New Readme
X-Plane plugin that allows commanding X-Plane from external programs using an easy TCP protocol.
== Features ==
- Multiple concurrent connections
- Set and get datarefs
- Dataref types supported: int, float, double, int[], float[], data
- Simulate key and button presses
- Supports both X-Plane 9 and 10
- Free & Open Source under GPLv3
- Client classes for Qt included
Known users:
ExtPlane-Panel - a panel application @ https://github.com/vranki/ExtPlane-Panel
License: GNU GPLv3
== Downloading ==
Some binaries for various platforms are available in binaries/ directory. Just download a suitable binary and copy it to X-Plane/Resources/plugins/extplane.xpl.
If a binary for your favorite platform is missing, please build it and send it to authors!
== Common build requirements ==
Copy X-Plane SDK to home directory, so that the headers can be found at ~/SDK/CHeaders/XPLM (or edit the .pro file).
You'll need Qt development libraries installed.
=== To build on Mac & Linux ===
$ qmake $ make
Mac notes:
Warning! If you see any error or warning like : ld: in /opt/local/lib/libxslt.1.dylib, file was built for unsupported file format which is not the architecture being linked (i386)
You need to rebuild libxslt with the +universal variant on MacPort otherwise the plugin cannot be loaded by X-Plane ! You should get the same for qt4-mac also.
== Test session ==
Launch X-Plane in console and observe the output. You should see something like: TcpServer::TcpServer(QObject*, DataRefProvider*) Listening on port 51000
Open another console and run 'telnet localhost 51000'
Wait until you see line 'EXTPLANE 1'
Try typing the following commands:
sub sim/cockpit/electrical/night_vision_on set sim/cockpit/electrical/night_vision_on 1 set sim/cockpit/electrical/night_vision_on 0 sub sim/flightmodel/position/local_y 100 set sim/flightmodel/position/local_y 3000 key 0 key 0 set sim/flightmodel/engine/ENGN_thro [1,0] set sim/flightmodel/engine/ENGN_thro [0,0] disconnect
== Command reference ==
Datarefs: sub [accuracy] - Subscribe to dataref, with optional accuracy. unsub - Unsubscribe dataref. set - Set dataref to value. Dataref must be subscribed first.
With accuracy you can decide how much the dataref's value can change before a update is sent. Set it to as large value as possible to maximize frame rate and minimize network traffic.
List of datarefs can be found at: http://www.xsquawkbox.net/xpsdk/docs/DataRefs.txt
Keys and buttons: key - Create a command key press. but - Press down an button. rel - Release button pressed using "but" command.
List of key and button id's can be found at: http://www.xsquawkbox.net/xpsdk/mediawiki/XPLMUtilities Note that the key and button id's are numbers, not names. X-Plane does not provide a way to lookup keys or buttons by name.
Other:
disconnect - Disconnect the TCP socket. extplane-set - Set ExtPlane setting Settings are: update_interval - How often ExtPlane should update its data from X-Plane, in seconds. Use as high value as possible here for best performance. For example 0.16 would mean 60Hz, 0.33 = 30Hz, 0.1 = 10Hz etc.. Must be a positive float. Default is 0.33.
== Plugin output ==
EXTPLANE - Sent when connected. Version number is currently 1. u - Update of dataref
Array datarefs output data like this (a float array, size 4):
ufa sim/flightmodel/position/q [0.84599,-0.00730657,0.00933933,0.533067]
Set array datarefs the same way. You can give less values than the dataref holds. For example this sets full throttle to engines 1 & 2
set sim/flightmodel/engine/ENGN_thro [1,1]
ExtPlane plugin outputs some log to stdout, so if you have problems with the plugin, start X-Plane in console and read the output.
== Client library ==
See directory "client" for client code. Currently there is only client code for Qt. If you write client code for other environments (Python, Java..) please add them here.
Original Author:
- Ville Ranki [email protected]
Contributors:
- Dan Krusi [email protected]
- Bob Gates
Contributions welcome!