xGPS is a free iPhone application that acts as a virtual GPS for your simulated aircraft in X-plane. It will display your current position and heading on a map.
With xGPS you can improve the realism of your flights by knowing what cities, villages or natural wonders you are flying above. It’s also a navigation aid.
X-Plane plugin
xGPS requires a plugin to be installed on your X-Plane installation.
Download xGPS plugin 1.1 – for using with the xGPS 1.1 app.
Download xGPS plugin 1.0 – old version, for xGPS 1.0 app. You should not use this if you already installed xGPS 1.1 on your iPhone.
What’s new in version 1.1
- Connections are now made using Bonjour. There is no need to deal with IPs any more!
- IPv6 support.
- The plugin should not conflict with other plugins any more.
Installation and usage
- Download the plugin and place it your X-plane installation, in the Resources/plugins folder.
- Install the xGPS app on your iPhone.
- Launch X-Plane on your Mac.
- Launch xGPS on your iPhone, and choose your Mac from the host list.
Your iPhone will start to receive data from X-plane. Enjoy!
Requirements
xGPS is an iPhone app, but requires a plugin to be installed on your X-plane system.
- A PowerPC or Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or newer and a recent version of X-plane (xGPS was tested against X-plane 9.50).
- Any iPhone, iPod touch or any other device capable of running iOS 4.0 or newer. The app contains high-res graphics that look awesome in iPhone’s 4 Retina Display.
- Wifi network. The Mac running X-plane and the iPhone must be in the same subnetwork, or otherwise able to communicate between each other.
Screenshots
Support
Please send any questions about xGPS to xgps@terminalapp.net.
More info
The xGPS plugin is open source, its source code is available in Google Code.
xGPS prevents your iPhone/iPod from sleeping. I recommend you keep your iPhone plugged to your Mac or charger while using xGPS.
xGPS may consume a lot of bandwidth, specially in high zoom levels or during very long flights. Keep this is mind to avoid being overcharged by your ISP.
Hello sir,
I just want to say that i really enjoy your iphone app! works like a charm!
A nice feature would be to save your flights which you made, showing the route your took. Also (while i’m at it ;) ) would be nice to see the VOR’s around you with frequencies.
Keep it up
stevie
Hi!
Thank you for your comments. :)
I want to add route drawing to the application (saving is a nice suggestion, btw!). VORs are an interesting idea, although its feasibility depends on whether X-plane exposes that information to the API or not.
But first, Bonjour. :) I’m adding it on version 1.1 so you can avoid having to manually deal with IPs. Still needs a lot of work, but it’s going nicely. :)
Regards,
Miguel Arroz
Hi Miguel,
Great app but a shame it is only working on the mac at the moment.
Have you got any plans to roll it out to the PC platform also?
Best,
Iain
Hi!
I’m not considering supporting non-Apple platforms. Doing that would require time and money to create a Windows development setup, and I have no interest in doing that.
However, the plugin is open source. Anyone is free to create a windows or Linux version of it.
Regards
Miguel Arroz
The plugin dosn’t work with x-plane 9.60rc1.
I cange the preferences but the plugin continue to connect 192.168.2.2.
I’m working on the next version of the app. The plugin will not have an interface, the connection will be controlled from the iPhone, using Bonjour. Anyway, I’ll test it under 9.60 to make sure it works. Thanks for the warning!
Ok really thanks!
I’ve tested the plugin on osx 10.6.4 with x-plane 9.60 rc1, dosn’t work.
Now I have try with x-plane 9.3 (dvd) but anything change.
Hi there!
I guess your app is pretty cool. I have to say ‘I guess’ because for no apparent reason, I cannot type a period when typing in my iphone’s IP number… I can type the numbers on my numberpad but I can’t type a period in between them. Any ideas?
Kind regards!
Mathias
I have no idea! But it doesn’t matter, I will submit today or tomorrow the new version to the App Store. It uses Bonjour, so you won’t have to type IPs (actually, the plugin user interface was deleted, it’s not needed any more). So in a few days you’ll be able to try it. :)
Great! Thnx!
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