Welcome to the homepage of XHSI, an open source project to build high-fidelity airplane simulator instruments for X-Plane.
About XHSI
XHSI recreates a Navigation Display (ND) commonly used in the cockpit of modern commercial jet airplanes, recent commuters and bizjets, and brand-new light aircraft, even the smallest two-seaters.
It is modelled after the Navigation Display of the Boeing 737-NG series, but can be used by any X-Plane aircraft, even if the cockpit panel doesn't have the necessary switches, or simply no navigation display at all.
XHSI-ND is displayed in its own window, which can be resized, even to full screen. This makes it much more readable than the tiny navigation display in X-Plane's cockpit panel. It can be on a second monitor of the same computer as X-Plane, or on a separate computer. If you have only one computer with one monitor, you can overlay the XHSI-ND window over the X-Plane window.
To compare XHSI with the ND in a real B737-NG, see Flying Dutchman's Photo Galleries
About X-Plane
X-Plane is the only commercial general-purpose flight simulator that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Using blade element calculations, it accurately predicts the behaviour of an aircraft, rather than making wild estimates.
Why XHSI?
Now, why would you want to use an external Navigation Display with X-Plane?
- An ND gives better situational awareness, especially when flying IFR online with IVAO or VATSIM. But the ND in X-Plane is so tiny that it's very hard to read the names of airports, NDBs, VORs and fixes. Since the XHSI is displayed in its own window outside X-Plane, it can be resized, even to full screen on a second screen.
- Even when flying an aircraft that is normally not equiped with an ND, we can simulate a glass-cockpit retrofit or a handheld GPS, just like in real-life, can't we?
- Serious cockpit builders use big screens for external views, and several smaller screens for the instruments. There are some commercial programs that can display the "glass cockpit" instruments, but they are often expensive and made primarily for the Microsoft Flight Simulator. XHSI-ND, together with the PFD and EICAS that are currently in development will allow them to build a realistic B737-NG cockpit.
Features
XHSI-ND implements nearly all of the features of a B737-NG Navigation Display. For more information about the operation of a B737-NG ND, see SmartCockpit.com B737-NG / Flight Instruments.
System requirements
Obviously, XHSI requires a computer with X-Plane (see the system requirements for X-Plane). The application for the Navigation Display can run on the same computer (second monitor recommended), or on a second computer that supports Java 1.5 or later. That second computer has to be connected over the network, but it doesn't have to be very performant; an older model with a 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM and simple video card will do.
Download
A binary release of XHSI, including X-Plane plugin and application launchers for Windows, Mac and Linux is available on the XHSI project page on SourceForge.net, or in the download manager of X-Plane.org.
Documentation
There is a README.txt in the download, but more detailed installation, setup and usage documentation is available in the XHSI Wiki on SourceForge.net.
Forum
For news, feedback and support, see the XHSI subforum on X-Plane.org.
Development
Developers, visit the XHSI project page on SourceForge.net.