Why am I being told this is impossible?

[Agrajag]

Guys,

I own a PSS Dash-8 and recently also purchased FS Passengers. FS Passengers adds the element of having to please passengers on your aircraft while in flight and, so far, I really like it.

One of the elements that you have to deal with is the concept of the seat belt sign. FSP keeps track of it and passengers get uppity, just as in real life, if they can't stretch their legs for a period and you get dinged if you don't turn it on when it should be on.

Anyway, the PSS Dash-8 has an overhead panel with a switch to enable and disable this in-cabin element. It's lightly functional in the sense that when you flip the switch, the standard bong sound is played.

FSP wants me to hit CTRL-SHIFT-B to toggle this action and they even supply a "Belt" button that can be added to an existing panel.

I'm wondering, as a COMPLETE panel novice, what would be needed to hook the PSS belt switch into being supported. If I could just get flipping it to send a CTRL-SHIFT-B, I'd be home free.

PSS suggests it's not possible and a posting on FSP suggests it's not possible but that I should add their button to the panel and just toggle both from now on.

As a complete novice this is all a bit lost on me. Why would it be impossible to get access to the existing switch but yet have the ability to add another button from FSP to this very same panel?

What am I not understanding here?

[n4gix]

It's really a very simple matter. You cannot "edit" a compiled .gau file, which is what is being used in the PSS Dash 8. You can either add/replace the FSP supplied gauge to the PSS Dash 8 panel, or use the keyboard command.

[Agrajag]

Thanks Bill.

So the graphic element of flipping the switch is a compiled graphic element? I'm wondering if it's possible to essentially remove their switch entirely and find an uncompiled one that might look fairly similar and then drop it in there and assign that keystroke to it.

Failing that I'd prefer to remove it from the panel and put the FSP button in its place. Is that possible? The idea of having both there just doesn't seem right. <grin>

The part that really gets me is why someone would compile a gauge that has virtually no functionality. What's the point?

[n4gix]

>The part that really gets me is why someone would compile a
>gauge that has virtually no functionality. What's the point?

"Ear Candy!" ;)

Folks like to have switches that move and make noise, even if there's no real function.

In the a/c I build for Eaglesoft, there are actually lighted signs in the cabin that come on whenever the switches are flipped. ;)

Since I don't own the PSS Dash-8, I cannot give you a definitive answer about whether you can replace only the one switch or not. I suspect that particular switch is likely part of an entire row of switches, so the odds are you cannot.

[Agrajag]

Thanks Bill. I did some looking at the PSS Dash-8 has a single .gau file that's like 25k so if I understand everything here, that's all the gauges for the plane together in one spot.

The ironic part of this is that you'd think that developers who flourish in an open environment like Flight Simulator, and make their money because of that, would return the favor.

That they would piggy-back on the open architecture of FS and then slam the door on their customers is a bit surprising.

Oh well. I guess I could always become a graphic artist, a bit of a coder and learn to build my own panel to replace the one in the Dash. Of course I'll do that all right after I cure cancer. <grin>

[n4gix]

>The ironic part of this is that you'd think that developers
>who flourish in an open environment like Flight Simulator, and
>make their money because of that, would return the favor.

Actually, nearly all payware developer's products are just as "open" as FS itself. Meaning that, just like FS, you have no access to the "core" of the product, but may freely play in the peripheral playground, i.e., textures, sounds, flight dynamics, some panel alterations.

Even though all the gauges are in a single file, that isn't what I meant in my previous reply...

A single .gau may contain multiple actual gauges. They are simply combined into what is called a "multi-gauge" format. For convenience, I will refer to the separate gauges in a "multi-gauge" as "sub-gauges."

What I was referring to is that some authors will program a single sub-gauge per switch, while others will cluster several switches into one sub-gauge.

Take the C172 light switches for example. Even though they share the same "multi-gauge" .gau file with the other panel sub-gauges, the entire ROW of switches are "grouped" together as a single sub-gauge. This means that you cannot remove any one of the switches without removing all of the switches in that group! ;)

[badderjet]

Well I am not quite sure if the Dash has the usual PSS Panel Config, but in case it does have it, why dontcha try to assign CTRL+SHIFT+B also to the Fasten Seat Belts Sign Switch in the Dash. In that case if you press CTRL+SHIFT+B not only FSPassenger but also the Dash panel is being triggered.

If this works is just a rough guess, but might be worth a try.
Good luck!
Etienne

[n4gix]

>Well I am not quite sure if the Dash has the usual PSS Panel
>Config, but in case it does have it, why dontcha try to assign
>CTRL+SHIFT+B also to the Fasten Seat Belts Sign Switch in the
>Dash. In that case if you press CTRL+SHIFT+B not only
>FSPassenger but also the Dash panel is being triggered.
>
>If this works is just a rough guess, but might be worth a
>try.
>Good luck!
>Etienne

That's the entire point: you simply cannot assign a keyboard command to a non-stock variable...

Now, in FSX there will BE "Passenger Safety" and "Seat Belt" variables, but that won't the OP in working with the FS9 PSS Dash 8... ;)

[badderjet]

>That's the entire point: you simply cannot assign a keyboard
>command to a non-stock variable...

lol, and exactly my point in return: That's why I said I am not sure if the Dash had the usual PSS Panel Config, which allows you to assign key strokes to about every single thing PSS panels will ever do. I am sure about other PSS planes that do have it, but I am not sure about the Dash. :)

Etienne