[Visionism]

OK I dunno how off the wall thia is and the very idea is probably going to get me a smacked bottom, but how hard would it be to put hooks in the source code for sharing variables on the fly?

The reason I ask is that some of my fellow Falcon 4 nutcases did this with their favorite flightsim. Take the data out of the sim, shove it down a network cable to a second PC and use that PC with a little custom software to drive a second display. In FS2 you could use the second display for radar, mission objectives, stores management (missles, countermeasures remaining etc) Escort status monitoring and so on, much like the MFDs in a modern fighter aircraft. (You could do comms images and target display too but that would probably make the software running on the second PC hellaciously complex.) Another idea would be to drive a FS version of "*****in' betty" to tell you when your hull is critical, your missiles are exhausted, subsystems failed, etc.

Whats the use? Well I already have a half built cockpit in my basement for flight and space sims and a second display would elevate it from the ordinary somewhat. OK I'm a loony but it would be rather spiffy dontcha think?

[Hippo]

*Smirks* I was having this idea playing XWA on a laptop linked to my Desktop monitor...

[JC128]

I have never fully understood why you would want or need something like this..

[diamondgeezer]

As a semi-hardcore flight sim sort of fellow, I love the *****in' Betty idea. Great thinking, my pedigree chum

[JC128]

well the *****ing betty idea i like but he was talking about splitting the display across the monitors (i think). Thats what I was refering to.

[WMCoolmon]

Basically, find some way to output data from FS to other applications.

[Visionism]

Why? Because I'd like to look down and see a large, clear radar display. Because I'd like to play Freespace sitting in a full sized fully functional cockpit where I hit a large red button marked "Engage Subspace Drive" instead of leaning over to a keyboard and hitting Alt-J. Because I'd like to declutter the main display so it will look good when I run it through a projector onto an 8 foot wide screen. Because I'd like an audible warning when my hull integrity drops below 50%. Because I'd like to see how many countermeasures I have left by looking at a 7 segment LED display driven off the parallel port. Because when I kick in afterburners I want to feel the tactile feedback driver mounted in the seat hit me in the back. Because I like building things out of wood and I like doing simple electronics projects, especially ones that enhance the gameplay of the best game ever made. But most of all because I've been dreaming about something like this ever since I played Elite on my BBC Micro and finally we have the source code to the perfect software in the hands of some very talented people, some of whom are probably as stark raving hatstand as I am. Oh...and because I wanna  

And yes Coolmon, thats exactly what Im asking. The display wouldnt actually be simply split across monitors, just certain variables made available to another program that would send them over the network to a second PC. Much easier I should think than including multi monitor support. I would imagine you could do it by copying the relevant data into an area of shared memory but I'm just guessing since I never made it past chapter 4 of 'Teach Yourself C'

[Bobboau]

I have never done something like this but I don't think it would be that hard, but I have no idea how to do that so I don't know, it would be supreemly dificult to build the second program though that I can assure you, if there is anyone willing to build the second program I would assume they would be able to do the variable hooks

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by Visionism
Why? Because I'd like to look down and see a large, clear radar display. Because I'd like to play Freespace sitting in a full sized fully functional cockpit where I hit a large red button marked "Engage Subspace Drive" instead of leaning over to a keyboard and hitting Alt-J. Because I'd like to declutter the main display so it will look good when I run it through a projector onto an 8 foot wide screen. Because I'd like an audible warning when my hull integrity drops below 50%. Because I'd like to see how many countermeasures I have left by looking at a 7 segment LED display driven off the parallel port. Because when I kick in afterburners I want to feel the tactile feedback driver mounted in the seat hit me in the back. Because I like building things out of wood and I like doing simple electronics projects, especially ones that enhance the gameplay of the best game ever made. But most of all because I've been dreaming about something like this ever since I played Elite on my BBC Micro and finally we have the source code to the perfect software in the hands of some very talented people, some of whom are probably as stark raving hatstand as I am. Oh...and because I wanna  

Oh.  My.  Word.
My friend, if you have that much money kicking around, I know of some very worthwhile causes that could use funding.

