Interfacing FlightGear

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

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.

Scripted AI

See Scripted AI Objects for the main article about this subject.

Multiplayer

See Multiplayer protocol for the main article about this subject.

Flight recorder tapes

See Fgtape for the main article about this subject.

Related content

Wiki articles

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

Readme files

• $FG_ROOT/Docs/README.IO