never ask Matt too much about why it all works... we just back away from it all slowly and leave it to it's own devices...

Bring on PSX!

[Matt Sheil]

I seem to recall that Matt uses 17 PCs for his full-motion rig.  Nobody will ever catch up to him!

 We never ask Matt too much about why it all works... we just back away from it all slowly and leave it to it's own devices...

Bring on PSX!

So do I, John   :shock:

[John Davis PC]

Although not as many computers as Matt ... so do I .... the thing is ... it works best like that !   Thanks to the skills of many guys on here, Hardy , Hoppie, Ivan, Garry and others it needs very little mainenance.

Thanks a bunch guys !