Hi Cupiii,
No offence taken, I’m always happy to hear comments and opinions from others, even if sometimes I don’t agree. In fact, I welcome it, as that’s often the best way to hear of new ideas, improvements, suggestions, etc.
There is at least 1 other app of a similar nature too, so I know this project isn’t a new concept in its current guise, let me explain my intentions and the plan for it, so you can see why I’m doing this. My aim is to empower others to design and build their own stuff, not just those who can program, but almost anyone, allowing users to tailor their Sim experience as much or as little as they wish.
First I want to simplify creating cockpit layouts and gauges so that anyone can design & build their own, with literally no programming experience. Just a couple of images and some config details (via an easy-to-use application) and it’s ready to go.
Secondly, I want to make it extensible, allowing others to add extra features, such as integration with Arduinos or R-Pi or Saitek or almost anything else you can think of that’s Sim-related. All whilst removing the complexities and intricacies of working with the SimConnect SDK. You want a switch to raise/lower the landing gear? Request it via a much simpler network API and it just works.
Finally, I want to make it cross-platform enabled, allow it to be used via multiple PCs, laptops, tablets (even a phone if you’re masochistic), to permit multiple displays and real-world interactions, all to be displayed or controlled remotely and simply drip-fed to/from the Sim PC.
There should be very little overhead for your main PC, making the server-component of this project lightweight, having (virtually) no impact on the Sim itself, allowing users to design/build a cockpit, with all the bells & whistles of a real cockpit (if they want to go that far), without any additional strain placed on the main PC, in fact, it may even make it more performant by freeing it to simply update your window displays (no need to display a cockpit layout, etc) and provide a near real-life experience as possible.
It’s an ambitious project that’s going to take time and it has to start somewhere, hence why I started talking about displaying remote gauges as a concept.
Does that all start to make sense as to why I’m doing this now? There are rigs out there that can cost upwards of 15,000 to build (more if you pay someone to build it) and yet, with something like this you can build your own and it’s not static, it can auto-switch to become any cockpit you want.
Memo to self: How about a VR interface… If we can overlay the Sim display with the virtual cockpit - Something else to add to the wishlist.