Version 4.1.1 has been released. This version contains mostly bug fixes for user reported issues. You can download it from my github repo.
Release Version 4.1.1 · hawkeye-stan/msfs-popout-panel-manager · GitHub.
Fixes include the following:
-
Added option to store POPM profiles and configuration files in your user’s AppData Roaming folder instead of Documents folder. Hopefully, this solved the issue where OneDrive users are having issue with POPM files.
-
Fixed POPM inability to close correctly when Keyboard Shortcuts preference is disabled.
-
Fixed issue where auto start option failed to retain CommandLine arguments in exe.xml file.
-
Fixed issue where auto start does not work correctly for Steam version of MSFS since exe.xml file location has been moved by Steam installation.
-
Added ability for full screen panel to work as floating panel. An example use case is to show and hide EFB as full screen using keyboard shortcut.
-
Fixed various smaller bugs.
Happy Flying,
Stanley
2 Likes
@RoastGnu
Is there a limit to the number of touch panels I can have actively popped out? I am presently trying to pop out the three GTC screens from the FlightFX Vision Jet and only two of them respond to touch, even though all three of them are properly configured as a windowed (not full screen) touch panel.
Are you not seeing a massive performance hit by popping these panels out? I was using space desk on iPad and POPM with the Vision, and was suffering with such a FPS hit I eventually gave up using them….apparently there was / is a MSFS bug?
There is no limit on number of panel response to touch. I had 3 touchable panels popped out on 2 different touch monitors.
If you use DX12, there should not be any performance hit on pop out panels. For DX11, a bug exist that will decrease FPS for every panel you pop out.
2 Likes
Hello, first a thank you gor this great freeware program. Have been using it since day one.
With the last version I get a freeze of the sim when using it with the Fenix A320. Anybody else have this? Other aircraft work fine.
Ah I did not know that. When I last tried DX12 i found the glass cockpit to be very blurred, especially on moving numbers (like airspeed indicator). Has this issue been resolved as well then?
Nothing in DX12 vs DX11 should cause image blurring inherently. I’ve been using DX12 exclusively since SU9 and I see no issues with blurriness, but this will depend on all of your other settings, particularly render scaling / DLSS etc. Also your glass cockpit refresh rate setting affects how they render; I usually have it on ‘high’ but this can definitely hit your FPS. On low they are stuttery but not blurry.
The memory management / out of video memory (OOM) issues we saw in the early days of DX12 in the sim seem to have been fixed; that said, if you have a low-VRAM card (and I would consider anything <12GB to be low VRAM for this purpose, so an 8GB card is definitely low-VRAM) then DX11 protects you better from OOM errors, at the expense of performance when OOM happens. In DX12 in that situation you might sometimes still get the dreaded ‘your graphics device has experienced an error’ crash.
I can report having up to 7 pop-outs open at times, with almost no impact on FPS. The majority of the impact on FPS from avionics comes when you turn them on and the code begins to run. For complex avionics this hit can be quite substantial, but popping out the display afterwards doesn’t drop the FPS further for me. I do know others who still have this issue, though, and I think some of them are on DX12, so it does seem to be very dependent on your specific hardware configuration. I’d say you need to give it a go and see what happens in your setup.
I am new to MSFS so experimenting. I am using this addon (v4.1.1) with mixed emotion and hoping some guidance can be provided. Using SpaceDesk 2.1.21 I am trying to move my PFD to my cable connected tablet.
The move was successful (full screen mode) but what I need help with …
- I don’t seem to have touch function. The soft buttons are displayed as part of the pop out of the PFD, but none of the buttons react when tapped (eg MAP/HSI, XPDR etc). Enable touch screen control is checked in the tablet’s SpaceDesk app, and a delay of 5ms applied in the Touch Down Touch Up Delay setting in POPM.
- The HSI is squished vertically … more oval than circular. Not likely a Pop Out Panel manager issue, but welcome any suggestion on where/how to look for resolution. I was thinking perhaps taking the panel out of full screen mode and adjust the height, but doing this ends up leaving tablet background and, despite Hide Title Bar being selected, a tap on the panel (touchscreen buttons?) results in the panel window bar appearing.
- How to I reset the camera view of the cockpit once pop out has been completed. As it is now it’s set to default to the copilot view. I’d prefer the pilot view.
For touch function to work, Spacedesk has to be configured to response to touch and not click (POPM will then translate touch into click). Also, Spacedesk touch only works on your first connected tablet (a limitation in Spacedesk). Also, when panel is in full screen mode, touch may not work at all since POPM cannot detect the correct rendering of the panel in order to figure out touch coordinates. What you want to do is to keep the panel as window and then expand it to make it full screen.
