MSFS20 Adding a QNH indicator...?

[614NLV]

Hi all
for the small airport I am creating I would like to add the qnh indicator.
For the runway in use I use two SimObjects linked, as a trigger condition, to the wind direction.
I could get the same result but the work would be very long (it would be about 140 objects, 140 xml files, 140 conditions, from 930 to 1070 hPa)

Anyone know if there is a faster and more elegant way to get this?

TIA

 

[mrbump]

No idea if this works, but I would try it like this:
Create an animation with 10 steps for one digit (animate the UV-mapping). Place that digit/animation as many times in your model as necessary (4 for QNH, 2 for runway direction). A tiny bit of math in the xml could then select the correct animation step per digit (step nr. = digit).

 

[614NLV]

Yes, this is the only way I too had thought at the moment.
4*10 numbers to do isn't so long,
but the animations to write in the xml file are always more than 100.
There may be a way faster and more elegant but sadly I'm not a coder
Thanks for the reply

 

[mrbump]

but the animations to write in the xml file are always more than 100.

I think we might not be quite on the same page yet ;-)

Let's say you need 4 digits for QNH which is 1023
The four animations would have to be set like this:
Anim1000frame = 1
Anim100frame = 0
Anim10frame = 2
Anim1frame = 3
These four values could be extracted directly out of the QNH variable. So ideally four lines of code should do it.

Example 1000 in Pseudocode:
Anim1000frame = int(QNH / 1000)
(The "int" converts a floating point number to an integer, effectively shaving off the fractional part.)

So what happens in that formula is:
1023 --(/1000)--> 1.023 --(int)--> 1

Example 10 in Pseudocode:
Anim10frame = (int(QNH / 10)) mod 10
(modulo is the remainder of a division by x)

Result:
1023 --(/10)--> 102.3 --(int)--> 102 --(mod 10)--> 2

The modulo operator is a %-sign in the simobject-code. What I don't know unfortunately is how data types are handled and converted (the "int" part in my pseudocode) - if QNH is already an integer, the conversion might not be necessary. And then there's the reverse polish notation to tackle...

 

[614NLV]

So there this is what I meant by a more elegant solution
In my ignorance of coders I would have written a code for each qnh (so more than 100)
Your post has opened my eyes and I will try to follow this method.
I hope to find some time to try it these days.
Then I will come here to update on the developments.
For now, a big thank you
(QNH is a float)

 

[mrbump]

Cool, hope it works.

Out of interest I did a quick search for possible operations and found this old thing which has a brief summary on "Expression Operators":

Creating XML Gauges

According to this (and because QNH is a float) I would try this succession of operators: near --> div --> mod (%)
1022.8 --(near)--> 1023 --(div 1000)--> 1
1022.8 --(near)--> 1023 --(div 10)--> 102 --(% 10)--> 2

btw: the description of modulo on the linked page seems wrong (even if it were different in P3D - the described way would be pretty useless). I used it with two operands in FS2020 and it worked as expected.
btw2: if it works you could use the same technique for your RWY indicator. My only creation of a simobject so far is a landing-tee. I guess the formula for your indicator would be similar to what I used.

 

[614NLV]

again a big thank you mrbump
I'll be able to post in the next few days what result I will have obtained
The link of expression operators can be useful, probably many are still valid, some not anymore
for example
P3D uses > for greater than, MSFS uses &gt
You can see this in the code of the rwy-in-use indicator, which I created using two different objects with numbers and using a visibility parameter related to the wind direction

<Code>(A:AMBIENT WIND DIRECTION, Degrees) 91 &gt;= (A:AMBIENT WIND DIRECTION, Degrees) 270 &lt; and if{ 1 } els{ 0 }</Code>

But this solution to make the QNH indicator would have been absurd
and you gave me a great hint
I will report the results
ciao

 

[mrbump]

P3D uses > for greater than, MSFS uses &gt

Yes, but this has nothing to do with FS2020 and everything with the xml format. Because < and > are used as tag delimiters in xml these characters mustn't appear in the data sections. %gt; and &lt; are the substitutions that are used (HTML encoding).