@RoastGnu Control inputs may now work when the sim window is not focussed, but keyboard shotcuts don’t work if the window doesn’t have the focus, which is annoying for the few keyboard shortcuts I still use. POPM refocusing is great, but obviously that only works to refocus when you’re using POPM touch or have clicked on a window with the POPM overlay on top of it, I assume.
@SOAPY5682 Windows has anti-focus-stealing measures built in to stop rogue apps grabbing the focus (this is how some malware works). POPM can do it because there’s a rule that says if you were the last app to get a mouse / touch event, you are allowed to set the foreground window. POPM’s touch layer gets that event when you interact with the MSFS pop-out that it has overlayed, which is why it can then set the focus back to the sim.
You might be able to do something with AutoHotKey, but I’m not sure, and probably not reliably.
Recently, to solve this specific problem where I interact with another app, like an ATC app or Spotify or some random other thing, and then forget to refocus MSFS, I built myself a small app that does it for me. To get around the anti-focus stealing measures, the app sits on a timer, works out how long since the last keyboard / mouse / touch event, and if it’s been long enough, it sends itself a hotkey combination that it registers on startup. Windows has this mechanism built in, so that if you press the hotkey combo a WM_HOTKEY message gets sent to your app - and since that means it is now the last thing to get an event, it can set the MSFS window to the foreground.
Works OK, although FlowPro seems to be interfering with it in some way, I guess because it’s doing a global key hook and it might be picking up my hotkey sequence and stopping Windows sending it on to my app. I’m trying to figure out how now. If so, that’s naughty behaviour because when you hook the keyboard you’re supposed to pass on events to the next recipient in the chain.
I don’t know if it is the way my sim / W11 is set up but, as others have noted, I don’t even have to move to another monitor to lose input controls on the sim screen…. simply moving the cursor off the sim screen does this. I wasn’t asking you to fix the issue but only to describe how you do it. @FlyerOneZero gives helpful input above but I am probably not knowledgeable enough to deploy his method without the risk of mucking something up.
@SOAPY5682 My app is being developed on Github if you want to try it. I did a 1.0 release that I’m happy with, but I’m still working on it, and it’s not guaranteed to always work as Windows is a moving target. There’s no support other than you can open an issue if you have a problem and if I get time, I’ll look at it.
Read the README first - it’s enough to get started with.
I love the app but since switching to MSFS2024 I’m getting the double touch issue. I’m using version 1.02 of Pop Out Panel Manager and putting the PMS750 and 650 onto my Kindle Fire using SpaceDesk. I seem to remember having this issue briefly in MSFS2020 and I was able to cure it some how back then. I’m currently having no luck with the problem now though.
This issue has been around for a while and has been discussed before. I think the result was that it has something to do with SpaceDesk and that adjusting some settings there makes it better but not makes the issue go away.
I have the same problem but weirdly found that it is different for different planes. In the TBM950 it is not nearly as bad as the Citation Longitude.
The PMS GTN provides its own touch support, I believe, so you shouldn’t turn on touch for it in POPM.
However, double-touch more generally has been an issue from the start, because the touch injection has to happen with precise timing which sim updates often change, requiring RoastGnu to make changes to the POPM code to track it. And even when it’s all properly synced up, sometimes it just happens. SpaceDesk introduces additional latency and I assume that’s the source of the issues there.
The real answer here is for Asobo to add touch support to the base sim. It would be remarkably easy (the Win32 API gives you everything you need basically for free; if you can handle mouse events, you can handle touch events in the same handler) but like so many other things in this sim, it’s too far down the defect list to ever get touched (if you’ll forgive the pun).
Thanks for the reply! I will keep tinkering including turning off the touch option (I’ll report back if I stumble on anything that works in case it might help someone else).
I appreciate the info and thank you for the awesome utility!
I saw that PMS recently added the first feature below. Has anyone tried this option? I use the TDS, so can’t test it, though I’m tempted to download the free version of the PMS to try it (if it’s even included in the free version). If it does work, maybe us TDS users can do a feature request.
Note that I use a small HDMI touch monitor, thus I don’t need Spacedesk. There were some Windows touch options that I tried, but no joy.
To be honest I rarely fly anything with a GTN So it’s been a while since I used the PMS. I don’t recall having double touch issues with it, But they seem to come and go with each sim update.
POPM has exactly this feature, to set the delay after touch, which can certainly help with latency on things like SpaceDesk. But I don’t think you can disable the touch support built into the PMS, so that particular POPM feature won’t help here.
When you click the mouse in any window, the flashing cursor shows you were your typing will be sent.
Or on a phone/touch screen the flashing cursor is set where you touch the screen.
This behaviour of sending typing to ONE window has been around since the 80s and we use it without thinking.
So life is better if the mouse is in the sim window.
Btw My Wingwing FCU, EFIS, MCDU plus Thrustmaster throttle and stick, all work with the mouse cursor on another monitor window, as they all use USB. However keystrokes won’t get into the sim.
Today i have installed the Pop Out Manager 2024.
After 2-3 test, now every display in the 738 (pmdg) stop to popup.
Also without use the application. Nothing happen when i click on it.
Only tablet works and poping up correcly.
Any suggest or help will be appreciated
Are you full screen or windowed? Toggle with ALT+ENTER from full screen to windowed and reduce the main window size. Close pop put manager. Then try to pop out manually with AltGr+Left click
Greetings! Somehow, now when the pop-out process begins, MSFS 2024 minimizes to the taskbar. I have to go through all kinds of gymnastics to get it back to the screen. Any suggestions on how to un-do what I have done to cause this? Thanks, Mike
