Instrument submission guidelines question

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jph
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#11 Post by jph »

Ralph wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 10:32 am They indeed have an SDK, and we support the PMDG 737 for FSX and Prepar3D. But their data set is very limited. In the past I have contacted them multiple times, asking if this can be expanded, but they always said no. Their replies were short, if I even got a reply. They didn't feel very cooperative.
On their forums there was a similar issue with the guy that make the Brunner FF yokes. He was also getting a bit of a stone wall from them although it seems to have resolved itself for that specific issue. - this was only recently.
I wonder how much of the willingness to 'open' the development is tied to existing agreements (covert and overt) they may have with other companies ?
I often wonder if they are using some licensed code - perhaps in the display instrumentation and control logic area ;) - that ties them to limiting the use so as not to step on someone's toes....... I believe a similar thing may be in place with a certain airbus release and licensed code.

Having complete access to PMDG for hardware cockpits could be a little, err, problematic.
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

SimPassion
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#12 Post by SimPassion »

jph wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 11:15 am - that ties them to limiting the use so as not to step on someone's toes.......
Yes, in this area, they are just on the borderline, as they're building study level products, indeed facing with professional certified cockpit builders offers, for which a different position would make pro cockpit hardware and solutions high pricing not really appropriate in the case where they were allowing to build a whole hw cockpit based on a ~$100 single addon ...

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jph
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#13 Post by jph »

SimPassion wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 11:33 am
jph wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 11:15 am - that ties them to limiting the use so as not to step on someone's toes.......
Yes, in this area, they are just on the borderline, as they're building study level products, indeed facing with professional certified cockpit builders offers, for which a different position would make pro cockpit hardware and solutions high pricing not really appropriate in the case where they were allowing to build a whole hw cockpit based on a ~$100 single addon ...
;) Yes, it would be like opening Pandora's box
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

Detlef
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#14 Post by Detlef »

Sling wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:26 am Hi Detlef,

This particular guideline was introduced because several submissions were made that relied on using the Mobiflight wasm for access to LVAR’s back in the early days of MSFS. The good news is AM doesn’t require that now. AM community instruments can’t be reliant on other software for various reasons. I don’t know if there is a way for AM to better interface with this type of arrangement. I do not have the PMDG 737 and so I have no way of looking at this in any detail but if those vars you are accessing fall into the BIO var group then there is hope that Asobo may improve access to those because they affect not just the PMDG but also every other aircraft. PMDG are unfortunately not helpful towards cockpit builders and have so far not made it easy to interface to their aircraft. Even prior to FS2020. If it is related to the BIO vars the aircraft dev can easily provide LVAR hooks that we can use and many devs provide this but sadly many of these var types are hidden away from external control. There is a votable wishlist item on the MSFS forum that covers a lot of the BIO var stuff. Please vote if you haven’t already.
Hi Sling and all,

thank you for comments, explanation (and in some parts speculation I guess). I have opened a ticket with PMDG today and will see what comes from it.
But, I don't like waiting and just hope for times getting better. Here is a proposal:

When I create an instrument and submit it, I tag "3rd party tool required". As a result from that:
- A preview of the instrument will not show up, unless a user imports the instrument and untags "3rd party tool required"
- The instrument information will say (fix text, no change possible): "This instrument requires 3rd party software for full operation. Click on "Folder" and read the documentation for further instructions."
- Siminnovations provides the instrument but cannot support this instrument because it requires 3rd party tools.

The words should be chosen more elegantly, I am native German language, so cant do better. :)

Apart from that (different topic actually), I would appriciate if I could provide a PDF file with an instrument, explaining how to use its features, for example illumination options.

Thank you
Detlef

Detlef
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#15 Post by Detlef »

I got this reply: "We are not supporting LVARS for communication with our products. If a user needs to communicate this needs to be done via the .h and C++"

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Ralph
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#16 Post by Ralph »

Okay so through their SDK.

Detlef
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#17 Post by Detlef »

Ralph wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 2:45 pm Okay so through their SDK.
@Ralph,
yes, the Airmanager might use the PMDG SDK and then provide access to the aircrafts state via the normal fs2020_variable_subscribe(). Do you plan that?
As long as that is not the case, I can build some of the 737 AM instruments using FSUIPC for me only, because I cannot submit them.

@Sling, I don't know what BIO vars are and if PMDG has them.

Thank you
Detlef

SimPassion
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Re: Instrument submission guidelines question

#18 Post by SimPassion »

Detlef wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:42 pm I got this reply: "We are not supporting LVARS for communication with our products. If a user needs to communicate this needs to be done via the .h and C++"
To not follow the MSFS/Asobo guidelines and how developers should conform... ;-) Retained solution (.h) is rather well-known restricted area there ... and rather not opened :|

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