tycoon74 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Hello all, I'am fairly new to DCS, but not flight simmimg. I have built a home cockpit for FSX/Xplane using networked PCs to display gauges and Iam looking to do the same with DCS for the A-10C and KA-50. I have browsed the forums but i havent found a solution to my question: how do I display the RMFCD and LFMCD on a networked PC? Same question for the ABRIS and SHKVAL for KA-50. I have read about Helios and Hawgtouch. I assume these programs will run the gauges on a networked PC? I dont have touchscreen monitors and I am not interested in them, I just want the gauges and MFCDS functioning on my 2nd PC. Any suggestions or direction to the right forum entrys would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. DCS PC SPECS AMD FX 8350 4.0 ghz Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Running Triple Monitor Eyefinity 16GB Corsair Dominator RAM Windows 7 professional 64bit NETWORKED PC SPECS AMD 965 Black Edition Quadcore 3.4 ghz Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Running Dual Monitor Eyefinity 4GB RAM Windows 7 professional 64bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltz Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Welcome to the forum tycoon! To display the gauges you would require Helios (http://www.gadrocsworkshop.com/) but displaying the MFCDs is a bit more difficult. Someone else had this problem (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=116811.) The piece of software you need is called Iris and was written by a member of this forum. In the thread above I linked to the various parts of Iris that you would require. I currently use both these pieces of software to export my MFCDs, RWR, Clock, UHF Repeater and CMSC in Iris and all the gauges of the MIP are displayed by Helios. It all takes a bit of tweaking to get it right but it's not too difficult. If you are interested in exporting things like the RWR, CMSC and clock check out this guide by icemaker http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=70716 A-10C Cockpit Build Thread My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tycoon74 Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Thanks for the fast response!! I will look at all of the suggestions. Are there any good video tutorials for installation and setup of these programs that you would recommend? Thanks again for the fast response! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltz Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 For video tutorials I don't think there are any for Iris, but the instructions will get you started very quickly. For Helios I would recommend downloading Loz' profile from http://www.gadrocsworkshop.com/node/9 and following it's instructions. If you are not making your own profiles or using switches with Helios then it's self-explanatory and simple to work out. Don't start by dragging in gauges or anything since that will not work without adding bindings and other stuff (I don't know about that stuff) but just use other people's work :music_whistling: A-10C Cockpit Build Thread My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tycoon74 Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks again ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannibal Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 awesome, im going to look into this iris software... how do you like the performance? find me on steam! username: Hannibal_A101A http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197969447179 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltz Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 I only have a GT640 card and had to downgrade to just one 42" TV (I bought 3) so I don't have much to compare against but for me though after a clean install of everything last week I just added in a few pieces of software at a time and it seems to have hardly any effect, if any, on my frame rate. Technically since you are rendering more viewports it should take away from the performance but if you disable them in the 3D cockpit then that should get you back any loss. Iris will not affect performance itself, it's how you export MFCDs that will. Remember that you want to keep the total rendering area at the smallest number of pixels as you can so if you are using Iris then either have them on top of your main view(s) or on another screen with the lowest resolution possible. I'm thinking of looking into SofthTH since it lets you render on just part of a screen meaning that I could take off about a third of the area I currently render. I am considering writing a guide or something on how to do this since I have been asked by a lot of people how to do it. Iris is lost in a very long and excellent build thread so it is very often overlooked (luckily I came across it a while back and bookmarked it) but I will try to write some documentation for it and also setting up the views in DCSW. A-10C Cockpit Build Thread My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitabutch Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 This is not true. Iris also heavily affects performance if you put refresh rate in the reasonable value. Leaving as is Iris refresh rate is making displays behave like slideshow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltz Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Yes that's the performance of the exported displays. I was referring to the performance of DCS World. Simply change the export frequency to match the refresh rate of your MFCDs in DCSW. A-10C Cockpit Build Thread My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tycoon74 Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 (edited) Bolt, So far so good with the Helios, I have downloaded Loz's profile and I have it running perfectly on my second networked PC. For IRIS...I cant seem to figure out the iris.xml file. Would you be able to post your iris.xml file here as a template? I tried to use the example that was with the program but I am getting an error message. I saved it as a MS Word XML file and its not working. Im half way there! just need to get this IRIS working and Ill have my MFCDs up and running. I FIGURED OUT THE CONFIG FILE ... DISREGARD THIS ENTRY :) Edited February 2, 2014 by tycoon74 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltz Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Good to hear it's working. You will also have to modify the monitorsetup.lua in order to export the MFCDs but there are guides on how to do that. A-10C Cockpit Build Thread My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whartsell Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 I the one who finished up Iris and I had no idea anybody but Gremlin was actually using it. If you have any questions about it let me know. Arduino,EOS and Helios Tutorial Static ATC menu mod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannibal Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) ultimately i just want to export the TV display of the A-10A.. do you think the performance will be good if the DCS computer is running (3x) 1080p screens via matrox triplehead2go on (2x) nividia GTX580 cards in Sli? and is iris working on 1.2.7? Edited February 3, 2014 by hannibal find me on steam! username: Hannibal_A101A http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197969447179 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitabutch Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) I the one who finished up Iris and I had no idea anybody but Gremlin was actually using it. If you have any questions about it let me know. I am also using it and it works on quite good level. I also noticed a performance impact that was caused by Iris if I put ~ 30 FPS refresh rate. My guess is that Iris is packing (jpeg maybe) the frames to send it over the network. So the question is, can it be modified to send just a row data over the network (like bmp), since its easy to have 100Mb LAN between PC's. So network bandwidth should not be the problem. And another like "wish list" for automating startup process: - to have an option to minimize the main window on the client on the startup. - having automatic capturing mode on the server on the startup. All in all with Iris I managed to get a decent frame rate on my cockpit, since Helios was a big performance impact together with display export from DCS. Iris didnt solve the performance degradation of MFCD export, but it gives me the possibility to move away Helios from the DCS PC. And that is great! Many thanks for the Iris application! update: I have read trough the thread with the link for Iris and found the source code. As I suggested, Iris made using extreamly inefficient technology (performance wise). Its built on Net C#, used jpeg convertion for every frame to save UDP datagram size, screencapture also is taken from .NET Graphics class. No surprize it makes the stutters for my average not boiling high-end PC. I will experiment with the code to have a solution with less performance impact. Edited February 4, 2014 by vitabutch update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltz Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 hannibal: I don't know about graphics cards, you would have to ask the people over in Hardware section. Iris does not actually interact with DCS so as long as you can export MFCDs in 1.2.7 it will work. I haven't upgraded yet though. A-10C Cockpit Build Thread My YouTube Channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intrepid1 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) I am running 3 screen at 1080 with an analog th2go, connected to First of two GTX275's connected in SLI. The 4th screen is running off the second of two without any problems .Did have to up my ram on the mother board tho (18gig triple channel) to get decrease the amount of the micro stutters .Unfortunately I can't tell you about the effect IRIS would have on it. I am sure with the higher rated video cards you will have no problems Randy Edited February 5, 2014 by Intrepid1 Still have stutters , just no where near as much as I had before the memory up grade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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