202: References for Gauge Creation

| Tom Tsui

Many friends ask me where I find information about gauge building.
T210 Gauges RowS1
It’s a typical but a true answer – from the Internet.
Following is a good piece of background reading I often make reference to:

Creating XML Gauges

Truly they are not directly dealing with gauges for Saitek’s FIPs, but the basics and theories are more or less the same.

 

16 thoughts on “202: References for Gauge Creation”

  2. Hi Tom, Apologies are in order, as I have lost all my wide T210 gauges. Could you re-send me the link to them please.
    Many thanks in advance.
    Kindest regards
    Brian Buckley

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      1. Hi Tom,
        Many thanks for the link you sent for the T210 wide gauges, much appreciated.
        I’ll be sure to do a back up straight away.

        I’m here, is there any way of getting the gauges where I’ve turned off all the left side text, to appear in the centre of the FIP?

        Thanks again
        Regards
        Brian Buckley

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      2. You’re welcome.
        Yes, it is possible to put the text in the centre of the FIP. All you need to do is to make the centre part where you want to display the text in black color (#000000). That area will become transparent and allow the text to be displayed.
        You can modify the gauge face accordingly so that no images are to be overlaid on top.
        Tom

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      3. Hi Tom, I think I may have misled you slightly. It is the gauges that I want to put in the centre of the screen, not the text. I have turned the text off and just want the gauge showing. Is this possible? I don’t want to start tinkering with the .xml files, so I’m hoping you can help. Cheers for now and thanks again.
        Brian

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      4. I see. Yes, the gauge could be put in the centre of the screen. The resolution of the FIP LED is 320 (W) x 240 (H). As long as the centre of the gauge is aligned its centre: X=160, Y=120, that will do.
        But note that, it could involve adjustment to both the gauge images and its XML scripts.
        Tom

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      5. Hi Tom,
        Yes it’s me again. :D
        I have managed to realign everything and get the gauge working fine except, the masks appear to be missing or indeed, misaligned by myself, indicated by the arrows in the jpg below. The gauge works great but I can see the next number to appear in the dial. Is this correct or have I missed something?
        [IMG]http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/rr253/Needles57/T210_AltimeterW.jpg[/IMG]

        I love these gauges and I am, with your permission going to amend them so that they all are aligned centrally on the FIP. I don’t need the text nor the LEDs to the left of the FIPs, so I have switched them all off using your instructions.

        Kindest regards
        Brian

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      6. Glad to hear that you’ve managed to have the gauge faces centered as you desired. Regarding the number issue, I don’t get it. It shows 5,560 and it looks good to me, doesn’t it?
        Tom

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      7. Hi Tom, I just had it in my mind that the numbers in the hundreds column should be masked except the central number. But if that’s how it is supposed to be then I’m more than happy.
        Thanks again.
        Brian

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  3. I did not know the second link yet, thanks.
    For the first link (MSDN) it is worth noting, that you probably want to look at Event IDs (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526980.aspx) and Simulation Variables (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526981.aspx), too.

    Two more links that I have in my list of things to read when learning how to create gauges:
    Tutorials: http://www.fs2x.com/Tutorials.htm
    BlackBox Gauge Debugging Utility: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7018

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