As for reset camera view, there is option to configure that. Go to POPM preference (gear icon) → pop out settings → enable return to predefined camera view after pop out.
Yes, sim freezes for me too when using POPM with the Fenix.
These feels over complex asobo really need give us this by default
Looks like it is an Nvidia driver issue. User reported rolling back to older version of driver resolved the issue.
I think I have a FIX!!!
In the Fenix menu outside the sim:
Enable: Use alternative display renderer
Disable: Display VSYNC
Running with latest drivers!
Flight Deck Displays:
ALTERNATIVE DISPLAY RENDERER
This is the legacy method from .146 - in some edge cases, especially those with less than 3GB of VRAM or very old graphics cards, this legacy method can actually see a slight improvement in FPS.
When should I use it? We recommend not to use this method unless you’re touching the minimum specs of MSFS.
This is how I fixed the freeze with the Fenix A320 and popout manager. But maybe only disabling VSYNC is enough in the menu.
I’ve been able to download and run MSFS 2024 Insider Tech Alpha with the limited release this weekend. First of all, congratulations to Microsoft and Asobo in creating such a technical marvel and let us fly around the world by just sitting in front of our computers! And I’ll be flying this weekend to help them get their telemetry data so the game can be released on time to the general public on November 19th!
As for POPM, the current version of POPM does not work in this alpha release since few of the variables POPM used to track MSFS has changed or not working correctly. But I was able to make a few code change to test out POPM general functions in the following 2 scenarios.
Cessna 172
- Configure and pop out PFD and MFD and place them on predefined monitors
X Club
- Configure and pop out PFD and enable touch support
My initial impression
- MSFS 2024 seems to use exactly the same pop out method as MSFS 2020 (Right-Alt click).
- Pop outs seems to use the same rendering and tracking framework as before.
- Still no touch support. But by using POPM touch emulation seems to work better. My guess is the underlying Coherent rendering engine and their custom JavaScript module is now faster so POPM code can execute faster. In X Club, entering COM / NAV frequency on my direct connected touch monitor feels native. Much more responsive than MSFS 2020. For example, entering 128.650 in COM, the lag for the digits to appear in the pop out panel seems much shorter, almost non-existent, compare to MSFS 2020.
- Individual instrumentation panel aspect ratio still works the same, with black bar at the top/bottom or left/right based on size of the pop out.
- The rendering of instrumentation panel in pop out seems faster and more fluid.
- No FPS penalty on my machine since MSFS 2024 is DX12 only.
On POPM side, work that still need to be done to get POPM working for MSFS 2024
- Not sure Ready to Fly Button Skipper will work since I can’t edit the game code yet. It is needed for auto pop out.
- SDK to get aircraft info to configure POPM profile is not working.
- SDK to detect flight session is not working.
- Probably quite a bit of stuff to get POPM to work 100% (camera view, panel moving/sizing, etc)
My hope for final MSFS 2024 release that the Tech Alpha does not have
- A new way for SDK to pop out panel with code without relying on camera view.
- Possible touch support that is not in Tech Alpha build.
- Updated SDK variables and functions to detect flight session, camera, and pop out status
I’ve already started code branch for 2024 in my GitHub and potential release schedule.
Note: Please keep all comments regarding Tech Alpha in the Tech Alpha thread to help out Asobo team. Thank you so much.
Happy flying!
2 Likes
Thanks for the report and POPM update Stanley. It’s probably to be expected in this Alpha but an encouraging start nonetheless. Let’s all hope things improve by release time. I’ll be watching progress closely.
Version 4.1.2 has been released which fixes couple of issues.
- Added touch support for pop out when in full screen mode.
- Fixed pop out always on top issue where it sometimes does not work.
- Improved dynamic LOD FPS detection and logic.
You can download the latest release from my GitHub repository.
This will probably be the last POPM release for MSFS 2020 as I’m preparing and updating POPM code in preparation for MSFS 2024. But please feel free to let me know if there are any showstopping bugs that may have been created by this latest version and I’ll release a patch to fix the problem.
Happy Flying!
Stanley
3 Likes
Thanks for the update and continued support. Great job.
Something I remember suggesting previously and a new idea for the 2024 version.
An assigned key press or mouse click to stop the pop out process. Really useful if it starts automatically and you didn’t want it to.
More and more aircraft devs are using non standard simvars for battery and avionics switching so a way to set custom RPN for each of these so the auto power up/down feature still works.
Keep up the great work.
2 Likes