The Majestic Q400 has an External XML Interface allowing access to its inner workings so that the aircraft can be controlled using flight sim hardware.
Due to the limitations of the Majestic Q400 External XML Interface, some issues exist when using Detective.
Not all Local Variables (Lvars) are genuine Lvars, they are fake and have been created by our software to simplify interfacing to this aircraft. Fake Lvars contain -> near the beginning of their name.
Fake Lvars CANNOT be monitored in real-time due to the poor performance of the Majestic Q400 External XML Interface.
However, once Fake Lvars are referenced in a Bespoke Event or used in a Snippet or State Configuration, they will appear in the monitoring console window because they will have been added to the monitoring queue.
The number of Fake Lvars that can be read and written to per second is exactly the same as your Frames Per Second. The Majestic Q400 External XML Interface returns data after each frame; but only one variable can be read per frame and another written to per frame.
Therefore the following guidance should be followed:
- Always use SimConnect Variables and Events whenever possible.
- If no SimConnect Variables and Events can be used, use Local Variables (Lvars).
- If no Lvars can be used, use Fake Lvars.
- If you use Fake Lvars anywhere in this tool, you must NEVER use the Lvars MJC_VAR_READ_CODE, MJC_VAR_READ_VALUE, MJC_VAR_WRITE_CODE, and MJC_VAR_WRITE_VALUE as this will cause unpredictable results.
Note, that testing various Fake Lvars can build up the monitoring queue to such an extent that the Fake Lvars take along time to update. To solve this, simply quit the Flight Sim IO Server and reload it.