I've been thinking about grabbing an x52 Pro, and doing some work with the SDK to display data from the game (fuel? location?) on the throttle's LCD.
Vice, it looks like the Saitek SDK is based on DirectOutput. Is there any kind of API available within EL to access in-game variable values? I'd be happy to code the middleware for the x52, but obviously would need some way to access the information, analogous to how Microsoft's Flight Simulator exposes data via their FSX API.
Alternatively, it might be possible to read in ship data values from the stack, but I imagine that directly trolling through the executable's memory would be annoying at best. No idea how you'd feel about someone trying to reverse engineer that kind of information, either -- and it would probably be a maintenance nightmare as you update the program.
The memory points are fairly dynamic and move around, so it's not too practical to try and extract them externally. If there was a DLL I could interface with from within the game, I could send out the needed data for such a function. Perhaps Saitek provides this as part of their kit?
That's actually exactly how they do it -- they provide an SDK with the relevant DLL. There's a decent collection of community-made plugins (http://www.saitekforum.com/showthread.php?t=16965), which is where I had planned to start. The SDK itself comes with the x52 Pro drivers, which are available on Saitek's website (http://www.saitek.com/uk/down/drivers.php).
Might be worth asking if there's really much community interest in this beyond me, though.
Unfortunately, I don't have an X52 Pro with which to test, so if the SDK comes with an emulator of some kind, that would help. Got a link handy for the SDK? I can at least review it to analyze its feasibility.
Based on comments on the Saitek forum, it sounds like the actual SDK documentation is pretty thin. I've played with the DirectOutput.dll a bit, as well as looked at a quick and dirty C# wrapper that one of the forum members wrote, and it seems like the actual functionality is pretty straightforward. The wrapper suggests that you import the .dll, get a handle to the physical device, call DirectOutput_AddPage() to create a target for output on the stick's LCD screen, and then just pass strings of text via DirectOutput_SetString().
Oh hey. Fellow X52 user here. I had that issue as well, made a topic a long time ago. I'd really like the controller to react to ingame things, such as the lights all going red and flashing when the ship is damaged, and such. Although, you can use the profile creator to hook joystick controls to key or mouse input.
\"Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.\" -Anonymous
\"Love your enemies. It makes them so damned mad.\" -P.D. East
\"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.\" -Buddha
The x52 is a great stick. To be clear, though, the SDK and screen support is exclusive to the x52 Pro -- the standard x52 doesn't support any kind of programmatic access to the LED or LCD.
If anyone's interested, I have every in-game function mapped to the x52's buttons, including modes that distinguish between weapons safety/weapons free. Happy to send it around!
I've already got a decent profile, and yeah, I own an X-52 Pro. It's just making the plugin. I'm not exactly knowledgeable with C++.
\"Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.\" -Anonymous
\"Love your enemies. It makes them so damned mad.\" -P.D. East
\"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.\" -Buddha
Vice: would be easier, since you don't have an x52 to work with, to provide pilot data in some sort of generic format? For example, if some kind of data feed (text file, a lightweight query API, etc.,) were available, I could write an MFD plugin for the x52. In addition, making the data available would open the door for other hardware devices without you needing to maintain and support lots of little custom plugins.
Had a bit of time to play with the SDK this weekend, and I have a very simple command-line based test harness up and running. I'm consuming the .dll, and can write text to the MFD and set LEDs on and off at will. If Vice can provide me with some way to get data about the player's ship in real time, I can pull together a plugin for the x52 Pro.
I'm willing to spend some time on it, although the moving addresses will be a challenge. I'll likely need to code something internally to feed the data out to the DLL, so maybe I could set up a custom build that would use it. If you want to, contact me via e-mail with details on how to call functions/pass data to the DLL and when/if my schedule allows, I can try out some ideas with it.
I'm very tempted to pick up an X52 Pro. At the moment I'm using a Cyborg Evo, which is doing the job for me, but to have more control without having to look to the keyboard for things like warping and whatnot would be neat. ^^
hey there,
just signed up here and about to purchase and play this great game.
I have a X52 Pro and coming from Falcon4 i know what great things can be done with the MFD. For Falcon there was a great tool to config the MFD and even set ingame warning to LED colors:
If something like that was possible it would really make the game much more precious to X52 pro users and vice versa make the X52 pro more appealing to evochron users ;-)
thanks for the nice welcome, maarschalk. Good to see this game has a good community.
Finally a complex space sim that's multiplayer, I'm really looking forward to it. I love the option of switching between IDS and true inertial simulation (with thrusters). [Btw, In freelancer there was something similar with the engine kill option and afterburner boosts, but the ships loose speed so much (like in atmosphere, for whatever reason) it wasn't really fun/useful]
Regarding the x52 pro MFD, I'm willing to beta test this and assist with any help.
looks like something i'd like to use if i had an x52, shame i don't, i'm just stuck with my ooooolllldddd sidewinder joystick... that is if i can ever find the damned thing, if i ever come across one and have the cash would it be worth the buy?
the day has ended, the night is yet to come
light and darkness, opposite sides to the same coin, yet what may do not realize is that this coin holds a third side, a side not of either or the other, but of both, a side of twilight. when light and darkness destroy eachother, there is nothing left but twilight, yet aslong as one or the other exists twilight exists within it, that is both the power and weakness of twilight. i am Ryuu Hakumei, The twilight Dragon. The Dusk Has Come
looks expensive, think i may just add it to my christmas list
the day has ended, the night is yet to come
light and darkness, opposite sides to the same coin, yet what may do not realize is that this coin holds a third side, a side not of either or the other, but of both, a side of twilight. when light and darkness destroy eachother, there is nothing left but twilight, yet aslong as one or the other exists twilight exists within it, that is both the power and weakness of twilight. i am Ryuu Hakumei, The twilight Dragon. The Dusk Has Come
