A-10C CDU export

[y2kiah]

Hi fellas,

So I'm sure most if not all of us have been busy with the beta lately. I've been looking into the possibilities for CDU export and the outlook at this time is grim. I've tried a multimon setup using "CDU = {..." to set up the viewport but that didn't work. My searching of the beta forum did not yield any results on this topic, but I suppose I could have looked harder too. Does anyone know if this is possible now, or planned for later? Being "feature complete" I'm thinking this would not be included in the product at launch if it's not already there.

 

Second, I'm trying to get an export of the CDU text so we can build our own view in a BSVP-type app, or in my case, ship the text directly to the microcontroller that is running my LCD. After investigating the lua files that run the CDU, it looks like ED is building the CDU and MFCDs CDU repeater views on the fly, meaning they are creating "string polygon" objects and populating them into view rather than building up a large string buffer and rendering the whole thing at once. There could still possibly be a string buffer somewhere in memory that stores all CDU text in an organized way, but whether it is exposed to lua or not is unknown, but not looking promising at this point. The CDU_commands.lua file has nothing useful listed at this time either.

 

So what I am left with is an idea for how to do this that will be kind of sneaky but it just might work. This would involve editing lua files that ED does not intend for end users to be editing. If I modify the "AddText" function to include some logic that builds a string buffer on the fly along with the string polygons, we should be able to access the buffer each frame to export the text. I'm hoping that all Lua scripts run in the same lua_state within DCS, but I'm not sure they do yet. If different states, I'll see first about storing the string in persistent memory within the sim, and if that doesn't pan out, exporting it to a file or through a socket directly from the AddText function.

 

Sorry this was probably a rambling mess, but maybe if someone from the ED team comes across this they can comment on some of the unknowns that I've mentioned.

Edited October 22, 2010 by y2kiah

[pitbldr]

I've been wondering myself how/if we'd be able to do this. I hope one of devs spots this post and responds.

[hassata]

SCSimulations have indicated that they are planning to incorporate this into their touchscreen Helios Cockpit Management System. Flim even has one made, but it's just a waiting game now until A-10C is final to see how they will export the display.

 

http://www.scsimulations.com/showthread.php?512-Helios-of-Networked-Machine

 

You can post there for updates.

[y2kiah]

I was hoping one of you would say "oh it's simple you just...blah blah blah"

 

I'm not sure what level SCSim's official relationship with ED is at, but if anyone can have pull with them it would be those guys. So here's hoping that they can convince ED that it's good business to include CDU export. I'm not going to rely on hope alone so I will continue to pursue a solution.

[hassata]

Safe to assume we will at least have an accurate graphic to throw up on a networked touchscreen. Exportable display? I live in hope.

[Gadroc]

Unfortunately I wait as you guys do on this. I have not had (yet) a lot of time to poke around with the beta for things like this. I could not even get the regular MFDs to work on my setup and since the beta clearly states this is not ready yet I haven't futzed with it.

[Deadman]

Never assume:thumbup:

[G3]

if Gadroc's interested then good things will come one way or another

[brydling]

This is a must-have for a realistic cockpit. The CDU is the first thing that I have started building. If it's not going to be possible to include the screen in it, I will probably not make an A-10C pit.

[y2kiah]

I totally agree brydling I would really want a working CDU screen but all is not lost, we can still fall back on the CDU repeater on the MFD.

 

Anyway, Export.lua does not appear to be working for me at all in the beta. Yes I enabled it in Config.lua. I guess waiting is the only option at this point.

[hassata]

Hopefully, the next update will make things easier. After some work, I have gotten export of the MFDs working, and the performance hit is minimal and in some cases non existent. So things bode well.

[Deadman]

carer to share how you did it?

[hassata]

Sure: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=58399

 

First and foremost:

 

Please be patient, multimonitor configuration is in progress.

 

I would strongly urge that people wait for the next or relevant update as there are indications (and this is purely my conjecture) that this process will be streamlined or even changed completely. You're just going to spend a couple of days fiddling and you may not even get it to work as each set-up is different, and in the end everything may end up being over-written anyway. Also keep in mind that you cannot report any bugs if your files are modified in any way, and you may not be able to apply the updater if files are changed.

 

But basically, edited my mfd-camera-mfd lua to read:

 

_ = function(p) return p; end;

name = _('MFD Cockpit MFD');

Description = 'Left MFCD on the left monitor,Right MFCD on the right and camera on the center'

 

Viewports =

{

Center =

{

x = 0;

y = 0;

width = 2304;

height = 768;

viewDx = 0;

viewDy = 0;

aspect = 3;

}

}

 

LEFT_MFCD =

{

x = -4;

y = 19;

width = 127;

height = 283.5;

}

 

RIGHT_MFCD =

{

x = 512.5;

y = 20;

width = 127;

height = 283.5;

}

__________________

 

Inputted 2304x768 for res in options, and changed A10 fov in the view lua to 100, 179 to help with zoom

 

My setup is 800x600/1024x768/800x600 all lined up across the top edge in CCC. Thanks to P1KW for kicking things off. Read the entire thread.

Edited October 24, 2010 by hassata