Talk:Canvas PFD framework

From FlightGear wiki
Revision as of 11:28, 26 January 2018 by Hooray (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

How would this actually work?

I have created 2 Canvas PFDs so far, the Airbus A3XX PFD, and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 PFD. This has lead me to realize that you can't have a framework for a PFD, as each airplane has a very different working PFD, and use different internal systems (especially autoflight design). How is this actually supposed to work?

Kind Regards, It0uchpods (talk) 20:14, 25 January 2018 (EST)

Using the MVC approach, you can hook up different back-ends to different front-ends, just like the FG1000 is currently doing via Richard's Emesary framework. But, don't bother looking at any of that, if you've only just begun with Nasal/Canvas coding - it introduces a fair amount of abstractions and sophisticated concepts that will all seem like gibberish to you and not make much sense. For starters, what would make more sense is to to come up with 2D drawing helpers specifically for creating PFDs/HUDs - i.e. a library of common elements and helpers to animate those. See Thorsten's existing shuttle work for example: https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=33108
This would basically be the first step - using either helpers to procedurally create such elements (think altitude ladder, speed tapes, compass rose etc), or a combination of Nasal helpers and SVG/XML files for creating common elements that can be easily customized. --Hooray (talk) 04:50, 26 January 2018 (EST)