Ah, I see… You’re asking for the ability to stick a map in something like a cockpit instrument, right? That’s on our radar, but it’s probably not on the table for 11.10.

I know when it happens, but this is not an API for controlling where and how a map could be displayed. Glad if this becomes available in XP11.

YEah, something modular is definitely our intention.

I hope the “down the road” generic cockpit map will be layered and more customizable than the old one —eg., custom range, colors, etc. I’m drawing it all from scratch. The existing local map has some minor issues, maybe I’ll submit that as suggestions or a tweak list.

Definitely not. We’ll draw all of one plugin’s layers before moving on to the next. (Providing you with consistency, at least as far as your plugin is concerned, across machines.)

@Tyler (“Reply” below your post was missing):
Could it be, that layers of different plugins intermix. Let’s say in order A, B, D, C, E, F?

V10 map drawing occurred as a draw callback, found in the XPLMDisplay API: http://www.xsquawkbox.net/xpsdk/mediawiki/Category:XPLMDisplay

Right, to be clear, as Ben said, the layer order will be consistent for layers created by a given plugin. What we’re not guaranteeing is the relative order of one plugin’s layers with respect to another.

So, Plugin #1 creates layers A, B, and C, and those will always be layered consistently. But, if you also have Plugin #2 running, and it creates layers D, E, and F, we make no guarantees about which set—either (A, B, C) or (D, E, F)—is on top.

If you made the map layers yourself, you can just create them in the order you want, as long as that is deterministic, right?

The first time I had to deal with “layers” was when I created 2 different windows that were not purely XPSDK based, I had to manage the drawing of each. Then I bumped into draw priority, like layers but no transparency in my case.
This is why I I thought, wow, it will be nice if the sim will handle the priority for me, and all I have to assign is the order.
Please pay attention that I’m only referring to my plugin layer order not relative to other plugins.

I do agree with @Nathan that a sorting order should be decided, and I’ll do with what ever Laminar team will decide at the end, at least it will be a base we can work on and then make better at the end.

The current feature list sound quite good though, I’m just thinking how it make my life even easier in the long term (tendency to complicate things 🙂 )

Cheers