keeping busy

[il88pp]

Felt like adding a morse code list. And a sim-icons button for it too.

Not sure if I made a sim-icons button before. If so, I had forgotten it all. Learning anew was fun though.

Manged to place sim-icon in VC. Made registration number a bit smaller, and put icon in free space.

Have a good one.:)

 

[PhantomTweak]

Well, that's certainly a nifty little item. Gauge? Whatever you want to call it :)

Are you keeping it a secret just for yourself? Or maybe you'll upload it to the library so we can all use it?

I used to know Morse code, but I've learned so much that the older information keeps getting pushed out... :D

 

Good job, even if it's just for you!

Pat☺

[il88pp]

I made the icon (image), the gauge that it is part of (clickpot, image, hand, 'Morse Code' infotext, and popup calling functionality). And made the popup section in the panel.cfg.

 

I thought of sharing it, sure.

Few thing though.

*making an icon-gauge is dead-easy. Took about an hour, using the default gps as basis and reading one thread (in which you and stringbean explained some things).

*I tried several different lists. To see which I liked best. I think everyone would like the code presented differently. Some as dots-to-letters, others prefer letters to dots. Etc.

*Making a new popup section is dead-easy.

*Then, the icon gauge needs to send a number to a (A:Variable) when the icon is cliced.

 

for example in default GPS icon that is:

225 (>K:PANEL_ID_TOGGLE)

The default gps Popup has:

ident=GPS_PANEL

The GPS apperas when the 225 nummber is sent.

That's default behaviour of FS(X). And you can't make use of those numbers.

 

But, there are some numbers available to the developers.

In this popup I used an available number:

10300 (>K:PANEL_ID_TOGGLE)

My Popup Popup has:

ident=10300

And now the popup appears when the icon is clicked.

 

 

Concidering how easy can create their own, and those limitations and options for different charts, I decided not to share.

It's easy to find a guide on creating an Icon I'm sure.

And everyone will want a different chart.

Plus, other gauge designers probably made addon Icons, and used some of the free numbers already. I don't want to create a conflict with their gauges.

To top it all off, I have this nagging feeling that if you go look around the libraries, you will most likely find someone created a Morse list before. This can't be the first time someone thought of it.:D

 

For me the fun was 5% in getting the chart available, 95% in making this work. It took me about 3 hrs to get it working. (silly mistake added an hour, I had added it as:

guage21=

instead of the usual:

gauge21=

Without that dumb slip I could have had it done in about two hours.

(And if I want to create something similar, that will be done in no time flat. It's easy once yo know how.)--)

 

 

After that I spent a few more hours on making it look good. The clickspot was just a pink square so far. So redid that.

But, the image on the popup stayed vague. In paint/picture viewer it looked very crisp, but in fsx not so much.

The dots and dashes on the image were not crisp in FS. Tiny white spects in them, if you moved the panel they seemed to change, but it wasn't dust on the screen either.. puzzeling.

It took a while to see it, but then I noticed: They aren't black spots, they're holes in the paper!!!

It's the old FS rule: everything black turns transparent in FS. Use dark-grey instead.

I edited the image in GIMP, so they became slightly greyish. Looked less crisp that way in GIMP, but in FS it looked much better.

Good to know that if/when you start making your own version.

 

 

Another reason I hesitate to share it is that this is only my first (or maybe second) popup icon. I never looked into existing ones much either. I only use them if I can fit a few in the VC. I stick to shift1--shift9 anyway. Even if I have an icon to call up one of those.

I never rely on an icon only to call popup 11 or something. Every part in the plane must have a fallback system you know, redundancy and all that.:D

 

Happy flights Pat, Soar, and same to MissGhost.:)

il.

[PhantomTweak]

Thanks, il :)

I understand your sharing reluctance. I don't blame you in the least.

Believe it or not, making an icon to call a pop-up panel (like a Morse Code gauge, for example :D ) is the one xml programming thing I can do, and rather well, if I may say so. Only limitation I have is drawing a picture for a unique icon. I have to use an existing picture from someplace, but generally, they're not hard to find. There are unused icon pictures all over the place :)

If I make one, thoough, I do it for pop-up windows I want to add, but don't have a shft+ key combo available. Like if I already have 10 [window.X] sections in a panel, and want to add something that doesn't have an icon already, I'll make one of my own. That way, I can call all the pop-ups I want :D

 

Anyway, no problem. If I need something like this, I'll dig one up from someplace. I completely understand your feelings. Thanks for the answer :D

Have fun!

Pat☺

[il88pp]

Enjoy;)

 

 

I know you can do this stuff. You're what made me think of making this in the first place. Just in case you do have a question about it, just send a PM and ask.:)

[wolf2]

very nice, i admire rhe skills!