Cockpit interface

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5. Cockpit interface

In this section in sequential order the various interface devices will be discussed. The objective is not to reproduce all the information / knowledge available, but to create an overview of the options available and point you the way by means of included links.

In the architecture of a flight simulator cockpit there is from both an input and output perspective a choice to be made between controlling the cockpit from the Game PC directly or from a separate controller (cockpit interface). In most cases one is likely to end-up with a combination of approaches. There is however a fundamental choice on what interface solution to use as the backbone of your flight simulator cockpit architecture. After that many combinations can arise based on ambition, specific requirements, opportunity, budget, etc. A separate computing device (also called "controller" in this text) can have various forms. It can be a special board to be included in / used with the game PC, it can be a micro controller programmed to perform certain tasks or it can be a "normal" PC. All variants will be discussed in the remainder of this section. The table below gives an indication of the issues that play an role.

Game PC

There is a direct link between the various cockpit devices and the Game PC. In general by means of a serial interface, parallel interface or the game card. All processing of signals/controls is done by one or more applications on the Game PC.

Interface device

The various cockpit devices are connected to a separate computing device, apart from the Game PC. On this device one or more applications are running for the necessary processing. On the Game PC reading data from and writing data to the Microsoft Flight Simulator takes place.

Cockpit input

(reading from Microsoft Flight Simulator / driving cockpit devices)

- The use of standard drivers supplied by manufacturers of add-ons.

- Low computational complexity, not influencing performance.

- Small number of cockpit devices.

- Specific low level computation/hardware (ICs) to drive the devices.

- A large number of different IO channels is needed.

- Necessary computation may put too much a claim on the performance of the Game PC.

Cockpit output

(writing to Microsoft Flight Simulator)

- As above ...

- Use of the ports of the game card (e.g.. the use of additional axis for throttle, etc.).

- As above ...

- Keyboard emulation.