Free Condor Instruments suite v1.0 released

Interested in building your own home grown cockpit?

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Tima (TSD)
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Free Condor Instruments suite v1.0 released

Post by Tima (TSD) » Sun Aug 17, 2008 10:18 pm

Hi everybody. Russian-speaking Condor community wants to make small contribution to the cockpit-building activities :).

There is a program under development which intercepts UDP output of Condor and draws instruments panel on the computer screen (this is free alternative to the Simmeters Soaring Suite.). Instruments panel can be shown either on the second monitor connected to the same computer or on the monitor of another computer through the LAN connection.

Now development is in the beta-testing status. Anyone can join beta-testers team and provide feedback about this program in this thread.

Here is the URL for download (updated, latest version): http://condorsoaring.ru/projects/FreeCondorInstruments/

Program doesn’t require installation – just unpack archive to some folder and start the program.
This beta version shows only 3 instruments - vario, speed and alt.
It is fully configurable through the ini-file (professional beta-testers will be able to understand how ;)).
Undocumented (yet ;)) features are 3 keyboard shortcuts:
Ctrl-Q – exit program
Ctrl-T – test instruments
Shift-D – show FPS toggle.

“Instruments failure” indicator shows whether UDP stream from Condor accepted by program or not.

Further information will follow including ini-file parameters description, other documentation, URL dedicated to this program on the condorsoaring.ru, etc.

[addition]
Here are 2 videos from alpha-testing phase:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1vldiq-ibg and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz69tvMd8TA
In that test Condor was running on the desktop computer and instruments panel was shown on the notebook through bluetooth network connection.
Last edited by Tima (TSD) on Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:08 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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klimrmad
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Post by klimrmad » Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:33 pm

Last edited by klimrmad on Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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dendwaler
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Post by dendwaler » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:23 pm

The instruments are beautiful!
But,
I did not succeed to link it with condor.
I had a dramatic frame drop when i started condor.
May be its my old fx 5600 videocard.
But until now the card was good enough for condor , even with dual screen (2048*768)
Default both applications started on the the same (left) monitor.
I modified the ini file and changed the Top left value to 1024 instead of the default 0 to force it to the second screen.
But did not get any meterreadings.
May be that was not the right way to do it.
I will try to make a profile for this in the dual screen setup.

I appreciate the initiative trying to make an simmeter alternative.
Last edited by dendwaler on Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Tima (TSD)
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Post by Tima (TSD) » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:31 pm

Have you enabled UDP stream in the UDP.ini file? Without it meterreadings are not available. Open this file (located in the Condor insallation folder) and change the following:

[General]
Enabled=1

...

[Misc]
SendIntervalMs=20


This is concerning meters reading. Performance problem we'll investigate.
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dendwaler
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Post by dendwaler » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:55 pm

Wow, thats a quick answer!

I did not realise that i had to do that first in the Condor UDP.ini file.
I have immediately done it ,
Now, it works like a charm!

Only the frame rate has gone down to "unflyable", but that will be my old hardware.
I tested it in an "airborn" situation, because i was not able to stay behind the towplane due to the response lag.

This really is a usefull "enhancement"

Thx!!!!

klimrmad
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Post by klimrmad » Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:17 pm

We found way to keep FPS high. Fixed version will be released in wednesday.

ps: This is not because your 'old' hardware.
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dendwaler
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Post by dendwaler » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:23 pm

klimrmad wrote:We found way to keep FPS high. Fixed version will be released in wednesday.

ps: This is not because your 'old' hardware.
Great!
Looking forward for the new release.
Are you also planning an enhanced Pda as additional instrument?
For instance integration of the open source flightplanner XCSoar?

Good work. :D

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BOD1
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Post by BOD1 » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:55 pm

Great job!

Well done, russian community ;)
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HornetSk
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Post by HornetSk » Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:17 pm

Congratulations, (blagadarenie :-)
for my too late :-( , but for Condor community is this next step for more realistic flying.
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klimrmad
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Post by klimrmad » Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:21 pm

Last edited by klimrmad on Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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dendwaler
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Post by dendwaler » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:57 am

Tried version 1.9 on AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
Noticed besides the new parameter options,
no difference in performance with 1.8.

In my case i have the next results.

Version 1.8: Condor on screen1 (1024*768), meters enabled on screen2 (1024*768) 12FPS
Version 1.9: Condor on screen1 (1024*768), meters enabled on screen2 (1024*768) 12FPS
Condor on screen1 (1024*768), meters disabled 59FPS
Condor on screen1+2 (2048*768), meters disabled 39FPS

klimrmad
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Post by klimrmad » Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:40 am

Notebook Lenovo. Not top config. Ati mobility.

Condor: fullscreen on external monitor. fps 50.
Meters: Windowed on notebook lcd. fps 65.
Here is part of my ini-file
[Window]
Display=1 < Notebook LCD is display #1. External #2.
Topmost=0
FullScreen=0
Top=0
Left=1280 < Notebook LCD logically placed in right of external. Shift right to external monitor width.
Width=1024
Height=768


ps: for now i dont know way to launch condor and meters on same computer both in fullscreen mode. Condor hangs up with resolution error.
Last edited by klimrmad on Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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dendwaler
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Post by dendwaler » Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:40 pm

I use 2 equal monitors with res 1024*768
2048*768 is in condor only available as a choise, if in windows horizontal span is enabled.

meters will start on second screen (right screen) with this setting

[Window]
Display=0
Topmost=0
FullScreen=0
Top=0
Left=1024

meters do not start at all with these settings:

[Window]
Display=1 or 2
Topmost=0
FullScreen=0
Top=0
Left=0 or 1024

choosing for 1024*768 if horizontal span is used,
will blacken the second screen, so you cannot see the meters any longer.

case 2:
2 equal monitors with res 1024*768 configured independently.(dualview)
2048*768 is no longer available in condor as a choise.
The largest available in condor is 1024*768 and defaults to the first screen.

To start meters in the second screen i need again as ini:
[Window]
Display=0
Topmost=0
FullScreen=0
Top=0
Left=1024
condor and meters are working perfectly.

In dualview,
meters do not start at all with any combination of these ini"s

[Window]
Display=1 or 2
Topmost=0
FullScreen=0
Top=0
Left=0 or 1024

conclusion:
using 1 computer, the program "meters" does see any dual screen config , as physically 1 screen

Edit:
Problably it does not see the number of displays, but the number of videocards.
The number of pixels of both monitors connected to the same videocard will add together.
I think in your case you exceed the 2560 horizontal pixel limit which results to the resolution error in condor.

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Tima (TSD)
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Post by Tima (TSD) » Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:46 pm

dendwaler wrote: ...
Are you also planning an enhanced Pda as additional instrument?
For instance integration of the open source flightplanner XCSoar?
...
XCSoar is already available from XCSoar ;). Both for PDA and PC emulator.
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klimrmad
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Post by klimrmad » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:51 pm

http://condorsoaring.ru/files/FreeCondo ... a_1_10.rar
Fixed bug with FPS drop.

Ini file structure was changed:
FontSize moved to General section.
Window section:
Monitor - Id of monitor to display meters on. If you don't know which id you should use, then set it to 1 and launch in fullscreen mode. You'll see which one is #1.
Mode - display mode.
0 - Windowed
1 - Fullscreen
2 - Fullscreen Emulation
Left and Top now are offsets inside selected monitor.
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