I have completed the first pass of the SquawkBox SDK documentation. There is useful information there about how to make a model set plugin as well as how to integrate with the FSUIPC offsets that SquawkBox uses.

I'm open to any suggestions or questions you may have about this. Please use the SquawkBox Plug-ins Forum for this purpose.

I just learned something great about DirectPlay in both FS2002 and FS2004. It is possible to get Flight Simulator to automatically join a multiplayer session. What this actually means is that SquawkBox 3 will be able to display the other planes in your vacinity without the user having to perform any steps or interact with the multiplayer menu in any way.

Hopefully it will work. :)

The built-in transponder control that will ship with SquawkBox 3 is now working. Click on the following screenshot. Notice the control on the left of the plane's panel. The IDENT light flashes when ATC are nearby, as requested.

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
-- Leonardi da Vinci

Today is the 100th anniversary of powered flight. We salute the spirit that first unshakled humankind from the earth and sent us soaring.

Thanks to the extraordinary graphics work of Marcel Felde, a talented graphics designer from Germany, I now have a very nice looking mockup of the SquawkBox 3 transponder gauge. (Thanks Marcel!)

Behold:

This will be in SquawkBox 3 by default, but other gauges and panels can also provide the same functionality via FSUIPC offsets.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback about transponder gauges. I certainly have learned a lot about Flight Simulator gauges in the last few days! After further investigation I have decided to implement the in-simulator set of transponder controls as a FS module based window. Writing it as an actual gauge will make installation unnecessarily complex because gauges have to be installed into FS on a per aircraft basis.

Here's a mockup of what controls the new window would have. Notice my impeccable skills with the graphic arts.

In addition to this, SB3 will also put the necessary information into some custom FSUIPC offsets so that gauge developers can make SB3 transponder controls available on their own custom gauges. Watch this space for details about this API.

Me: "San Francisco Tower, this is Sierra Bravo 3, how do you read."
SFO_V_TWR: "Sierra Bravo 3, read you loud and clear."

Woo hoo. Voice seems to be working. Thanks Ben and Chris (the voice developers) for making such an easy to use interface to the voice library!

There has been a lot of discussion lately about transponder gauges and how they will work with SB3. As I indicated, I can provide information about the transponder settings in SB3 so that this can be displayed in a gauge. It would be awesome to have a gauge that had transponder code, squawk mode, squawk ident, and the little flashy light thing that some want. I could then ship this FS8 and FS9 compatible gauge with SB3.

Are you a gauge developer that has something partially written already? Because if you do and you want to work together with me to get it up to snuff with the above functionality, contact me. If it works and can bundle with SB3 there will be much rejoicing.

In tegenstelling tot de berichtgeving op de fsmagazine.nl website, ben ik niet meer op zoek naar beta testers voor het Squawkbox 3 beta programma.

Blijf a.u.b. deze nieuwspagina in de gaten houden voor verdere informatie en beta-testmogelijkheden.

Welcome to visitors from fsmagazine.nl

Contrary to the news posting on the fsmagazine.nl web site, I am not actively accepting applications for the SquawkBox 3 beta program. Please stay tuned to this news page for information on any beta testing opportunities.

Thank you for your interest.

(Translation: Danny Oberndorff)

I have obtained a range on offsets in FSUIPC for the purpose of having other software exchange information with SquawkBox 3. This is the current list of data that I will be sharing:
- State of the transponder
- Squawk Ident event
- Whether the tuned radio frequencies are currently joined to a voice channel

If you can think of any other data that your software might need, please let me know.