Friday 16 October 2015

Importing datacard images into the Helios profile

To be able to use WDP images as datacard images in the Helios profile, it is necessary to make a few changes in WDP's export settings.  In WDP, click on the Settings button on the top row and under Saved Picture Size, tick the A5 size and Knee Updater format boxes.

Use WDP as normal, then after clicking on the Save DataCard button, press the Cards Directory button to go to where the images are saved.  The images will be saved as:
[flight callsign]_Comm_Left.jpg
[flight callsign]_Comm_Right.jpg
[flight callsign]_Left.jpg
[flight callsign]_Right.jpg
[flight callsign]_Briefing.jpg

These need to be renamed by basically removing the [flight callsign]_ section so that the images will now be:
Comm_Left.jpg
Comm_Right.jpg
Left.jpg
Right.jpg
Briefing.jpg

Cut/copy and paste these into the  /Helios/Images/-Ice's Falcon BMS ver.2/Data Card directory and they will show up once the Helios profile is started (or restarted).

Disabling the in-cockpit mouse cursor

One thing to be careful of is the location of the in-game mouse cursor.  If it is over a switch or button when a callback is issued from Helios, it will also register as a mouse-click and will result in unwanted commands and general confusion.  To keep things under control, it is necessary to disable the in-cockpit mouse cursor.

To do this, go to the /User/Config folder and open up falcon bms.cfg, preferrably using a program such as Notepad++ and set the following:
set g_bMouseButton4TogglesClickablePit 1
set g_bEnableExclusiveMouseCapture 0

Once in the 3D cockpit, move the mouse to the upper left or upper right corner of the screen and click the 4th mouse button.  That will lock the mouse cursor on that area and will minimize accidentally clicking anything in the 3D pit.  This is not 100% safe -- if the screen is zoomed in and there is a button or switch where the mouse cursor is locked, activating anything from Helios may also register as a mouse-click but it is still safer than leaving the mouse cursor to move around.  Also, with widescreen or multi-monitor setups, it is less likely that there will be a switch/button at the extreme corner of the screen.

The big advantage with Helios on a touchscreen is that it minimizes the time needed to be heads-down in the cockpit.  Even when activating switches or buttons on the far corners of the side consoles, there is less need to pan the in-game view as much as needed when using a single-screen setup so again, that minimizes accidental button-clicks from the in-game mouse cursor.

Thursday 15 October 2015

BMS Helios Profile Updated!

Hello fellow simmers!

I can't believe it's been almost 3 years since I've released my first Helios profile for Falcon 4 BMS! I never really used that profile for very long as I've started work on this new profile almost straight away but because of some issues with the profile (chart integration) and with real life getting in the way, I've not been able to finish the new profile until recently. As things slow down a bit in real life, I find myself getting back into playing BMS more and more and that was a great incentive to finishing the new profile.

As before, this is designed to work with a touchscreen with a resolution of 1920x1080 and I use this profile along with Morphine's profile for the TM Warthog and a custom .key file. I would like to give credit to xflight.de for the original images used, Red Dog for his charts, Lightning for his MFDE program, Kolbe for his .key file organization, Morphine for his original TM WH profile, and Falcas for his WDP program.



This is the profile at the start:



This is the profile when in the 3D world:



This is the Left Console:



This is the Right Console:



This is the list of airbase charts included:



And here are the charts displayed:





The quick list of airbase frequencies are also in:





Information from WDP's Data Card images can also be displayed:



Coordination Card:



Mission Briefing:





Here is a shot of the MFDE gauges in use:



And here is a shot of the MFDE gauges with the Falcon-extracted MFDs, DED, and PFL:




One of the main goals of this profile is that when using it with a touchscreen plus a voice-command software (I use VAC), there is absolutely no need to touch the mouse or keyboard once the pilot is in the 3D world. That means all the switches that work in the game is included here, so from ramp starts to changing HUD settings in-flight, everything can be done without touching the mouse or keyboard.

  • To display either side console, tap on the upper right/left corner of the screen.
  • Accessing the airbase charts is done by tapping on the RWR.
  • The data cards can be seen by tapping on the Mach meter.
  • Tapping on the upper half of the left data card turns the page to the coordination card, the lower half turns the page to the briefing card. Tapping on the right data card resets the view to the data card.
  • On the Left Console, the cockpit can be opened and closed by using the Anti-G Test button.
  • On the Right Console, the Mal & Ind Lts switch on the Lighting Panel controls the NVG.
  • On the ICP Panel, the HUD button declutters the HUD view, the HUD CLR button immediately below it cycles through the HUD colors individually while the HUD CLR button lower down cycles between the green HUD color and the white HUD color.
  • On the Landing Gear Panel, the white Alt Gear button is the emergency gear release (Alt Gear Handle or AFAlternateGear).
  • On the CMDS panel, the HMCS switch cycles between full-on and off.
  • The MWS "switch" is actually a button that can show a cheat sheet of the CMDS programs. This cheat sheet image has to be created by the user; my default CMDS program image is included as a placeholder.
  • Tapping on the left/right side of the altimeter changes the altimeter settings.
  • Tapping on left/right upper 2/3rds of the HSI will change the course by +/-5 degrees, tapping on the lower 1/3rd will change the course by +/-1 degree.
  • Tapping on the HDG knob will turn the knob facing upwards and tapping on left/right upper 2/3rds of the HSI will change the heading by +/-5 degrees, tapping on the lower 1/3rd will change the heading by +/-1 degree. Tap on the HDG knob again (knob facing downwards) to return to changing course when tapping on the HSI.

I think that's about it. All the other buttons/rotaries/switches/knobs should function as they should in the game.


Here are the settings I use for the Falcon BMS Display Extraction:
MFDs -- 331x331, Window ticked, Borders un-ticked, 290/1295 from the left screen edge, 326 from the top edge
DED -- 279x93, Window ticked, Borders un-ticked, 1232 from the left screen edge, 20 from the top edge
PFL -- 232x77, Window ticked, Borders un-ticked, 1228 from the left screen edge, 740 from the top edge


Here are the needed files:
-Ice's BMS ver.5 -- place this on your /Documents/Helios/Profiles directory
Custom Images -- unzip to your /Documents/Helios/Images directory, so you should end up with a /Documents/Helios/Images/-Ice's Falcon BMS ver.2 directory
.key file used -- put in your /BMS/User/Config directory. This is Morphine's profile with a few edits and adapted to Kolbe's format
Full layout -- possibly set as wallpaper on touchscreen as a guide on placing MFDE gauges


Reading through my old Helios profile thread, a few guys have had problems with installing my profile. Make sure that the .key file is named "Ice's BMS WH Profile v4" and note the apostrophe. Another issue was the EOSBus -- refer to this page of the old thread to see how other users have fixed the issue.