Screen designer - BMP.MIF images background

[MikeBlackburn]

Hey all.

Paging @dutchroll actually but anyone else who has ideas....

Custom background images for gauges etc...
Should they be created individually, or is it a better idea to make one BMP the size of the screen and carefully place the graphics on there?

Also, using the beta 1.3.0.9 (I think) simulator I can’t make the images display at all in a custom flight module....

Another question - the alarm fields.... there is no option to draw on background - how can I ensure that they won’t draw over the RDAC readout, blocking it when active? BEcause you can’t force the RDAC readout to draw on foreground?

[rainier]

Hey all.

Paging @dutchroll actually but anyone else who has ideas....

Custom background images for gauges etc...
Should they be created individually, or is it a better idea to make one BMP the size of the screen and carefully place the graphics on there?

Up to you. Anyway you like.

Also, using the beta 1.3.0.9 (I think) simulator I can’t make the images display at all in a custom flight module....

Yes it does work fine.

Another question - the alarm fields.... there is no option to draw on background - how can I ensure that they won’t draw over the RDAC readout, blocking it when active? BEcause you can’t force the RDAC readout to draw on foreground?

Alarm fields cannot go onto the background - they are created when needed and go away when the alarm condition is acknowledged or gone away. So this is strictly a foreground activity.
If you place your own alarm field on a screen the system recognizes this and will not use the default automatic one - it will use yours. In that case you decide where it goes.

Basically anything that does not change during a screens lifetime should go onto the background. That way the CPU does not have to waste time drawing it for every frame. Anything that does change must go onto the foreground - this is the part that is drawn with every frame.
The only thing that gets changed on a background screen is a map - this gets drawn onto the background every time the map image needs to change -this is more efficient than rendering the map every frame as it is a CPU intensive process.

[drPete]

Custom background images for gauges etc...
Should they be created individually, or is it a better idea to make one BMP the size of the screen and carefully place the graphics on there?

Hey Mike,

I used individual photos rather than a single graphic. Photoshop'd some photos to BMPs. Set up a grid from individual guide boxes in designer for each of the instruments then fit the photo and instrument to the individual box. It helped me in setting the spacing for the display. I had originally set them on a red background. I removed the garish background but have some red artifacts left over that I never took care to remove. Still not sold on the turn coordinator display. Experimental is a process, particularly in screen design.

The GYO, BUG, and SW on the instruments are buttons that reset the ARHS and compass. Didn't have to replicate those, but having something on each knob maintains the continuity of using an instrument graphic with a knob as an active element.



I've used paging to create some 'active' check lists. You can check my screen designs here: https://postimg.cc/gallery/16HSLVc

Made the decision to replace my 6 yo Macbook with a MBP with an M1 processor. Oops, the Windows emulator won't be available for a while, knocking me out of the (re)design business until then.

Regards,

Pete

[MikeBlackburn]

Just to follow up on this - I got it working - what I was doing wrong was not having the .MIF file IN the screen directory of the project......