BluFinBima

Hi Andrew, did you ever get the engine nozzle positions on the IFEI export? If so, where is it? Thanks, Neil

Happy Sleeper, A couple of us have pulled apart the Helios Keyboard interface and performed a lot of testing, and we have only concluded that the keyboard interface is working in the way that 1.3.190 was, and as far as we can tell, it is also working as intended. As the Captain says, testing with notepad in focus is the way to perform simple testing. If this all works, and your intended "catcher" of the keyboard commands is DCS, then please ensure that DCS has focus when the button is being pressed. If you are running Helios Control Center on a different machine from DCS, then please be aware that the keyboard interface does not talk across a network and will never be heard by DCS. Cheers, BFB

HappySleeper, thanks for reporting this. I have only ever used very basic keyboard functions. My testing (simple) indicates the following: Send Keys: seems to work Press Key: Has the same results as Send Keys Release key: Same as CZ says - Who knows I've gone back to Gadroc's final code on GitHub and it has the same problem. I get the same results on 10 and 8.1. So I guess Gadroc must have re-written this code and not used the same code as 1.3. I have already looked at the code in 1.4 and there is nothing obviously wrong but clearly there is a problem. I have some guesses about what might be happening, but it'll take a bit of work (and time) to find out what is really going on. Issue 116 opened for this. Cheers, BFB

Hi Whisky, no, but a 32 bit version could be made to exist. I was hoping that it would not be necessary to have a 32-bit version. I have no 32-bit windows to test so I'd be reliant on someone like yourself to do the testing. Cheers, Neil.

You don't point IRIS at the virtual cockpit. You export the MFD device from DCS which gives IRIS a static version of the MFD (or whatever you want to send) to go over the network.

If I had to guess, I would say that the problem you are having is similar to https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3670391&postcount=34 above which ended up being a problem with the accessibility options in Windows 10.

Good prompt... next time I come up for air, I'll dust off the profile, completed the documentation and post it.

Hi apd1004, believe it or not, Helios has no code for touch screens. It simply responds to mouse clicks and drags etc as passed to it by windows. I'm glad you managed to get the problem sorted. Cheers, Neil

A new release of Helios has just been posted to the DCS website here. In this release we have the following. 1.4.2018.1008 Release ---------------------------- * F/A-18C Interface (immature) * DCS Generic interface added. This is an enabler for complex aircraft profiles from authors such as Capt Zeen. * Prototype "Simple" interfaces for the Mirage 2000 and Mi-8 (prototype) * Guard Switch (without Toggle) added to tool box controls * A-10 NMSP and UFC Toolbox contents moved into "A-10" * Mi-8 ADI gauge added 1.4.2018.0924 Beta 3 Release ---------------------------- * AV-8B Interface * MiG-21Bis Partial Interface by Cylution * Profile Editor zoom funtionality restored * Various Profile Editor bug fixes * New file extension for profile layout We hope you find this functionality useful!

Hi RightStuff, I have one Bodnar board which is currently unused because I decided to go down a different hardware path for cost & flexibility reasons. I'm not sure I understand your point about HID, but if I get a chance, I might plug my board in and poke around. The hardware side is something we're looking at at the moment. I have very little knowledge of DCS-BOIS, but my own hardware is loosely Arduino based using i2c and I might choose to look at a Helios interface for that because one of the team is building a Hornet SimPit and is likely to use some of my boards for that. Aircraft Interfaces containing only switches and lights are probably feasible, because the settings don't take much to implement, but I think that we're unlikely to see more exotic devices being implemented, simply because they are massively time consuming, we have a small team, and there are only so many hours in the day. Unless there are more contributors with good coding skills who join the project, progress on any front will be very slow so I would not hold your breath because am already spending all of my free time on Helios & the SimPit assistance. EOS is not likely to receive any attention from me personally since I decided a long time ago that I would follow a different path - but if a someone joined the team who had interest in this area, then anything is possible. Cheers BFB

The Youtube links provided by Right Stuff is a great place to start, and for the A-10C, there is an interface for that aircraft in Helios which can be used to bind the Bodnar board which I believe will show up in Helios because it is a HID device. The videos cover this process. For other aircraft, the path will be a little more complicated. Assuming there is a visual Helios profile for that aircraft, then I would suggest loading that into the profile editor and then finding the switch concerned - it is likely to have a non-intuitive binding - and then change it to the Bodnar board, or duplicate it.

RightStuff, I agree, assigning an in-profile button to do the reset is the way to go.

Hi Ray, To get DCS to talk to a Helios Interface, you need to install the interface for the aircraft in the Profile Editor. I don't believe anything has changed for the A-10C so the existing exports should work, however I don't think that any of the multi-aircraft exports files available today will accommodate the AV-8B interface in Helios (as an example). I am aware that the management of exports.lua is one significant area that has moved forwards while Helios stagnated. The consequence is that the way that Helios manages exports.lua on an aircraft by aircraft basis does not really fit with how the Helios community has evolved. I am aware of the issue, but I am not clear how to reconcile Helios with the reality of what is being used today.

I'd be very surprised if the terrain causes any problems with Helios.

