Adding a fullscreen background

[flyatr]

It would be nice to display all gauges on a fullscreen colored background (or image) so that the underlying desktop or program is not visible.

I tried adding a new gauge that only has a fullscreen background but it was on top of all other gauges.

It should be possible to change the z-order, maybe?

[russ]

I would like to see a background object associated with each instrument group. It could be a solid color or an optional png graphic on top of a solid background color. This way you could include the appearance of non-operating cockpit fittings and items to make things look more authentic to the actual airplane. This background layer would always stay behind all instruments bout would have a stay on top setting for all other things on the desktop.

As you position instruments on the background the geometry would be saved to a group configuration file. Then it would be nice to have the ability to resize the background and all elements of the group would resize too so that the layout remains intact but only scaled. If the aspect ratio is changed the panel should letterbox adding blank but colored background space on both sides of the layout where panel area was added due to the shape change.

Finally, for those who like to display other items, like a third party GPS or Glass flight display ( like xhsi on X-Plane) there needs to be a sort of reverse view_rect ( call it a clear_rect) that would create a transparent area in the background object to allow other items in th desktop to show through.

But, what we need most though is an easy way to export complete panel layouts (instruments and cfg info) so they can be imported into another persons sim without having to jump through the hoops of modifying the Air Manage cfg file manually. It should work as easily as what happens when you add one of the preconfigured panel groups in Air Manager.

[Amok]

I thougt there is a upcomming feature for submit an instrument to the "Store" for easy sharing with others?!?

[russ]

Actually the feature you mention will be added in AM 2.1.1 and will allow you to only submit one instrument at a time. To submit a complete panel you would have to first submit all the instruments for the panel (more accurately called a group) separately. Then you would have to copy the group info from your Air Manager config.xml file and send it to Sim Innovations so that the properties (including instrument sizes and locations) can be used to build the layout. The config file resides in your regular Air Manager folder where your instruments folder is. Usually someting like C:\Users\Russ\Air manager\config.xml (replace Russ with your user name)

Open the config.xml file with a text editor ( I suggest Notepad++ which is available free since it is easier to read). The text you need to copy is the Group for your panel. It starts with the tag <group> and ends with the tag </group>

Here is an example below where I have pasted this code for an Eclipse panel layout (group) that has only two instruments.( each inside tags <meter> </meter> )

Code: Select all

<group>
            <meters>
                <meter>
                    <alwaysOnTop>false</alwaysOnTop>
                    <aspectRatio>true</aspectRatio>
                    <height>900</height>
                    <left>0</left>
                    <locked>false</locked>
                    <name>Eclipse 550 - Glass Cockpit 3.0</name>
                    <pluginUuid>4387e563-415e-4c52-9fc7-24fb71c029d1</pluginUuid>
                    <top>190</top>
                    <width>1920</width>
                </meter>
                <meter>
                    <alwaysOnTop>false</alwaysOnTop>
                    <aspectRatio>true</aspectRatio>
                    <height>190</height>
                    <left>0</left>
                    <locked>false</locked>
                    <name>Eclipse 550 - Autopilot Control Panel- Glareshield</name>
                    <pluginUuid>a46b3851-91f6-4e8d-9264-bb974dc3d2cb</pluginUuid>
                    <top>0</top>
                    <width>1920</width>
                </meter>
            </meters>
            <aircraft>Default</aircraft>
            <compatibleFSX>false</compatibleFSX>
            <compatibleP3D>false</compatibleP3D>
            <compatibleXPL>true</compatibleXPL>
            <description></description>
            <name>Default</name>
            <prefHeight>1080</prefHeight>
            <prefWidth>1920</prefWidth>
            <uuid>27b2489a-282a-41b9-939c-6243a1cc2cd2</uuid>
        </group>

You could send this code as text in an email to Sim Innovations or include it in the text field offered in the dialog used for submitting the the group's individual instruments.

