XPLM API Ref XPLMPanelGraphics Latest - 4.4.0-d4

Panel Graphics Synthetic Vision

These routines let you draw the simulator's Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT) terrain rendering into your avionics panel. SVT provides a 3-D perspective view of terrain, runways, obstacles, and optional overlays such as flight path hoops, traffic, and airport signs. The view is always centered on the user aircraft and uses the selected AHRS source for attitude.

Create an SVT display with XPLMCreateSVTDisplay and draw it with XPLMSVTDisplayDrawIn. Each display instance manages its own terrain tile loading and GPU state, so you can have multiple independent SVT views (e.g. pilot and copilot PFDs at different scales). Which visual layers are drawn is chosen per draw call, not per display.

SVT rendering works on any aircraft, regardless of whether the stock cockpit has a G1000 or other SVT-capable avionics installed.

XPLMSVTFeatures

enum

Bit flags that control which visual layers an SVT display renders. Combine flags with bitwise OR to enable multiple layers.

Name Value Description
xplm_SVT_Terrain 1 3-D terrain mesh with elevation coloring.
xplm_SVT_Runways 2 Runway outlines, centerline stripes, and numbers.
xplm_SVT_Obstacles 4 Obstacle markers (towers, masts, etc.).
xplm_SVT_FlightPath 8 Flight path guidance hoops along the active route.
xplm_SVT_Traffic 16 TCAS traffic symbols.
xplm_SVT_AirportSigns 32 Airport identification signs near airports.
xplm_SVT_ILSHoops 64 ILS approach guidance hoops.
xplm_SVT_HorizonHeading 128 Horizon line and heading reference.
xplm_SVT_All 255 All visual layers enabled.

Used by:

XPLMCreateSVT_t

struct

Parameters for creating an SVT display. Set structSize to the size of your struct so that future SDK versions can add fields without breaking existing plugins.

typedef struct {
     int                       structSize;
     int                       pilotIndex;
     float                     pixelsPerDegree;
} XPLMCreateSVT_t;

XPLMSVTDisplayRef

typedef

An opaque handle to an SVT display instance. Create one with XPLMCreateSVTDisplay and destroy it with XPLMDestroySVTDisplay.

typedef void * XPLMSVTDisplayRef;

Used by:

XPLMCreateSVTDisplay

function

This function creates a new SVT display instance. The display begins loading terrain tiles for the current aircraft position immediately. You can draw it as soon as tiles are available; before that, the draw call is a no-op.

The pixelsPerDegree scale and the rectangle you pass to XPLMSVTDisplayDrawIn together determine the field of view: the rectangle is simply the scale applied to the view's angular extent. So drawing into a bigger rectangle at the same scale shows more of the world at the same magnification rather than zooming in, and to zoom you change the scale, not the rectangle. Pick the same scale your pitch ladder uses and the 3-d horizon will line up with your artificial horizon.

Which visual layers are rendered is a property of the draw call, not of the display - see XPLMSVTDisplayDrawIn.

The returned handle must be destroyed with XPLMDestroySVTDisplay when no longer needed. Handles are automatically destroyed when the owning plugin is unloaded.

XPLM_API XPLMSVTDisplayRef XPLMCreateSVTDisplay(
                         XPLMCreateSVT_t *    params
                    );

See associated types:

XPLMDestroySVTDisplay

function

This function destroys an SVT display and frees all associated resources.

XPLM_API void XPLMDestroySVTDisplay(
                         XPLMSVTDisplayRef    svt
                    );

See associated types:

XPLMSVTCustomData_t

struct

typedef struct {
     float                     pitchDeg;
     float                     rollDeg;
     float                     headingMagDeg;
     float                     magVarDeg;
     float                     indicatedAltFt;
     float                     baroSettingInHg;
     int                       hsiSource;
     float                     hdefDots;
     float                     vdefDots;
} XPLMSVTCustomData_t;

XPLMSVTDisplayDrawIn

function

This function renders the SVT display directly into the active panel surface within the specified rectangular region. SVT sets up its own 3-D perspective projection to fit the rectangle, so no transform stack manipulation is needed.

The features parameter controls which visual layers are rendered for this draw call. Pass a bitwise OR of XPLMSVTFeatures flags.

This function must be called from within an avionics drawing callback. If terrain tiles have not finished loading yet, this function does nothing.

  • svt: the SVT display handle.
  • features: bitwise OR of XPLMSVTFeatures flags to enable for this draw call.
  • left, top, right, bottom: the bounding rectangle in panel coordinates.
  • dataOverrides. Pass nullptr for default sim state.
XPLM_API void XPLMSVTDisplayDrawIn(
                         XPLMSVTDisplayRef    svt,
                         XPLMSVTFeatures      features,
                         int                  left,
                         int                  top,
                         int                  right,
                         int                  bottom,
                         XPLMSVTCustomData_t* dataOverrides    /* Can be NULL */
                    );

See associated types: