Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

Peer support for Air Manager desktop users

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rbreault2707
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Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:31 pm

Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#1 Post by rbreault2707 »

I am new to flight sim and hope to use XPLANE 12 to practice for my IFR rating.   I'm working to simulate the panel in my Grumman Tiger as closely as possible.  

Using Air Manager and Knobster I came close with my first try.   (Thanks Russ Barlow for his amazing videos!)  This first attempt used a new mid level gaming computer to drive the outside scenery on three 24" monitors and a laptop running air manager panel with a touch screen monitor and Knobster.  Knobster is brilliant btw!

The problem is, I need to add a Garmin 430W to my air manager panel.   In order to add the 430, I must have X-Plane running on the computer running Air Manager.  XPlane 12 requires a Vulkan capable video card to run.  The internal graphics on my laptop would  not support it so I resurrected an older desktop PC to run Air Manager and X-Plane.   The card in my older computer, (which ran Direct X fine for X-Plane 10) is not Vulkan compatible.  So... I ran out and dropped $300 on a Vulkan capable video card only to find my computer did not have the required 8 pin power connector or a big enough power supply to support it. 

Here are my questions:

1. Can anyone recommend a low power video card that will run Vulkan?  Again, fast graphics are not really important here, this computer is going to display my 2D panel only.

2. Is there any way to start XPlane 12 that will not require Vulkan compatibility?  Seems that would be a great feature if running X Plane 12 for this situation (or using it to manage/initiate flight system failures)

3. As an alternative, should I consider adding a (very simple) video card to my #1 computer (to drive a 4th monitor for my panels) and do everything on one computer?  I'm currently getting about 30FPS on my main scenery computer.

Thanks everyone!

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Ralph
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Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#2 Post by Ralph »

I recommend using the Air Manager 4.2 beta with streaming. It isn't completely stable, and far from finished, but you can stream your GNS screen trough the network, to any PC you like.

rbreault2707
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:31 pm

Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#3 Post by rbreault2707 »

Hi Ralph,
Thanks very much for your suggestion. I downloaded the beta and I see what you are saying, based on comments it does not seem 100% stable yet. I wish I had more experience with XPlane and Air Manager. I am still struggling to get oriented to the software.

I searched the wiki for streaming from the beta version and did not find anything. Can you direct me to any documentation that might help or give me an overview? Thanks again!

SimPassion
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Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#4 Post by SimPassion »

rbreault2707 wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:50 pm Hi Ralph,
Thanks very much for your suggestion. I downloaded the beta and I see what you are saying, based on comments it does not seem 100% stable yet. I wish I had more experience with XPlane and Air Manager. I am still struggling to get oriented to the software.

I searched the wiki for streaming from the beta version and did not find anything. Can you direct me to any documentation that might help or give me an overview? Thanks again!
Here's a sample I've made here : https://siminnovations.com/forums/viewt ... 858#p52858

SimPassion
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Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#5 Post by SimPassion »

Go here and click on "Instrument API" link on bottom page : https://siminnovations.com/wiki/index.p ... =Main_Page
then on 7.9 in the table of content, find the Video Stream part : https://siminnovations.com/wiki/index.p ... deo_stream

image.png

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Ralph
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Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#6 Post by Ralph »

I can probably add it to the bezel using the has_feature API, or whatever that thing is called :) I'll have a look tomorrow.

rbreault2707
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Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:31 pm

Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#7 Post by rbreault2707 »

Wow - thanks to you both for helping me! Let me ask a couple very very basic questions.

My original plan (from watching Russ's videos) was to use 2 networked computers. The less powerful computer (Acer) would run X-Plane (as the Master) and also Air Manager. This computer would display my 2D Panel on a 24" touch screen. In this configuration, I would need X-Plane to Pop Out the Garmin 430 and place that behind the background in an area I had made transparent. The panel I defined in Air Manager would be displayed on the touch screen. The outside scenery would be displayed on three monitors using my more powerful computer (HP-Omen) also running XPlane 12.

As a first test, I did not worry about the 430 and on the most powerful computer I ran X-Plane 12 and the plug in and on the second computer just Air manager. Worked so good - and the touch screen + knobster - what a BRILLIANT solution!!

