XSB 2 feature requests

[Timothy Walker 1294725]

Since we're currently in a Beta phase triggered by the need for AFV support, I figure now is not the worst time to ask for some features to be squeezed into this development cycle.

 

I would like to kindly request the following:

 

(1) support for stereo microphones

>>> see related: viewtopic.php?f=109&t=80710

 

(2) remember positions of the "text" and "who's online" windows/overlays

 

(3) remember the state of the "use radio effects" checkbox, doesn't seem to work right now

 

(4) ideally, re-introduce volume control for the selected audio output

>>> I have sim sounds come out of my main speakers, and VATSIM audio come out of my headset

>>>>>> currently, I need to remember to use and set the system volume for my headset before using XSB

>>>>>> and since I use the same headset for e.g. PilotEdge, I need to remember to reset it to max before using PE

>>>>>>>>> under macOS, you have to open Audio MIDI Setup to adjust volume for anything but the default output device, which is a pain

>>> other plugins (e.g. PilotEdge) read X-Plane datarefs and adjust output volume accordingly

- sim/operation/sound/radio_volume_ratio

- sim/cockpit2/radios/actuators/audio_volume_com1

- sim/cockpit2/radios/actuators/audio_volume_com2

>>>>>> making for easy volume control from within the sim (a number of third-party aircraft addons include manipulators for radio volume controls directly in the cockpit)

>>>>>>>>> these datarefs exist in both X-Plane 10 and 11, FWIW

 

Best Regards,

 

Tim

[Christopher Collins]

Since we're currently in a Beta phase triggered by the need for AFV support, I figure now is not the worst time to ask for some features to be squeezed into this development cycle.

 

I would like to kindly request the following:

 

(1) support for stereo microphones

>>> see related: viewtopic.php?f=109&t=80710

 

Not happening anytime soon unless somebody else contributes the downmixer to AFV-Native in a way that doesn't kill the capture loop performance. It's too much of an edge-case given that we strongly recommend headsets and the majority of headset mics are monaural only.

 

(2) remember positions of the "text" and "who's online" windows/overlays

 

Not happening in 2.x - too big a change. 3.x uses completely different windowing - I'll see if we can work it in.

 

(3) remember the state of the "use radio effects" checkbox, doesn't seem to work right now

 

That's an actual bug - it should have already been persisting. I'll look into that.

 

(4) ideally, re-introduce volume control for the selected audio output

 

XSB2 already uses the individual radio volume datarefs (this came in with all the other audio-panel/mixer support changes) - currently, however, it's presently using linear scale - this will be fixed to logarithmic scale at some point. We do not use the global dataref because that has other implications which we do not want to interfere with.

[Timothy Walker 1294725]

(1) support for stereo microphones

>>> see related: viewtopic.php?f=109&t=80710

 

Not happening anytime soon unless somebody else contributes the downmixer to AFV-Native in a way that doesn't kill the capture loop performance. It's too much of an edge-case given that we strongly recommend headsets and the majority of headset mics are monaural only.

 

Are any of the relevant parts of XSquawkBox open sourced? If so I could take a look at it.

[Timothy Walker 1294725]

(4) ideally, re-introduce volume control for the selected audio output

 

XSB2 already uses the individual radio volume datarefs (this came in with all the other audio-panel/mixer support changes) - currently, however, it's presently using linear scale - this will be fixed to logarithmic scale at some point. We do not use the global dataref because that has other implications which we do not want to interfere with.

 

Aha, I must have only tested the global dataref then. As long as one of the datarefs work, I can work with it, thanks

[Nestor Perez]

Are any of the relevant parts of XSquawkBox open sourced? If so I could take a look at it.

https://github.com/xsquawkbox/AFV-Native

[Timothy Walker 1294725]

Thanks, will try and take a look some time this week

[Timothy Walker 1294725]

TBH a quick look seems to indicate the PortAudio API does seem to support my stereo-only mic as configured in the AFV-Native code, I guess it has built-in downmix somewhere?

 

I got the test client built, but probably won't be able to actually test it on my sim machine until Tuesday. I might also see if there's something I can do about the SoundIO path, though since XSB is apparently going back to PortAudio, I won't spend too much time on it.

 

Not happening anytime soon unless somebody else contributes the downmixer to AFV-Native in a way that doesn't kill the capture loop performance.

 

Do you have a preferred/recommended way to measure the AFV-Native capture loop performance so I can check the effect of a basic downmix?

[Timothy Walker 1294725]

Just to confirm, the recently released beta4 hotfix 1 supports all of my stereo inputs and outputs, so it probably handles up/downmixing automatically.

 

Thoughts on my last question?