FlyWithLua-based user interface to control the "Enhanced Cloudscapes" or "Enhanced Skyscapes" plugins for X-Plane 11. Offers real-time editing, presets and persistence for plugin datarefs.
Not developed anymore due to having moved on to X-Plane 12. Repository archived since 2023/09/30.
As of March 4th, 2022, the tool is now called "Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes Controller" and supports both Enhanced Cloudscapes and Enhanced Skyscapes.
Preset files must be renamed to ECSC_[Yourpresetname].cfg (instead of EC_[Yourpresetname].cfg; see included example files) and now support storing values for both EC and ES.
Upgrade instructions:
Back up your custom presets and rename them as instructed, then delete the old EC_Controller.lua script from "X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua"/Scripts and the "EC_Controller" folder from "X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/Modules".
After that, install ECSC as per the instructions below and restore your custom presets.
X-Plane 11 (11.41 or higher)
FlyWithLuaNG (2.7.28 or higher)
"Enhanced Cloudscapes" plugin (2020.11.24 or newer)
or
Enhanced Skyscapes plugin (demo or unlocked version)
Copy the "Scripts" and "Modules" folders into "X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua"
- Delete ECS_Controller.lua from "X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/Scripts"
- Delete the "ECS_Controller" folder from "X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/Modules"
Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscape Controller must be started manually until the "Autosave" option in the "UI Settings" window has been enabled.
After that, the visibility status of the window will be remembered and applied during each script start (or reload).
Start ECSC...
...from X-Plane's "Plugins" menu with "Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes" --> "Open Controller Window".
or
...from X-Plane's "Plugins" menu with "FlyWithLua" --> "FlyWithLua Macros" --> "Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes Controller: Toggle Window".
or
...by assigning a keyboard shortcut for
"Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes Controller/Window/Toggle Window"
in X-Plane's keyboard settings window.
Once the window is open, go into the "UI Settings" menu and enable Autosaving and Autoloading (see section 5.3.4).
After that, feel free to try the included presets or attempt to create your own. See section 5.2 for descriptions of UI element functionality.
General hints:
After having typed a value into any text/number input box, click anywhere in the Controller's window to leave it, otherwise it will keep focus, eating up all keyboard inputs (see "Known Issues" section below).
Undesired values in text/number input boxes that were just entered can be discarded by pressing the "ESC" key.
Window size is saved when the "Autosave" option is activated in the "ECSC UI Settings" window.
The ECSC window will automatically open upon X-Plane session start if both the "Autosave" and "Autoload" option have been activated in the "UI Settings" menu (see section 5.3.3 below).
Some UI elements have tooltips.
Click the "Cloud/Sky Settings" or "UI Settings" button to enter the respective menu. Each of these menus offers a "Main Menu" button to immediately return.
5.2.1 - Presets
The latest release of ECSC features support for multiple presets, which are stored in FlyWithLua/Modules/ECSC_Controller and must be prefixed with "ECSC_Preset", e.g. ECSC_Preset_HighDetail.cfg.
Scanning for presets is performed at script start, but in case a manual rescan is required, there is a "Rescan" button in the UI.
Pessing the "Save" button activates a file name input box (with a character limit of 30!) and a "OK" and "Cancel" button.
Pressing "OK" will write the current preset to file with the specified file name. If a preset with the same file name is already present, it will be overwritten without asking for confirmation! The preset list for the selector will be refreshed after saving is complete. Pressing "Cancel" returns to the preset selector.
A preset that is picked from the selector dropdown box (except "New Preset") is immediately loaded and its file name (without the file extension) is stored in ActivePreset.cfg.
When the "Autoload" function from the "UI Settings" or plugin menu has been activated, ActivePreset.cfg is read at EC Controller start and the preset matching the filename stored in it is being loaded if the corresponding preset file can be found (otherwise default values will be used).
5.2.2 - Subpage navigation
The arrow buttons flip from parameter group to parameter group. The group assignment for each parameter can be changed in its advanced settings
5.2.3 - Value manipulation
Use the slider or float (decimal) number input elements to change a parameter's value. Note that input value range is limited.
"Reset" will reset the parameter to the default value, which is obtained from each dataref at script start (also see "Known Issues" section below).
If you need more input options, check the "Advanced Settings" checkbox.
5.2.4 - Advanced settings
Advanced options uniformly apply to all values of a parameter array.
The displayed parameter title is stated in a text input box and can therefore be edited.
"Switch Display To [Numerical/Percentage]" toggles between a numerical (float) and percentage format for the parameter's value.
"Lower/Upper Raw Value Limit" can be used to narrow or broaden the available range for input values. Will also affect values displayed as a percentage. The "Reset" button resets each limiter value to the one defined in the LUA file. Use this with caution as it may break the plugin.
"Display Precision" accepts integer (i.e. whole number) inputs and controls the decimals displayed in the control elements for the parameter. It will auto-reset to "1" (percentage) and "6" (numerical) when the "Switch Display To [Numerical/Percentage]" button is pressed.
"Display In Group" controls the group assignment for the parameter and accepts integer (whole number) values. This can be used to move the parameter to any present or new group and offers a way to reorder the groups to one's liking. Applying any changes that were made to advanced parameters requires pressing the "Apply" button.
5.3.1 - Notification settings
"Notification display time" accepts integer (i.e. whole number) values and controls the time in seconds, for which notifications in the notification area below the main window content is displayed.
5.3.2 - Window hotkey control
"[Enable/Disable] Window Toggling by Hotkey" toggles the hotkey activation mode for the main window, independent of which key was set for this in X-Plane's keyboard settings.
The "Keyboard Key Code" field accepts integer (whole number) values and determines the key that will toggle the ECSC window's visibility. The default keycode is 85, i.e. "u".
A key (combination) to toggle the Window may always be set in X-Plane's keyboard settings ("Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes Controller" section).
5.3.3 - Autosave/Autoload
"[Enable/Disable] Autosave" saves ECS Controller's UI settings settings immediately to file when activated, including window size and position and will then autosave when another setting has been changed. Does not affect the plugin parameters!
"[Enable/Disable] Autoload" autoloads all Controller window settings and the cloud preset upon script start (when starting an X-Plane session). This option may also be toggled from the "Plugins" --> "Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes" --> "Autoload Settings" menu item.
5.3.4 - Manual UI settings file management
The "Save UI Settings", "Load UI Settings" and "Delete UI Settings" buttons are self-explanatory and only affect ECS Controller's UI settings file, not the currently active cloud preset
5.3.5 - UI settings file location
The path to the settings file is: FlyWithLua/Modules/ECS_Controller/UI_Prefs.cfg. Altering it requires editing the script source and is therefore not recommended.
- If you reload all FlyWithLua scripts, an empty "Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes" menu may be left over in the plugins menu or the "FlyWithLua" menu may disappear. In both cases, restart X-Plane.
- Altering a plugin parameter and reloading the Lua script will set that parameter as default.
Workaround: Restart X-Plane so that the plugin will be reset - Input boxes will not let go of focus upon pressing "Enter".
This is an Imgui limitation. Click anywhere into the window (except for another input field) to unfocus.
Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes Controller is licensed under the European Union Public License v1.2 (see EUPL-1.2-license.txt). Compatible licenses (e.g. GPLv3) are listed in the section "Appendix" in the license file.