View source for Blackbox

[[Category:Features]]
The Blackbox is a Client module running during flight and recording certain events which can be defined in a xml file. There are two output possibilities:
*Text output to the flight log. The text is uploaded together with the flight report and can be viewed on the website after the flight.
*Immediate sound output. User-defined wav-files can be played immediately when an event occurs.
With these two options it's possible to record predefined flight states for a more detailed flight analysis and to enhance the flight environment with sounds. You could for example play a flight attendant announcement sound when you reach a certain altitude or some Co-Pilot sounds when the it's time to turn off the landing lights... there are endless possibilites.
The Client comes with a basic blackbox file to get you started but you can easily adapt it to your own needs. If there's something you're missing or if you need help please don't hesitate to ask in the forums.


==Blackbox Packages==
If you created your own blackbox.xml and want to share it with others, please add a link here. In case you don't have webspace on your own you can always contact the devs and they will upload it to the fsairlines server, thanks :).

{| class="wikitable"
!Link
!Description
|-
|[http://fsairlines.net/client-page FSAirlines Client]
|The standard blackbox package coming with the Client. Includes some gear, flaps and landing light info plus an applause sound when the aircraft touches ground.
|}

==Configuration==
The configuration of the Blackbox is saved in the blackbox.xml file which resides in the [[Client data folder]]. This xml file can be freely edited with any text-editor using the following commands.

===General structure===
The blackbox.xml basically only consists of a couple of event tags encapsulated by the <i>blackbox</i> tag. Each of these event tags contains attributes describing the event to record. The following example is the standard blackbox.xml coming with every Client release:
<pre><blackbox>
  <event var="landinglights" value="1" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Landing Lights on" />
  <event var="landinglights" value="0" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Landing Lights off" />
  <event var="gear" value="1" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Gear down" />
  <event var="gear" value="0" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Gear up" />
  <event var="flaps" value="1" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Flaps 100%" />
  <event var="flaps" value="0.5" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Flaps 50%" />
  <event var="flaps" value="0" method="equal" multiple="1" text="Flaps retracted" />
  <event var="vs" value="-200" method="greater" multiple="0" flightstate="landed" sound="snd_applause.wav" />
</blackbox>
</pre>

===Event criteria===
As you can see in the example above each event tag consists of several attributes defining when to activate the event.  Let's take the first line as an example:
<pre><event var="landinglights" value="1" method="equals" multiple="1" text="Landing Lights on" /></pre>
First of all there is <i>var</i>, defining which Flight Simulator variable is tested. In this case the value is <i>landinglights</i> which means that the Client checks the landing lights status. The following attribute is <i>value</i>. This is the reference value for the Client. Together with the <i>method</i> attribute the Client can then test the current status of the variable to see if the event has to be activated. So, the first three attributes can be read as: "If the status of the landing lights equals 1, then activate the event".

There are additional attributes for more control over the event activation. These are <i>multiple</i> and <i>flightstate</i>. If multiple is set to 1, then the event can be activated several times. So in this case each time the landing lights are turned on, the event gets executed. Setting this value to 0 would only allow this event to be activated the first time the landing lights are turned on.
The <i>flightstate</i> attribute restricts the event activation to a single flightstate. Hence if you only want the event to be activated during take off you could set this to <i>takeoff</i>.

===Event actions===
The final step is to tell the Client what happens when the event is executed. There are two possibilities: Text output to the log or immediate sound output. If you add the <i>text</i> attribute, the text will be shown in the log on the website. 

If you add a <i>sound</i> attribute, the defined sound will be immediately played when the event is activated. The Client can play any .wav file which is located in the Client's sound directory. If you want to publish a blackbox.xml to your pilots don't forget to send them the required sound files. Let's give a little example here: Say you want to play a sound file called <i>FL100.wav</i> when the airplane climbs above FL100. First you create a folder for all your personal sound files inside your Client sound directory. This not mandatory but we recommend to do it this way so the different sound files don't get mixed up. We call it <i>my_va</i>. The Client sound folder looks like this then:
<pre>sounds/en/*.wav
sounds/my_va/FL100.wav</pre>
In the blackbox.xml we have to tell the Client to play this sound when the aircraft climbs above 10,000ft the first time. The final event tag looks like this:
<pre><event var="altitudestd" value="10000" method="greater" multiple="0" sound="my_va/FL100.wav" /></pre>

===Overview===
This section contains two tables giving you a quick overview over all the variables and options you can add to your own blackbox.xml.

====Tags====
{| class="wikitable"
!tag
!attributes
|-
|event
|see "Event attributes" below
|-
|combination
|text, sound and multiple from "Event attributes" table
|-
|startflight
|text and sound from "Event attributes" table
|}

====Event attributes====
{| class="wikitable"
!attribute
!possible values
!standard value
|-
|var
|altitudeagl<br />altitudestd<br />flaps<br />gear<br />ias<br />landinglights<br />vs
|ias
|-
|value
|depends on variable (see table below)
|0
|-
|method
|less<br />equal<br />greater
|equal
|-
|multiple
|0<br />1
|0
|-
|flightstate
|boarding<br />taxi<br />takeoff<br />climb<br />cruise<br />descent<br />landed
|undefined
|-
|text
|any text up to 255 characters
|undefined
|-
|sound
|relative path from Client sound directory to .wav file
|undefined
|}

====Event variables====
{| class="wikitable"
!Variable
!Values
!Description
|-
|landinglights
|0 or 1
|Status of the landing lights. 1 = on, 0 = off.
|-
|gear
|0 or 1
|Status of the gear. 1 = down, 0 = up.
|-
|flaps
|0.0 - 1.0
|Status of the flaps. 0 = fully retracted, 1 = fully extended.
|-
|ias
|0 - 9999
|Indicated airspeed (knots).
|-
|groundspeed
|0 - 9999
|Ground speed (knots).
|-
|vs
| -9999 - 9999
|Vertical speed (fpm).
|-
|altitudestd
|0 - 999999
|Altitude above 1013.25hP (Standard atmosphere) in feet.
|-
|altitudeagl
|0 - 999999
|Altitude above ground level (feet).
|}
Need more variables? Don't hesitate to ask in the forums!

==Requested Additions==
More features which have been requested:
*Combination of different variables (e.g. trigger if certain speed and altitude are reached)
*Trigger when flight is started
*Trigger by flightstate only
*Actual route flown distance
*Trigger by airport/location (after landing)
*Trigger by aircraft type
*Trigger by destination