Radar Integration

Radar v2.0
for FS2004 and FSX

This section explains how the radar can be integrated in FS2004/FSX panels.

Panel Integration

The radar is made of several gauges. For the radar screen, 4 gauges are available for all the radar screen shape and color:

Rectangular Green
Rectangular Amber
Circular Green
Ciruclar Amber

In addition, a set of XML gauges are provided to control the radar:

Increase/Decrease Mode
Increase/Decrease Range
Set a specific mode

All these gauges are detailed later in this section.

Radar Screen Gauges

In order to integrate the radar screen in a panel, you need to edit the panel configuration file (panel.cfg) and add the line that describe the radar screen you want to use. This line has the following format, similar to all the lines that describe the gauges used in the panel:

gaugeXX=GaugeName, X,Y,W,H

XX is the number of the gauge. It should be the highest number of existing gauges + 1
Name is the name of the gauge. You will find later the available name for each radar screen shape and color.
X,Y define the gauge position
W,H define the gauge size (width and height)
Setting a size that defines a square radar screen is highly recommended. Otherwise, the radar global mode will display an ellipse instead of a circle.

For more information about panel editing, please refer to the Microsoft Panel SDK.

The following table describes the gauge name you must use depending on the shape and color of the radar screen you want to use:

Usage	Gauge Name
Rectangular Green radar screen	Radar!Rectangular Green
Rectangular Amber radar screen	Radar!Rectangular Amber
Circular Green radar screen	Radar!Circular Green
Circular Amber radar screen	Radar!Circular Amber

Example:

gauge12=Radar!Rectangular Green, 52,412,150,150

In this example, a green rectangular radar screen is used, positioned at 52,412, and its size is 150 by 150.

Radar Control Gauges

These gauges let you control the radar, that is change its mode and range. They are provided as XML gauges so that you can read the source code, and edit it if necessary. If you have a look at these XML gauges, you will see they are extremely simple. Their role is just to update some XML variables used by the radar to manage the display.
Some gauges use background bitmaps, provided as samples. Other gauges use transparency, so that you can use them on top of your panel graphics without any impact on the display.

The gauges are located in the following directory: <FS Intallation Directory>\Gauges\RadarControl

The following table shows how these XML gauges can be used in your panels:

File Name	Name to use in panel.cfg	Role	Icon
Global Mode.xml	RadarControl!Global Mode	Sets the radar in the global mode
Transp Global Mode.xml	RadarControl!Transp Global Mode	Sets the radar in the global mode, uses transparency	None
Horizontal Mode.xml	RadarControl!Horizontal Mode	Sets the radar in the horizontal mode
Transp Horizontal Mode.xml	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Mode	Sets the radar in the horizontal mode, uses transparency	None
Vertical Mode.xml	RadarControl!Vertical Mode	Sets the radar in the vertical mode
Transp Vertical Mode.xml	RadarControl!Transp Vertical Mode	Sets the radar in the vertical mode, uses transparency	None
Transp Off Mode.xml	RadarControl!Transp Off Mode	Switches the radar off	None
Radar Mode Switch.xml	RadarControl!Radar Mode Switch	Switch to increase/decrease the radar mode
Transp Horizontal Mode Switch.xml	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Mode Switch.xml	Transparent switch to increase/decrease the radar mode Horizontal layout (click on the left/right to increase/decrease mode)	None
Transp Vertical Mode Switch.xml	RadarControl!Transp Vertical Mode Switch	Transparent switch to increase/decrease the radar mode Vertical layout (click on the top/bottom to increase/decrease mode)	None
Radar Range Switch.xml	RadarControl!Radar Range Switch	Switch to increase/decrease the radar range
Transp Horizontal Range Switch.xml	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Range Switch.xml	Transparent switch to increase/decrease the radar range Horizontal layout (click on the left/right to increase/decrease mode)	None
Transp Vertical Range Switch.xml	RadarControl!Transp Vertical Range Switch.xml	Transparent switch to increase/decrease the radar range Vertical layout (click on the top/bottom to increase/decrease mode)	None

Important Note:

In order to be able to control the radar with the keyboard (as explained here), you must integrate the RadarControl!Keyboard gauge anywhere in the main panel, like this:

gaugeXX=RadarControl!Keyboard, 0,0,1,1

The number of the gauge (XX) has no importance. Its position and size are not important either because this gauge does not appears on the panel.

Integrating the Circular Radar

The integration of the circular radar screen requires a specific panel processing. It is not complex, but it needs to be explained through an example. This example shows how we can use layers in a panel design.

Imagine you want to place the radar in this panel, at the circular location shown in red:

In the panel.cfg file, the main panel window is usually described in a section named [Window00], which indicaes it is the first window of the panel. As it is the first window, all other panel elements will be displayed on top of it. In this example, the content of the panel.cfg file may look like this:

If you modify the panel.cfg to include the circular radar gauge using "Radar!Circular Green" or "Radar!Circular Amber", the content of the panel.cfg file may look like this:

This is typically what we want to avoid because the radar screen corners are still visible, as shown here:

Bad integration of the circular radar. The corners are still visible.

In order to avoid this, you just have to create an additional image. The goal is to use this new image as a mask to hide the radar corners. Follow the instructions here:

Copy the existing panel image into another image that we can call mask.bmp
Modify the image and fill with pure black pixels (0,0,0) the area where you want to integrate the radar circular screen. This area will become transparent when the panel will be loaded in FS. In this example, the new image mask.bmp looks like this:
Modify the panel.cfg so that the masking image is drawn on top of the base image on which the radar is drawn. To do this, you need to create a new window section, called [Window01], and make it use the mask.bmp image. The radar gauge should remain in the [Window00] section, while all the other gauges must be moved into the new [Window01] section.
In this example, the panel.cfg file then looks like this:

Note that if you already have a section named [Window01], you have to rename the [WindowXX] section names so that each window number is unique.
That's it...

The result is much better, according to what was expected...

Replacing the old radar in existing panels

The old radar was used in the Mirage 4000, F-16 and Super Etendard (SEM) panels. Replacing the old radar with this new one is very easy. You just need to edit the panel.cfg file and change some lines in it.

Existing panel	find this...	Replace it by...
Mirage 4000	M4000!Radar	Radar!Rectangular Amber
	M4000!Radar Mode	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Mode Switch
	M4000!Radar Range	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Range Switch
F-16	F16!Radar	Radar!Rectangular Green
	F16!Radar Mode	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Mode Switch
	F16!Radar Range	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Range Switch
Super Etendard	SuperEtendard!Radar	Radar!Rectangular Green
	SuperEtendard!Radar Mode	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Mode Switch
	SuperEtendard!Radar Range	RadarControl!Transp Horizontal Range Switch

You just need to change these gauge names, and don't need to change any gauge size or position.