So here is my question - if I had completed this implementation, two computers, both running X-Plane, would I still need the plug in? If yes, which computer would be running it? I guess another way to say that is, if Airmanager and Xplane are running on the same machine, do you need the plug in?

I guess the downside of this plan is that it requires two X-Plane licenses, but that is fine with me. So worth it. Keeping in mind that I am a newbie and want to use X-Plane a training tool (I worship at the Altar of Stability) should I still consider this option, or do you think I should concentrate on your suggested streaming method?

From reading the links you provided me, it seems the idea is to add streaming functionality to an instrument? I am unclear what intercepts and displays the data that is streamed... is it air player? Can you help me understand the basic ideas behind it and the topology of the computers involved. How many computers would be required and what is running on each of them? Thanks in advance for your help and patience!

SimPassion
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Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#8 Post by SimPassion »

rbreault2707 wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:53 am Wow - thanks to you both for helping me! Let me ask a couple very very basic questions.

My original plan (from watching Russ's videos) was to use 2 networked computers. The less powerful computer (Acer) would run X-Plane (as the Master) and also Air Manager. This computer would display my 2D Panel on a 24" touch screen. In this configuration, I would need X-Plane to Pop Out the Garmin 430 and place that behind the background in an area I had made transparent. The panel I defined in Air Manager would be displayed on the touch screen. The outside scenery would be displayed on three monitors using my more powerful computer (HP-Omen) also running XPlane 12.

As a first test, I did not worry about the 430 and on the most powerful computer I ran X-Plane 12 and the plug in and on the second computer just Air manager. Worked so good - and the touch screen + knobster - what a BRILLIANT solution!!

So here is my question - if I had completed this implementation, two computers, both running X-Plane, would I still need the plug in? If yes, which computer would be running it? I guess another way to say that is, if Airmanager and Xplane are running on the same machine, do you need the plug in?

I guess the downside of this plan is that it requires two X-Plane licenses, but that is fine with me. So worth it. Keeping in mind that I am a newbie and want to use X-Plane a training tool (I worship at the Altar of Stability) should I still consider this option, or do you think I should concentrate on your suggested streaming method?

From reading the links you provided me, it seems the idea is to add streaming functionality to an instrument? I am unclear what intercepts and displays the data that is streamed... is it air player? Can you help me understand the basic ideas behind it and the topology of the computers involved. How many computers would be required and what is running on each of them? Thanks in advance for your help and patience!
  • The AM Flightsim plugin installation is required in any case
  • We don't need two licenses of X-Plane, with only one X-Plane license we're legitimate to install as second running copy of X-Plane by design, it's in the installer process
  • Any Air Manager or Air Player on the AM 4.2 Beta side, is able to get the video stream coming through X-Plane which is able to both popout some instruments and also deliver video stream to local or remote computer. For this we're using the already mentioned Air Manager feature named "video_stream_add". Not all instruments are available through this process, only those mentioned here : https://siminnovations.com/wiki/index.p ... m_add#Keys. So either with popout on local or using video stream both on local or on remote is only a matter of choice and personal taste, though it would mandatory requires the AM 4.2 Beta branch running
image.png

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Ralph
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Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#9 Post by Ralph »

I've added the video stream to the GNS430, GNS530 and G1000. Note that you need the beta plugin as well.

rbreault2707
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Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:31 pm

Re: Vulkan requirement / Low Power Vulkan card recommendations

#10 Post by rbreault2707 »

Hi Ralph - thank you!

Would you be so kind as to confirm the following:

With the streaming solution,
1. I only need one computer which runs X-Plane 12 and the 4.2 beta Plug In.
2. My second computer - only needs to run Air Manager 4.2 Beta and is displaying my 2D Air Manager panel on my touch screen monitor. My 2D panel includes a Garmin Streaming instrument (in my case GNS 430). The streaming instrument can be just placed/positioned on the panel like any other instrument, no transparent section needed.

My next question is, now that you have generously added code to enable the Garmin 430/530/G1000 instruments to stream, how do I access your changes so I can use the modified Garmin instruments in my panel?

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