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 with different feature flags).

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.

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.

Each of the override fields below is a dataref name string. When non-NULL, the SVT display reads that dataref each frame instead of using the sim's internal state. Pass NULL for any field to use the default sim value.

typedef struct {
     int                       structSize;
     XPLMSVTFeatures           features;
     int                       pilotIndex;
} XPLMCreateSVT_t;

XPLMSVTDisplayRef

typedef

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

typedef void * XPLMSVTDisplayRef;

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

XPLM_API XPLMSVTDisplayRefXPLMCreateSVTDisplay(
                         XPLMCreateSVT_t *    params
                    );

XPLMDestroySVTDisplay

function

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

XPLM_API void       XPLMDestroySVTDisplay(
                         XPLMSVTDisplayRef    svt
                    );

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.

XPLM_API void       XPLMSVTDisplayDrawIn(
                         XPLMSVTDisplayRef    svt,
                         XPLMSVTFeatures      features,
                         int                  left,
                         int                  top,
                         int                  right,
                         int                  bottom,
                         XPLMSVTCustomData_t* dataOverrides    /* Can be NULL */
                    );