Then Sim Innovations can check the group is valid and include it in the list of premade groups. To see the menu of available premade groups, after selecting the "Instruments tab" , click the group "ADD" button( the rightmost green plus symbol in the Groups section) . Once added bt in Innovations group would show in the list of "premade groups"

You could also email this config group info to anyone and they could paste it into their config.xml . Just paste it after an existing group's </grouo> tag. (Just be sure it is not pasted within an existing group's tags)

The as long as all the included instruments are available (either in the store or by adding them manually) the group should be available to load. It should show up in the menu you use to select the active layout when the "instruments" tab is selected,

See why I'd like an EASY way to do this?

Russ

Russ

[Butte]

I thinks you are a bit off topic

Question was how to change z-order in a layout so that a png can be added as background and will not cover the instruments that are already configured.
Btw, I have the same issue and don't want to start all over with background as first "instrument" in a group.

[russ]

Butte

There is currently no way to do that. Hopefully it will come. If your goal is to have the air manager panel completely cover the desktop there is a work around until then.

First create a small PNG file of the solid color you want to use to fill any spaces between the instruments. It can be any size since it will be resized when it is placed into the panel. I usually use at least 50 x 50 so I can see he color well in the preview.

Then create a new instrument, set it's default size, and add the single png to the resources folder. In the logic script place only the single line img_add_fullscreen("your_filler_image.png") to display the image.

Then in your panel group keep adding this "instrument" that does nothing but show a solid color as many times as necessary to fill each blank space in your panel. Each instance will have to be resized (with "maintain aspect ratio" turned off) to the pixel dimensions of he space it will fill.

This way you can fill any spaces and give the panel a complete and solid look and hide the desktop ... Accomplishing the same effect as adding a background image behind the instruments.

[frumpy]

I had the same problem. I don't know much about programming, but a simple drag&drop of the instrument names
on the left side of AM (change order of instruments) would help a lot. This way one could draw the background later,
put it in the specific panel and move it up so its loaded first.

[WillemijnL]

I had the same problem and last year I resolved that the same way Russ explains. For those who are not so familiar with programming, I'll share my "black panel" instrument. Put the directory inside the zip into the Air Manager instruments folder and you can add the black panel multiple times to your instrument group, each time with different size and position until your desktop is not visible anymore. See also the instructions of Russ. If you want another color, just change black.png using an image editor (don't change the file name otherwise the instrument will not work anymore). You can find black.png inside the resouce folder of the instrument.

[jml79]

I've done a couple of things to solve this. One is set the windows background to a solid colour. Another thing and this is up to gauge designers, every gauge I have built so far, I have separated the bezel and the gauge. This way most people with basic skills can change the bezel (I have included multiple colours) or remove it completely. Doing this and using a windows background image made with the same settings as the bezel makes it look seamless.

Of course another approach is to make a monolithic panel. There are few gauges already available that are designed this way and it looks great but it is a lot more work to make your own.

[russ]

Great way to handle it. I'd go a step further and create a solid background for any panel area visible outside any bezel ... gaps where the instrument dimensions are bigger than the bezel. This way the panel color can be changed easily so an instrument can be changed to match any desired panel color.

Just to be clear here's what I mean to create layers as follows from back to front

the editable background color graphic:

alt_panel.png (4.64 KiB) Viewed 4878 times

Add the instrument face next

The bezel including shadows (on transparent background)

Finally any other stuff like the needles, knobs, ect

I know there are inefficiencies in having more images in the resources folder but you can merge and flatten the images in the final version with your new background color. Submitting the images in separate image layers allows editing without having to go back into SkinMan (if you even have the files). Since the bezel has the drop shadow the bezel with the background color can't be easily edited as a non-layered PNG file.

If instrument submissions used this technique it might eliminate work for others using some of your graphics to build a new similar instrument.

I'd love to see a library of instrument components some place on this webboard so we could share graphical components to be used by others (needles, bezels, faces, knobs, buttons, ect) We do a lot of work that could be reused. The same for much of our logic code. Or is this too much work to be practical? Any comments?