Will BOB/SOW devicelink be udated/improved

[Wiskey-Charlie]

I know that Oleg takes a lot of pride in his work and IL2 in its time was above and beyond all other flight sims especially in the graphics department. By looking at the screen shots as of late I would say that BOB/SOW will continue to be above and beyond all current flight simulation software that is out there when it comes to graphics!

But what about devicelink when it comes to third parties linking their hardware devices? IL2's devicelink has fallen behind other flight simulators in this category. Formula One uses thousands of sensors on their racing cars and the data is raw, real world, data. Also, X-Plane spits out better and more data than does IL2.

Has Oleg addressed this issue? Is it possible for a third party programmer to be linked with Oleg or someone on his team to discuss the known short comings of the old devicelink? Is there a way for a third party programmer currently writing software to communicate with Olegs team without having to post on a public forum?

I am thinking that Oleg takes a lot of pride in his simulation and that he will want to have it above and beyond in every catagory?

(am posting this under development update topic as well)

[AndyJWest]

Wouldn't it be better to at least state what the 'known shortcomings' of DeviceLink are, rather than assume they are known?

From what Oleg has revealed so far, SoW:BoB will be much more 'open' than IL-2, and I'm sure he has considered the new 'DeviceLink' in detail. Personally, I'd be happy to wait and see how it works before asking for changes.

[FCIProject]

Hi

My name is Gary and I have been working with the DeviceLink protocol for a few years and I believe I understand how good it is and its relative shortcomings.

First things, first; I would like to thank Oleg for adding the DeviceLink protocol. As soon as I found out about DeviceLink and SimKits I thought I would build my own Spitfire simulator and do the necessary programming to get simulated instruments working with IL2. This project has been a long and interesting pass time for me. I have created software, called the FCIProject, that fully exploits the capabilities of DeviceLink. During this project I have moved on from SimKits to use much more versatile Flight Illusion instruments; www.flightillusion.com.

The main instruments I have worked on are the six 'Blind Flying' instruments; ASI, Attitude Indicator, VSI, Altimeter, Directional Gyro and Slip/Turn Coordinator. Programming and getting the best out of each simulated instrument has been a real challenge.

One issue I face is that I have never been in real high performance aircraft, like the Spitfire. My experience of how flight instruments work comes from IL2, FSX and a bit of GA flying. None of this prepares one for how sensitive WWII era instruments are.

If you watch this video; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11004370 you will see how sensitive the instruments, like the VSI and Slip/Turn Coordinator are. These are two instruments that have been really challenging to program. For two reasons; 1) the telemetry data for these instruments is not correct and 2) the Flight Illusion instruments cannot keep up with the rapid movement.

There are other shortcomings and missing telemetry with DeviceLink. For example, one cannot tell the state of switches because DeviceLink cannot be queried to ask if a switch is on or off. I have spoken to Oleg about these issues and he assures me that DeviceLink will be more versatile in BoB and he would consider my feature requests. Gun Camera footage is one thing I have asked for. Because I have worked with DeviceLink for so long I know it very well and have submitted a list of feature requests to Oleg.

Just to give you an idea of how the FCIProject can control Flight Illusion instruments here is a video from my Beta tester, Wiskey-Charlie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyoWFfYkTR4

I am positive that DeviceLink will be improved in SoW: BoB. Even if I have to add new code to work with BoB I will do this. I want to fly the best simulator in my own Spitfire SimPit.

[Wiskey-Charlie]

Wouldn't it be better to at least state what the 'known shortcomings' of DeviceLink are, rather than assume they are known?

From what Oleg has revealed so far, SoW:BoB will be much more 'open' than IL-2, and I'm sure he has considered the new 'DeviceLink' in detail. Personally, I'd be happy to wait and see how it works before asking for changes.

As Gary said, he has communicated to Oleg about some devicelink issues.

I started the post because I would like to make it known that there are folks who are working hard (mainly Gary :)) to make Flight illusion gauges compatible with Oleg simulations.

I understand that Oleg assured Gary that DeviceLink will be more versatile in BoB and that he would consider his requests.

Love seeing the periodic Bob screen shots, also would love to hear some news on how that new and improved devicelink is coming along and if Mr.Oleg was able to come through on some of those request. Sure would be nice to hear some reassuring words, maybe some details of what improvements have in fact been made?

Can't hurt to ask.

[AndyJWest]

Can't hurt to ask.
I'd agree, though I think that what Oleg has already said gives me confidence that whatever interface he comes up with will be well thought-out. In designing a system suitable for third-party add-ons, openness to external interrogation is essential, and I get the impression that Oleg would have liked to develop DeviceLink further in IL-2, but found it difficult to do without making it open to abuse - hence the restrictions over what was available online. Advances in hardware and software should hopefully help such difficulties arising in SoW:BoB.

[zapatista]

I have spoken to Oleg about these issues and he assures me that DeviceLink will be more versatile in BoB and he would consider my feature requests. Gun Camera footage is one thing I have asked for. Because I have worked with DeviceLink for so long I know it very well and have submitted a list of feature requests to Oleg.

Just to give you an idea of how the FCIProject can control Flight Illusion instruments here is a video from my Beta tester, Wiskey-Charlie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyoWFfYkTR4



thats pretty impressive stuff, thx for posting

have you had any specific feedback from oleg that the couple of main limitations you mentioned will be address (other then a general" thx for the information, we'll look at it some time")

looks like we are ready for a quantum leap in combat flightsim, multiple monitors AND devicelink for instruments (which at the moment i would just use to put the 6 main instruments on a dedicated small 8' lcd, rather then directly interact with physical instrument in a home built cockpit)

ps: will it now be possible to run devicelink on the same pc il2/BoB is running on, rather then needing a separate 2e pc to run on ? this was a bit of an issue in the past when i tried it, and with multicore current cpu's this hopefully wont be needed anymore (in addition to cpu's being more powerful). or could it maybe use one of those physix add-in cards ?

[AndyJWest]

ps: will it now be possible to run devicelink on the same pc il2/BoB is running on, rather then needing a separate 2e pc to run on ?
You can do this in IL-2 now, even with a low-spec PC. This is how my prototype autopilot works (http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/4121016097?r=4121016097#4121016097). There is no need for multicore processors etc, though no doubt better hardware will improve things.

[Skoshi Tiger]

It always amazes me when I see the talent that is shown by the members of our little community!

Andy, can you run your virtual instrument pannel from a second monitor on smae PC?

Cheers!

[AndyJWest]

Andy, can you run your virtual instrument pannel from a second monitor on [same] PC?
Yes - in fact that's the way I usually run it. It does use a fair bit of resources, particularly with a large complex display, but even with the ancient heap of a PC I'm using, it is workable. If you just want a virtual panel, a second PC would obviously have lesser effects on the game speed, but I need to read the Joystick etc for the autopilot functions anyway. At some point, I'll probably get around to trying it out with two PCs, though I'll have to modify the software a bit, and write some more, to do this.

It may be worth developing something similar for SoW:BoB - I've learned a few lessons with the IL-2 version that should help me get on the right track more quickly.