The AV-8B interface is the significant piece of new function in the Beta, and we included Cylution's MiG-21Bis gauges as well. With Beta 3, we just wanted to get some code out to allow folk like yourself to tell us whether there are any major problems with 1.4+ code base (which was a re-write of a number of areas by Gadroc and then some work by amateurs ;-) ). We have some more function in the wings for the next release. There is a generic interface to help Capt Zeen's profiles and, yes, there is an F/A-18C interface (but I have not yet decided whether it is good enough to release), After that, our road map is less certain. the one certainty is that we will not be providing an interface for every single aircraft in DCS. I estimate that the Av-8B interface took me around 400 hours to get to the stage where it is at now. If others have written an interface for a particular aircraft, then I'm happy for them to contact me to see if inclusion in Helios is feasible. At some point I need to get some time flying mt Harrier and Hornet as opposed to focusing on delivering the next part of the Helios story. I'm really concerned that the sea air is causing corrosion while my planes are sitting on the deck :cry:. Keep the feedback coming. It really does help to give us insights into what is important. All the best BFB

Hi Ray, I am probably missing something here. Why would you want to access the reset button on the control center panel when you have a profile running? Why would you not just assign a button in the profile to be reset? Apologies if I'm being ignorant about what you're asking. Learning how others use Helios is an evolving story. Cheers, BFB

I would not make a claim that error handling was one of Helios' strengths. Having probably experienced more exceptions in Helios than the whole Helios user community put together, I'm well aware of this unfortunate attribute of the program. We'll try to improve this as we go. That was me being (overly) cautious. No, I was referring to the layout file which is only used for the state of the tabs / panels etc inside the Profile Editor. It is effectively the same thing that happens if you delete profilename.layout. If action 1) in the readme is performed, what is the risk? Having written this reply, it has given me a chance to consider the original suggestion. I'm now convinced that the right course of action is to leave the settings.xml where it is, and improve the error handling so that Helios will still start if the settings xml file is mal-formed. Putting dynamic data in the program folder is really not the right course of action. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. All the best, BFB

Hi Ray, I've been running this Helios with a variant of Loz's A-10C profile for a long time and I have not found any incompatibility. If you do encounter any incompatibilities, let us know and we'll try to fix it. Anyone can write a profile with Helios, and if there is something you feel can be improved in Loz's A-10C, you have the option to make the change and contribute the profile back for others to benefit from the improvement. It would be great to hear how you get on. Cheers, BFB

Hi OverDhill. We've just released a new Helios so our focus is not on new (old?) aircraft gauges at this time. If you have suitable artwork already, then I'm happy to take a look. PM me if you have stuff ready to go.

Snacko, BTW, I don't believe that we've broken backwards compatibility of profiles so the two program instances should play happily with the same data (with the exception of the profile editor layouts which is only a one time inconvenience). Our intent is to keep that backwards compatibility. Please let us know if you see profiles that no longer work. Cheers, BFB

Hi Snacko, first things first. Have you experienced the crash (CC or PE) with 1.4? Do you know that partial settings XML is still a problem? I certainly have not encountered it. As for location, what you're asking makes sense, but I'd have to think about the consequences of doing that a little more. My initial concern is that Helios does not give the CC or PE the ability to choose the location of the Helios data directory. I don't want to go down a path which only benefits those who hack the xml. I would never do such a thing myself ;-) Let me think about this. Cheers, Neil

Danke

Gentlefolk, I wanted to bring to everyone's attention that there is a beta version of Helios now available. As far as I am aware, this is the first public distribution of Gadroc's fantastic virtual cockpit simulator which he donated to the community. The learning curve has been steep, but the release that we are calling 1.4 Beta 3 contains: An Interface for Razbam's AV-8B Harrier A partial interface and gauges for the MiG-21Bis Various bug fixes The near-future roadmap contains F/A-18C Hornet Interface and gauges A generic interface to enable the "Top-Tier" profile creators such as Capt Zeen to have a slightly easier life Creating aircraft specific interfaces is extremely time consuming, so there should be no expectation that Helios 1.4 will eventually contain an interface for every aircraft type (unless others wish to contribute them). It there are closet Helios developers who have written their own interfaces and wish for them to be included in Helios then please PM me. Collaborators on this development project were Bloop, AG-51_Animal & Capt Zeen. Let us know what you think, and feel free to give the download file some stars if you feel inclined. All the best, BlueFinBima

Gentlefolk, I realise that progress has been not as speedy as anyone would have wished, but as I tried to explain, getting a stable new version of Helios out was a priority, and to do this, it needed to be tested. I wasn't flooded by requests to test Helios, and therefore the progress was what it was. Helios 1.4 Beta 3 has just been released into the wild and can be downloaded. Assuming no disasters, I would expect to release my profile for the AV-8B in the next 5-10 days. If you download the Helios and find it stable and to your liking, then please give the file some stars, and tell others about it. Cheers, BlueFinBima

Hi Snacko, Capt Zeen does some VERY clever stuff in his profiles to attempt to cope with not having a dedicated interface for an aircraft. Ultimately this can introduce limitations, and I'm sure that it is a pain that he would like to avoid.