Among many other parts that are being developed at this time, my friends from Fenix and I had the same feeling,
that some are more important at the beginning than others.
All of us made the experience, that when we started to get involved with flight simulation, lots of controls have
to be operated, which ment lots of keystrokes. As simulations are getting more sophisticated from day to day,
sometimes you have to spend more time "typing" on your keyboard than flying your aircraft (and that is NOT
what we want to do, right?).
As I mentioned in the history of my simulator, in the Ver.1.0 I used the Master Pilot from QuickShot, which allowed
to have some functions placed on the desktop and looked more or less like an MFD. Of course the shape was not
matching the original MFDs of the Viper, but at least I had something. On my next sim (Ver.2.0) I decided to build
the MFDs; they looked and worked ok, but not as the real thing :(
Now we are close to get what we need and want: a neat looking, high fidelity, modular MFD!!
Here you can see an Alpha version of the MFD frames, that match the originals.
The matching buttons and rockers are now beeing manufactured. One special feature will be that they are backlit,
which will allow to operate them properly even in the dark. The screen itself will be (for now) a good fake, until
we find a way of extracting the required data from Falcon 4.0 to make the MFDs completely active. I hope that day
will arrive soon ;)
Another very interesting feature is, that the MFDs can be used as desktop modules and can later, if required, be
integrated into a cockpit. The device is planned to be plug & play, so that everybody can use them. Of course,
if you are using EPIC, as I am, the MFDs will work also.
As soon as I have more information I will show it at this site.
HERE THEY ARE !!
After some time of developement, Beta testing, re-designing and lots of work (which was mainly done by my friends in Spain)
the USB powerder MFDs were manufactured and delivered.
If you like to fly the Falcon 4.0 simulation, specially updated to RP3 (Reality Patch 3) you will notice, that because
of the developement that has also taken place there, the simulation has become more complicated. Doing this using the
keyboard would mean that instead of flying, you would be typing allmost all the time. Because of this, devices like
operating MFDs (and very soon the ICP) are really important when flying a simulator. This way you have control as it
it should be over a large amount of functions that are required permanently.
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MFD USB version
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MFD Front View
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MFD Front & Side View
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MFD Front & Rear View
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A complete new language to power the USB for the MFDs was also developed. This Language called MBM is a mighty tool,
which allows to program each button the way you want, or even program several different layouts to be used as wanted.
The Software called FCenter is also brand new, and delivers a pre-installed configuration, that allows the Plug & Play
feature of the MFDs. (easy right?;)
For those of us, that like to configurate the layout suiting our personal needs, the MFDs can be programmed via the MBM
Language and the FCenter in any desired layout. The delivered documentation is also very simple to understand and takes
you step by step through programming.
If I understood it, I am sure you will do also ;)
