MSFS Agent - User Comments

[Fly-By-Voice]

MSFS Agent is the first plugin I found that offers direct ‘game state’ access to the sim.  The plugin provides an extensive list of in-game Variables that can be accessed directly supplemented by a number of pre-programmed Events that execute the requested game function without any Voice Attack action like a key press.

No testing was done on the ATC commands for COMM and NAV radios.  ATC in the current version is a bit painful.  Expectations are that the MSFS 2024 release will have a more useful upgraded approach.  Apparently, there are other 3rd party streaming services available now for ATC that I have yet to explore.

In summary:

1.   The plugin installed easily and has been very stable.  I am not sure about overhead as there are lots of Voice Attack console messages generated during use;
2.   It offers direct game (SimConnect) access across a wide variety of Variables and Events and has some bugs;
3.   As Pfeil said in a previous post, assign the correct data type to your ‘getplanestate’ command.  There are 6 data types     possible but, in testing, most were BOOL, DEC, INT and TXT.  Landing gear is INT while flaps are DEC.  Why flaps are DEC is, well, an on going Newbie mystery??
4.   It has the makings of a really powerful Voice Attack platform for MSFS; and
5.   Needs some work.

Of the 15 or so variables that were tested here about a dozen were good to go. Some others don’t have an associated
Event and don’t execute. Not sure if the code is incomplete or the MSFS airplane model programming itself has bugs.

Other Variables would not change state.  For example, some of the Lights commands don’t return a change of state.  Light is off  = TRUE; turn on the light manually and the state remains = TRUE.  Again, not sure where the disconnect resides.

Like the Lights example above, the [altitude] [off;on] command Variable does not change state.  The [AUTOPILOT] altitude command used to set the altitude does not work with any of the three Garmin G1000 airplanes tested.  The command does work, though, with Boeing 747 and 787.  No testing was done of the Airbus planes.

Other commands for Heading and Vertical Speed work flawlessly.  These 3 autopilot commands are so tedious to set by moving their respective bugs one notch at a time and counting.  MSFS Agent provides a grand revolution in this area.

It doesn’t appear that the plugin has any active support at its originating site.  The ‘source’ code is there but I have no background to determine what that means or how one could recreate the .dll with correct code and new function perhaps. 

The MSFS Agent author, James Clark (jamescl604), commented at the GitHub site; “Feel free to make a request on the Issues/Discussion tabs or, if you're inclined, feel free to contribute to the project and add things.” 

My primary interest sits with two Variables that are not in the current version, those for:

Attitude Indicator Bank Degrees
Attitude Indicator Pitch Degrees
(in Degrees or Radians)

Next step will be to understand how to make a .dll.  I'll probably create a new formula for rocket fuel while on the way and not even know it!

Thank you, James Clark (jamescl604), for the great work you and your team have done.

A Voice Attack profile is attached: MSFS Agent-More Examples-Profile.vap which has some additional command examples.