[Visionism]

Yeah I wish. It isnt all that expensive. Structure is all wood, Switch panels are made from a plexiglass-printed paper sandwich (backlit baby!) and the rest is just common electronic parts you can pick up in Radio Shack. The projector, much as I'd love a $4000 LCD job, is basically a clear LCD display that you put on an overhead projector. Not nearly as clear but still looks good. (Havent got that yet but they come up on ebay all the time for $100 or so) The second PC and monitor is just old junk I have laying around circa 1998. By the time I finish I estimate it will have cost around $400 exclusing the computer stuff which I have anyway. You wanna see people go REALLY nuts with this stuff look at http://www,simpits.org and have a browse through their links section. Some of those guys have spent thousands (and years) building their simulators, especially the commercial airline enthusiasts. I have a good friend who isnt listed on their site (although he provides their hosting) who is building an F15 simulator out of the front end of a genuine F15. Check it out - www.f15sim.com Sheesh and I thought I was a geek. I'm not fit to lick Gene's pocket protector. (The guy is also a programmer of no little ability so I might have to sweet talk him if I can persuade someone to put the hooks in the code for me ...heh)

[Grey Wolf]

If I had more room this would give me an excuse to drag up my old 15" montitor

[WMCoolmon]

Here's my guess how it could be done; when a program starts, it sends a message to Freespace 2 (Perhaps with the Win32 system, if it's fast enough). Freespace 2, if it's running, sends back a message with its current status. Then the client could send a message with what variables it wants to receive, and whenever they change, FS sends a message to the application with the updated values.

I know it's possible to do, but not how to do it. (Nearly all of my interapplication Win32 messaging knowledge comes from here.)

[LAW ENFORCER]

That is SUCH a good idea! I have three computers in very close proximity, that would be GREEAT!

I would assume if this program was made (the one for the other computers - I dont have space in my tiny room for a full simulator you:D ) it would have multiple computer support (just send it to two ???) and you could customise what you see on each computer?

cool idea! hope it geats done... REALLY hopes it gets done!:yes:

[NecroBob]

would it be possible to have it output all the relevant data to even a second monitor (via S-Video or that thing on the back of Radeons) without all the second application stuff?  or have the second application do that without the second computer?
what? I dunno.  

Bob
shower.

[Visionism]

So long as the hooks are there I can't see why you couldn't in theory output to a second monitor if you can find someone to write the app for you. The only thing thats hard as far as I can guess is a radar display and there must already be a routine in the FS source code to plot 'world positions' onto a 2D circle so you wouldnt have to write that again, just 'borrow' the algorithm. The rest of the data is basically numeric data with some of it sent through parallel or serial ports to drive other devices (A pre-made solution for doing do already exists) such as 7 segment displays for missles/countermeasures remaining, speed, distance to target...whatever you want really. Perhaps bar graph displays (think VU meters) for power management and various indicator lights - Hull Critical, Enemy Missile Lock, Incoming Missile, etc etc. You can really do as much or as little as you like with the data and whether you process it all in a background app or on a separate PC is up to you. We just need to have the data available in the first place.

[athropy]

A little something a learned from the Simpsons:
"Less yapping, more zapping".

It would save a lot of trouble if I had the info where to find all these hooks from the source. Like where is all the movement of other ships and objects stored, but I guess people have better things to do than to write Freespace Source for Dummies.

Our live roleplaying project has progressed somewhat http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,8599.0.html

Guess I should update that thread a bit.

Our project has a few things in common with this threads suggestions. We are trying to pass information from the Freespace engine to individual clients in order to separate some functions of the ship to different crew members, in other words we are trying to accomplish a mockery of multiple crew. So far we are limited to ship function control (shield/engine/weponenergy, messages). Which is pretty simple stuff, but we would also like to duplicate the radar and send map information.

If someone can give a few tippers where to start looking ship/object coordinate and movement information it would save time crawling through the source.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

As far as I know a very easy way to do this would be to write an independant dynamic link library (DLL) and put some references to it in the FS2 source code (meaning everyone gets the functionality if they want it). At some point in the main application loop, you simply access the dll's data and fill out data structures for the information you want to export (this wouldn't be too hard since most things are global in FS2, so its just a matter of adding the right header files in the right places). Then the application which distributes the data calls into the same dll file and accesses its data structures to retrieve this information.

I can't remember the specifics, but dll's allow data to be shared between applications through them.

[Telemachos]

I take it this idea died on the vine since there have been no updates to this thread and I can't find any mention of it in any of the feature lists.  Any know if this was tried and given up on?  I'm toying with looking into implementing this but wonder if someone already did and found it's not possible (or incredibly difficult).

[Taristin]

Holy ****e. I was wonderring when diamondgeezer returned, until I saw the date of these posts.

AFAIK there are already persistent variables. I suspect that global variables would be similar, but I am no coder.

[Turey]

Holy ****e. I was wonderring when diamondgeezer returned, until I saw the date of these posts.

now that's what i call reviving a dead topic.

>3 years has GOT to be a record.