Aerofly SDK plugin documentation

  • Simulation time should eithe be time after simulation start in seconds or time of day in seconds, universal time UTC. 24 * 60 * 60 would be the max value for time of day at which it resets to zero.

    Clouds cannot be changed by external messages as far as i know. The library that we use for the clouds does not support this.

  • Simulation time should eithe be time after simulation start in seconds or time of day in seconds, universal time UTC. 24 * 60 * 60 would be the max value for time of day at which it resets to zero.

    Clouds cannot be changed by external messages as far as i know. The library that we use for the clouds does not support this.

    Thanks for the info, very much appreciated!😀

  • Simulation time should eithe be time after simulation start in seconds or time of day in seconds, universal time UTC. 24 * 60 * 60 would be the max value for time of day at which it resets to zero.

    Clouds cannot be changed by external messages as far as i know. The library that we use for the clouds does not support this.

    I have been experimenting with setting the Simulation.Time message, but I do not see any change in the simulator. E.g., to set something like 15:30 UTC, I set the value of the Simulation.Time message to 55800 (seconds representing time of day). Is this correct?

  • Ah you want to set the time of day...

    Hm, have you tried values from 0 to 1?

    Make sure the message qualifiers are "event value".

    I think the command Simulation.Time with a qualifier "step" does the exact same as pressing the T key or Shift+T per default to change the time of day.

    Yes, that was what I have been trying:) It seems when watching the Simulation.Time value, that it always starts at 0 when loading a new flight, and is incremented each second. E.g., is it only possible to set the time relative to the initial one (set from the Aerofly FS2 time setting)? It is not possible to set the initial (start) UTC time?

  • I'm not familiar with what messages Aerofly actually accepts from the outside. The current interface is designed to broadcast information out to applications like external moving maps. The value sent through Simulation.Time cannot be changed because it is the fundamental run time of the sim. So it's basically read-only and just a broadcast value, don't expect it to be received when you send it back. I'm not sure if you actually can change the time of day to a specific value from a DLL, please enlighten me what you want to do with that?

    The key command for changing time incrementally has the message Simulation.TimeChange as far as I know, It's saved as <[string8][FunctionID][TimeChange]> in the gc-map.mcf file in the user documents.

  • I'm not familiar with what messages Aerofly actually accepts from the outside. The current interface is designed to broadcast information out to applications like external moving maps. The value sent through Simulation.Time cannot be changed because it is the fundamental run time of the sim. So it's basically read-only and just a broadcast value, don't expect it to be received when you send it back. I'm not sure if you actually can change the time of day to a specific value from a DLL, please enlighten me what you want to do with that?

    The key command for changing time incrementally has the message Simulation.TimeChange as far as I know, It's saved as <[string8][FunctionID][TimeChange]> in the gc-map.mcf file in the user documents.

    Thanks for the info, now it makes better sense. I am mostly testing the capabilities of the SDK interface, and I intended to make it possible to start a flight automatically with the correct time of of day without having to set it manually via the settings. The TimeChange I did try as well, and it does indeed cycle the time as intended.

    The weather api does only expose Visibility, is that correct?

    Also, is it possible to dynamically place objects at a given location? I am working on a HEMS training scenery and for this it would be important to be able to generate dynmic scenarios.

  • I wouldn't call it a weather API :)

    You can change the visibility on the fly but clouds can only be set through the menu or main config.

    Dynamically placing an object would be a nightmare for the performance I think. But you can use animations to move stuff around. I'm not sure what you want to change dynamically that you could not do by just switching locations for example.

    Creating different scenarios sounds like you want to create some sort of mission selection?

  • I wouldn't call it a weather API :)

    You can change the visibility on the fly but clouds can only be set through the menu or main config.

    Dynamically placing an object would be a nightmare for the performance I think. But you can use animations to move stuff around. I'm not sure what you want to change dynamically that you could not do by just switching locations for example.

    Creating different scenarios sounds like you want to create some sort of mission selection?

    Yes I am planning to create different scenarios / missions. And the user could select different mission prior to entering the flight. The difference between mission could be landing area type (confined, pinnacle etc). I did not find any method within the sdk to do this; is the only possibility to have an external tool modify the scenery / places files?

  • Some years ago I tried to dynamically set weather via the SDK-DLL by downloading METAR data from the nearest airport and loading it into the simulation. Back then the SDK did not support changing weather data, so my plan did not work. I resorted to modifying the settings of the simulation before startup.

  • Some years ago I tried to dynamically set weather via the SDK-DLL by downloading METAR data from the nearest airport and loading it into the simulation. Back then the SDK did not support changing weather data, so my plan did not work. I resorted to modifying the settings of the simulation before startup.

    Yes I understood that the engine does not support update via dll. Does the simulator need to be restarted if the settings file is modified?

  • es I understood that the engine does not support update via dll. Does the simulator need to be restarted if the settings file is modified?

    Obviously the settings file is only parsed at startup. I was not able to have any weather interactivity while the simulation was running.

  • I wouldn't call it a weather API :)

    You can change the visibility on the fly but clouds can only be set through the menu or main config.

    Dynamically placing an object would be a nightmare for the performance I think. But you can use animations to move stuff around. I'm not sure what you want to change dynamically that you could not do by just switching locations for example.

    Creating different scenarios sounds like you want to create some sort of mission selection?

    I was watching a demo of the VRM Switzerland VR simulator platform (Robinson R22), which uses Aerofly FS2. The instructor seems to be able to set e.g., wind speed and direction and other parameters while the simulation is running. Is this using some undocumented feature, or is is a complete separate build?

  • I was watching a demo of the VRM Switzerland VR simulator platform (Robinson R22), which uses Aerofly FS2. The instructor seems to be able to set e.g., wind speed and direction and other parameters while the simulation is running. Is this using some undocumented feature, or is is a complete separate build?

    The VRM version is a completely separate build custom made for the certification requirements.

  • Just a followup on the time change issue using the SDK; I was able to achieve setting the time of day using a plugin, however it required some checking of config files outside the sdk. The only way to change time is via the TimeChange event incrementally, and this change is relative to the initial time of day set in the simulator (and this one cannot unfortunately be set using the plugin sdk). Also, the increment is always 10 minutes, the supplied parameter value to the event does not seem to have any impact. Is this correct behaviour?

    I think there would be a lot of potential in case the values currently set in the config files could be set by the plugin sdk as well. As currently it seems the values from the config files are read before loading a new flight.

    I am planning and working on a hems scenario trainer system using Aerofly, and the extra control would be needed😀 Is there some particular contact for commercial projects?