Alright, time to announce a new project with GodotInSim: GIS Hub (as in GodotInSim Hub).
This is an application, built on GodotInSim of course, that aims to become a small ecosystem, an InSim manager if you will; you get a GUI with tabs, where each tab corresponds to an InSim module, and therefore each module can provide its own user interface based on Godot Control nodes, as well as its own logic, based on a packet subscription system: modules initialize by telling the hub which packets they want to handle, and optionally which packets they want to ignore. They can also request notifications for packets sent by other modules, as well as the list of active modules.
As a bonus, all modules share the same InSim connection, so it can be interesting to make modules more specialized instead of having a very broad scope, without risking going over the maximum 8 connections LFS supports.
The idea here is to allow multiple people (or myself
) to work on smaller-scale projects, and potentially use functionality from other modules where it makes sense (although I hope this won't make dependencies too big of an issue).
To allow for a single InSim connection, I start a separate instance of the app, create a TCP server on it (default port 29990), and connect the hub to it. The server connects to InSim and relays packets to and from the hub, which then dispatches them to the modules.
Since each module only needs to implement a few GISModule functions, but is completely free otherwise, you can even manage your own InSim connection if you want to bypass the server, while still being able to monitor other modules. OutSim and OutGauge, as well as InSimRelay,
must be managed at the module level.
As a very quick example, here is a simple log module, which writes the contents of packets it receives, packets sent by other modules, and formats messages in a nicer way instead of the raw data: (yes, the messages are just tests and sent by the log module itself)
The InSim-managing server also includes a log, but writes it to a file instead, which means that even if the hub crashes because of a module error, packets keep being logged by the InSim connection, and the hub can reconnect to the server when restarted.
I am planning to make a few "core" modules, that would always be active, but other modules would be discovered at runtime and enabled or disabled dynamically by the user. Currently planned core modules include Hub functionality (general settings, InSim setup) and Player Management (UCID and PLID lists - this might be included in the Hub module instead), I am open to suggestions for additional core features (something that the vast majority of InSim apps could use). I will also try to convert my own projects to modules and distribute them along with this app.
Speaking of which: modules need to be exported as a Godot pck file (you need the Godot Editor for this), and placed in the modules folder next to the executable. The pck should be contained in a folder of the same name (modules/my_module/my_module.pck), to avoid conflicts in the filesystem after importing multiple modules.
Security: Modules have access to all Godot functionality, including potentially dangerous functions, like deleting files or simply executing any kind of code - you should only download pck files from trusted sources (ideally directly from the author's online code repository like GitHub or GitLab), and not from random people (that would be like launching .exe files random people send you).
GIS Hub features:
- Modular InSim application with a TCP server managing packet input/output to/from LFS
- Very basic crash protection for the InSim server, running in a separate process from the hub (does not prevent loss of functionality from the modules)
- Allows for cohabitation of many independent modules while "consuming" only one InSim connection
- Full InSim, OutSim, OutGauge and InSimRelay support on a per-module level
- Module communication: modules can request the list of active modules, as well as monitor packets sent by other modules
Planned core module features:
- (WIP) GIS Hub options, InSim setup
- (Planned) UCID and PLID management
- (Other) Open to more suggestions (for actual core features)
Planned modules:
- (Done) Packet logs
- (Planned) Message helper (write or copy/paste Unicode characters, change selected text's color, send as user or local message)
- (WIP) Telemetry
- (WIP) Race Stats
- (WIP) Lap Delta (a certain someone has been persistently asking for this since I showed a proof of concept last summer , even though other apps already do this)
- (Maybe) Setup Validation Tool (not sure it warrants a module as it does not actually use InSim (it would if setups could be sent via InSim), but why not)
I may also investigate the possibility of separating tabs into their own windows, so you can see multiple modules at the same time (e.g. minimap + telemetry + race stats).
I will probably repeat some of this, and include more details about actually creating modules, in a dedicated thread and in a link to the GitLab repository I'm hosting this on, once I have improved basic functionality and tested it properly.
