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#4503464 - 01/12/20 12:52 PM Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders  
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
GlynD Offline
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GlynD  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
Shropshire UK
Hi there all

Been away from the sim for a while, however have recently reinstalled it and want to get back into this wonderful sim.
copter

I have been thinking about how to get two people playing as Pilot and Gunner in one helicopter. Obviously they will have to share the one main view out of the helo.

However if there is a possibility to export 4 MFDs (2 on one screen and 2 on another) and also the gunners sight to a separate monitor then it would be possible to have two people flying and fighting on a single PC...

So how this would work, is the pilot can change his MFD selection with the [ and ] keys as usual. The gunner would have to use another set of keys to change their setting, possibly the ; and ' keys (looking at my keyboard layout). As I don't think those keys are mapped to anything at the moment.

Obviously if either person switched to a MFD that was being displayed by the other person then they would see whatever settings the other person had already set and if they changed anything then this would change both. The other option is that there could only be one version of the MFD displayed and if someone tried to switch to one that was already being displayed then it would skip over to the next available MFD...

You would obviously need a PC that had 4 monitors attached, however these days a lot of systems have the capability to display 4 monitors. So the setting would be something like this:

Monitor 1: Main view (shared)
Monitor 2: Pilots MFDs
Monitor 3: Gunners MFDs
Monitor 4: Gunners sight view

I think you would just have the one joystick for the pilot as I don't know if you could attach 2 and swap between them. However with the keyboard controls the Pilot and Gunner controls would work off one keyboard I think.

Hope this is possible and interesting to people.

Cheers
Glyn

#4503574 - 01/13/20 07:20 AM Re: Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders [Re: GlynD]  
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 1,382
thealx Offline
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thealx  Offline
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Since game supports several control devices, new set of settings can be added special for gunner. Currently there is no keys mapping for joystick, but it's possible to fix.
Second keyboard - I don't think so. So all gunner's controls should be set on single joystick.
Export MFDs to multiple displays - it may be possible, but I never worked with that part of code, probably Javelin or firebird (guess he's not around) can tell you more about that.

I have thought a lot about adding pilot+gunner control to multiplayer, but because of how avionics variables stored, it does not looks like an easy task, especially with my zero skills in network packages exchange. Your idea is closer to reality, but less usable for the players.

#4503691 - 01/13/20 11:53 PM Re: Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders [Re: GlynD]  
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
GlynD Offline
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GlynD  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
Shropshire UK
Thanks for having a look.

I did plug in another keyboard and fire up the game to test if you could run the game using 2 keyboards.... And it seemed to work fine, I could change MFDs, turn on the radar etc on either keyboard.

Yay 😊

Hopefully Javelin or Firebird will be able to have a look at the code <crosses fingers>

My main idea was for cockpit builders who would be using something like AutoHotKey to send key presses using a switch connected to whatever USB device, however it looks like 2 keyboards play nicely as well...

Cheers
Glyn

#4503780 - 01/14/20 05:48 PM Re: Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders [Re: GlynD]  
Joined: Apr 2018
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Javelin Offline
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Javelin  Offline
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Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
Currently the Sim can do one main cockpit view and export two MFDs. If you can work within that limitation you're good to go as is. I don't know what it would take to expand that.

#4503854 - 01/15/20 01:46 PM Re: Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders [Re: GlynD]  
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
GlynD Offline
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GlynD  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
Shropshire UK
Thanks for the reply. #%&*$# and blast I was hoping it would be possible to get two more screens displayed.

Might have to have a look at the source code myself. I am not a C programmer, but I have done a bit of VB6 in the past and VBA more recently.

How do I get access to the source code please? I did have a look at the thread and didn't quite follow what was needed.

Could you point mr to the module (or modules) that handle the MFD output please?

Many thanks.
Glyn

#4503859 - 01/15/20 03:06 PM Re: Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders [Re: GlynD]  
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 1,382
thealx Offline
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thealx  Offline
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Repo stored on GitHub as private project, you can leave request here https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4420670/1 or by direct PM to messyhead

Just search for "command_line_export_mfd" and you will see where and how MFD rendering works. You may start with trying to add another child window via CreateWindowEx and render something to it.

#4503875 - 01/15/20 04:00 PM Re: Pilot/Gunner in one Helo - question to modders [Re: GlynD]  
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
GlynD Offline
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GlynD  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 410
Shropshire UK
Thanks thealx - posted in that thread now

Cheers
Glyn


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