We recently (FS Ideas subscribers) got this e-mail (name name of sender omitted). I think it was thoroughly enjoyed by many of us on the team; my favorite part, I think, is the reference to astrology at the end. From: <A rabid fan>...

Based on the lack of references to "process_shared_event_out()" and "GAUGE_HEADER_FS1000" in a popular search engine and the fact that I've gotten a few questions on the subject, I'm guessing that the understanding of how to share data between two instances...

After mentioning which types of variables can and can't be set in my last post, I was feeling a little guilty. In the FS2004 SDK we didn't actually define which types of variables CAN be set. So here's an improved table of variable types, since the SDK...

Hal recently posted a couple of e-mails sent to FS Ideas that he thought were, um, interesting... So I can't resist sharing my all-time favorite. (OK, I've been in this group for less than two years, but this one is over a year old and really stands...

From the FAA : "Runway threshold markings come in two configurations. They either consist of eight longitudinal stripes of uniform dimensions disposed symmetrically about the runway centerline, as shown in FIG 2-3-1 , or the number of stripes is related...

FOD = "Foreign Object Damage"

In the XPack SDK we added more documentation about the enumerations relating to the GPS, but it looks like we left out some, too. Some people were investigating what each meant based on trial and error, but I think I can help out a bit here. For example...

I hate to break a long silence with an unhappy note, but here you have it: http://pc.ign.com/articles/947/947737p1.html?RSSwhen2009-01-23_103300&RSSid=947737 Yes, the studio is closing and development on Flight Simulator 11 is being "indefinitely...

Pretty exciting stuff...

So, you'd think that STRUCT EYEPOINT DYNAMIC OFFSET might have something to do with the camera position as set by SimConnect_CameraSetRelative6DOF(). But you'd be wrong. FSX doesn't actually have any way to query for the current camera position from SimConnect...

I attended GDC 2007 the week of March 5-9; it was my first time there and was pretty excited about it. I tried to attend a variety of sessions, from the very technical (some of which were way over my head) to the general (those that were part of the game...

What's that tire-looking thing at the front of this P-12C? It's called a " speed ring cowling for drag reduction," says Paul

I like this video because it demonstrates what I expected to see in FS when I started using it years ago: the ability to walk around and into an airplane. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0eo2cuT6g

It looks like a common mistake made by people creating XML gauges is to use too many percent signs (%). For example, I saw this in a 3rd-party gauge recently: %{if} % (On)%{else} % (Off)%{end} The underlined percent signs are unnecessary, and the...

Someone was asking about this earlier today, and now that we're not busy getting XPack out the door, I finally have time to answer it. We made some changes to the XPack code base to allow this. And we added a flag to gauges.h: IMAGE_ERASE_ALWAYS...

Warning: I'm not a technical writer. I just play one on TV. There are no guarantees that the following instructions will work for you. Sometimes a gauge author/developer will want to add a (static) shadow element to a gauge. This is pretty easy...

Well, it's certainly been a very long time since I posted anything here, so here we go... For the last 3 days, Microsoft hosted a "Women's Conference." Well, to say that it hosted it might imply that women from other companies attended, which isn't...

I meant to mention in my previous post today on color that there are a few gauges that utilize the "HilightColor" (yes, it should be spelled "HighlightColor", but I have no control over what was written in FS8/9) attribute, including the Beech Baron clock...

This is the first case I've seen of panel-design-related humor. Wow! Although just how funny it is could be debated...

I thought this might be of interest to some people out there: You can use the %{if}, %{else}, and %{end} constructs to choose which text to display. Note that if, else, and end are case-sensitive and must be typed in lowercase. The syntax for usage...

Continuing on the theme of displaying text in an XML gauge, I just spent more time than I would like to admit trying to figure out why this script wasn't working for me: %( (A:ATC ID) )%!s! The problem, of course (which I only resolved by stepping...

When you realize that a P-51D is also known as an F-51D sometimes. P = "Pursuit" F = "Fighter" And I thought that someone else was confused!

IIRC = "If I remember correctly". And I thought it might have something to do with IMC . :)

One issue that we've seen internally is that some of our needles sometimes appear jagged on our analog gauges. If it's been a while since encountering this issue, we may not remember that gauge bitmaps need to be at least 4 pixels wide in order for the...

I just finished reading Hal's copy of Success on the Step . It's a fantastic book and now that it's available in paperback, I might have to get my own copy. The story of Kenmore Air really appeals to me because of the adventurous side of the founder and...