Interfacing FlightGear

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There are several different ways to interface FlightGear to either feed FlightGear with data, get data from FlightGear or both.

There could be many different reasons to interface FlightGear, for example:

• Using an external FDM
• Feeding FlightGear properties when using FlightGear for visualization
• Feeding external traffic data using either the AI/MP systems, or a combination of both
• Interfacing FlightGear with external hardware, for example a home-built autopilot control panel

Screen shots

But we do provide png screenshots, too. Change the url from /screenshot?type=jpg to /screenshot?type=png

Video

We can do MJPEG stream, try to use /screenshot?stream=y as the screenshot url. MJPEG is ugly and a resource hog but works reasonable well for image sizes of probably 640x480. Scale down your FG window and give it a try.

Generic protocol

See Generic protocol for the main article about this subject.

Using a generic protocol you can use either an existing protocol or a protocol custom made for your need. The protocols are defined in PropertyList XML files, and can both be used for reading from or to a file and to communicate through a serial connection.

Native protocol

See Property Tree/Sockets for the main article about this subject.

This uses a native protocol primarily when communicating with an external FDM.

Telnet

See Telnet usage for the main article about this subject.

FlightGear can be given command line arguments that will start FlightGear with a telnet server, --telnet=port.

There is an interactive mode with a handful of commands that can be used for interacting with FlightGear's property tree and a data mode for connecting to FlightGear through a socket.

HTTP

See Property Tree Servers for the main article about this subject.

FlightGear have an built in web server which allow you to view and interact with the property tree through a web browser or through HTTP requests.

Related content

Wiki articles

• Howto:Build your own procedure trainer
• Howto:Using FlightGear with an EFB
• FlightGear I/O Considerations
• Head tracking
• Logging properties
• MATLAB
• Professional and educational FlightGear users
• Property tree
• Howto:Record, analyze and replay multiplayer flights with network tools
• Howto:Use Arduino with FlightGear

Readme files

• $FG_ROOT/Docs/README.IO