Offset for Vertical Terrain?

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi all,

I've looked through the PM documentation but cannot find an offset for the Vertical Terrain option on the Terrain menu on the Boeing CDU.

Does one exist?

Thanks.

[Peter Dowson]

I've looked through the PM documentation but cannot find an offset for the Vertical Terrain option on the Terrain menu on the Boeing CDU.

Hi Ray,

An FSUIPC offset? What is the "Vertical Terrain" option? Maybe I can help if I knew what it was. There are a load of options accessible through offset 04F4:

80 Terrain Display On
81 Terrain Display Off
82 Toggle Terrain Display
83 Terrain Type Change
84 Terrain Colour/Mode Change
85 Terrain Size Change
86 Terrain 3D

Do you mean one or other of these?

Regards

Pete

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Ray,

An FSUIPC offset? What is the "Vertical Terrain" option? Maybe I can help if I knew what it was. There are a load of options accessible through offset 04F4:

80 Terrain Display On
81 Terrain Display Off
82 Toggle Terrain Display
83 Terrain Type Change
84 Terrain Colour/Mode Change
85 Terrain Size Change
86 Terrain 3D

Do you mean one or other of these?

Regards

Pete

Hi Pete,

No, I've tried the obvious ones there without success. If you choose (from memory) the left EICAS (EFIS?) option on the CDU and then select Terrain from those available there is a new option on the right - Vertical Terrain. The only way of toggling it on/off is via the CDU. I'd like to assign a button to it if possible.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers,
Ray.

[Peter Dowson]

If you choose (from memory) the left EICAS (EFIS?) option on the CDU and then select Terrain from those available there is a new option on the right - Vertical Terrain. The only way of toggling it on/off is via the CDU. I'd like to assign a button to it if possible.

What does it do?

Pete

[Ray Proudfoot]

What does it do?

Pete

It overlays a display on the lower part of the ND showing terrain profile below the aircraft. Useful for fights into mountainous areas.

Cheers,
Ray.

[Peter Dowson]

It overlays a display on the lower part of the ND showing terrain profile below the aircraft. Useful for fights into mountainous areas.

Isn't that what the Terrain facility does anyway, via the shading over the whole ND? I din't know there was any profile facility is the real thing -- I'll have to look that up. There's certainly no button for it on the standard Boein EFIS switch panel.

If it's a new facility in PM, it presumably won't have made it to the Offsets documentation yet -- but have you tried the values for offset 4F4 following the currently allocated TERR ones. There looks to be three vacant (87, 88, 89), and if the facility went anywhere you'd expect it to be there.

The other way to find out is to switch FSUIPC's IPC write logging on, then operate the CDU facility you mention, and see what gets logged. Problem is you might get a lot of other stuff if yuo are flying with the MCP at the time, but it could be worth a shot -- search for 4F4 if the Log gets too big. Easier still, assuming it definitely is 4F4, is to use the Monitor facility (Logging options too, right-hand side). Set 4F4 with type U16 and opt for the FS Display (or Adv Display) to see it change in real time on screen.

Regards
Pete

[Ray Proudfoot]

Isn't that what the Terrain facility does anyway, via the shading over the whole ND? I din't know there was any profile facility is the real thing -- I'll have to look that up. There's certainly no button for it on the standard Boein EFIS switch panel.

If it's a new facility in PM, it presumably won't have made it to the Offsets documentation yet -- but have you tried the values for offset 4F4 following the currently allocated TERR ones. There looks to be three vacant (87, 88, 89), and if the facility went anywhere you'd expect it to be there.

Regards
Pete

Hi Pete,

Good man! 87 was the magic number. It probably is using the same data as the terrain map but it gives you a better idea of how high you are above the terrain. I won't use it for every flight but it will be useful in mountainous areas. And the other thing is that it's probably available all the time whereas you need to have created a texture file for the terrain to show and that would take a long long time!

Thanks once again,
Ray.

[Peter Dowson]

Good man! 87 was the magic number.

Ah right. Easy then!

It probably is using the same data as the terrain map
...
it's probably available all the time whereas you need to have created a texture file for the terrain to show

Seems to be a contradiction there. Where does it get that "same data" if not from the terrain texture file? Or do you put the downloaded source data files in the same folder? I thought they were processed by Quickmap to get the files for the ND?


Regards

Pete

[Ray Proudfoot]

Ah right. Easy then!

For once, yes.

Seems to be a contradiction there. Where does it get that "same data" if not from the terrain texture file? Or do you put the downloaded source data files in the same folder? I thought they were processed by Quickmap to get the files for the ND?

Quite possibly it does read those texture files Pete but I would have to fly to an area where I have no terrain data and see if the terrain thingy still works. I used Whazzup Plus to create the terrain files. What's Quickmap? All the terrain files sit in a subfolder in the PFD folder.

Cheers,
Ray.

[Peter Dowson]

I would have to fly to an area where I have no terrain data and see if the terrain thingy still works.

Where would it get its data from if there were no terrain files for the area?

I used Whazzup Plus to create the terrain files. What's Quickmap?

Ah, yes. Sorry. I think you did mine for me so I didn't remember. Quickmap is another Enrico utility with a map like Whazzup. I'm not sure why there were ever two and I always confuse them!

All the terrain files sit in a subfolder in the PFD folder.

Yes, but if there are none for the area you are flying over, how would it get its data? I'm sure it doesn't get it from FS. You can't even do that in FSX, yet.

Best Regards

Pete